Days went by in a flash. Even for the month-old baby it was going by too fast --but that could be due to the fact she slept away every almost 2/3rds of the day. When the sleeping beauty did wake up, either her brothers had already ended their game or daddy had come home tired, wanting to nap. She had noticed that every time she woke, her equilibrium was a tad better and her sight a bit clearer.
Another thing she had noticed was that mommy hadn't come home in what to her felt like three eternal naps. This made the puppy pout, since when she woke the first thing she did was look for Tuwa. Although finding daddy instead was equally rewarding. He hadn't been around a lot when the babes where just milk filled balloons --though if he had it was unlikely they'd remember..
Today had been no different. As soon as she opened her eyes she searched for a moutain of red, but it was not there. She stood up and marched to the entrance of the den, she had been out only two times before but today she was craving fresh air. As she stepped out and began stomping on the front garden her eyes fell upon a tiny mound of dirt that inmidiately reminded her of the cake she had once made for mommy.
Excited at the idea to play baker again she lowered her head to give the little mountain a closer inspection. What she found blew away her young mind. Even smaller creatures crawled around the dough, going to and fro at the top of her cake mix. Maera though they'd make the greatest addition to her dessert so with no second thoughts she sinked her paws in the anthill.
At first stepping on the little pile of dirt was no different from the other time. She flung little bits to the side, delighted to have found the thing.But everything changed in a matter of seconds.
The tiny creatures she had thought to be so amusing had covered her toes and climbed up her sleeves. But that wasn't the problem, as they covered her skin she began to feel like her arms grew hotter; until the sting became unbearable.
This was no cake. It was a spicy curry Maera literally couldn't get her paws off!
![[Image: girl_gang.png]](https://image.ibb.co/b82KNa/girl_gang.png)
It seemed, however, that one little adventurer disagreed with that sentiment. Danica watched with amusement as a little bundle of fluff appeared in the entry to Njal and Tuwawi's den, then made its way outside. She did enjoy watching the little things move. Her amusement soon turned to bemusement, though as the pup stopped, seemingly spellbound by something near her feet. This turned to alarm when she noted the distress that followed an enthusiastic excavation of her find.
Rising and racing over, she unceremoniously picked the pup up, carrying her away from what she now saw was a large anthill. Plopping her down out of the danger zone, she began licking ants from her fur, grimacing at the bitter taste. She paid no mind to the pups opinion on her actions... If she didn't get the nasty little buggers off her then Danica's antics would be the least of the pups worries.
Desperate wails rose from the deep pit of her stomach, cries that were made of pure fear. This was worse that the beetle --it was like thousand times worse. The sting and the burning sensation that followed wasn't the worse part; what horrorized her the most was the fact that no matter how hard she shook her stubby paws the mantle of red wouldn't wear off! The tiny creatures were clinging to her skin like their life depended on it, they didn't even mind the awful screaming or pay attention to the hot tears that began rolling down the baby's cheeks.
She liked being red like mommy, but this was just too much. The tan areas of her legs and toes had been replaced by vibrant gloves of red. Between the blurry cover her eyes had been glazed with she was not able to see her blonde rescuer approaching. It wasn't until she swooped her off the ground that Maera realize she was being saved.
At first she thought it was mommy who had bravely appeared to aid her, so she allowed a ripping sob to gurgle from her body. Kids tended to maximize their tantrums when parents were around.
Then as fast as she was picked up, she was dropped. The girl trashed her legs around until her hero began to shower her with a flurry of wet kisses. She would've protested against being cleaned but the soothing motion of Danica's tongue brushed away the hell-sent critters and left a fresh sensation on her irritated skin.
She gave a relieved sigh and locked eyes with the female --who definitely was not mom! The fire-born baby was startled at first and blinked at Danica with complete confusion in her eyes. She didn't know wether to feel scared she was being licked by a stranger --something she doubted daddy would approve of-- or happy she had been rescued by the blonde femme.
"Tanks, ouchie"she babbled while still feeling a wave of fire lick her toes.
