Moonspear there upon your perch, say the words

ohoho i'm AMBULATORY NOW!

arcturus, the yams, and the tiny leviathan revui were all nearly a month old. the days, transpiring into weeks, had lent them new powers: sight, hearing, vision. most disconcertingly, control over their limbs.

they were no longer squishy potatoes -- they were long-legged, autonomous puppies. or at the very least, arcturus believed himself autonomous. day by day his will to explore the den grew; day by day, he toed the stony threshold beyond, wrestled with his siblings, and grew discontent with his tiny world.

curiosity had taken him now -- thirsting for new adventure, arcturus took his first few steps outside of the den. the world around him was alarming - everything alien and huge and unfamiliar. he felt a new sensation take hold of him - fear -- and he instinctively spooked back into the den as a bird flew past his vision.

✴        Revui was back to his usual antics of yowling, prowling, and complaining as he tumbled about in the den, waiting impatiently for the return of their void-mother. He yearned to drink from her, but lately Amekaze had been resistant to his pleas; she had abandoned the clutch of children for some reason or another (perhaps to urinate, perhaps to fill her own belly with precious meats that she would later feed to her spawn), but he did not particularly care why. Revui was hungry - he was always hungry - and had begun harassing his siblings in the interim.

First he sought out Yami, whose tail became his tug-of-war plaything; when this stopped being entertaining, he released the appendage and rolled in to Yama, and began to nose about greedily in search of something to chomp, tug, or wrestle with. Lastly, he went for Arcturus — but the dark child was not among the bodies. A quick scope of the den later, and he pinpointed the boy's silhouette nearing the gaping maw of light.

Revui would be damned if he was going to be left behind! Roaring with a puppy-pitched squeal, he lowered his forequarter and charged headlong after his brother — arriving just as the other boy was spooked by movement, which caused him to shove his head right up against Arc's tiny tush. The silver boy plopped against the den floor in the next instance, feeling far less like the fierce predator he wished to be and more like a fish out of water.

Being recognized by his parents as as trusted guard and occasional hunter had bolstered his morale considerably, so he kept it up all the same day after day because he was just about good at it--if he said so himself. This did give him many opportunities to loiter around near the den, and he was often sure to make use of them. However, since he did not yet have all the confidence to really go nosing entirely into the dark den (not with a strong chance of mama's teeth within), the best he got were quick, shadowy, glimpses when he dropped off snacks and reported in; the newest Ostregas were still very much curiosities to him, ones he was anxious about getting to know whenever they were finally ready. But he smelled them every day, and heard their weird little noises.. Accordingly, expectation was all over the place.

Time, too, had steadily made him bolder.

Aiming to appear nonchalant, and only halfway scanning for Vela to see how her patrols were, he came jogging on into sight of the den in time to spot a little flash of unfamiliar motion from just beyond the darkness. Zeroing in on this, he perked all up and didn't take his eyes off the depths. He could certainly hear them in there... and when he took a tempting step closer, he realized with a start just how close he was.

Now very careful with this information as he hoped to decide what to do with it, he dropped down and flattened out on his belly a few paces in front of the threshold. After about two whole seconds of seeing nothing, the eta proceeded to whine quietly at it. Bug-eyed, he waited to see what that would get him, if anything.

there was so much in the world for arcturus yet to witness; as he shied against the shadow cast on the floor, he collided with revui. it was unexpected and he squealed in fright, shrinking back from the arch like some dark puddle. it took him a moment to realize that the body alongside him was revui, not whatever blackened spectre had just fled across his vision -- with ears erect and brow knitted in an apprehensive look, he took a few hesitant steps towards the exit.

each step he took away from comfort caused his breath to rattle, his little tail to quiver. he had just passed the invisible boundary that marked the farthest he had ever dared to go, when a whine sounded. the unexpected noise caused him to jolt and spook, scampering rapidly back to the den with his fur tufted and tail arced behind him.

he turned around only when he had reached amekaze, and carefully he peered from behind her rising belly, his ears flat to his side as he looked over his mother-barricade and towards the mouth of the den where monsters stirred.

✴        Despite lacking the vocabulary to explain how he felt about this situation, or how to describe his brother's indomitable bravery, the child sat upon the dusty floor and wiggled his nose after it had collided with Arcturus and did not notice his brother fleeing the scene until he was already close to the void-mother. He peeped, turning his head to look back at the fleeing specter, but then rose up on his little feet and with a holler, went charging at the den's mouth. He did not know what was on the other side of the shafts of light but he did not care — with his head lowered, he resembled a charging bull as he went careening onwards. He ran straight in to Jarilo's legs and collapsed in an awkward heap, and began to squeal like a kettle. 

