Blacktail Deer Plateau The Weeds That Grow Inside of My Heart

Her large, black body was tense as she walked the borders. Her sharp, light green eyes scanned over what was once her land for what must have been the hundredth time. Maybe more. Every now and then, she would glance toward the mountain in the distance until it was behind her and she face the mountain on the backside of her land. No, not her land. His land.

She was more angry than anything. The betrayal. Convincing her that he'd do anything to get her and then tossing her aside once she bore his pups. He wouldn't even be Alpha right now if it weren't for me, she angrily thought as a small growl rose up in her throat.

My posting schedule is a bit sporadic lately, but hopefully you're okay with Saēna here even though I'm a bit tardy with posts lately.

She had spent a brief moment of kinship with Osprey Jr. a few days ago, but ever since Peregrine had returned to being a frequent visitor of the pups, Junior had gone right back to being the biggest bitch in the world, and Saēna had gone right back to being a massive cry-baby about it. It was amplified somewhat by the moods of the adults around her, who all seemed tense all the time lately, but mostly it was amplified by Saēna's growing need for everyone's attention. Today, it happened to be Hawkeye whose affection she craved.

Presently, she was sneaking through the undergrowth, having found a moment to escape Kisu's watch in the rendezvous site. She still thought he was nothing but a babysitter, and as she aged, her utmost respect for seemingly non-parental wolves began to deteriorate, though she still would have stopped if he caught her. Her nose was pressed to the ground, tightly bound to Hawkeye's passing scent on every leaf and bit of debris she passed by. The girl's darkening eyes lifted when suddenly she came out of the trees to see her large and burly adoptive mother padding along the invisible perimeter of the territory, although having never been this far, she didn't realize that.

“Ma!” she called, picking up her pace and flying clumsily after the pack Delta, whose lingering storm cloud was missed by the oblivious Saēna. “Foun' you!” she said through a sea of giggles, her rusty tail whipping to and fro frantically.

ooc: It's okay, as am I sometimes. Whatevs

Hawkeye was startled by Saēna's sudden appearance. With her sharp eyes, she quickly looked around for Kisu or Blue Willow, but found no one. She looked down at the fluffy white girl and nudged her affectionately with her nose.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself? Are you playing hooky today?" Her voice was stern but playful. Hawkeye wondered how she had sneaked away and found her this far from the others.

Try as she might to stand still when Hawkeye turned to her, the cub danced fervently in place, stopping only long enough to receive affection and return it in the form of a few subservient chin licks. Unbeknownst to Saēna, she was not the first pup to escape the rendezvous site without an adult's consent, and hadn't gone the furthest by a long shot, although she believed she was the only “bad girl” who broke the rules.

“Ma, wha's hooooo-keeeey?” she asked with her little nose scrunching up and her brows furrowing at how weird the word sounded. She picked up new words keenly, repeating them endlessly for sometimes days on end just because they sounded interesting. This word, sadly, would be no different. She would butcher the context countless times, but that was entirely beyond the point, because she needed to know what it meant no matter how quickly she would forget.

hahahaha Hawkeye got her hooked on "hooky" xD

Hawkeye froze for a moment, watching Saēna as she scrunched her face. She looked just like Pied in that moment, save for the rust-colored markings that she had definitely gotten from her father. The dark female briefly wondered how different things would be if her sister was still around.

"Hook-ee," she sounded it out slow, "is when you leave somewhere without an excuse." Hawkeye suddenly realized that she was trying to explain something to a puppy that probably only had things such as eating, playing, and pooping on their minds 24/7.

She herself had never wondered what life would be like if her mother was still alive, primarily because she believed with all her heart that Hawkeye was her mother. Not even a niggling doubt had put itself in her mind that her true parents were Hawkeye and Peregrine, and nobody had ever told her otherwise. Perhaps they never would tell her, and then only becoming a teenager and realizing she was the weirdest looking pup in her "litter" might clue her in, though that was doubtful as well.

“Has an essscoooos,” Saēna purled, though in reality she didn't really know what an excuse was. As though to emphasize the seriousness of her previous shout, the girl waved her tail to and fro and belted out another, “FOUN YOU!” like it was the best excuse in the whole wide world.

Hawkeye smiled at Kisu's adorable little girl. She moved forward and nuzzled Saēna. It was good to feel like at least someone wanted her around, even if it was a puppy. Remembering the words that the rust and white female had just spoke, Hawkeye pulled her head back and grinned. "Do you want to play a game? I call it HIDE and SEEK." Hawkeye emphasized the words "hide" and "seek" for Saēna.

"What I'll do is HIDE, and you come find me. Or you can HIDE and I'll come find YOU!" Hawkeye nuzzled and blew on Saēna's belly, hoping to get her excited about the game while throwing herself into a giggle fit.

Hawkeye proposed a game. Like any regular puppy, Saēna was wholly incapable of turning down play time, and so she broadly grinned and enthusiastically chirruped an agreement. Hawkeye proceeded to explain the game, which she only half comprehended. The idea was simple enough that the puppy grasped it.

However, there was no sense of timing in Saēna's world. “You hide!” she declared, and then proceeded to openly stare at her mother, having not realized that she was supposed to close her eyes (no peeking!) and count to ten.

Hawkeye stared at the girl who looked up at her with bright eyes a moment, then mentally smacked herself. She figured the girl wouldn't know that her foster mother was an idiot who forgot one of the critical rules: "Okay, Saēna, now you turn around and count to TEN [or after a little while since I am not sure if you can count yet]. Then you turn around and try to find me!" Hawkeye had played this game many a times with her big brother, but he made things difficult and made her use her nose and her hearing — ironic since now she was using her eyesight and had little hearing.

Hope you don't mind me fading out. This is old, isn't very relevant anymore, and my inspiration for old Saēna threads is nonexistent. We can have a newer one soon, hopefully!

Saēna was quick to oblige her mother. She was an obedient child, the polar opposite of Hawkeye's biological daughter. She had turned as quickly as the former Alpha mentioned it and was already counting aloud. “One,” she said, presuming that her mother had already bounded off to hide. “Twoooo,” she crooned, reminding herself that peeking wasn't allowed. “Onety, twoty... Ten!” Then the cub whirled around and ran off in search of Hawkeye who, despite no doubt hiding in a visible enough location for her patchy daughter to find her, still took Saēna some time to locate.

They continued playing this game back and forth for a while until Saēna finally became tired, and then she was brought back to the rendezvous site to rest.