Lowering her head to her paws, she gazed at the pup, smiling and nodding as thanks were given. "Those little crawly things? They are called bugs. There are lots of kinds, some flying, some crawling, and some of them can be mean. It's best to stay away from them until you figure out for sure if they are the mean sort or the nice sort." It could have been worse... The anthill could have been a wasp nest. Hopefully the pup would exercise more caution in the future. "Got it, squirt?" Her smile broadened at Maera somewhat playfully.
A small pout settled on the girl's face and a whine made the girl's body rumble, while Danica explained patiently what the tiny creatures that had engulfed her legs, a bit of snot threatened to drip from her nostrils but she contained it with a violent sniffle.
She listened to the blonde female's words while continuing to sob softly, the ants were gone but the burning sensation they had left behind was still present. She jerked her leg suddenly feeling a phantom ant craw along her toes. While the tiny attackers might've disappeared the repercussions of her unfortunate adventure would haunt her for a couple more days.
Danica explained the difference between the bad and the good, though Maera wasn't convinced there were good bugs out there. So far she had only encountered the meanest of them all -- the beetle would've eaten her alive if it weren't for Valtyr and the ants weren't so friendly either.
"Bad bugs " she pouted, while casting her eyes on the irritated patches on her toes. She narrowed her eyes and an overwhelming feeling of disgust and anger towards the bugs filled her belly.
Bugs: 2 Maera:0
"You know, your mom might not thank me for this, but I know something that might help." She winked at the pup. "I bet that some nice, cool mud would feel great on those bits. Want to go find some?" What did she care if the kid came back disgusting? Wasn't her problem. And really the mud would help. Tuwawi couldn't be too upset about that.
And what pup could resist the draw of a good old mudbath? As a pup she had been notorious for getting into mud wrestling matches with the other young ones of her pack. Those were the good old days. Now she had to be old and respectable... unless of course she was playing with a kid. Perhaps she could use a mudbath herself. Supposedly it was good for the skin.
Some of the perks of being a young child included the facility of recovering from tragedy. Many times as an even smaller child she had fallen flat on her face and failed numerous times to reach her goals, and while an adult might've dwelled on the failure and sulked on the feeling of defeat; children were always quick to get up, shake dust off, kiss their boo-boos and carry on.
The girl's face lit up as a whole when a familiar word was mentioned. Mud. She didn't need to be told twice, Maera knew very well that said word, that caused disgust to mommy and often equalled to baths also had fun in the equation. She rose to her paws and wiggled her bum happily, "YES! Mud many mud" she barked, making sure Danica understood she didn't want a petty puddle of the brown slimy substance, she would require a pool of mud to make up for the pain and terror she had felt.
"Many mud it is!" She was thoughtful for a moment, wondering where they could find a nice, big patch of mud. The creek was probably their best bet. As long as she kept Maera away from the water itself it should be fine. She'd be watching like a hawk, though, that was for sure.
"Come on!" Leading the way, she traipsed along the bank for a short distance before coming across perfection... a small runoff that led to a nice, shallow, muddy pool. Grinning, Danica slapped a paw down, splattering herself with the muck. "How's this? Does it meet your many mud approval?"
The mere idea of going beyond the den's garden sent waves of endorphins rippling down every inch of her body. This internal enchantment was translated into happy whines and excited yaps from the babe's mouth. She was not even the shadow of the sad and scared girl Danica had found moments ago. Though her skin still felt the traces of the ant's fire touching here and there the idea of going on an adventure was enough to silence the complaints and edge her on.
She had played follow the leader many times before, under Jokull's reign resisting wasn't an option; that was why when they began walking towards the land of many-many-mud, Maera stuck close to the blond femme's heels.
After what seemed like the odyssey of a lifetime they arrived at the legendary site of the many mud. Maera's eyes widened twice their natural size as she got a glimpse of the mucky brown surface of the puddle glimmering with the sunlight. She looked at Danica and then back at the puddle, barely being able to mask her excitement.
Finally her brave rescuer slapped the gooey surface of the mud pool and invited her to come. Maera's whole body wriggled as she prepared to dive into the pool of filth. She stuck the muddy water head first, and what had been the top of her head was replaced with a crown of mud, she rolled in the filth one,two,three and infinite times, until every patch of red ever covering her body was tainted with brown.
In between all the rolling and splashing she looked up to give Danica the biggest smile, which wasn't really that bright since her little set of pearly daggers had also been stained with mud.
