Redhawk Caldera Salt licorice.

@Caracal, @Tierra and @Sphyra were now old enough to be relocated to a rendezvous site, though Towhee saw no reason to take them far from the Hobbit Hole. In fact, she led them toward the hilltop just above it and settled in the shade of the dogwood tree there as she let the youngsters roam freely around the area. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to move the pups to the top of a hill but they lived in a caldera, so they would need to learn how to deal with slopes.

Towhee fought back a yawn, putting a paw against her mouth as she kept an eye on her three children. It was warm but overcast, a wind soughing noisily through the leaves overheard. Although she couldn't hear the sound, she instinctively tipped her snout into the breeze to scent for anything of interest.

Her head dropped back down when Caracal trundled over and signed, -I'm hungry!- -"Well,"- she replied with a glimmer in her eyes, -"you're in luck. There's a cache nearby. I'll take you guys there in a few minutes."- She saw him pout as he eyeballed her underside, though Towhee just shook her head and motioned for him to go play. Milk wasn't on the menu anymore.

Moving day wasn't very far, really. In fact, the only thing that really changed was that they no longer lived in a hole. That alone was quite a big change, but Sphyra took it in stride surprisingly well. It might seem almost as if all of these changes didn't matter much to her: Moving away from the den and up to the hill, no longer having milk but getting regurgitated meat instead... Sphyra didn't seem to mind very much.

The rowdy child did care about besting her siblings though, and when she saw Caracal be pouty she ran towards him and shouted LOOKOUT! just as she almost reached him and she put the top of her head forward, intending to ram into Caracal's side with her head.

if you want to play Caracal - if not, i could edit it to redirect her to Towhee instead

Today, Sapsucker was all about her impression, and that meant she was going to be the best behaved of all of them and make sure mom knew it. They were going somewhere special (of course they were!) and that meant she might get something even more extra-special if she could prove she deserved it. So hah, Spyr n' Cackle! She had this in the bag.

Thank you. The sign was a little awkward still, but she shot Caracal a smug look when she did it. It was probably a little hard for him to even notice it, though, since Sphyra had pretty immediately pulled him into a tackle.

Can we ... go?. Tierra couldn't remember the word for 'explore', but she rarely interposed the two. For some reason, speaking in the middle felt wrong. Instead, she gestured to the little area around them, tail wagging enthusiastically.

Two seconds later, Sphyrapicus came in like a wrecking ball and absolutely demolished her brother. Caracal went down like a sack of potatoes and Towhee couldn't help but laugh at the sight, though she did bend forward to nose at him and make sure nothing was broken. Her concern proved unnecessary, as he hopped back onto all fours like nothing had happened, leaping toward his sister in a counterattack.

Meanwhile, Sapsucker captured her mother's attention with some signing. -"Where would you like to go?"- Towhee replied, admittedly a little distractedly as she kept her eye on her little Street Fighters. -"You hungry too?"- she guessed before adding, -"Want to try leading us to the cache?"-

In the background, Caracal gave Sphyra the slip and began to race in a circle around the newly appropriated rendezvous site, his tail tucked between his legs and a jolly grin on his face. He pinballed between his mother and twin sisters, clearly trying to get any or all of them to join in the zoomies.

Pow, right in the kisser! Sphyra hit Caracal and felt a rush of victory surge through her as he flopped to the ground. Since he didn't get up right away she totally forgot about him seconds later, and turned to see her other sibling sign something. Sphyra watched to see what Tierra was signing, but halfway through Caracal was on her again and he was met with a loudly bellowed AAAAARRRRRRRW! Sphyra immediately turned around to meet his assault head-on and chomped at his face and legs challengingly.

As Caracal got away Sphyra dashed after him. Initially just because she was gonna get him good, but soon she forgot about her earlier quest for revenge and just enjoyed going FAST. Tongue lolled from the side of Sphyra's mouth as she dashed around, overtaking Caracal in the process (because she totally forgot she was chasing him to chew on him some more).

