Redhawk Caldera Koozie jacket

Children only, please. <3
Edit: Tagging because I'm needy. @Alyx @Primrose @Quetzal

The sky was bright and clear pre-dawn, each star shimmering and sparkling above. The moon was barely a sliver in the sky, and in a few days, it would disappear into the darkness. A black dot on a black canvas. Phox looked south from atop the caldera's rim, spotting Leo and fondly remembering the stories he'd told the children about the large, scary cat. From there, his gaze traveled upward toward the large bear, then the little bear. To the west was Gemini: the twins and Taurus: the moose.

He smiled pleasantly at the stars, wondering how soon it would be before Figment and Cinder would return home. Phox trusted both of them would look out for each other, and he knew they would get the job done. He imagined that Wraen and Arcturus would follow them back to the caldera, but what then? Maia still needed plenty of time to heal. Eljay said it could be weeks before she was back to normal, and what if she needed longer before she could travel again? Were they really okay letting her stay here, practically rent-free?

Alyx woke early, hoping to spend the morning collecting an assortment of water plants from around the Caldera's huge lake to add to her secret stash in the foothills, but all those plans disappeared the second she spotted her dad sitting exactly where she meant to go. She still remembered the feeling of his teeth in the back of her neck and his weight pressing her into the ground, and she had not forgiven him for it. It was impossible to hope that he hadn't seen her, too, with her blazing golden fur, but she pointedly pivoted and headed perpendicularly away from him, hoping to angle back to the water somewhere else.

It hurt her heart to do it, but Alyx felt firmly that she was owed an apology for the rough way she was treated. She also owed her mom an apology for calling her a bitch. She knew that, but she hadn't done it yet. It wasn't like Niamh ever spent any time with her, anyway, so what did that matter? Her mother hadn't even sought her out since they came to the Caldera, and once or twice she'd wondered if Niamh would even notice or care if she didn't exist at all. That was all very unfair of her, but she felt immaturely justified. If Niamh wouldn't come to her, then she wouldn't go to Niamh, apology owed or not.

She'd always been more fond of her father than her mother, so it really stunk not to hang out with him like she used to, but the sight of him made her gut twist uncomfortably. It was easier to just avoid him than to swallow her teenage ego, even though he likely wouldn't let her get away that easily.

The sound of footsteps alerted Phox to Alyx, and he let his gaze settle on her. She had been avoiding him, he knew, probably embarrassed about what she had said to Niamh and even more embarrassed that she had been put in her place for it. That felt like so long ago, now that they were here at the caldera. Phox knew they needed to make amends one way or another, and considering Alyx's avoidance, he didn't think she was quite mature enough to do it on her own. She would need a push, and he was willing to do that.

Phox picked himself up and headed toward her, cantering until he was within earshot.

Alyx, hey! he said, slowing as he got closer. I know things have been, uh, weird between us, but I want them to be better.

"Back to how they used to be" was never really an option, Phox had come to learn over the years.

Truce? he asked, his tail falling down between his hocks. She was practically an adult now, and it was hard to imagine she had ever been the little girl he'd splashed in the rain or even the one who had proclaimed she wanted to lead her own pack someday. Maybe she could even sit on their next big discussion along with Figment if that was really her goal. Teaching her to lead would be quite a ride, Phox imagined, but if she was really driven, he thought she had the potential.

Q was cool with whatever mom and dad were cool with. She was not an empath, so had no idea their thoughts on the matter. She did not have any interest in meeting with the newcomers, though. Q had been a homebody as of late, but mostly kept close to the rendezvous to dig and contribute where she could with small, catchable critters. 

When it came to the matter of her siblings, Q did not hang out with them much except for in passing. Alyx going missing wasn't her part, she realized, and yet the loss of her stung worse than anything else Q experienced thus far in her short life. It scared her beyond reason, and she was afraid it would happen again. To trust that it wouldn't did not yet present itself as an option. 

But when she saw Alyx nearby, Q hollered: hey, come on, before adding, 's been a while since we've allll hung out together. Q could accept some of the blame for that. And couldn't she try to make it right, a little bit? Pausing to see if she would be joined, Q waited a moment longer before making way toward their dad.

Weird was one way to put it. Phox hit the nail on the head with the assumption that she was simply embarrassed she'd been put in her place and shut down by all three of her parents, if not about her maturity as well. The fact of the matter was that Alyx had realized, or at least perceived, that Meerkat was the favourite child and therefore afforded special rights, and that put everything into a worse light and caused her to cast unfair aspersions against her sister and parents alike.

