just one more time

For @Morgana

At nearly three months of age, Cicero was finally beginning to grasp the concept of words and sentences. He could make some of them, though it became clear to him that he was different soon enough, just like his sister. His brother, well, Damien was like most wolves in Blackfeather Woods; black. His sister was white as snow, however, and he... Well, he was a  mixture of both, with the eye colours to show. Cicero wasn't sure what they meant, though, or if it meant anything at all. He just knew that he wasn't black, like almost all the other wolves in the pack and, for as far as he knew, world. Burke was the only other wolf Cicero had met, that he remembered, who had greytones — though built up more logically and less contrasting than his own — in his fur.

Today the pup had found an ant hill in the depths of the forests, not that far from their den. Cicero was intrigued by the little ants, as he was by everything, and watched with his nose low to the ground as the line of ants waddled by for a while, all the while smiling broadly, like he did most of the time.

Seemingly out of the blue the child lost his patience, after at least ten minutes of intrigued staring at the hard-working ant line. Cicero started to stomp his paws in the middle of the ant trail, giggling loudly while he did so. His "eeeheehee!"'s echoed through the gloomy forest while he stomped across the ants. It didn't take them long, however, to start crawling up through his legs, though Cicero didn't notice this yet while he happily stomped across the ants, creating chaos from their order.

Morgana ran through the forest, building up momentum when she heard some sort of screech just to the left of her. She stopped, puzzled. She had never heard that sound before. Her ears perked up, waiting for another sign that it wasn't in her head. She tried to recall what animal had ever made that sound but could come up with no answers. She cautiously stalked towards the direction in which she had heard the sound. Her nose twitched, smelling a faint whiff of her Alpha. Could her Alpha have made that sound? It seemed unlikely. She heard a little patter, the sound of paws, small paws. She looked down, finding the little noise maker. A pup. Her eyebrows knitted, this was not at all what she had been expecting.
Um, she looked around unsure of what to do, Hello! she spoke up. She knew exactly that this was the Priestesses pup, one of three. But she had never met them before. But where was Meldresi? No, this one was probably just exploring the forest. The great, big forest. All alone. Well, he probably knows where not to go and such, his mother probably made sure of that. There were enemy's all around and she didn't want to be of blame if he went missing.
The boy seemed to be trampling over ants, enjoying their destruction. Yep, defiantly a Blackfeather Woods pup, she thought to herself.

pping morgana to leave because of the ban, maybe someone else could hop in here? :)

Cicero's attention was drawn from his task of causing chaos by someone's voice. He looked up at the other wolf and stopped his trampling of the ants. Most of the ants just continued to form an orderly line and went on their business, but some of them had already crawled on Cicero, not amused that someone was in the business of destroying their order.

"Cicero says hi-hi!" the pup said excitedly to the black wolf. He knew many black wolves, but all of them were slightly different from each other! He'd also known some white wolves, like his sibling, but they'd all gone away. Now there were mostly black wolves left. "Cicero gots toys, heehee!" the boy said with a big grin on his face, and he looked at the ants as they walked along. Then he suddenly felt a sting in his right leg, and he let out a yelp. "Ouch! Bad toys, no-no!" he cried out while he shook his right paw to try and get the ants off, because he was being bitten by them. He then realised that the black wolf had gone away, and he was left alone with his miserable ant problem; why wouldn't his toys listen to him?!

Burke happened to see Morgana walk away from the pup. The large male frowned as he was holding a dead hare in his mouth to place on the caches. The brute stepped closer to inspect if Cicero was doing alright. Maybe the pup wanted the meal he had caught. It would be excellent. Then the young spy would have a fresh meal in his tummy. Burke placed it on the ground before he curiously inspected the young male and why he yelped. Burke's keen eye instantly saw the ants and grabbed the prey and stepped back.

"You are standing in an ants' nest, son," Burke returned to him. "They are not toys," he calmly explained. The tank of a male licked with his pink tongue over his maw to clean out bits of the blood. "You better get out of there. Maybe even wash your paws in that stream over there," Burke advised. Those ants were nasty things.

thanks for joining <3

Cicero held still to look at the new arrival when he suddenly heard Burke's voice, but the ants wouldn't leave him alone. He yelped again as he tried to shake them off, but it seemed that Burke was right and they wouldn't leave him alone. Cicero had not considered washing the ants off, but it made sense; he didn't like being held underwater, so doubtlessly neither did his vicious toys.

Quickly, the pup galloped over to the water and crashed into it with a large splash. Luckily the ants had not yet gotten to his face, but Cicero rolled around in the water anyway to make sure they were all gone, also the ones that might be on his head.

