Hideaway Strath you don't know the power of styrofoam.

With each passing day, Fig Newton was growing bigger both in his body and in his mind. He had reached that age where he was still cute and all, but the length and skinniness of his limbs didn't match the bigness of his paws or his head so he was adorable, but disproportionately so. Fortunately, Fig had no real concept of his physical attractiveness, so that was all good with him. He mostly just liked that he was getting bigger, and he liked it very much when the grown ups told him he'd be as big as his father any day now. That was a #lifegoal right there, let me tell you.

As for his mind, that too was expanding as each day he learned more and more about the world around him and the creatures he shared it with. He was, of course, still prone to the silly assumptions and mistakes that came with being young, naive and unlearned. The best example of which I can think of would be the very thing the young boy was setting out to do that day. And this particular tale starts, as always, with @Fennec.

"Fenny! Fennyyyyy! C'mon Fenny!!" Fig pestered his sister with a prod and a nudge and another nudge and a couple more prods. He leaped backwards after each touch, knowing that eventually she would wake up and start swatting at him for being such an annoying pest. More than likely, she would still land a punch because she always did. Blind she may be, but slow was he. "Fenny c'mon, I wanna go get mom and dad some coots!" he informed her eagerly, his tail wagging as he anticipated the overwhelming excitement he was about to experience from his sister at this most brilliant of ideas he had come up with.

Fennec definitely did wake up swinging.  She loved her and Fig's adventures and she knew he was waking her up for one, but also, she couldn't let him know she loved them.  Even though he should know because it was obvious - that wasn't how brothers worked.

She did roll to her paws with a wide yawn though.  Whatsa coot?  She asked, catching maybe a little of his undeniable enthusiasm.  

She didnt usually call Towhee mom because (kick me if I'm wrong) that wasn't what papa called her, but she didn't bat an eye when Fig did.  Even though she was learning more about the way to say things correctly, she still called her Weeya, just like as she grew she'd still call Fig 'Feeya'.  But only when she wanted to embarrass him in front of cute girls.

Fig shook his head to clear away her thwap. Unperturbed by the abuse, he charged right on with his eagerness to get started on this very important project. He did pause to frown at her as she questioned what it was they were looking for. How did she not know? Towhee and Phox were always talking about coots this and coots that and how they needed to do more cooting. Cooting was what they did now that they lived in the Strath! Cooting and border marking, anyway. Silly, silly Fenny!

"Coots, Fenny! Cooots!" he clarified eloquently, "Like Diggo an' Woo an' dem. Dey're Coots, an' we're gonna go get more!" He watched her hopefully, eager for her to catch on so that they could go do some cooting which sounds dirty the more I write it, but it's not a dirty thing.

It took Fenn a moment, but then she caught on.  'Diggo' was what did it.  Okayyy, but gotta be sneak. she said conspiratorially.  She didn't think they were quite allowed to go meet strangers on their own, or at least something about it sounded forbidden.  But she was very in, especially if Fig was coming.

Fennec hadn't exactly gotten comfortable in her new state, but she was slowly adjusting.  It helped a lot that Fig was never out of earshot, so now if she wanted to go somewhere, usually she just suggested and off they went.  This time it might have been his suggestion, but the prospect stood.  As long as she could hear her brother alongside she was a lot more confident.

It took her a minute, but Fig saw the look of comprehension dawning on his sister's face. His tail went to beating frantically back and forth as she agreed, though he nodded very seriously as she made her own suggestion. "Yeah, yeah we can be sneak," Fig agreed conspiratorially, then proceeded to not be subtle at all by shouting "C'mon!" and turning to scamper loudly away.

"Whurr d'you tink we find Coots?" he asked Fenn as they began to walk, falling easily into his typical role as the eyes for them both and making sure to guide-dog her safely along. He'd never actually seen his parents dig one of them up before. They just came back to the rendezvous site with one of them in tow and introduced them as new members of the pack.

