Redhawk Caldera gather round

For the pupsicles! @Wildfire @Raven @Nightjar (and @Finley, since she's a baby, too). ;)

Now that the children were beginning to comprehend and retain information, Fox thought it the perfect time to start teaching them where they had come from. She knew their attention span was still akin to a gnat's, so she planned to break it down into smaller stories, of course. She wanted to tell them the story she'd been told about how wolves came to be. Then, she'd move on to where she had come from. Then Peregrine's backstory, and finally the events leading up to Redhawk Caldera's formation. It was important that they know the history of things, Fox thought.

The sun was slowly sinking, though they had at least another hour of daylight, and Fox called the children to her. They were all within eyesight, as they so often were, and she waited for them to come bounding toward her, where she would kiss each of them atop their fuzzy little heads once they were close enough.

A familiar metallic odor drew her to the far outskirts of the rendezvous site. Wildfire stopped next to a smear of dried blood, giving it a cursory sniff. There was no carcass in sight (little did she know she had eaten it for lunch earlier), though there were signs of a struggle. For a good while, the little sleuth inspected the area, trying to figure out what had transpired here. In the course of her investigation, she eventually found the dead badger's den, which was still rife with its scent. Wildfire stepped inside.

Perhaps ten minutes later, the sound of a howl resonated on the air and the pup's red head popped out of the misshapen hole, ears pricked. She wanted to keep exploring the den, yet she also wanted to heed the sound of her mother's voice. Wildfire emerged fully into the evening light, then squatted near the pool of sticky brown blood. She urinated, marking the spot.

As she ran to meet her mother closer to the rendezvous site's heart, Wildfire stopped every so often to squeeze out a few more drops of urine. In this way, she left herself a trail to lead her back to the den. She wanted to show it to Raven and Nightjar. Maybe it could become their fort. Maybe they could even sleep there! Wildfire was breathless with excitement when she finally found her way to the center of the clearing where Fox stood, back-lit by the sunset.

"Mama, hi!" Wildfire said, trotting up to nibble at the Alpha female's chin. "I finded s'fing cool!" Cool was, ironically, one of the fiery child's favorite terms lately.

That day found Nightjar lounging in a patch of wildflowers just to the east of the rendezvous site's westernmost treeline. He'd been drawn by the scent of fresh flowers and had now spent several hours just lying in them with a stupid grin on his face, being very unmanly indeed. Every so often he would lift a paw to bat at the petals, but otherwise he lazed in his heavily perfumed bed. Bees buzzed around him, but because he hadn't moved for so long, they seemed entirely unconcerned with him. As he was unaware that they were the cause of his recent pierced ear, Nightjar was unconcerned with them, too.

He was almost unconcerned with the howl that echoed through the trees as well, but it was his mother's voice, and therefore, important. The pup rolled onto his belly, squashing an unfortunate bumblebee under his foot in the process, and galloped for the top of the hill where Fox waited. Wildfire was already on her way there, though she stopped to squat and urinate. Even so, Nightjar was slow and therefore unable to overtake her, so she reached Fox and was already excitedly telling her about a recent discovery when the pudgy agouti pup drew up before the Alpha female.

"Mama," he greeted between affectionate giggles as he lapped at her chin. "Lookie, lookie, mama!" he said, eager for Fox's attention even though Wildfire's discovery was probably a lot cooler. "F'ower!" he said happily to inform her of what he had found, though surely the scent clung to him and she was already very well aware of what he'd been doing.

Going to go ahead and PP @Raven in here, just so Houkie knows!

"Oh did you now?" Fox said, licking Wifi's head. "You’ll have to tell me about it… after the story, of course!" Hopefully that would spark Dhole's curiosity enough that she would hold off on her own storytelling for now. Fox wanted to get things started right away... even though she was also keen to hear about what Wifi had managed to find.

Nightjar was the next to arrive, smelling so strongly of flowers Fox didn't have to guess where he'd been. Not only that, but a few petals still clung to his coat, giving him a rather amusing costume of sorts. "I see that!" Fox chuckled, plucking a few of the petals off with her teeth and spitting them out.

