Lost Creek Hollow You ever wonder why we're here?

@Breccan!

Treason was not a particularly loud wolf, she called out when needed, but for the most part she wasn't a voice that was heard except in conversational distance.  Right now, though, her barks and brays were uncharacteristically present, and repeating.  If she didn't get the result she wanted in the next couple of minutes, she'd call in the big guns, but really, he couldn't be far, right?

She couldn't hear the response.  Hood's voice didn't carry very far, and he at this point was doing more whining than making noises that could actually be heard at a distance.  In a way he'd done what was right -- once he realized he had no idea where the heck he was, he plopped his little round behind down and waited.  Maybe if he was a little older, he'd have been able to find his way back on sound alone, but for now the world was still a large and confusing place and he had totally seen enough so Hood was going to stop right here, thank you very much.

You see, of the trio, Hood was the less troublesome child who had no interest in leaving his mother's side -- unlike the other two hellions who she was probably trying to figure out how to keep contained while trying to retrieve him and it was probably not working out too well.  It had earned him a degree of freedom which was apparently ill-advised because, well... Look at him now.  He didn't mean to be out here!  He was a tiny blubbery mess that couldn't figure out why he hadn't been scooped up instantly and brought back already.  This was awful.

Although Breccan heard Treason's calls and deciphered the note of urgency in her tone, he didn't expect that he would be the one to help her out. But he happened to be nearby, and when he almost quite literally stumbled across a small black-and-white puppy in his path (luckily, he drew up short just in time to keep from toppling over the little obstacle), he paused and put two and two together. The pup was whimpering and visibly upset, and Breccan suspected he had perhaps wandered a little farther from the den than he had meant to -- thus Treason's anxiety and the little boy's teary expression.

"What are you doing out here by yourself?" he asked as he lowered himself to speak to the puppy. As another one of Treason's cries sounded, he howled a short response to let her know that her missing child was under (almost-)adult supervision. But he didn't know if the Alpha's son would accept guidance from a veritable stranger, and therefore wasn't sure how long it would take to coax him back home.

For a brief moment he thought that one of his parents was finally coming to fetch him.  His ears perked up and he paused the whining until it became clear the guy who appeared wasn't the one he was looking for, so the whines came right on back without much effort.  He was doomed out here, lost and alone and why wasn't mom or dad over here?

But whoever it was wasn't gonna walk on by, apparently.  In fact, Hood was stopped and talked to, not that he had any idea what the words were.  In fact, he gave the guy a pretty wary look -- like you aren't the right adult, thus you are probably an alien.  He did shut up for a moment though, sniffling a bit as he just stared at him suspiciously.  That lasted until Treason called again, and hearing that he started wailing again, tuning out the rest of the world due to his own misery.

Treason meanwhile, heard Breccan's reply.  Okay, good. The kid wasn't totally MIA.  The pause before she responded was almost a sigh of relief.  Or disappointment.  Who knows.  Either way Hood hadn't done a very good job at coming when called, so that was gonna be something she'd have to deal with.  Either way, if Breccan could bring him back, that'd be great.

The pup seemed a little unsure about Breccan's approach and continued to whimper, only pausing long enough to give him an investigative sniff. Breccan remained still and allowed the examination to happen, hoping the boy would recognize his scent as belonging to the pack even if it wasn't one he was totally familiar with. His ears flicked as he heard Treason return his call, confirming that she had received his message.

However, hearing his mother's voice caused the youngster to start crying even louder, and Breccan winced. He didn't want to try to force the boy along and risk upsetting him further; he also didn't want to just pick him up, because that would probably terrify him. He wracked his brain for a moment, then came up with an idea.

"Hey, want to play a game? I can help you get back to your mom!" he said, tail wagging. In case the pup wouldn't understand what he was saying, he altered his position slightly into a play-bow, his expression friendly and open.

Rationality was not the strong suit of young children.  As much as he hoped that his mother would hear, he also thought this was it, he was just gonna die, end of the world, etc.  The fact his communication was still basically nonexistant didn't help -- he just made noise and someone would know exactly what the issue was and fix it.  Right?  Well, so far that had been the case, at least.

Breccan was probably was lucky that the kid had mostly tired himself out on the whole making loud-ish noises thing because he apparently wasn't going to keep it up very long.  Again it trailed off to just a whimpering mess.  But that was about when Hood started being talked at again -- talked at of course being the right word because it was still pretty much just Charlie Brown teacher voice to him still.  The play bow, though, was something he did understand.

For at least a few seconds, Hood shut up entirely.  Mostly because he was kind of confused.  The world was ending, why was that guy wanting to play?  He tipped his head, obviously perplexed, but momentarily distracted from his woe... Just not really convinced at this point.

Breccan didn't know how the puppy would react to his invitation, but he half-expected him to just start wailing even louder. He was pleasantly surprised when that wasn't the result and instead the little guy snapped his mouth shut and blinked up at him, ceasing to make any noise at all. The boy tilted his head in an inquisitive way; this was good, Breccan decided! He was intrigued, and maybe he would forget his fear for at least a few minutes.

"Come and get me," he encouraged, and he began to back away from his small companion, first moving slowly. He then gave a soft yip and pivoted to take a few quick steps, hoping to entice him to follow.

He made a quiet whining noise yet again and still didn't seem particularly keen about any of it.  He stood up and stepped forward a few tiny steps, whining again.  He didn't know who the guy was still.  He seemed friendly?  Probably?  But strangers were still different and strange, and Hood was about as brave as...  Something not very brave.

Another whine and he shuffled forward slowly.  For maybe thirty seconds, at least, before he came to a full stop, ears flat on his head and looking about as pathetic as possible.  Was this really what he was supposed to be doing?

