Golden Glade bad stuff happens in the bathroom

"Oh, come on, Sionnach," Rannoch teased, his voice quiet. "It's too nice of a day to stay inside and sulk! Let's go and explore!" Liffey, Aengus, Tiarnach, and Eshe were all napping, giving them the opportunity for some needed one-on-one time. 

Rannoch stood over his youngest and prodded her with an outstretched paw. "Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"  he implored.

since being rudely uprooted, sionnach had responded the way an orchid would to unkind repotting; she went stiff, inverted, and positively withered. any attempts at play was met with a fractious growl, followed by her rudely storming off elsewhere. 

yet today the sun broke across the stormy horizons of the child’s demeanor; it marked several days (I think but really who knows) since they had left, and like any child resistant to change, sionnach eventually adjusted. she just did so begrudgingly.

extracted from the den, sionnach sized up her father with an unholy squint. was he gonna make her move again if she left? part of her wanted to follow after her father, but the other part of her still resented being carried over hill and yon, and that was the part that won out as sionnach abruptly placed her rump on the ground in mcsquinty refusal.

Sionnach replied with her actions instead of her words, and Rannoch watched as her refusal played out. "Ah," he replied, sizing her up with a quaint nod. "I see," Rannoch quirked a brow; perhaps there was another way he could entice her to explore. 

"Well since it looks like you're not in the mood for a good time, I'm going to go out and explore our new home," he elaborated. "I was going to splash around in the river, look for monsters, and maybe—just maybe—go and patrol on the borders." Rannoch had not allowed the children to go that far yet, but it was something he'd allow if Sionnach behaved. 

He shrugged, feigning disappointment. "It's going to pretty lonely if I do all of that alone," he said with a sigh.

well, all that baiting definitely got sionnach’s attention. she kept her gaze adverted and little nose pointed skyward, showing she was NOT INTERESTED — but it was a blatant, outright lie. 

she waited until her father had padded off before her curiosity and need to be included got the best of her. WAITFORME! the stumpy girl commanded, gallumphing after her dad at an almost frantic gallop.

Rannoch's walked away slowly, his paws dragging through the grass to further dramatize his plight. He did not make it far before Sionnach piped up and followed along, and when he heard her voice, he stopped, looked over his shoulder, and watched her swift approach. 

"I'm glad you want to come along, sweetie," Rannoch praised once she made it to his side. He leaned over and kissed her forehead before speaking again. "What do you want to do first? Splash? Monsters? Borders?"

damn skippy rannoch waits up for her. sionnach strode up to her father with all the self-possessive energy of serabi, her haughty head held high and eyes narrowed as if to imply she was only here of her own good will.. not because she wanted to be.

but secretly, she wanted to be.

sionnach begrudgingly accepted her father's gentle kiss, her long ears flattening and then rising almost immediately after rannoch's muzzle lifted. upon being prompted which thing sionnach wanted to investigate first, the girl's tail flung over her round hips and she stood tall and blurted: "MONSTERS!!"

Monsters—Rannoch was relieved that she hadn't chosen the borders. "Good choice," he praised with a wave of his tail. "I heard that there were some monsters to the east," he motioned in the proposed direction with his muzzle. Before Rannoch pressed forward, he turned to his daughter, his expression suddenly serious. 

"Now, we have to be very quiet when we're hunting these guys. They have very good ears can hear from very far away." He craned his head back, his head tilting. "Do you understand?"

there were a lot of words that were not in sionnach’s vernacular. among them, such terms as ‘east’ and ‘quiet’. both words she only had a passing familiarity with (and eventually in ‘quiet’s’ case, would develop an outright disdain for..). sionnach looked at her father levelly, her little face determined. she would hunt ALL the monsters in this ‘east’ place, but no promises about being quiet. 

drawn to a stop, sionnach looked to the serious face of her father. okay, quiet. She acquiesced, having no intention of actually being ‘quiet’.

Rannoch nodded once Sionnach agreed; he was naive and trusted that she would be quiet. With the agreement between them, Rannoch took the lead and directed them in the eastward. In their travels, he would stop abruptly and divert her attention to the surrounding woods, fabricating a sense of alarm. When they decided that there weren't any monsters, they'd continue.