Fox peered around, searching for the last of the kids when Raven came trotting up. It didn't seem as though she had anything to share (at least not yet), but Fox greeted her with the same affection she had greeted the other two children. The mother didn't choose favorites... at least not yet.

"So who’s ready for a story?" Fox asked, once the commotion had come to a reasonable level.

She was bursting with excitement to tell her mother about her discovery, yet Nightjar joined them and started chirping about flowers. Rather than resent him for this, Wildfire blinked at her brother and jammed her nose against his ribs, inhaling deeply. He smelled quite lovely, really. Her black tail stirred and, for a moment, she forgot all about the badger den as she watched Fox pluck petals from her brother's coat. She tittered at the sight.

Raven came trotting onto the scene and that was when Fox mentioned stories. The middle child's golden eyes widened. "Me, me!" she replied enthusiastically, promptly plopping to her haunches to indicate her readiness. She then slid forward onto her belly. "I like stories!" she shared, craning her neck to gaze up at Fox. Her mother had her undivided attention for the moment... at least until she remembered the badger den.

The petals that peppered his coat drew the attention of not only Fox, but also Wildfire, who jabbed him in the ribs with her snout. He instinctively flinched away and giggled out a, "stoppit, tha' tickles!" just as Raven was arriving. Fearing that she would get in on the game as well, Nightjar flinched back toward Wildfire, defying logic entirely, but before he could realize his mistake, Fox managed to capture his attention with a question. It was the sort of question that demanded an answer, which his fiery sister supplied instantly.

Not one to be outdone (not like he felt that way, anyway), Nightjar chimed in with a repetition of Wildfire's, "me me me!" and settled himself alongside her. He even flung one forearm over her shoulders in a brotherly sort of way. "Me too!" he agreed with her promptly, his bright blue-silver eyes fixed intently on his mother's face.

All three of the children clamored around her, very ready to hear the story that she had quasi-promised them. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, happy to have such wonderful kids. They really were awesome little firebirds. "Okay, okay, settle down now!" she said, her voice raising above their little ones. "I want to tell you a story about how wolves came to be." It was a big subject, of course, and Fox could really only relay the story she'd heard from her own parents. It was full of nonsensical things, but kids tended to soak that stuff up. Truth be told, Fox had no idea how the world had come to be. She was just happy to be alive in it.

"Once upon a time," she began, in typical fairytale fashion, "there were no wolves at all, the world was dark, and nothing moved. It was quiet, peaceful, but also pretty dang boring. One day, the sun lit up the world. It's said that one of the stars in the night sky finally grew up and got bigger and brighter than all his siblings. Once that happened, the sun was sad that the earth was so quiet. He felt alone, so he made his friend, the moon. They got in a big fight one day, so now they never like being around each other. The sun was still sad that he didn't have anybody to keep him company, and that's when he put wolves on the earth. They got hungry, so he gave them prey to eat. They got thirsty, so he gave them water to drink. They needed shelter, so he gave them trees to go beneath during the rain."

The matriarch paused, letting the story sink in and to see if they had any quips about the story.

When Nightjar slung his arm over her shoulder, she smiled sideways at him. Raven settled on her other side, so Wildfire leaned forward to touch her nose to her sister's sooty cheek. Then six pairs of bright eyes lifted when Fox began with the line, "Once upon a time..."

The Alpha female spoke of the sun, the moon, the stars. The tale culminated in an argument between the sun and the moon. Wildfire's ears slipped backward and she glanced upward, as if expecting to see the two astral forces dueling in the sky overhead. Of course, the moon was nowhere in sight and the sun was so bright that she had to squint and look away, back toward Fox.

In spite of its intolerable brightness, the sun sounded like a good guy. Did that make the moon a bad guy? Wildfire liked to gaze at it and the stars at night. Whose side would she take? Evidently, she had been put here to be the sun's buddy, not the moon's. Still, the small child felt torn... until she realized that she almost never saw the sun and moon out at the same time. So maybe she could be friends with them both and they wouldn't even know about each other.

