Phoenix Maplewood daddy

Daddy hadn't come around in a while. Usually he wanted to play, teach them a new game. . .but he had been conspicuously absent. And unlike the adults, Timberlake was working under the assumption that Shale would simply stroll back into the forest one morning, smiling and happy. His loving, kind daddy. 

The boy stared forlornly out at the plains, sitting at the edge of the forest. The dreadful heat had finally abated, the smoke cleared. But still no Daddy. 

Was he mad at Timberlake for running away? Was he still out there looking for him? He thought for a moment of venturing out into the charred hills, undergoing a search himself. But how mad would Dawn and Adi be at him, if he left again? What if he got lost--again!!--in the process?

The brown pup flopped down and rested his chin on his paws with a ragged sigh. 

Why was everything so different, all of a sudden?

Her trip out of the territory had left her whole leg feeling weak and unusually tender. Her leg didn't seem to be broken, but whatever was wrong with it didn't seem to want to heal in a hurry. Alya was being more cautious than ever, which when she moved at a snail's pace as she made her daily trek toward the stream. Maybe she should just stay closer or something. It would just be a pain to move camps. She had four rabbit skulls in her little nest, and she couldn't carry them all at once.

If she'd been going any more quickly, she might've tripped over the earthy boy that was lying in her pack, looking like nothing so much as a pile of overly emotional dirt. Great, thought Alya, another sad, urchin child.

This one, at least, did not appear to be physically damaged. "Oh, good. I've been needing a new pelt to line my bed," she said as she neared the crumpled figure, moving cautiously to sniff the younger wolf. As if she'd use something that color as a pillow.

The voice made him jump, and the wolf that it was attached to was even scarier. Like a big black shadow, following you when the sun went down, but with a cold, blue gaze. Timberlake clambered to his feet, bristling as he blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend her words.

"Noooooo!" he whined, shaking his head and staring up at her with huge eyes--almost entirely his father's amber by now. Then, he paused. Frowning, thinking. "Whassa pelt?" he asked, tilting his nose to one side like a curious bird.

Oh - it was a loud one. Pointedly, Alya did not draw parallel between the boy and herself as a child. She did, however, compare him disfavorably to his fellow urchin child. Kasatka had been annoying with her big, inquisitive eyes and what Alya took to be mocking silence, but at least she'd been quiet and a good listener.

"It's your fur," she replied, still looming over him. She was not currently trying to be scary, so she did not consider that she might be frightening to the boy. If she'd known, however, she would have been quite pleased with the reaction. For now, she merely took his bristling as the sort of insolence she expected from Morningside's vast army of dirty children. "Why are you pouting?" she asked him. "And don't tell me you aren't. I can smell pouting, you know. I can smell lies, too."

As if trying to link the word and the idea, he craned his neck, licking at his dark-cloaked shoulder. Timberlake looked back at her just in time for more words to fall out of her mouth, more words he didn't know. Pouting? he mouthed, watching her lips move. Lies, too, was unfamiliar. Timmy didn't really like words; he liked to play more than anything else!

He wondered if this woman would want to play. Did he even really feel like playing, right now?

"I dunno," he finally responded, unable to give any sort of substantive answer to her question. His brows drew together as he stared at her with curious eyes. "Who are you? Do you know where my Daddy is?"

What a dull child. Alya wondered who its parents were, to allow it to go around so filthy and despondent. (Or was that just the color of the boy's awful pelage?) "I don't know," she said bluntly, echoing him. "But I am Chaiyya - a guest in this land."

Dark blue eyes raked over the puppy once more. There was no use trying to menace or manipulate the thing, she decided. It was nothing more than a scrap of fur, probably left parentless by the recent fires. What a sad, simple life it must live. "What is your name?" she asked. "Tell me about your father. Perhaps I have seen him around."

But she knew she had not. She'd still met very few of the reclusive forest wolves.

Chaiyya. Weird name. Kinda cool, though? It definitely sounded like something out of a story Aditya would tell, and he cocked his head, even more curious, now. But she had questions for him, too, and he forgot himself for a long moment, stumbling over the answers.

"T-Tim--Timberlake," the boy stammered, thinking that his name was pretty awesome, too--if not as magical as hers. "Daddy is, uh, gray with brown eyes. He looks like Dawn and Sunny!" he added, thinking that she probably knew who Dawn and Sunny were, right?

Timberlake - it sounded like a Morningside sort of name, unlike Kasatka and Aditya. Was this Sunny and Dawn's younger brother, then? He had the same eyes, but so did Aditya, who (allegedly) shared no blood with any of the Morningsiders. What a puzzle. Alya decided to stop caring about his parentage. He'd failed to provide her with a name to go with the description, but she was not going to expend effort interrogating the boy.

"I haven't seen him," she said, seeing no reason to lie to the child. "But here - I will clean you up, so that he will not think you are a dust bunny when he returns."

She lowered her haunches (slowly, painfully) to the ground, and waited expectantly for Timberlake to approch her and consent to his bath. She guessed that a lot of the dirtiness she saw was just his fur color, but the urge to do something to exert control over the sinking ship she perceived to be the boy's life was too strong to ignore.

He let out a disappointed breath, sinking a little lower. Well, he guessed he couldn't blame her, right? Who knew where Daddy had gone? Still--he'd hoped that maybe since he'd never seen her before in his life, she'd know. Maybe she had even brought him back. But she hadn't.

No, instead she was trying to solicit him into a bath, and he groaned, closing his eyes with as much patience as he could muster. He hated baths, but Daddy had always told him to be polite and have them even when he didn't want to, and. . . Sigh. Head hanging, Timberlake trudged his way over, flopping down in front of her and looking mournfully up at the shadow woman.

