Lost Creek Hollow Immaculate

I am going to post this before I forget and more time passes and I miss another majorish milestone, haha.  ASSUMPTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE, LEMME KNOW IF YOU WANT EDITS.  This thread is semi-AW -- depending on who your char is, they might not be particularly welcome. XD

Over the past handful of days the trio had gotten much better at wielding their limbs, and keeping them cooped up had required acting as a roadblock for much of the day -- which at least for Treason wasn't too hard, it wasn't like she was particularly small, even if she didn't look quite as physically impressive as she had three months back.  Being on limited activity for a month and a half or whatever hadn't exactly helped her keep up muscular fitness to the same degree previously.  But with the pups more mobile, she could start working on that again, and that would mean finally letting them start to see the world outside the den.  Previously, it was simply not allowed, and escapees were quickly retrieved before they made much progress.

She wasn't going to rush it.  She'd told @Terance she'd let them have a bit of freedom towards midday once the sun had warmed things up, so if he wanted to be there, he could show up.  Maybe bribe them with some more solid food if necessary, but somehow she doubted @Jet (or even Ash) would be as much as a problem as Warlock.  He'd probably come up eventually.  So while the trio was tussling about (with a fair amount of uncoordinated flailing about) on their own, Treason got up from her spot blocking the tunnel and headed up to the surface, stretching and enjoying the cool air for a moment before turning, sitting down, and peering expectantly down the tunnel to see if they'd noticed.  If outside was too scary, well, she'd just enjoy being not in a hole in the ground for a while.

Jet was growling under her breath and muttering nonsense to herself as her unsteady stubby paws dug uneven furrows in the dirt of the floor. Her senses had been growing keener by the day, and she had watched in fascination as the play of light repeatedly changed, enchanting sunbeams reaching long warm fingers in past the entryway and then shyly receding again before disappearing each night. Her increasingly sharp nose was catching an overwhelming bouquet of scents wafting in from the outdoors, a dazzling rainbow smorgasboard she couldn't yet put a name or picture with. Her upsprung ears too were growing keener and entranced by the things they were hearing not just in the damp echoing earthy enclosure that formed the confines of her world but in the great beyond from which all the really fascinating and mysterious noises emanated. With every new snap or whoosh or twitter or clang the perky black triangles would eagerly swivel to catch every nuance: what was that? And that?! And ooh boy how about that?!

But she was adamantly prevented from investigating any of it! Mother was such a spoilsport, and neither whines nor innumerable pokes nor beseeching looks from baby blue peepers seemed to budge her one bit. Jet thus slumped sulkily in the middle of the den and moodily relandscaped small patches, smudging her paws brown and kicking up dust where she could. Just now the dug-in tiny black claws on her formerly-white paw snagged on a luckless root, which with a much louder puppy growl she ferociously tipped forward and attacked with her itchy newfound teeth, as if that root was the reason she was stuck here in this tiny stupid den where nothing ever interesting happened and hardly anyone visited and all the wonderful smells/sounds/glimpses only stayed long enough to taunt her before fleeing, and even her tormenting of her brothers was growing boring. ...Except as she wrestled with the fraying rootstub it gradually dawned upon her that the light had changed again quite suddenly, and the most important scent that was so thickly, smotheringly familiar to her world had rather suddenly diminished. Jet turned her head—awkwardly since she was still holding the rootlet, and it in turn kept her skull tethered near the floor—and saw that the entryway where the great immovable black and white sphinx that was Mother always lay, now all of a sudden was sitting there wide open.

Jet spat her shredded rootlet out in record time and hightailed it for the exit, not even looking to see which brother it was she had just shoved aside in her excitement. While they might be some of her only playthings right now they were nothing more than speedbumps. Jet stumbled several times in her jittery haste but inevitably made it up out of the tunnel and into the blinding sunshine at last, where she tripped over her own feet one final time before stopping dead with her hindlegs still crossed and half toppled-over atop each other. She planted her forefeet akimbo and gawked at the wide world all around her with a tiny buzzing whine of excitement, sun-dazzled eyes wide with delight. Now that she was outside, outside at last! she found the sudden array of choices before her paralyzingly overwhelming. (Though that didn't manage to stop her irrepressible black comma of a tail from lashing her legs frenetically in excitement.) What to see, what to do, what to sniff and poke and taste first?! She gave voice to her dilemma of indecision: Hwwaaaaahh...eep! and then suddenly lunged in one direction completely at random. Forgetting her legs were still entangled however, she didn't get very far. Jet did a sudden faceplant. Immediately she wriggled and struggled her way up and lurched forth on a different vector, not really caring so much where she was going or what she blundered into so long as it was someplace Not the Den and something more interesting than her immediate family who'd been her only real company for ages and ages.

