Blackfeather Woods nature's cruelty

Recently, Cicero's eyes had finished changing from their initial baby blue to orange and cold silver. They were now as distinct as they would ever be, although the boy himself did not notice much of this. Not except for the one time he had looked into a puddle and laughed at his own mirror image, which wasn't anything like his siblings' symmetric faces.

He hadn't spoken many words yet, and in that sense, was slower than his siblings, mostly laughing and using different tones and miniature-words without forming sentences. 'Sees', his own name, was one of those mini-words (his entire name was something he had not yet grasped, even though he understood it when the adults spoke to him and used it). It was almost as if developing his speech was not one of small Cicero's priorities in the world.

Today Cicero sat just outside the den, observing the outside world. He had only seen it with snow, the outside. The child sat outside smiling, tongue lolling from the side of his mouth, in the daytime, as he observed nature all around him. When he heard a squeaking sound, Cicero's ears flopped forward and he got off his butt and trotted in the direction the sound came from.

There, he saw a wounded bird. Cicero looked upwards, into the tree that the bird had fallen from, where he heard lots of rustling and saw large wings flapping. "Baaaaws!" he nonsensically shouted just as a nest of loose twigs fell down from the tree. It landed next to Cicero, and he sniffed it, but was soon distracted by the squeaking wounded bird again.

Afraid his stronger brother might hear the sounds and take his newfound toy, Cicero sniffed the bird and, as it tried to run away and tripped (one of its wings was broken), Cicero leaned down to the ground, barked excitedly at his new toy, and batted at the small wounded bird with his right paw.

Kadence hadn't really been around pups all that often, considering she was still sort of one herself. The distinct sounds of a little baby drew her away from her resting spots and further into the woods where she spotted one of Meldresi's pups batting at an injured bird that lay on the cold snow. She suppressed a laugh at his tiny figure observing the bird carefully.

She padded up to the tiny wolf, her eyes warm as she studied him, noticing his cute little eyes that were almost complete opposite in color, one blazing orange and one a stark silver contrast to his dark fur.

"Hi there, little one. I'm Kadence." she greeted softly, not sure if he understood what she was saying or not.

After batting the bird, Cicero pressed his body to the cold ground, eager to see how the creature would respond. It just kept fluttering around helplessly, wounded from the large bird's attack and its fall, and Cicero would bat it every time it'd get into motion again, then repeat the ritual. Just as he pressed himself to the ground again, he heard the voice of another wolf. Completely engulfed in the play, Cicero had not noticed the approach until the voice sounded.

"HI!" Cicero shouted at the wolf. He wasn't sure what 'there, little one' meant but he knew 'I'm' meant that the word thereafter was the wolf's name. There was a broad smile on Cicero's face as he looked at the wolf and bellowed, "Sees!", which was his name. Then he heard the bird behind him flutter and squawk and with an "Oh!" of concentration he turned to look at it. "Baws!" he explained and batted the air next to the bird, inviting the other wolf to join his play.

Kadence suppressed a giggle at the way he said his cute little words. She remembered Meldresi saying what their names were and from the way he said Sees she'd guess that's what he was trying to say. She thought about it for a bit and the pup with the closest name to what he had squeaked out was Cicero.

She watched him as his adorable little face scrunched up in concentration and he turned back to the bird that was fluttering helplessly on the cold snow. The little black and white pup batted at it carefully before turning back to Kadence, a wide smile on his tiny little face. His little shout of joy and motion in the air made it look like he wanted her to do something. What, she still wasn't quite sure.

"That's a nice toy you have there." she cooed lightly, bending down and poking at the bird to show what she was talking about.

Cicero's ear twitched involuntarily as it was itchy, but he was too excited about this new wolf to care too much. She leaned down to look at the bird, which could no longer move or flee, and was laying on the ground chirping helplessly, and said something. Cicero instantly liked one of the words she said — "Toy!" — and repeated it. He looked back at the other wolf to see her response to the word, then looked back at the bird.

"Toy toy toy," he said while he pounced the wounded bird and grabbed one of its wings between his teeth. The bird chirped and pecked Cicero on the nose with some of its last remaining strength, but Cicero just laughed, even though it hurt.

Even though she could tell the poor little bird was suffering, she couldn't quite bring herself to take away the tiny pup's play thing. He got so excited about the word toy, repeating in as he went back to attacking the weakening bird. He grabbed it's wing in his tiny mouth, letting out an adorable, tiny giggle as it pecked his nose. She smiled as she watched him play, hoping one day she could have pups of her own. Of course, thinking about pups made her think of Crescendo. Would they have pups together? Would they even stick together for the long run? What if when he found out she was too young he left her?

At that thought, the smile sort of drained from her face, not wanting that to happen at all. Cicero little noises brought her attention back to him as he pawed at the bird, that seemed to be losing it's energy by the second, it's wings stopping their fluttering and it's eyes closing slowly. She hoped the little pup wouldn't be too upset that his toy 'broke'.

