Sun Mote Copse 'twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Right on schedule, Sugar Glider's eyelids came unsealed and, slowly and over the course of several hours, they opened. What was revealed was not a sliver of baby blue to rival the summer sky but a shard of black redolent of a moonless midnight. It was likely unsettling for anyone that beheld her: two fathomless black holes poised right above that adorable pink button of a nose.

Whatever the cause of her strange (and quite frankly eerie) eyes, Sugar nonetheless behaved just like any other newly-sighted pup. She bumbled around the den, sometimes scooting along on her belly and at other times testing the strength of her clumsy legs. She looked at things for the first time, all of it still lacking any real color or definition but certainly adding a whole new dimension to the youngster's world.

Title from "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.

ever since she had first been escorted to the den outside their own, weejay had thought of it daily. she liked the journey, all the sights and smells; she liked the flowers, the warm faces of her relatives, and the squirming little masses of puppies that occupied said den. 

she was not usually sneaky, but given her poor mum was knackered from being sick, and she was an industrious puppy that always wanted to be doing something, weejay flitted right out of the den and marched confidently towards what she believed was her neighbors’. 

a few times she got sidetracked, sometimes by an interesting scent and other times by a blooming flower, but eventually weejay’s shadow crossed the den’s mouth; peering in, the girl did not realize that sugar glider’s eyes had opened (nor did she know they were a most unusual color), but she did see the tiny tike bumbling about. craning her neck to see if any adults were around, weejay gave a quiet whimper and crouched towards the ground in play.

Until now, her world had been one of primarily sensation and smell. She could never have guessed there was more, much more. Her eyes roved over the den's nearest wall, then eventually sought the brightness at its entrance. Sugar's eyes automatically squinted and watered, though she was not deterred from venturing toward it. She shuffled forward, the sudden appearance of a blurry shape silhouetted in the den's mouth causing her to stop so suddenly that she lost her balance. She initially tipped forward, her pink nose brushing the cool dirt floor, before she overcompensated and stumbled backward into a hard sit.

This flustered her no more than her eyes' reaction the light. Sugar blinked hard, eyes still little black slits, then slowly gathered her feet. Just because she had gained her sight did not cause her to rely any less on her more broken-in senses. Her nose wriggled as she drew in the shadow's scent. And once she came a little closer, she instinctively outstretched a stubby leg to paw at it. Her depth perception would take a while to develop; her tiny toes were several inches away from the blurry visitor standing on the doorstep.

one ear of weejay's was turned back, waiting for the hard bark of a parent warning her back. none came -- delighted, and equally delighted to have a new playmate, weejay wriggled excitedly towards sugar glider only to freeze as the puppy suddenly lost balance.

it was over before any of weejay's instinct to help her kicked in; sugar glider tipped forward dangerously, her little nose scraping dirt, before she sat back down in a resounding smack. the girl giggled, snaking her head and neck in an invitation of play. her tail was going a mile a minute as sugar glider bumbled towards her, watching as the tiny puppy "pounced" a paw on weejay's shadow.

issuing a high squeal of delight, weejay snapped playfully in sugar glider's direction, having no intention to bite -- she didn't realize that the girl's eyes were unusual, but it was then she noticed how dark and swallowing they seemed. she froze again; they were very different from elfie's, but then she remembered her mommy and daddy had different eye colors too - maybe this was just a new color, she hadn't seen in a wolf before.

deciding it was nothing, weejay pounced gently in sugar glider's direction. "PLAY!", she yelled, her haunches raised as she bowed entreatingly before her new playmate.

mom cameo! Momeo?

It was taking Fin far longer than she liked to recognize to recover from her latest round of poppin’ out babies. She wasn’t nearly as dizzy and exhausted as she had been in the first couple of weeks after she’d given birth, but she had yet to reach the level of “okay” she’d usually have gotten to days ago. It had alarmed her at first, but now it seemed to be alright. Even if it was slow going, she was still getting better every day, and that was a win in her book.

The other win was the four beautiful beebs she had to dote on now. Unlike any of her previous litters, I didn’t promptly lose all inspiration and essentially vanish from the game for a couple of months right after they were born, so they somehow seemed more magical than any of her others (sry guys). They were such unique individuals to her, where the rest just kind of blurred into each other a bit (again, my bad guys). 

She was dozing contentedly when the shenanigans began. Weejay’s arrival roused her from her rest, but she merely gave her granddaughter a small smile and continued to rest. Watchful, but still lazy. When the word PLAY was shouted, she awoke more fully to pay better attention. They both might be pups, but Weejay was used to playing with one that was far less fragile than Sugar, and Fin wasn’t going to leave the situation unsupervised.

”Be gentle, Widge,” Fin warned gently, giving the girl another tired smile. Sugar was pointed away from her, so she hadn’t spotted the new development yet. Otherwise, she might’ve interrupted the play to get a better look. As it was, she just nosed the other three to make sure they were alright before turning her attention to their play.

For the second time, Sugar lost her balance and dropped hard to her hindquarters, the result of the shadow jumping at her. Her blackened spine curved as she unwittingly leaned away from it, eyes now wide as they stared at the figure. There was more definition to it now, although she didn't have much of a frame of reference in order to recognize Weejay's features as belonging to a fellow wolf.

But no harm came to her, so the pup quickly overcame her instinctual trepidation and rose onto all fours to meet her peer in the middle. And as soon as her tiny pink nose bumped into Weejay (hitting her awkwardly on the shoulder), the feel and smell of her was quite familiar. The details were different from her parents and litter mates, not that Sugar recognized this conscientiously. Her tail wriggled as she pressed her nose harder against her cousin's shoulder, skimming it down her ribs toward her upraised hips, totally unaware that his posture was meant to invoke play.

