Stavanger Bay rawr, the boy genius

Every day, the world became a little less blurry for Charon Ostrega, and the bright contrasts of the world became more clear to him. The Outside was a cool place that Charon liked; his parents often brought exciting things from there, and sometimes a visitor would come into the den. It was presently night, and Charon waddled to the mouth of the den, from where he could look up.

The white boy's tiny mouth fell open as he gawped out of the den's mouth at the skies above. He couldn't make out all of it yet, but he liked the way that there was a lot of darkness with lots of lighter spots. "Rrrooooow!" yipped Charon excitedly and he pressed his small ears back against his head and wagged his stubby tail in excitement at what he was seeing. He stretched out a paw to go to the Upstairs place he was watching, but found that when he tried to walk there, his paws would get thudded back to the ground every time. How very frustrating.

Charon sat there, waving his paws in the air one by one - left paw, right paw, nope, still not going Up there - but going nowhere. Occasionally he would wobble and nearly fall on his face because of losing his balance, but overall, he just looked really silly.

This thread looks lonely, and Charon's too cute for me to resist. :)

Ever since the birth of his children, it seemed like Verrine slept with one eye open. He was so afraid that one of them would awaken in the middle of the night and wander off into the darkness alone, and Verrine shuddered to think about the consequences of that. Julooke was vigilant too, and they often took turns keeping watch so the other could get some decent sleep. It was tough, though. Four newborns were not easy to sleep around. Someone was always crying, or fussing, or hungry, or needing to be cleaned, or just plain restless. Verrine's aspirations to climb the ranks and earn a trade for himself in the pack had pretty much gone out the window for the time being, as so much of his time was demanded by his puppies. He didn't regret it one bit, though. He cherished every minute of it.

He had been dozing a little when a soft scuffling noise drew him immediately to alertness. He felt his heart lurch with fleeting panic for the briefest of moments before he looked around and saw that all was well. In the dim glow of starlight at the mouth of the den, however, he saw the outline of little Charon. He was clearly fascinated by the stars, and the boy's father smiled. Verrine watched him for a few minutes, finding it very hard not to laugh at the child's attempts to touch the stars. When several moments had passed, Verrine very gently and quietly pulled himself to his feet -- being extra careful not to wake any of the other kids or Julooke up -- and edged up alongside his pale-furred son. He smiled at the boy, licking him tenderly on the cheek, and whispered quietly, "Stargazing already, eh? You are so Julooke's son." He knew his kids were still too young to understand much of what he said to them, but that didn't stop him from talking to them anyway.

Yay :D

It didn’t take Charon that long to figure out that he wasn’t getting anywhere with his air-pedalling. After he had fallen flat on his face a couple of times, he huffed indignantly at the stubborn stars up above. They were perhaps not as much fun as he had thought before, when he’d wanted to go to them; they just stood there, in the skies, glinstening all pretty-like but not coming any closer.

So enticed by the glittery stones in the sky, Charon did not notice his father coming closer. When suddenly Dad pulled up alongside him, Charon jumped a little in startled surprise. He tilted his head upwards to his father then, for it did not take him very long to realise that it wasn’t a strange pulling up beside him, just Dad, and his stubby little tail wagged as his father licked his cheek. He was glad to share the night with his father, one of his favourite persons in the world.

His father said something, and Charon tilted his head at the words that were thrown his way. He did not understand much of what was said, but responded with an excited “Roof!” anyway. Charon waved his right paw up at the stars, pulling his chin back awkwardly as he tried to keep his balance. “Wawooorf!” he said excitedly in nonsense-language, trying to explain to his father that the stars were pretty and he wanted them to be here.

finishing this with a fade because of Houkie's departure.

Charon and Verrine sat outside and looked at the stars for a while longer. Charon was intrigued with them, having not seen such shiny lights in the sky yet in his short life, although he disliked that they were untouchable. He wanted to be able to reach them and feel what they felt like, and tried to explain to Dad in garbage-language what it was that he wanted.

Eventually, the boy grew tired and at some point, after contentedly spending some alone-time with Dad and the shiny sparkles in the sky, Charon waddled back into the den. He settled himself among his siblings and mother and soon drifted into sleep.