"Your toy doesn't look so good." she said cautiously, waiting to see his reaction to it.

Cicero violently tugged the wing while the bird gave a last-ditch effort to get its attacker off, pecking his nose. Judging by Cicero's giggling, it didn't seem at all like it hurt, even though it did. Then the pecking started to subside. The other wolf said something, and Cicero looked at her briefly, only understanding the word 'toy' in her sentence, the wing still in his mouth. His right ear twitched and he felt the wing slacken in his mouth as the bird's lights went out.

With a rare frown on his face, Cicero looked at the dead bird, his toy, which now no longer worked. "Toy gaws," he sadly noted, and looked at the stranger, to see if she would make things right again. ".. Toy go?" he asked of her, and with his nose he nudged the broken birdy a bit closer to the wolf, indicating she should fix things and make his toy go again.

Kadence watched with a sad smile as the bird started to slow down, finally ending it's suffering and closing it's eyes, it's body going limp. Slowly, Cicero started to notice that it was working any more and he started to mutter about his toy being gone. He turned to her with a sad expression, nudging the bird towards her, as if wanting her to fix it.

She gave him a small shake of her head, a light smile at the sight of his adorable little frown. "No more toy." she said slowly, placing a frown on her face. Carefully, she placed a paw on the now dead bird and drew it away to the side. Not wanting him to be too sad, she quickly plucked a long wing feather from it and held it in her jaws. She reached out and promptly tickled his tiny nose with it.

"Here, new toy." she mumbled around the feather, setting it at is paws.

Disappointment was vivid on Cicero's face as the toy died. The other wolf said something about his toy, but she did not manage to make it move again. Then she plucked a feather from the bird and tickled Cicero on his nose with it. He giggled loudly as his nose was tickled, and then stared at the feather as it was set down in front of his paws. He batted it and it floated away, landing a small distance from him.

Sadly, it stopped moving then, which caused Cicero to lose interest. He stared up at the other wolf, dashed up to her, and tried to wrap his - thus far harmless - mouth around her toes with a loud play growl and a smile on his face. He'd found his new toy, yay!

She laughed at his giggle at being tickled and then quickly batted at the feather, making it float away. A look of disappointment crossed his face as it stopped moving but it was soon replaced by a big smile as he promptly attacked her foot, biting at it with light little teeth. She let a big smile play across her face as she pulled her foot away, before playfully batting his tiny ears.

"You are so strong!" she exclaimed, laying on her tummy and peering at him through widened eyes. She smiled again and reached out at him again, this time batting lightly at his paws while she blew a big huff of air at his ears.

His new toy was quickly taken from him, the paw being pulled away. "Naaaawh!" Cicero objected, but he was soon distracted by the adult wolf batting at his ears. He looked up with unbridled curiosity on his face, wonder what had just happened. However, when he looked up he saw nothing, for the paw that had batted at his ears was already long gone. He was left looking puzzled but amused as he searched for the ear-batter, but was distracted from his search again when the adult wolf said something.

"Yaaaaaay!" Cicero cheered at the adult, which had laid down so that she was a little more on his level. She then batted at his paws and Cicero made ready to pounce her paw again. Just as he was about to pounce at the adult wolf, a gust of wind blew past his ears and they twitched uncontrollably. Cicero giggled at the tickling in his ears, but when he looked up... Once again, there was absolutely nothing! Cicero rolled onto the ground and wrapped his paws over his head, batting at his own ears to try and stop the ticklish feeling.

Kadence laughed at his adorable responses, looking around curiously for her paw and the source of the air that had tickled his ears. He lay down and covered his face with his paws, seemingly trying to get the bothering feeling out of his ears.

She quickly reached out a paw and set it on his nose, this time leaving it in place to see how he would react to it.

She enjoyed playing with Cicero and she suddenly had the thought that maybe she could pursue the care taking trade. That way when she did have her own pups, she would have plenty of experience. And it would probably be helpful for Meldresi. Kadence couldn't imagine taking care of three Ciceros all the time. Meldresi must have insane super powers.

wrapping up :)

Cicero rubbed his ears with his paws to make the itch go away, when suddenly he felt something touch his nose. "Wassat?!" he called out, shocked, and unwrapped his paws from his head to clear his eyesight. The pup blinked a couple of times and looked up at the paw. "Baaawwwrrs!" he shouted in surprise, still rolled on his back. He wrapped his mouth around whatever part of the paw he could grap while batting at it with his paws to try and keep it in place.

Recognising the paw as his toy through a test of taste, Cicero excitedly exclaimed, "Yay toy!" while he continued to nibble on it and grapple at it with his paws to try and keep it where it was, content to play with it for hours if it wasn't taken away from him; and so he did, under the watchful eye of Kadence, until he eventually grew tired, said bye-bye to his toy, went into the den again and fell asleep.