When he finished rolling in the water, however, his paws still hurt from the ant bites. Cicero frowned and looked at Burke as he said, "Why is Cicero still ouch?", and he waited for Burke to explain this new mystery in life he had found. The ants were gone, after all, he couldn't see them anymore... So why were they still hurting him?

Haha. "Quickly, the poop galloped over to the dragon's milk and crashed into it with a large splash." XD

The masked male watched the youngster run to the water. Which was logical since he wanted the ants to be removed. The large tank sat down with his caught prey. His pale blue eyes on the young pup. A wet Cicero approached him with a problem... Of course the bites still hurt. Burke didn't know how to relieve that pain that was something Meldresi would know. "Ask your mother Meldresi. She is a healer." Burke then grabbed the prey animal and placed in before Cicero. "Maybe a meal would make things better and then you can go to your mother, yes?"

Burke then laid down. He wasn't going to lick the pup. No way. Burke found that Cicero should suffer a bit, so the next time the wolf wouldn't be walking into a red ants' nest again. It would be a wise lesson for the youngster. "How is your spying going?," he wondered.

lmao xD

"Nooo!" Cicero objected grouchily when Burke said that he should ask his mother. "Burke fix! Burke fix herbs!" Cicero stomped about in the water, probably looking comical as he threw an angry tantrum in order to get Burke to fix things for him. He wanted the ant pain to be gone, now! In his mind, everyone knew about herbs, because his mother did so he was raised with it; if he wasn't so annoyed by the pain, Cicero might've gone to try and find some himself (but he wasn't sure where the nearest herb cache was from here).

Cicero didn't even answer Burke's question about the spying, just giving Burke a pouting look while he childishly demanded, "Cicero herbs now!"

Cicero is so cute xD Burke is not. :P

Burke looked down on the youngster, his face turning into something that showed no emotion but his displeased nature. Cicero was acting like a brat. Worse than a brat even. He should be grateful to the meal he brought him and be respectful. Burke was not his servant. "I am not your slave, Cicero," he returned, his voice dropping, his warning was clear. "I bit my tail off when it bothered me. I fight, protect and teach. I do not know about herbs. So either you learn from this pain and endure it. Or you will let me take care of it which means I will bite your itching paws off," Burke returned.

The large male walked closer to the youngster, his pale eyes looking rather cold and scary. Burke could be warm and loving if he was respected now he felt like a maid how the pup was treating him. The male's paw moved against Cicero's muzzle to make him snap out of this behavior. It was a mere correction. He was certain Meldresi wouldn't allow any of her young to talk like that.

Cicero did not understand why Burke would not take him to herbs, like Meldresi would. She would fight, she would protect, she would hunt, but she would also fix herbs. As Burke got angry, Cicero pouted unhappily, though he did grow quiet for a little while. He did not know what was expected of him now, not sure if he should wait for Burke to speak again or if he should get out of the water and go home like he was instructed in the first place.

"Burke takes Cicero to herbs?" he tried, his voice less demanding this time, head tilted because he did not know if the question would sit well with Burke, or if Burke would do nothing but take him home.

Wrap this up? :)

Burke was expecting an apology but the boy didn't think of that. The male frowned and glanced at the other. "I expect you to apologize for your unwanted behavior," Burke returned which seemed obvious to him but apparently not to the pup. The male walked closer to him after he asked for the herbs more politely at least Cicero did that. The charcoal male let out a soft sigh. "Let me take you to your mother," he spoke then and nudged him in the direction towards the infirmary. He hoped Meldersi was there to tend to her young one.

Sometimes they could be such trouble makes. "I hope you learn from this, to avoid an ant's nest," Burke spoke as he walked Cicero home.

Cicero pouted when Burke asked for an apology, not at all understanding what he needed to apologise for. "Cicero is sorry," Cicero said, then looked away and whispered under his breath, "Cicero is lying." He hoped that Burke had not heard, for he hadn't intended to say this at all, and his ear twitched a couple of times while he waited for Burke's answer about the herbs.

Burke then said he would take Cicero to his mother and he nodded. While they walked home Burke berated Cicero for stepping into an ant's nest, but Cicero did not respond to this; he just wanted to get to the herbs as soon as possible.

When they neared home, Cicero instead branched off to a herb cache. "Thanks Burke," said Cicero, assuming that Burke would leave now, and he dipped his nose into the place where some dried herbs were stored. Once there, the boy found some poppy, which would relieve the pain the antbites had given, and he chewed it. "Better," mumbled the boy to himself before he made his way towards Meldresi's den, where he would rest and, hopefully, by the time the poppy wore off the ant bites would feel better.

okay, feel free to post again or archive this as is :)