"Come mud's gooooooood" she squealed while flinging bits of the filthy muck with her wagging tail
And this particular pup was far from it. She had followed her obediantly, sticking close (to Danica's relief), and went at the puddle with a gusto. Pleased that her location was a hit, she observed the girl's antics, snorting as she came up a veritable muck-monster, covered head to toe with the goop.
"It's good, is it? Well then, I guess I have to try it out, if you say so!" Lowering herself, she rolled onto her back, wiggling a bit with her upper body and head in the sludge. She flipped back, enjoying the feel of the cold mud sliding down between her fur. She could clean off later, but on the hot day, it sure felt nice. Shaking her head, she flicked off some of the mud that was dripping towards her eyes, her fur spiking. "You were right! How does my fur look?" she asked the girl, tilting her head. "Stylish?"
Slowly the cool and refreshing texture of the mud began to fill in the spaces of her fur, spreading onto her skin and taking away the irritating feeling the ants had left behind. She didn't even mind the muddy taste of dirt in her mouth as she lowered herself to the base of the puddle and stretched her paws out so the muck would reach her belly.
This would be one of the very last times Maera would enjoy the filth on her back and the goo between her toes, as she got older appereance would become an important aspect of her life and one she would worry to take care of. For now however she rolled happily on the icky pool of brown.Laughing hysterically as she waved the muddy gloves on her paws and splattered around bits of the slime with her tail.
She rolled again to her belly and blinked up at the blonde female that had so bravely rescued her from the fire-pit of hell the anthill had been. Maera squealed with delight as the female obeyed, and began walking to the bubbling mud jaccuzzi to join in.
"WAAAAH!", she screamed as she toppled on Danica as she began wiggling on the muddy pool. Then as the woman rolled again to face her, the now brown-cloaked babe crawled to her, her little eyes fixed on the brown wig she now wore.
"Beau-ful!" she confirmed as she batted her paw against the female's shoulder. This was the greatest thing ever.
Watching the pup roll around in the mud with reckless abandon and pure joy, Danica wished time would just stop right there. Then she too could simply be here, in the present, feeling that same wild happiness without a care in the world. But time hardly called anyone master, let alone her, and she had worries to spare.
Luckily for her Maera was doing a bang-up job of distracting her from them. She let out a 'whoomp' as the pup bowled into her side, exaggeratedly splashing down on her side, then biting back a hiss as the mud hit her shoulder. Well crap, she forgot about that. She'd need to clean it when they were finished here. Once the initial contact faded, the cool mud actually felt somewhat nice.
"Why thank you daaahling," she responded somberly, the last word spoken with a drawn out noble-esque accent. Luckily the pup had chosen her non-out of commission shoulder to batter. Using her nose she attempted to gently tip the pup off balance. "Alright, little mud-skipper. We should probably get you back to your mom." Their little adventure had probably gone on overly long enough, Tuwa might be worried as to where her offspring had wandered off to.
Maera might not have an expanse vocabulary but she understood perfectly when her blonde rescuer said it was time to leave. With a pout and a long exasperated sigh tried to plead for a couple of minutes extra. She felt as if she just had stepped onto the mucky pool of goo, and it seemed unfair to go now, just when the fun was reallly beginning.
"AWWWW NNN-OOO", she whined while dropping herself onto the brown puddle with an audible splat! The fiery girl was determined to stand her ground (or mud puddle), like a little activist she anchored herself to the spot, refusing to move a muscle. And while Danica might not appreciate her little riot, the little girl thought that she had just found the key to independence.
If you don't want to do something, just flop on the ground and wail like a whale.
Yep. That seemed about right..
Danica cocked an eyebrow as the girl flopped down in the mud and set to wailing. A tantrum, how quaint. Amused, she flicked a bit of mud at her, cocking her head. "So it's gonna be that way, is it?" With a sudden forward motion, she plucked the pup up by her scruff, grimacing as the taste of mud filled her senses. Ugh.
"Off we go," she mumbled, voice muffled by the fur clasped in her jaws. Towing the rambunctious child, she started back in the direction of Tuwawi's den. She felt no ill will towards Maera and her spirit... quite the opposite. She just didn't feel like dealing with a worried mother.