"Okay, sure," he said, sounding for all the world like a man on his way to the gallows.

Alya tried to avoid brushing their fur together, not wanting to dirty her freshly groom coat with his sticky little boy grime. It became clear very quickly, however, that this was not something she would have to worry about.

"What the fuck," she huffed, a little laughter escaping her along with the breath. "You really are just brown, huh?" she asked, moving to clean the eye boogeys from his cheeks. He was looking better, though. A little more kempt and presentable, and actually quite handsome when he didn't look like a raggedy carcass.

"Hm," she mused, looking over her newest possession. "You'll do," she decided, sitting back on her haunches. "You may now choose an activity."

"Yup," Timberlake remarked, not really sure why she was surprised. He was brown, that was all. Well, he had a little bit of black, too. He certainly wasn't as interestingly-colored as his siblings, but that was okay. He blended in better this way; perfect to sneak up on unsuspecting victims like birds or Dawn's tail.

He sat reasonably still throughout the whole process but was relieved when she finally stopped. Then she asked him what--wait, what? "Activity?" he asked, looking confused. "Uhhhh. . .choose. . ." What was she talking about? This woman was weird.

"Wanna catch some bugs?" Tim offered tentatively, hoping that this was an adequate response to whatever she'd asked of him.

Bug-catching seemed an admirable sport for a wolf as small as him. Alya was reminded of a very young Cerberus's hunt for All Things Wiggly. They'd been precocious children. Timberlake did not see quite so hungry for adventure, but she was willing to indulge him all the same.

"Yes," she said succintly, glad that he'd chosen an activity she could keep up with. Bug-catching was not quite intensely physical as tag, Cave Monster, or Capture the Princess. "Whoever finds the biggest bug wins," she added, hoping a challege would erase the Sad Puppy aura that the the boy seemed to exude. Maybe she was projecting.

"Cool!" he replied, glad she was agreeable to the idea. Okay, hmmm. Where to begin? He shot off into the brush, nosing around. There was lots of noise, lots of bugs. But he had to find a BIG one. Otherwise, he'd lose the game, and let's be honest, Timberlake was a sore loser.

There was a loud buzzing nearby, and Timmy tracked it down after a few minutes of frantic searching. A dark blue one, with very thin wings. Wings so thin, he was afraid to break them. (Ah, what did he care? He was just going to eat it later anyway.) But still, he seized it gently in his mouth--

And it began to vibrate against his lips, causing him to giggle. He almost lost hold of it, but managed to carry on, returning to the spot where he'd left Chaiyya.

He stood, bouncing on his toes, a loud and angry cicada his quarry.

While Timberlake dashed off to wiggle through bushes and, basically, completely undo all of Alya's hard work, Alya headed off in the opposite direction and found a bright green katydid on the trunk of one of the maplewoods. She'd been planning to dig for one of the large grubs that she liked to eat sometimes, but this seemed like a much more interesting prize.

Snatching it off the trunk, she carried it back toward Timberlake and saw that he had been successful as well. Her tail wagged idly when she heard the buzzing of his cicada. "Put it here," she commanded as she smashed her katydid into the ground. It was not dead, but the impact stunned it enough that it did not leap away when it was released from her jaws.

His eyes widened as Chaiyya played her hand, pressing her insect into the ground. It was big--but was it as big as his? Triumphantly, he smashed the cicada gently against the ground, the buzzing stopping abruptly (oops) and a trickle of fluid oozing from its crushed abdomen (double oops). Still, it was markedly bigger than the catydid, and he let out a small whoop of triumph.

"I win! I win!" he gloated, dancing in place. After a few beats of celebration, he stopped and looked mournfully down at the now-dead insect. Darn. He'd kinda wanted to play with it more.

Ah, well. He gave a shrug of his juvenile-skinny shoulders and bent his head, devouring the cicada in a few hasty bites.

Mix rolled for result

Drat. Alya hated to lose, but she supposed the boy needed a win more than she did. "You may have mine as well," she told him, working hard not to sound begrudging about it. She mostly succeeded, but Timberlake would likely be able to deduce that she was not happy about having lost their little match.

"What else do you like?" she asked, shifting to lie on her side. Her leg was aching fiercely, but she ignored it for now. "Stories? Wrestling? Hide and go seek?" She hoped he liked the latter two, even though stories would be easier on her. They just weren't as fun as wrestling or sneaking.

He flashed her a luminous grin, and went to snap up the katydid, but then stopped short. "No, you should have it," he said, pushing it through the dirt toward her forepaws. "You're a. . .guest. Right?" He'd heard the word before, and knew it to be associated with good things. Shouldn't guests get good things? "Besides, you're pretty and I like you," Timmy added, blinking shyly at her.

It didn't take him long to decide the next order of business, once Alya had determined whether or not to eat the bug. "Wrestling!" he hollered, and lunged at her in a flurry of black-brown, determined to bowl her over (despite their comical size difference).

"This is true," said Alya, her voice grave, "but you have vanquished me in a fair match. You are right to take your prize. My status as guest has no bearing on your victory."

Kindness, after all, got you nowhere. Later on, Alya might try to teach him about strategic mercy - but it seemed as though even this lesson might be a bit too much for the boy. Better just to leave it at that and hope he'd gain some measure of intelligence as he waged. (Alya took a moment to acknowledge that she was far too invested in this boy for having just met him, but then she looked at his cute little face and decided that someone had to be.)

"Do your worst, cur!" she taunted with a playful growl, attempting to bat him down with her forepaws. "I shall defeat thee with my mighty jaw!" And then Alya did her best to fit his whole head in her mouth.