Eventually, their path crossed with a clearing, and in the middle laid a fallen maple tree, and it was enormous compared to the surrounding trees. The branches that weren't crushed in the collapse reached for the sky, intertwining with one another. Rannoch paused and looked to Sionnach. 

"That might be a fun tree to play on," he ventured; it looks sturdy, and he trusted that she wouldn't have a problem climbing it.

sionnach stalked after her father obediently, her motions and care to be quiet taken to new extremes. her steps were exaggerated, her alert ears constantly moving — when her father stopped she would stand up straight and arch her back like a startled kitten, tail high and ears pressed forward. every time it was a false alarm, but that did not stop sionnach from reacting overzealously to each new stimuli. 

they came at last to a tangle of trees and vines thick as cable wires. sionnach’s expression was one of wonder as she looked over the verdant oasis, her gaze eventually falling on a felled tree doused in a carpet of moss. WAOW-WEE! sionnach chirped excitedly, already making a mad dash for the tree and scrambling to get on top of it.

Sionnach exhibited a sense of excitement that Rannoch had not seen from her in some time. He smiled, genuinely feeling happy for the first time since the move, and chased after her. 

"I think the monsters got to the tree!" Rannoch exclaimed mid-stride.

the felled tree was a mighty opponent for sionnach; its coarse bark was difficult to scrabble over, but eventually sionnach emerged on top victorious. she strutted up and down the rough plank, her tail held proud. turning around in time to hear rannoch’s declaration of the monster being on the tree, sionnach rallied with a mighty war-cry and scampered down the bough. 

EAAUUUAAGGGHH! she roared, her tiny voice a din that echoed down the glade. at the end of the tree’s collapse was a thick bush that draped over its captor— sionnach pounced upon it and started ruthlessly chewing the stem.

Sionnach did not reply. Instead, her focus went to the tree, and she made quick work of climbing it. Once Rannoch was alongside the tree, he watched his daughter launch herself to assault the unsuspecting bough. 

He smiled, relishing in her lifted spirits. "You get that tree, sweetie!" he cheered, not realizing that she might have suspected her target was the monster. "Show 'em whose boss!"

sionnach felt on top of the world straddling this tree and its attacker; she tugged and growled wholesomely, while her father encouraged her onwards. funny thing about perspectives; sionnach felt like she was thousands of feet above the ground, yet Rannoch was nearly eye level with his havoc-wreaking pups. 

after a fee hearty shakes the stem snapped and sionnach was sent was sent tumbling backwards. she landed just on the edge of the cylindrical bough, and started scrabbling wildly to stay on while her hind legs kicked and flailed uselessly in the air.

"Woah!" Rannoch exclaimed as Sionnach was sent tumbling backward. Moving quickly, he hurried to her side and attempted to give her the boost that she needed. Sionnach kicked him in the face a few times, but that did not deter his effort; he used his snout to hoist her onto the trunk and took a step back once he was confident that she was safe. 

"You did a good job, sweetie," Rannoch praised. "You okay?"

as expected, papa-serf came to the rescue. after a few precarious moments sionnach’s flailing hind legs found purchase in papa-noch’s face. unrepentant, sionnach hoisted herself back on top of the log and puffed her tiny chest. success!! of course she was okay! she had just mastered the log and now was surveying her kingdom with a proud and knowing eye. 

yusss, the girl chirruped in response, sitting contently on her haunches as she surveyed their new realm.

Rannoch breathed a sigh of relief. Sionnach was okay, and a portion burdens lifted from his heart. Rannoch moved around the tree and stood, draping his forelimbs over the formidable treetrunk. They remained in place for some time, surveying their new home with a sense of pride. 

The day aged, and in time, Rannoch felt that it was time for them to return to the family den. "Let's go home," he suggested. The proposal was met with some pushback, and Rannoch decided, "If you're good, we'll come back tomorrow." Sionnach obliged under those conditions, but she managed to get in the last word. 

With a new place to have fun discovered, Rannoch and Sionnach returned to the family den and shared their discovery; he was confident that a considerable amount the family's time would be spent at the landmark.