There was no apology forthcoming from her father, which made her want to move on and ignore his offering of a truce with a switch of her tail. If it mattered that much to him then he could say he was sorry for throwing her to the ground. But Quetzal effectively ruined that idea. She was mad at Phox, but her littermate hadn't done anything wrong. With an inaudible sigh, Alyx grumbled, fine, and pivoted to head up toward her father and sister, all while avoiding looking right at either of them.

Quetzal came rushing in (as she tended to do), and Phox smiled at her. Alyx, while she did not seem terribly pleased to have her father around, at least seemed open to the idea of a truce. That was about as much as he could expect from her right now, and he was okay with that. This, like the thing with Fennec, would pass. At least that’s what he was going to keep telling himself.

What do you gals want to do? Learn some hunting things? Go for a stroll? Work on some defense skills? he asked/offered. What did they enjoy doing the most?

Q's tail whipped left and right when Alyx joined them; her presence had been sorely missed when she was gone, not that Q would ever admit that openly. Her physical reaction might be testament enough; Q enjoyed playing it cool nowadays. Somewhat. Then again, cool and Q were hardly synonymous. When her father asked what they wanted to do, Q even so much as deferred entirely to Alyx. Loudmouth though she was, she had missed everything Alyx and was content to have her fill up the space with whatever sounds and things she wanted to do. Just so long as she didn't accidentally disappear again. 

Looking to Alyx, her look seemed to ask, yeah, what do we want to do? Hunting sounded cool... so did working on defense skills. Strolling was meh, but if that was what Alyx wanted to do, then she would make the best of meh. At least she had good company to.

Wooops didn't realize it was my turn!

Alyx busied herself with studying a jagged bit of rock on the ground, listening but not really looking at Phox while he spoke. She kept replaying the frightening moment when he launched himself at her in her head. Sure, it was part of being a wolf—it wasn't like she mistook his intentions as an attack—but her father had always been so mellow before. A bit of a doormat, in fact. While he had frightened her into never saying as much with his dominance hold, she thought of him as little more than that now, because if not for Niamh and her weird belief that Rusalka was dangerous, she thought he would have let her go. She thought Towma would have, too.

He just did whatever Niamh wanted, and she'd developed sincere (and unfair) doubts that he would stick up for his kids if it meant going against her, and that made it kind of hard to have faith in him.

She realized suddenly that they were both looking at her, and glanced sheepishly between them. She'd expected—hoped, actually—that Q would go ahead and make the decisions so she didn't have to talk much, but her sister was giving her that courtesy instead. Damnit. Uh, hunting, I guess, she murmured. At least if she didn't start having fun, which she was determined not to because she wanted her dad to feel a little bad for how he'd treated her, Q and her would both benefit.

It was strange to see Quetzal so quiet, but he figured the twins tended to feed off of one another's emotions and personalities. Perhaps with Alyx being quieter, Quetzal was trying to let her set the pace and tone of the day. That was fine with Phox, and Alyx answered with a less-than-enthusiastic mention of hunting.

Great! Let's track somethin' down then, huh? he said, motioning the both of them over to him. Phox lowered his snout to the ground, taking in a few deep breaths. There was nothing fresh, but he figured they would run across something soon enough. He began to trot forward, nose glued to the ground as he searched for signs of suitable prey.

Since Q's inactive, maybe we could fade with your next post?

Well, guess they were doing this. She tried not to appear overtly irate as she reluctantly began to sniff around, keeping close to Quetzal if only to stay further away from her dad. She didn't hate him or anything. That would be overdramatic even for Alyx. She just wasn't his biggest fan right now, and it turned out she wasn't very good at just sweeping it under the rug and letting it go.

Eventually they found a scent that was more promising than the others, a young pronghorn, and Alyx became so caught up in following the scent that she gradually began to forget that she was mad at her father.

Works for me! I need to wrap some of these older threads anyway and kick my butt into writing gear.

Phox led the twins on their little hunt, guiding them gently when they missed a turn. He was always careful to let them make their own mistakes, but he was also quick to intervene if it looked like they were getting too off track. All in all, the tracking session was a good one, and both girls did an excellent job of showing off and improving their skills. By the end of it, he even thought he saw Alyx smile a time or two.