Be gentle, Widge, her gramma intoned. "Yes, gammy," Weejay replied demurely,  standing up straight obediently. Weejay sent a sly glance at her gamgee to see if she was mad.. She wasn't -- SCORE!! A grin broke across Weejay's features and she glanced back at Sugar Glider just to see her topple over like an uneven domino for a second time.

Weejay couldn't help but giggle - this little black-eyed puppy was funny! She was just about to pounce when Sugar Glider drifted over to her, her wet nose tickling Weejay's flanks. In a fit of laughter, Weejay recoiled with a giggling "tickles!!", only to swing back towards Sugar Glider as she very clearly saw an invitation to play. Dropping onto her stomach (very mindful of gammy-Fin's warning), Weejay nosed playfully after the pup, unable to control her giggles as she did so.

The larger pup took her by surprise again, wriggling and pulling away. Sugar stood dumbly and blinked as Weejay proceeded to bounce back, then drop to her belly, all in the space of a second or two. She looked down just in time to see her playmate nudge her near her chest. It tickled and elicited a sharp sound from Sugar, the strange hybrid of a giggle and a hiss.

She reacted in two different ways: even as she made to jerk backward (destined for a hat trick when it came to hard sits), Sugar instinctively lashed out a paw to smack against Weejay's snout. The sight of her own small foot prompted a third reaction: the tiny youth froze, eyes like wet ink as they stared at the unexpected, disembodied limb hovering in the foreground.

Weejay felt disproportionately fast and well-adjusted compared to the puppy. For every thing she did, it took Sugar Glider a few seconds to react; this was a new exciting game to Weejay, who was used to the (sometimes too) speedy reactions of her rather toothsome brother.

She squealed loudly in response to Sugar Glider's weird giggle-hiss, and it took her a few seconds to react to that unusual noise, for she had never heard it before. Lowering onto her stomach, Weejay watched as Sugar Glider responded to everything in a sloth-some slow motion, rocking back on her haunches and freezing rather unexpectedly with her paw in the air.

What kind of weird play was this? Weejay's eyes narrowed, but never one to sit still, the girl snapped at the paw (fully intending to miss) and then started to cackle as she scooted around Sugar Glider at mach 600 speed.

The foot froze too and simply hovered there. Sugar stared at it for a long beat, her lip beginning to curl back from her toothless gums when her cousin's mouth snapped near the floating limb. She jerked instinctively, the foot disappearing from view. Her black eyes widened. Where had it gone? Had Weejay frightened it away?

But there wasn't time to sort it out, since Weejay was doing something else intriguing now: running in speedy circles around her. Sugar tried to follow her movement, little head bobbing on her equally tiny neck, until her black eyes were rolling and she sank to the ground, utterly dizzy.

Weejay could amuse herself for hours doing this weird ring-around-the-rosies dance, and she probably would have continued to frolic around Sugar Glider for a while if the aforementioned puppy didn't just suddenly sink to the ground. Weejay scrambled to a stop, dirt and pebbles clattering -- what had just happened?

Sugar Glider looked okay, but her dark eyes spilled with disorientation. Weejay snuffed at her cousin rather intrusively, her cold wet nose working overtime to try to figure out why Sugar had just collapsed like that. Had she broke her? Oops.

She faced the floor purely out of necessity and rediscovered that wayward foot. There were two of them, actually. Sugar stared down at them as her brain rattled around in her head and her freshly opened black eyes wobbled in their sockets. Eventually, the dizziness passed. She did not look up right away, still staring down at those ten tiny toes, but Weejay's cold, questing nose broke the spell.

It would be some time before the pups vocalized meaningfully, though Sugar grunted out a quiet oogh sort of noise. Her head hurt a little and she found herself craving the comfort of her mother's warmth and milk. With the grace of a fallen drunk, she swayed back onto all fours, pink nose bumping her playmate before she toddled over to suckle at Finley's flank. Was Weejay coming too?

Sugar Glider remained on the ground for enough time that Weejay was seriously worried she had hurt her; she cast glances to Finley worriedly, expecting her to come snapping out of the dark at any moment. Eventually SG's focus refocused; at least enough that Weejay caught her staring rather intently at the girl's toes. Giggling, Weejay wiggled them in front of Sugar Glider's face, keeping just enough distance (a lesson taught to her the hard way by Elfie!) that they were not under peril.

Sugar Glider eventually righted herself, but watching her walk drunkenly towards her dam caused Weejay to suppress further giggles. She was not coming, but she was happy to sit there with her tail wagging while Sugar Glider ambled away in the most uncoordinated fashion.

She felt a little steadier on her feet by the time she reached Finley, though she collapsed wantonly beside the woman's flank as if some invisible force had swept her feet out from under her. She afforded Weejay another glance over her small shoulder, offering an inquisitive grunt. You coming? Sugar then promptly buried her face in the soft, thin fur of her mother's underside, newly opened eyes drifting shut as she latched on and suckled herself into a stupor.

Off the little terror sauntered, collapsing at Finley's flank in a rather artful flourish. Weejay's giggling subsided as she watched Sugar Glider inspect what was on tap. It made her hungry, but it also reminded her of the quiet injustice that had nestled itself with barbs into her quiet life.. that SG had a mommy that was healthy and happy..

She didn't like the dark turn her mind took, and abruptly at that too. She was too young to understand how to control her emotions. Feeling conflicted, the girl wore a scowl as she tottered slowly from the den, forgetting to even say goodbye to her playmate in the process.