The pup didn't bother with signing yes, but instead gave an animated display of how much she liked that suggestion. Her tail set off like a tiny helicopter as Sapsucker play bowed, then bounced excitedly. A bit of her attention wavered when she spotted Caracal and Sphyra wrestling in her periphery, and she froze. She almost immediately forgot what she'd just decided to do in order to charge in and join, but then she looked at Towhee and remembered - she was hungry!

SPEER!! She yelled at full volume. CACKLE GOTCHU!! Really she had no clue who was winning, but it was fun to see what happened when she pretended like she knew.

Gods, but kids could be so easily distracted. Sometimes this worked in her favor but not right now. Even Tierra got wound up by the play fight breaking out in the background, causing Towhee to clear her throat and then let out an absolutely ear splitting bark.

KIDS! Pay attention! she bellowed, albeit without heat. Her orange eyes danced. Tierra is going to lead the way to a cache. Then we’re going to eat. Oh, shit, I forgot! None of you like to eat, do you?

Only when she heard 'kids' shouted loudly did Sphyra stop in her tracks and look at what their mother said. She listened as it was declared that Tierra would do something. Sphyra was kinda lost again there — she wanted to do something — and honestly, when food was suggested she wasn't the most enthusiastic anyway. Bored, she flopped down and started to gnaw on her own hind paw, a sort of compromise between being quiet and stop chasing around Caracal and listening avidly. She wasn't very hungry, as food didn't play a very big role in Sphyra's life (not on an emotional level, anyway; she didn't have a big feeling of hunger) so it was up to the other kids to convince mom that they still really wanted food, anyway. Sphyra would just follow when they set off.

Tierra froze when mom barked, then fell into an absolute giggle fit that turned into full on laughing. Yeah, KIDDSS, she repeated, butchering both the enunciation and the tone when she did. It was funny because Cackle and Speer got it good and Tierra didn't count herself as one of them.

GOTTA GO GETSA FOOooooyayaya... She set off and, because she liked the sound of her own voice, kept going into a kind of sing-songy babble that would have undoubtedly driven her mom nuts if she were actually subjected to it. Instead it was just her wonderfully lucky siblings who got to listen to her serenade. Her voice was... not great, at this point.

Sphyra looked pretty ambivalent about everything, though Tierra made up for her twin's lack of enthusiasm. And then there was Caracal, whose reaction to Towhee's joke was to simply shout an indignant, "MOOOOOM!!! I LIKE EATS!!! I WANT TO EATS!!!!!" She couldn't hear the shouting, of course, or really make out particular words, but she recognized the telltale signs of loud vocalization.

"Okay—" she began, only for Tierra to take the initiative. Towhee blinked and then grinned impishly. "Better jump on the food train, bitches!" she bellowed, leaping into the space just behind the puppy. She wasn't about to be the caboose.

Sapsucker earned a roll of Sphyra's eyes when she mirrored their mother, which to Sphyra was very uncool (though she didn't quite realise at the time why or that she thought that precise thing). Caracal responded excitedly to their mother's words and Sapsucker just continued to make a lot of noise. Sphyra found herself wanting to walk up to her twin and start shouting in her ear — see how she liked it — but as Sapsucker set off at least the noise got a little less noisy at least.

Only when Towhee said they should get on the food train did Sphyra leap to her feet. CHOO CHOO BISHES! she shouted as she came into motion, not really knowing what a train was but hopefully someone had taught her the valuable skill of knowing how to respond to someone mentioning a train.

Skippin' with permission to wrap. *raps*

They ended up in a haphazard conga line, with Tierra in the lead, Sphyra and Towhee in the middle and Caracal taking position in the back with a cry of, "BUTTS!!!" The Sovereign threw a grin at him over her shoulder, then changed her mind and bailed to bring up the rear instead. She wanted the kids to take initiative and being in the back gave her a great vantage point for however this unfolded.

So far, Tierra had emerged as the leader. Would she actually be able to find the cache without her calling shots from back here? And would Sphyra or Caracal accept their sister's leadership or rise up to usurp her somewhere along the way? So much could happen and Towhee wanted to see it all. Watching her trio was better than Netflix.