stumbles in 4 hours late 

terance made sure to set an alarm for the occasion, 15 minutes early so he could show up on time. sure enough, terance arrived onto to watch little jet faceplant directly into the ground. he gave a quick "oof," as he watched, but jet rebounded quick as ever -- not that this surprised him. he watched as the pup flew from the den, uncoordinated but certainly rowdy, off to wherever it was she was going. anywhere but here, it looked like. terance didn't expect she'd make it far -- especially not with the rabbit dangling from his jaws... a good, pup sized snack, he reckoned. if necessary. 

he kept an eye on her as he made for treason, dropping the meat at her feet. "looking good," he purled before pressing his forehead to her cheek, ruffling up the fur a bit. he gave her a quick lick and then sat upright beside her, ears flicked forward as his attention turned back to the den, just in time to see a little grey head peer from the opening.

okay, listen. 

i can't argue that this is the most annoying child to be conceived into the teekon wilds -- one because i play tegan and two because i don't think titmouse stopped screeching until he turned one. but i'd argue this snarky boy a close second.

whatever kink his mother had about biting was absolutely passed down, swimming around in the gene pool. ash bit everything. your foot. your leg. your tail. your ear. your nose. your cheek. your neck. he'd bite that leaf, or that flower, or that butterfly, or that rock. he'd sink those god damn good for nothing razor sharp baby teeth into anything he could fit his yap around, and going off how big that thing was, a lot of things could fit in there. 

ash was bitey, loud, and if he could speak i bet he'd spew a lot of bullshit too. one day he'd channel that into something seriously dangerous that would make treason seriously proud. but right now it was mostly just annoying. at least, to terance, can't speak on behalf of the rest of the crew. 

ash was busy mocking a piece of fur somewhere back in the corner of the den, ignoring jet as she dug (or whatever) and instead yipping and yapping and laying mostly army-crawl style with the occasional lift-up like he was trying to do the scorpion or something. not very coordinated, again, very annoying. but when the snuffling behind him went silent, and the room brightened up a bit, ding-dong was swung for a loop, and turned around clumsily. ah yes. time for a jail break.

well, actually, if he was thinking anything it wasn't that. he was more or less just enticed by bright light and his mama's scent, which went thattaway, so he tottered after it. he had little to be afraid of in this world, after all, he could best it all just by biting it, so he waddled right out of that den and stood a few steps out into the open, squinting and staring. his nose was lifted and he sniffed wildly until his bright baby-blues noted his mother and father. and then, the rabbit. uninterested in jet (who was actually making a break for it) ash marched (tripping a number of times) of times right up to his father and began to nip at his paws, growling an unimpressive growl the whole way.

It took him a moment to realize everyone was leaving.  He'd been starting to fall asleep against the back of the den, and in fact it was the lack of noise that woke him rather than the presence of it.  It was quiet... Too quiet.  Yawning, he looked around at the emptiness.  Um.  Wait.

He jumped to his feet and almost landed on his face as he tried to run after them, barely saving it -- not that anyone probably saw.  Scamper scamper scamper, no wait that was too fast.  He slowed down as the outside world started to come into focus.  Hood froze at the entrance, whining.  Was he supposed to go out there?  It was big and he wasn't.  Only a small portion of the sights and smells made their way into the den, so it was a little bit of information overload for the poor kid.

Aha, there he was.  Right on time, and with lunch I see, she said, nuzzling Terance back with a wag of her tail and a faint smile.  To say she regarded him warmly might be a a bit over the top because her standard expression was probably closer being a cold block of metal, but she certainly appreciated all he'd done thus far for their young family -- especially since she'd planned and been ready to do it all alone if needed before things took the turns they did.  Hope you're ready for this lot to be trouble.  It was much easier to keep them contained in the closeness of the den -- it was intimate and safe, but damn going outside and having room to stretch was nice.

