Stavanger Bay 'Cause I'm a young man built to fall

Since his last exploration, Pheiros had stayed closer to the den, often preferring to sleep and play outside. Mom had been gone from the den for considerably longer than he was used to, as well as his brother and sister, and he was beginning to grow confused by the sudden absence of his family. Luckily, who he now knew as dad was never far, and the golden boy looked forward to the many times a day that he would get his regurgitated meal from his similarly-colored caretaker. @Sentinel had just been here not that long ago, and Pheiros knew it would be a little while before he returned. So, faced with a lot of free time, he inspected the area around the densite, searching for anything new or out of place. It was better than sitting around wondering what he had done to drive his family away. 

Light glinting off something partially buried in the ground caught his attention and, thankful for the distraction, he bounded over to investigate. Using his only mildly coordinated paws, he began to dig at the area until he uncovered a strange object. It wasn't like the round, hard things of varying sizes he often played with that dad had informed him were called rocks. This was different; it was smooth on one side and hollow on the other. He settled on the ground, holding the treasure between his front paws. The pup inspected it with his nose a little but decided it smelled pretty much the same as any of the rocks he had played with before. Whatever it was, it was clear that it also made a good chew toy, and he quickly went to work digging his little baby teeth into the hard surface.

AW! tag for reference

rannveig hadn't been oblivious to the new life in stormrift, he had just frankly avoided it. for some reason, really small children made him uncomfortable -- and up until they could walk and form opinions of their own besides too hot or too cold or hungies pls feed now, he wanted little to do with them.

well, the nuggets weren't little nuggets anymore. now they were like mini-wolves; cute and endearing with their limited vocabularly, but at least interesting to interact with.

he didn't really get how grown ass adults had fun interacting with children when they were in the potato phase. he had better interactions from a rock.

cutting across the bay at his usual cocksure swagger, rannveig slowed his gait as he approached elixir's den, catching sight of one of the said nuggets in the sand. it was playing with something and rannveig knew exactly what to do; a wild grin unfurled across his face as he pranced over to the babe... and with nimble teeth and a lound "YOINK," attempted to pluck the shell from the puppy's adoring grasp.

something something about taking shells from a baby, right?

He only glanced up at the unknown adult as he approached, more interested in chewing on the rock thing. He hadn't really met any other adults aside from his parents, so he hadn't yet decided how he felt about them. His dad was pretty awesome, but how could he be sure other grown-ups were just as awesome? He continued to chew as he toyed with the idea of entertaining this newcomer, but then his toy was gone, and he stared up at the man confusedly for a few seconds before getting to his feet. With only limited coordination, Pheiros darted over to the pale stranger on tiny golden paws. He emitted a tiny baby growl that sounded pretty intimidating to the boy but in reality, probably sounded pretty lame. When he reached the toy thief, he launched himself at his leg, aiming to latch on and "attack" him for stealing his prize. That was his rock thing, and he wouldn't let a stupid adult take it from him.

critical hit! rannveig downright giggled, the rock-shell-thing clutched successfully in his teeth as he pulled away. of course, he was not going to peel off at mach-speed just yet.. he had to be here, to witness the kid's reaction.

and what a reaction it was -- the stormy golden boy rose shakily to his limbs and whirled on rannveig righteously, a tremendous puppy-growl booming from his throat. his eyes screamed hey, that's mine! as he marched towards rannveig on stumpy legs, clamping down deservedly on rannveig's outstretched limb.

"EUAAGH!" rannveig bellowed, dramatically toppling to the ground like a freshly slain monster. this kid's teeth were sharp, and rannveig did his best to play the part of monster rightly murdered. as he fell, he did so delicately away from pheiros. around him a mushroom cloud of sand rose, and rannveig shut his eyes against the incoming hail. the shell tumbled from his mouth and for extra effect, rannveig's tongue shot out and flopped over his lower jaw.

ya did it, kid -- godzilla is dead. TAKE WHAT IS YOURS!

He must have been stronger than he realized because as soon as he sank his baby teeth into the thief's leg, he toppled over, emitting a defeated shout as he hit the ground. Pheiros chewed on his leg for a few seconds just to make sure, a few sneezes seizing his fluffy body as the sand fanned out around him, and then he bounded over to the discarded rock. The golden pup gave it a few sniffs and chewed tentatively at his returned prize before he grew bored; he decided he was way more interested in the knocked out man in the sand in front of him.

He walked over and gave the man's large shoulder a few sniffs, green eyes flicking to the thief's face to search for any signs of life. When he saw none, he promptly launched himself on top of the unconscious body, suddenly very interested in chewing on a pointy ear.

oh, how goliath fell! rannveig's body hit the ground with a loud thud, and he was artfully still.

pheiros did not seem too suspicious of rannveig's ruse, which rannveig kept up to the best of his abilities, refusing to open his eyes even as he heard the tyke crawl about him. there were a few light footsteps away; pheiros must have gone to claim what was rightfully his..

but then there was something cold touching rannveig's back in inquisitive sniffs; he had to kill the shudder that threatened to climb his spine at the unexpected contact. for a second things were silent, and rannveig knew it was the deceitful silence before the storm.

as anticipated, there was sudden impact on rannveig's shoulders as the cub crawled his body like a jungle gym. patiently still, rannveig opted to do nothing as pheiros mantled across his body, whimsically unaware that in two seconds, pheiros' teeth would sink into delicately soft ear skin.

GOTDDAM, it hurt -- rannveig nearly lost all composure. his jaws clenched in pain as he felt his poor ears become assailed -- it was truly a thespian's utter devotion to the act that kept rannveig from breaking his ruse, but if he just waited a few seconds longer...

It took some work, but he finally climbed the wolf mountain and bounded across his side, stopping when he reached his target and excitedly sinking his teeth in. He held the ear between his two front paws, intent on chewing for a while, but then his back paw slipped, and he fell on top of the sleeping wolf with a thud. He began to slide down and frantically pushed his rear feet against the mound to try and push himself back up to where he was. It was useless, though; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fight the pull of gravity.

When he landed on the ground, he wasted no time leaping back up and jumping up the larger wolf's back, each time snapping his teeth at the ear he could see, hoping to grab on with his jaws and use it as leverage to pull himself back up.

thank god the little pudgy piranha lost his balance; rannveig was just about to let out a quiet whimper for his poor ear when pheiros fell, victim to the rude guy everyone keeps referencing as 'gravity'.

he could feel pheiros struggle to climb back up, and for a few seconds longer rannveig remained still as the puppy jumped fruitlessly up, each time trying to reach rannveig's already ravaged ear. about the third jump, rannveig shot up from inanimated life with a groan, sand falling off of his form as he shifted upright like frankenstein. "RrrrrrraAAAH," the man roared, life pouring back into his "slain" body as he drunkenly tottered around, collapsing in a heap right in front of pheiros's face with the hopes of (gently) pinning the rambunctious pup to the ground.

His jumping was soon interrupted as the presumably slayed thief stood and roared at him. The sudden change startled the golden pup, and he froze in place, hackles raising as he watched the adult stagger around. When the man came crashing down in front of him, Pheiros tried to stumble back but was stopped by a weight across his body; he was pinned to the ground by a large grey paw and completely lacking the strength to pull himself free. 

He stopped struggling after a few seconds and stared at his captor, face angry and determined. With what he thought was a ferocious growl, he whipped his head around and began snapping his baby teeth at the paw holding him down, hoping to grasp on tightly to whatever toe he could reach.