The boy still seemed uncertain, but he took a few hesitant steps to follow Breccan. The older youth nodded his head encouragingly. "That's it, come on!" he said -- only to have the pup put on the brakes and come to a complete standstill once more.

Breccan's expression fell just slightly, but then he followed up with, "Your mom's this way!" The little guy would understand that, right? He patted his forepaws on the ground and invited, "I'll race you!"

He certainly wasn't going to be winning any awards for being the most social, joyous, trusting little pup out there.  However, it wasn't like he didn't respond to encouragement.  This was all just very odd for him right now.  After whining yet again he finally started forward again, and maybe was perking up maybe just a tiny bit.  His understanding of things was pretty questionable, but at least Breccan seemed nice so maybe that was the reason.

But hey, he hadn't stopped yet!  Not that he was moving very fast due to the combination of stubby, still kinda uncoordinated-at-times legs and the fact Hood was basically just walking along.  He had no idea where they were going, really.  Hopefully home, but he didn't know one tree from another to tell where he was, let alone what direction he needed to go to get back in the den.

They were making progress, even if it was slow. Things were already better than they had been a few minutes ago; the pup was no longer crying, and while he didn't appear to be all that trusting of Breccan, he was willing to inch along in the direction that Breccan indicated. "Good, okay," he said; it didn't seem like they would be racing, so he resorted to a normal gait, although he turned his body almost sideways and shuffled along so he could keep the boy in his line of sight.

"Not too much further, I think," he added; they couldn't be too far from the den, after all, so if they kept up this pace, they would reach it eventually.

And so far he hadn't been devoured or anything yet, so that was a good sign.  He started to warm up a bit more, yapping in response.  Memory of a goldfish, maybe.  It was getting to be more of an adventure and less of a mega major disaster of the day.  He just watching Breccan, not so much the world beyond a few feet in any direction.

Because he'd pretty much spent his time only in about a ten yard radius from the den entry, it wasn't like any of it would be familiar.  For a pup his size, he'd ran quite a distance, but yes, for an adult it'd only be a couple minute walk.  He took two pouncing steps forward instead of his normal stride and yipped again, tipping his head.

He was pleasantly surprised when the boy started to show a bit more of his personality, apparently becoming more comfortable in Breccan's presence after determining that he wasn't a monster or anything scary like that. He grinned down at the pup, his tail waving as the youngster yipped and even gave a few experimental crow hops.

"That's it," Breccan said, imitating his little companion's movements with a small forward leap of his own. Up ahead, through the trees, he could see what he thought was the den, so he bounced again in that direction as they reached the home stretch.

And I'll add a post as Treason tomorrow (hopefully) when I do her posts.  Feel free to post before though if you want. :P

It wasn't so bad now, nah.  The little goldfish-brain had forgotten just how awful things were a few minutes ago (at least until he later remembered), so deedley doo, they were off an adventure.  But that was about when Hood started to recognize things, and a breeze brought the scents that were associated with the den and his family drifting past his nose.  With another couple of barks, his gaze snapped forward, and he bounded forward with purpose, almost tripped over his own paws, but he was not to be stopped!

He broke into the small clearing and kept going, eventually colliding into Treason's leg, whining and nuzzling her a moment before trying to reach up and lick her face, rearing to his hind legs for a second before toppling over.  She'd been sitting in front of the den entrance, blocking a certain other two troublemakers from escaping before the third could be returned.

And...they made it! After another hop or two from Breccan, the younger boy seemed to get his bearings and suddenly took off at a much faster pace. He sprinted past Breccan and into a clearing, where his mother was waiting. The Frostfur felt a measure of relief as he stepped through the foliage behind his small charge, and he smiled as he approached Treason.

"He must have wandered off too far, but he was pretty brave on the way back," he said, tail waving as he witnessed the happy reunion.

I'll just swap to her entirely for the wrapup post or two, methinks. :P

Aha, there's the little rogue.  She reached down to roll Hood back onto his paws faster than he would on his own.  Though there were a few unhappy whines from the den from the pair of troublemakers on restricted access to the outside world.  Treason did a good job ignoring the heck out of them for the moment, taking the moment to quickly give Hood an once-over, not expecting to find anything.  When she didn't find anything (as expected) she licked to smooth out the fur on the top of his head.

No, he outright bolted.  Shadow of a bird, maybe.  She moved slightly to let the pup duck into the den, then looked back to Breccan, Thank you for returning him.  The little spooked thing... There's an idea.  Spook.  Hm.  She'd think about it.  Especially if he kept this up.

"You're welcome," Breccan replied. It sounded like the pup had gotten in over his head after taking off away from the densite; although his memory of his own childhood was growing spotty, as it tended to do with age, he was sure he and his siblings had pulled similar stunts.

He would leave the mother and son duo soon, but first, he asked, "What's his name?"

We've been calling him Hood, but I think Spook might be a bit more appropriate for now, she said wryly.  Treason knew that her family's method of naming things wasn't the norm for a lot of wolves.  He will be the first of the three to tell us sort of who he is. Especially if he kept up this current act.  She briefly looked towards the den.  The two heads poking around her and watching were not Hood/Spook.  Jet and Ash still have time to do so.  They were much braver souls than their black-and-white brother.

The answer to his question wasn't as straightforward as he had expected; it seemed that this little guy, along with his siblings, were earning their names. It was different, but he liked it. He couldn't help but wonder what he could have been called if he hadn't been named Breccan at birth.

He grinned. "I like Spook," he said, and with an affectionate grin at Spook, Breccan excused himself and departed, leaving the mother and son to enjoy their reunion.