If there wasn't the fact this was almost certainly going to be chaos, she thought it might almost be nice to just curl up with Terance and watch the trio explore, but since the area wasn't exactly fenced, Jet's straight line off to nowhere seemed like it meant things weren't going to go so smoothly.  Treason woofed, trying to summon her daughter back, which probably had a higher chance of working than her actually talking, but hey, she was gonna do that too, Jet.  Come back. Treason didn't sound pissed or anything, mostly just attempting to nicely convince her.  As unlikely as it was.  A look to Terance like, 'Are we gonna have to go fetch that kid?' but at least pups at this age weren't exactly the fastest things around.

The problem with three was that there was one more of the little demons than there were of the adults.  Ash was a pointy-mouthed menace, and it was probably unfortunate for Terance that he was the one who was getting the chomps for now.  Treason took the moment to reach down to the rabbit and start to tear into it, woofing again at Jet, hoping the combination of the call and smell of the blood might draw her back -- if not, she'd have to be retrieved in a moment.  They'd been big enough for small amounts of meat for a while now, but this would certainly be the freshest they'd had, even if Treason probably had to break it down into smaller pieces for them.  Honestly she was fully expecting to have Ash attached to her nose in about five seconds.   And that was when Hood finally appeared, and since her mouth was full at this instant, she opted to just wag her tail.  Yes, it was ok to come out.  He didn't seem so sure.

Jet's progress was temporarily arrested as the air skirled the fascinating scent of rabbit to her nose. Her wide blue eyes and then her head curvetted automatically around to follow it, and her body started to follow. She zeroed in with quivering nose on the fascinating bundle swingingly limply from Daddy's jaws, but he was already trotting swiftly straight back to Mother with it. And Jet did not want to go in that direction at all. She made a small, interrogative noise in her throat before bumbling into motion one again however, shoving her nose down into a tussock of grass in the opposite direction and inhaling deeply in an attempt to find something just as good of a smell or better than the one Terance was proffering. In the process, she inhaled one of the first dandelion seeds of the year, and spent another moment snorking and snortling and scraping exaggeratedly at her nose with first her paw and then—rolling belly-up in one swift flop of a graceless motion—with the ground itself. Row—shnerk—rowwr-ROW! she scolded the itinerant bit of plant matter as with an exaggeratedly toothy and aggravated expression she flailed ineptly at her nose with both paws to try and make sure it was dislodged and flung as far away as her stubby, clumsy little paws could manage.

When she at last managed to wallow back upright and take a few overdramatic noisy inhalations and exhalations without any further dandelion bits trying to freaking kill her, she took a few seconds to look around her and assess where the rest of the family was before she suddenly went charging off in yet another direction, this time in the direction of a hapless sapling, unfortunately for her. Jet banged her nose into the spindly yet unforgiving trunk, bounced off, and sat back with an offended YAWP. As she rocked back on her haunches she noticed that the original, rather worse-for-the-wear dandelion seed was actually impaled on the sharp black claws of her white forefoot. Not only not thrown far far away like she'd initially intended, now the beastly little thing was following her?! This offended Jet greatly, and she immediately started off on another series of contortions trying to get rid of the thing. After a minute she waved her paw demandingly in the direction of the nearest parent with a yell before she clumsily tried again to scrape the thing off on the stupid sapling's rough brown bark.

She growled with increasing vigor in a continuous low rumble at the bit of fluff. How dare this plant get in the way of her first real day of exploration! Oooh, she'd teach it better, yes she would—just as soon as she got the frelling thing off of her, agh! And if Mommy or Daddy didn't get there and shred the thing on her behalf first, that is. ('Cause she certainly wouldn't trust either of her useless brothers to exact revenge on her behalf. She'd yap right smartly at them, too, if either of them dared approach the little princess, here.)