Before Wildfire could delve any deeper into her internal conflict, Raven sneezed, scattering the red pup's thoughts and causing the redhead to loudly shush her sister, eyes once more settling on Fox's face. Was there more to the story?

Nightjar listened raptly and did not understand. He was nothing like his Naturalist sister and had spent exactly zero minutes of his life giving a hoot about the sun or the moon. He barely even noticed them, so earthly was he. Wondering about the stars and the secrets of the universe suited his sisters, who both boasted more intelligence than he. So while Fox's story was riveting, it held nothing of value for Nightjar, who simply didn't care how wolves came to be.

That said, he couldn't help asking, "why wolves?" It was probably the smartest question that Nightjar would ever ask in his life, or at least the most thought out. He knew from stories that wolves were not supreme beasts. Mountain lions rivaled them and bears could best them. Even an unruly moose could best a wolf. Why would the sun choose intermediate beasts rather than the greatest of beasts, and why would the sun place other predators on the earth to limit and compete with his creations? That was sheer folly.

Anyway, whatever the reason was, Nightjar was glad to be alive. The sun and moon may have made him, as Fox (sort of) claimed, but they were not his friends and he didn't care about them and would continue to not care about them, because he couldn't fight them, nor feel them as he could feel another wolf beside him, nor converse with them, hunt with them, or train with them.

Last round! Thank you guys for the thread. ^__^

Perhaps Nightjar's question would have provoked thought in a more intelligent wolf. Fox simply shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe they thought we were amusing." She honestly didn't know if bears and cougars had come before or after wolves. Their story was not one that she'd been told. The story was obviously for and about wolves, and gave no mind to the other creatures of the world. Wildfire and Raven remained silent, either still taking the story in or not sure if they were supposed to say anything more.

There were other stories she planned to tell them when they were a bit older. This one was a simple one compared to the others, and far less personal. Fox wanted to tell them of their parents' origins, something she thought was rather important for them to know. Her own family was rooted in tradition, and while she didn't expect them to carry on every family practice, she hoped they'd carry on a few.

"Nightjar, did you want to bring a flower to the badger den?" she asked. They could both see the flowers and the badger den all in one go. To Raven, Fox gave the girl a small wink, knowing that she'd find something along the way to pique the interest of every member of the group.

I have a solo cup full of animal crackers, RAH! #adulting

All thoughts pertaining to her inner conflict and the story altogether flew right out the window when Fox said two magical words: badger den. "Badger den!" she cried, remembering how much she had been bursting to share her discovery with her brother and sister. "Hey...!" she added, shooting her mother a quizzical look. She had come here to tell her family about the find, so how did her mother already know about it?

Wildfire quickly accepted it as just another one of her mother's powers as an adult and queen of the caldera. She jumped to her feet, practically knocking Raven over in her enthusiasm. "It's mine!" she declared exuberantly as she began to bound away toward the den. There was no malice in her tone. She would be happy to share it with them, she just wanted to make sure they understood it belonged to her. She was the Naturalist of the bunch, after all.

Revived because I had wanted to make a last reply for EXP eligibility and didn't have the chance to.

His mother didn't know the answer. That was okay with Nightjar, who had already forgotten the question and didn't really care anyway. Whatever the origin story was, it was certainly more complex than just wolves appearing. Bears and cougars and elk and geese and mice had come about somehow, too. The specifics weren't terribly important to the youngster.

When Fox mentioned bringing a flower to the badger den, he was up on his feet and off running before he could even hear Wildfire's reminder that it belonged to her. He preferred open spaces anyway. By the time he plucked a long-stemmed yellow flower from his favourite flower patch and returned to his family, they were halfway to the badger den. He sped up when Raven called out for their attention, eager to see whatever his sister had discovered, but all the while he kept the flower clutched tightly between his teeth.