Fig was extremely bad at sneaking, apparently, because he definitely wasn't being quiet.  Fennec heaved a childish sigh but was distracted from her disappointment in her brother's sneaking by a question.  It also pretty well distracted her from her own sneaking.  She listened carefully for any sign of the dreaded adults as she went though.  Hopefully she'd hear them in time for them to run or hide before they could get caught!

Ummm.  Ebrywhere.  That sounded right, if there was no specific place then they had to be all over! They had two just in the grove now so they couldn't be that hard to find outside it, right?  Gotsa hooooo forem.  The second word was a soft howl, high pitched in her child's voice.

Fig nodded along, finding Fennec's sagely advice to be very wise indeed. Them being everywhere definitely made it easier than them being no where (though them being in one specific place would've been preferred--not that this occurred to him). It meant they could literally go anywhere they wanted and they would still succeed. How awesome was that? They were going to be so good at this.

"Yeah! Lessgo close to da bodos and den we kin hoooow!" he suggested, doing just as his sister had with the word and giggling at the fun of it. He picked up his pace then after giving her a nudge, his excitement simply too much now to take it slow.

She felt his nudge and sensed his stride picking up, so she picked hers up as well.  It was a bit awkward but as always she knew she could trust him to account for her when he ran, and she took it for granted that her place alongside him would mean she wouldn't run into anything.  

His tone told her clearly how excited he was, and she felt herself growing more excited too.  Papa would be so glad when he found out they helped!  And so would Weeya.  Growing more confident, Fennec started to run, laughing as she bumped her brother back and tried to get Fig to run with her.

It seemed likely almost second nature now for Fig to remain conscious of Fenn's whereabouts as he moved. It was as though he had a gravitational pull to her--always darting close to show her the way when she went off course, slowing down when they got too far apart and springing ahead when he needed to shift her path away from some obstacle she couldn't see. He didn't even notice he did it. The path he saw ahead for himself simply included her. It couldn't not include her.

After a while, they eventually made their way to the borders of the territory. Fig slowed to a stop as they came within a couple dozen yards and stared out, feeling fiercely proud and excited to make their parents as utterly happy as he knew they were about to by finding them all the coots. "We did it! We founda bodos," he announced, bumping his shoulder against hers, "So less how an' den we kin get 'em." Simple as that, right?

There were so many smells here that it was a bit overwhelming.  Fennec had missed out on a lot of the border work that Fig had accompanied on (fake or otherwise), so she was surprised.  Smells, She said, wrinkling her little nose but smiling.  With all these wolf smells there had to be tons of coots out!

Ya howl n den come.  She listened intently for a moment, seeing if she heard anything around, but there was nothing save birdsong and her brother breathing next to her.  She picked up her little muzzle and howled loudly, a big C'mere! to anyone who might be listening.

Fig gave a conspiratorial nod when Fenn declared that it smelled here. It really did. It smelled like their parents and the strangers that had come to live with them. It smelled like other stuff too, though. Like plants and rocks and dirt and bugs and other animals. He was compelled to explore the area more and gather up as many of those smells as he could for inspection, but there were more important things to do. They needed to get some coots and make their parents proud.

He nodded and tossed his own head back when Fenn did, bellowing his howl out as loud and powerful as his little lungs could manage. It wasn't very much, but still mildly impressive considering how small he was. He howled and howled and howled until finally, he simply couldn't anymore. He dropped his muzzle, his jaws parted and panting, and looked at Fenn.

"You think dey heard us?" Fig asked eagerly. He looked out into the wilderness beyond the borders expectantly, trying to catch sight of one of the many, many coots that were surely on their way right now.

The pair spent a while howling for 'coots on the border, but eventually, the only wolf they managed to draw to them was their own father, who smiled fondly as they explained their intentions and bade them to follow him back to the rendezvous site where they would recount their adventures, giggling and feeling quite proud of themselves in spite of having failed to gain the pack any new 'coots.