ow, muttered terance as ash began to nip with razor sharp milk teeth as his paws. he lifted them back and forth as the pup nipped, frowning the whole time. he missed her initial statement, instead only hearing about fetching one of the other ones. he glanced up from ash to watch jet promptly freeze, inhale a dandelion seed, and then roll uncontrollably in an attempt to dislodge it. he raised his head entirely, now, beginning to ignore the chomping on his toes. this was far more interesting. but in a moment ash seemed to notice it was more exciting over there too, because the biting had stopped and soon a grey little tyke was waddling full speed towards his sister. terance glanced at treason, sort of desperately, to see if she was watching this shit -- but she seemed more focused on hood... who was quietly deciding at the den entrance if he should come out. no, buddy, safer in there terance wanted to tell him... i mean, look at the mess unfolding out here. but he mirrored treason anyway with an inviting wave of his tail... only to hear a loud screech from jet and ash -- it was ash, and it was a battle cry, before you worry. 

his head whipped around to look, but he only missed the tail end of ash launching himself onto his sister. without looking away, terance leaned towards treason. do you think the gods know we've brought these abominations into the world? or do you think they pity us?

whatever was going on around him, he didn't really know. honest. but what he DID know, what that jet was making an awful lot of racket -- much more interesting than his dad's feet. so when he heard to shuffling he glanced that way, pausing his munching. when it definitely was more interesting, he immediately started that way, full speed, which wasn't incredibly fast but still. just as he approached his sister, ash let out a loud RRROOOOAAAAWWWEEEEEEEE sound, which was maybe a potential howl, maybe a cry, i don't know. but it was obnoxious either way. and then he leapt onto his sister, ready to chomp anything.

As much as he didn't want to be left behind, Hood was totally not gonna go quite as far as his siblings.  Finally, he broke from the den entrance to toddle along after.  He'd shadow along behind them, bumbling about and stepping probably a bit too high to try and make sure he wasn't tripping over his own paws.  The epitome of elegance, obviously. 

He stood stiff-leggedly staring at his littermates before yapping at them a few times in a combination of joining in on the ruckus and EVERYONE IS MAKING NOISE SO HE SHALL TOO.  He couldn't see what the whole fuss was about, but as long as he wasn't the one being chewed on, he was ok with it.  The world was still a little too blurry to see what was up with the dandelion seeds and all that.

She took a piece of the rabbit and gulped it down for herself, but left the rest for when the adventure got boring and the children were ready to settle down.  She wasn't going to go about letting them get too far, they'd probably tucker themselves out soon enough.

There was no question that the trio was going to try their patience multiple times before they were old enough to care for themselves.  She smirked, leaning back against Terance as she followed his gaze. Heck, at least Jet had been stopped.  No more mischief for the short term.  Treason was okay with that.  Mm.  I think they're perfect little monsters -- spirited, mostly brave -- tame them a little and I'm sure they'll fool anyone. -- You're asking the wrong person on that anyway.  She whispered conspiratorially, They call my father Devil.  Which was part of the reason she gets referred to as the pale devil in narration instead of capital D.  But after after a quick glance to Terance and a quick raise of her eyebrows, her attention snapped back to the pups.  Because that was totally a normal thing to say.  But honestly, she was stifling her amusement just the same.

Settling down...? Hah! That sort of nonsensical behavior was for weaklings and cowards. And girls who weren’t being horrendously assaulted by their evil, terrible little brother (not that Jet herself was exactly galumphingly huge either, mind you).

Sharktooth brother Ash did have the courtesy to give her some warning, at least, before pouncing. And then her other brother Hood joined in on the earsplitting ruckus, too, which very much spoiled her own outraged entry as she yawped imperiously back at Ash to try and warn him off. The brattiest of brothers would not be dissuaded, though, of course, and then wrecked Jet’s subsequent attempt at noisemaking when he flew into her sternum and knocked the wind right out of her.

Ooooh, that did it! She would not be silenced or outdone, and especially not by her stinkin’ brothers, of all people! Jet swooped as full a breath as she possibly could into her lungs as Ash was attacking, and then went into full-on howling temper tantrum mode, in-between her attempts to first bite all of Ash’s toes in revenge, and then her determined swipe of the paw towards his head. Maybe she could get that goopy little bit of dandelion fluff lodged in his nose, or perhaps an eye—see how he liked that! Or at the very least maybe she could get it inside one of his ears. A girl could only hope.