Sun Mote Copse I want you to be part of that whole

An escapee!

At the break of dawn, the little sundrop had escaped the confines of the den. She later found out she wasn't as brave as she had been while planning her freedom, and now stood almost frozen outside of the entrance. The world was so big! She still didn't see in the clearest of images, but from what she could tell this place was humongous! No wonder Mother and Father were so big, being as tiny as Nellie here was scary. Her little head wobbled from left to right and shaky paws put her in reverse until her butt hit the edge of the entrance.

On his way to reaching that very important milestone of being 3 months old (and no more a baby, of course), Elfie in those brief absences of adult supervision had begun to expand his horizons and take solo wanders through the forest. He did not feel the least bit afraid, having been sheltered and surrounded by adults all his young life, and considered the realm of the Firebirds the extent of his world. 

He also had established himself as a leader among the puppies he lived with (a self-proclaimed king that no one else knew anything about) and with the knowledge that there were two other minions-to-be he had set out to investigate. And his search was neither long, nor took him very far, because he found one of the two babies soon enough. "Herrro!" he greeted the tiny puppy (which was a very good size, in Elfie's opinion, gave him advantage of being tall) and approached it confidently. "'am Elfie, who are you?"

In the distance, the great unknown, she saw someone. It approached her, making her nervous. Her ears still hadn't perked up yet and she was as good as deaf, but the other was clearly moving its mouth. Her head tipped in confusion, letting out a soft Awooo? in response, though she didn't notice she was making noise.

On the ground she saw their paws, and his were HUUGE. Not as big as Mother or The Other One, but much bigger than her annoying brother. Her butt came off the den as she reached out to sniff him, the only other sense she could rely on right now.

"Awoo - nice to meet yooooou!" Elfie returned, taking an occasion to show off the recent lesson in good manners and canine etiquette. If you wanted to let other's now, how cool you were, you had to start early. He lied down to be in the same level as this Awoo, outstretched his hind legs behind him comfortably, wagged his tail and craned his neck to have a good sniff of his minion-to-be. Her smell was different from his family's and she looked funny. Vaguely canine, but odd. "Are you a wolf too? 'cause you could be a fluffy frog, eh?" which, come to think of it, he could bring to Weejay to make her smile. She liked flowers and cute things and, though this was far from pretty, extra fluff would level everything out.

Cool wasn't the word that came to mind when Nellie looked at Elfie. Technically, no words came to mind because she didn't know any. She scrambled a bit closer to the den wall as he came to lie down with her. Only Mother, The Brown One and Auntie could do that and still look bigger than her. She tipped her head as he mouthed his food-hole again and both ears flopped with the movement.

"Hey, that tickles!" Elfie announced, when Awoo began to nibble (toothless as it was) at his nose, but he did not move away instantly, which was a mistake. He sneezed and sprang to his feet and retreated, rubbing his nose with his paw. "I am pretty sure that noses are not on the menu," he told little Mis Adorable. "Come - I will take you to Weej. She will love you!" he invited the toddler to follow him.

He tasted like wolf, that was all she needed to know really. She sniffled a bit too, recognizing her own pack scent without knowing it. Alright then, this other small being was somewhat trustworthy - she thought, just before he let out a sneeze that almost sent her flying. She spiked up and scrambled back to a safer spot, copying him. She tipped her little blonde head, then made a few steps towards him. He looked like he was going somewhere, and she refused to stay behind.

"That is a good girl!" Elfie praised the kid, went over to nuzzle her forehead (as his daddy used to do and grandparents too, when he had been particularly good boy), then retreated three steps away and waited for her to come. He somehow realized that this joke of a wolf was too awkward on her feet to be as fast as him. "Come along!" he encouraged her some more.

She huffed a soft sneeze as the strange boy nuzzled her blonde head. She'd been praised all her life already, so she knew she was a good girl. Unbeknownst to her, she was even the favourite of Mother because her pesky brother was such a troublemaker. She followed after the other kid, careful not to fall and in no particular hurry. She'd only just learned to use her feet, so it was no wonder that she wasn't running along.

Elfie adjusted his pace to the little girl's. He was afraid to lose her, if he hurried too much. She was so small compared to everything else (especially, since even for him tall grass and bushes seemed like impenetrable jungle). He chose the easiest paths, waited for her, when needed be, took notice of the surroundings, as he had seen adults do, and all in all he felt like a very important and responsible older brother to the girl. "You will like Weejay, you just wait and see!" he told her and smiled amiably at her. 

They came to a little creek, which Elfie confidently walked over, though the water in the deepest part reached up to his chest. Then he turned and looked at the girl and encouraged her further: "Come on! There is nothing to be afraid of!"

She'd never strayed this far from the safety of their den. She thought their little bed was big, thought the small bit of what she had seen of the copse was big, but it all paled in comparison to the vast woods they lived in. Rooo. She let out softly, an amazed little sound she was unaware of, when she "heard" water.

She watched her escort from a distance, paddling her feet on the ground with a soft peeping noise. She stuck her nose in first and, upon discovering it was cold, sprang back as her ears flopped with the movement. She plopped her little blonde butt on the ground and stared at Elfie with a distressed look on her face.

Elfie had not thought that crossing water would become a problem. While he waited for Awoo to be just as obedient as she had been all this time, he was looking in the distance and had already travelled the length of it. The inconvenience of the little, fluffy gift he was bringing to Weejay was the slow progress they made. But he could not hurry her too much, in case she flat out refused to go on. 

Which she did right now, when he checked on, how the lass was doing. "What happened?" he asked, crossing the creek and bumping his muzzle against the girl's shoulder. "You afraid of water?" 

Argllu... She gargled in response to her escort coming back for her. The water was simply too scary for someone so small and inexperienced. The cons greatly outweighed the pros of going into the water, and so she was convinced this wasn't the road they should take.

She got up and followed the edge of the water, hoping to find a way around it, almost forgetting she was with someone.

Elfie had not expected the kid to take an initiative of her own, but, since he himself was neither big enough or strong enough to take Nellie by the scruff and drag her over the creek, he followed. "Where is your mom?" he asked her after they had walked for a while and he realized that he had not seen any adult figure either by the den or in the vicinity. "Mine's not here, perhaps, yours is there as well," he mused, the concept of any form of afterlife foreigin to him.

Whatever Elfie was saying, Nellie didn't understand or even hear. The world was still as quiet as it always had been and she assumed it was supposed to be this way. She looked over her shoulder to see him following her, again flapping that food hole she only liked to put mommy's teats in. Bwa-bwa-bwa. She mimicked flapping her mouth too, but it didn't satisfy the hunger in her tiny tummy and the action was deemed useless. She suddenly halted, having forgotten what they were even doing out here.

Permission to PP Niamh from Jess. I will conclude this and we can have a new one.

Elfie would have eventually managed to take Nellie all the way to the place, where other puppies resided were it not for angry momma-bird @Niamh , who at one point swept out of nowhere, was relieved to find her daughter intact and scolded the hell out (that is a subjective point of view) of him. Some words he did not even understand and, when his cousin was well out of sight, he bolted back to seek comfort with his grandparents. It would be a long time before he would muster up courage to see his grand-uncle's children again.