He was tantalizingly close to just stealing a better glimpse in. It could be so easy.. in theory. From here, from how the shadows played, he could only see vagueness within and all the scents and sounds tickling at his senses just lured him in closer. They were right there.... practically right underneath his nose.

Until suddenly that closeness was magnified and it charged right at him, making him start and yip and oh my god one was RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Eyes still big and now starting to pant, torn between spooked and curious, Jarilo had straightened up into a scrambly sit and now couldn't take his frantic stare off the strange little kind of wolfish-looking shape that had come out at his leg. He was excited to see the little downy-soft boy up close but he knew this was pretty against the rules most days, and a squealing puppy was the last of what he wanted; he tried his best for damage control mode, and nosed the little thing's sides to encourage him. "Ohhhh what, no you gotta not," he murmured at the impossibly small boy, gently nudging him again to try to cease the noise. "You are waaaaaay too small for this," he murmured, fretting.

the demon that cast its pall across the mouth of arcturus' stony nursery seemed to move, and witless, arcturus watched as his littermate charged blindly towards certain doom.

a sense of territorial protectiveness overcame the small child, who, insistent his brother not be harmed, placed both paws across his mother's barrel, hoisted his chunky form upright, and loudly voiced his concern over revui's well being by a series of high pitched and clamant yowls meant to inform the 'intruder' he best leave his brother unscathed.

✴        Emboldend by his brother's calls, Revui set his sights on the creature before himself and found purchase on the soil, getting up from his fallen state after some wriggling and awkwardness. As soon as he was on his feet again he launched himself with a lunge for Jarilo, his little mouth open as wide as it could go, and soon the tiny bundle was grappling with whatever part he could sink his gummy mouth on to; thankfully his teeth had just started to erupt at this point, so when the tiny pricks of his little teeth shards connected with the fur of Jarilo's leg, Revui felt more pain than anything. He yowled through it and bit harder, thoughtlessly, and seemed adamant about holding firm in his resolve. He wasn't about to let go until the big creature made him!

He had wanted a closer look at the puppies, but he had not come prepared for this. Noise from inside, presumably from another one of them but he didn't know who, threatened to distract him, and the gray one collected himself soon after. Jarilo's approach went steering quick from damage control to holy shit--he was sharp.

The older Ostrega barely muffled his yelp and gave an anxious whine, then an "Hey! Ow!!" directed right at the silvery fuzzbutt as he shifted nervously. He hadn't come prepared for them to already be this pointy or vicious, either. A low rumble of a growl in his mother's unmistakable tone quieted his complaints immediately, toning him right down to staring woefully at the tiny monster chewing on his leg, defeat surely imminent. He found no sympathy from her, not when he himself had very much been the biter of his litter. "Okay but I'm not even tasty," he whispered and with a rush of gathered courage, he picked the pup up by the scruff, pulled him off his leg, and promptly turned him around--teeth facing away from any Jarilo-bits and back towards their mom.

He tried a few small nudges on his rump, but he was scared the little bean would turn back on him if he got any closer than this--which reminded him to back away just a little.. juuust in case.

bolstered by the thunderous (to him, anyway) growl that issued from his mother's throat, arcturus bounced forward with loud yips that echoed shrilly down the stony face of the den. he even tried a small growl, but it lacked the deep-seated compunction his mother's did and he quickly switched back to a noise that was more easily under his command: borking. that big stranger by the den was being told in no uncertain terms that arcturus would bite him in less than two seconds if he didn't unhand his brother, STAT!

thankfully arcturus needn't act on his threats, as jarilo had quickly detached his insatiable brother from his limb and plopped him right back near the den. excited by the quickness of revui's transport and the perceived success of his threats, arcturus rushed from his mother's flank and threw another volley of barks in just for good measure. get away from my brother!!

He hoped that the gray little boy would get the hint and go in the way he pointed him with just that. The onslaught of other noise from within the depths of the den kept Jarilo's ears tucked tightly downward, and really, only further motivated him to make for more distance; his nosiness had been met with nothing but vaguely unpleasant answers this time around and none of it was inspiring him to push it any further than that.

More barks sounded, and taking the hint for all it was worth, Jarilo grumbled something inaudible at the notion back at it as he turned away to prance off. He'd be back later.. hopefully when they were done feeling quite so vicious towards him.