Whitebark Stream The world will be just fine.

Gimme the baby dragons! @Kaori @Toshi @Kiyoshi, feel free to PP Juniper. Other tags for reference.

At first, Artyom had not worried for @Aphrodite. She was regularly departing Whitebark territory, eager to hunt for herbs to stash in her collection or make herself useful in some other way, but he could not recall a time that she was gone for so long. As the days ticked by, despite the distraction of his pack's thriving cubs that were still of an age that required constant attention, the gilded leader began to grow concerned.

They had lost so many since their establishment by the stream: Bhediya and the energetic daughter who barely knew her, the yearling Xizur, Dawn's siblings and nephew, Salvatore to a tragic accident in the woods, Daylily who yearned for her family elsewhere. More recently, Minnow and Kora had vanished without a trace. It wasn't easy for Artyom to accept and, even after all those months since the first wolf disappeared, he hoped that they might someday return to them safely. With so many young mouths to feed, he feared that the loss of another pack-mate might bring them closer to ruin.

@Surya had offered to make attempt at tracking their missing healer, whose tracks had suggested a Northern direction. Although reluctant to let the boy go off on his own, it was not really Artyom's place to stop him. So he saw him off and tried to remain optimistic that he would return to them unscathed, hopefully with news of their wayward medic.

With Winter and @Juniper padding along at his heels, the Alpha led them in the direction of Kaori's densite. He'd have brought all of his pups if he knew he could manage the short trip on his own, but it seemed a lot easier to herd two rather than four. It took longer than he anticipated, not because his son and daughter had little legs or tired easily, but because the world around them was still so interesting that they were easily distracted.

"Приходить," the father called to Juniper for the hundredth time as they arrived, earthen eyes scanning through the trees for any sign of the dragoness' offspring, "you are to be on your best behaviour today." He shot the pair a pointed glance. "No fighting."

He had never gone this far beyond the whelping burrow, and literally everything filled him with excitement. Winter's scruffy little tail never ceased its wagging as he investigated each new sight with enthusiasm. A tasty looking pile of dirt, a funny-coloured leaf on the ground, even the hairy little body of a caterpillar that munched happily through a tall blade of grass.

Juniper tagged along too, much to the ashen cub's delight. It meant he was not alone in sticking his nose into places where it shouldn't be, and he could easily point the blame at her if he needed to. She also saw things differently from him, drawn to other curiosities that Winter initially missed but simply could not lose out on.

He was about to follow his sister in the direction of a strange, furry insect that buzzed around the wildflowers when their father called out. Winter turned attention on the adult at once, feigning innocence as he made a sudden shift to quicken in the ranger's direction so that he might catch up. Juniper was not far behind him, and she reached out to chomp at his face - hard enough to warrant a shriek of objection from her unsuspecting sibling. Artyom's scold nipped this potential altercation in the bud, and the duo blinked innocently up at the golden leader as though nothing had ever transpired between them.

Deep down, however, Winter harboured a grudge. He would give his littermate the stink eye as soon as dad glanced away.

Kiyoshi loved the shadows as much as he loved the sun. Ever since momma had brought them outside, he made a constant run between the den and the little patch of safe ground outside the burrow, chasing light patches, tousling in the darkness, or enticing his brother for a little rough and tumble between that sparser ground between the daylight and the underground.

Kiyoshi loved the wilds as much as he loved the nest, and every day, he edged a little bit further, by a little bit further from the denning site, wooed by that sense of brazen risk that stirred in many a young samurai's heart, not yet tempered by the learned fires of respect, and self-control.

Today found him tempting boundary again. In his growing vocabulary, he was beginning to understand bits and pieces of the grand tales of regale his mother told them sometimes at night, about wolves who fought with purity of the sun, and wolves who ran through the shadows as if they were one with them.

He wanted a part of this reality, and in his make believe, he pretended to be one of them. One of the brave ones, who hunted the shadow-lurkers and battled them out of the darkness. The strangers happened upon the densite in the midst of his battle.

With a puppy-like growl, the mighty Kiyoshi spilled from the veil of shrubbery with a tangle of leaves clamped between his paws -- a stick, that had fallen from a nearby tree the night before, and which had quickly become his enemy upon discovery of its dastardly trip-wire ways. The stick scuffed the ground, and the little draconid wormed his way along the ground with a writhing twist, and turned, in time for bright eyes to fall upon the strangers.

Kiyoshi fell still, and stared with an owlish blink from his sideways vantage on the ground, and cupped his ears toward the trio, tiny jaws still half-grasping at the stick, and little heart filled with curiosity and a dangerously low level of fear.

As the hatchlings grew physically, Kaori grew less and less strict about keeping them confined. If they wished to venture out of the den, she no longer stopped them—usually, that is—but still continued to watch them closely, ever the protective sort. The dragoness was tucked within the den and listening to the happenings outside when she noted the small growl of her son, which was enough to draw her out. But, upon her exit, she spied no danger, just Kiyoshi with a stick in his mouth and—ah!

“Artyom,” she greeted softly, noting the male first. But quickly did her gaze drift down to spy the children at his side, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “They are growing well, it seems,” she commented, right before gently touching her muzzle to Kiyoshi’s back. “Will you greet them, little one?” she questioned, curious to see how he might react. Each child was different, after all, some bold and others cautious. Kaori wondered how her youngest son might react, which role he would take over.

Toshi was right about the great outdoors. It was nothing like the den he had grown so used to. Did that make it bad? No, not in the slightest. It was unfamiliar and strange, but that’s what made it so mesmerizing. Every trip outside the den was a new experience. While his brother fought imaginary foes, Toshi would stay back and admire the scenery at a snail’s pace.

It was the usual routine today; Kiyoshi leaped around their home while he drifted in and out of sleep in the shade. His eyes snapped open when footsteps approached the den, followed by his brother’s growl. Toshi babbled softly as he got up and stretched. Who was here ruining his beauty sleep? A guy he barely knew and a couple of strangers. Toshi would sit back and let his family handle them.