Broken Antler Fen chill out, what you yellin' for?

She never wandered far from mama, and when mama left the den, the little girl wailed. Today marked the first step towards an anomaly that would soon become her norm: little Jasmine left the den.

The ginger girl had watched her brother crawl into the daylight in these recent days. Left, and returned, in safety more than once. She had crawled to the edge between her world and the unknown and had sat, watching, but to venture outside?

She had never been so brave.

But today she crawled out from beneath the shadows and slunk into the sunlight. Body low to the ground and milky eyes sweeping the grass for any signs she should bare fangs and bolt.

Oho, what was this?

Bridget was stopping by to check on things with Ibis, and apparently she had impeccable timing. Busted, kidlet, she said with a grin, stopping a short distance away and dropping down to a crouch so that she wouldn't tower over the poor thing. She hadn't really spent much time with these pups and kids could have any number of reactions to new strangers. She was hoping this one was as friendly as she was adorable. Adorable was something she had in spades.

She kept herself there, waiting for a reaction and controlling the urge to inch her way forward.

And there she was, the kind of trouble Jasmine was looking for. She was branded by sunlight, with a voice that boomed in measures much different than mama's.

Even though the woman dropped to her size, Jasmine skittered back and danced the path of a giant arc, baby blue eyes never leaving the stranger and puppy fur fluffed up as if she could somehow defend herself. But Jasmine had yet to meet anyone beyond mama, and Diantha, and Roswell, and the stranger's voice floated with colours that poked sunlight through the trees.

Uncertain, Jasmine stood back. Intrigued, she remained, poised and unblinking.

For a pup who was brave enough to venture out, she sure did skitter back quickly. Bridget couldn't contain her laugh, but it was a cheerful sound. She didn't mind.

Your mama taught you how to deal with strangers, then. Good for you. I wouldn't mind not being strangers if you wanted, but I'll leave that up to you. She stayed where she was, affably speaking despite not being sure she was understood. It had been a while since she'd been around kids. How old was this one?

She gave you those pretty eyes too. Too bad Ibis wasn't around, actually. Their last conversation had ended pretty abruptly and Bridget hadn't had much time since to see how that all went. Had Eljay said yes? Weird how little all of that seemed to matter, though. Was it the rank or the people in the pack that made her so nonchalant about who was in charge?

The sound that came from the pretty wolf was new... did mama ever make that sound? Jasmine tipped her head, and though she stayed her safe distance away, her baby eyes brimmed with a guarded, yet curious, stare.

She didn't really understand what the golden stranger said. Her ears were not yet tuned to many of her words, except some. Mama, stranger, good. She strung these together to piece together some semblance of understanding. How close she understood the stranger's true intent was questionable - but she knew this woman spoke like sunlight, and light was something she trusted more than the dark.

When the stranger stopped talking, the sunspots blinked out, one by one, so that Jasmine's mind was a veil of shadows once again.

She wanted the lights, which sparked in ways no one's voice had ever done - not even mama's - and the child crawled forward, hunched to the ground, and wide eyes staring upward - until she was close enough she could reach with a paw towards the sun maiden's mouth.

Some prompt, for her to say more.

She really was timid. Maybe her staring was freaking her out? Bridget looked up, but only momentarily, before her eyes were drawn surreptitiously back to the pup again. Like magnets there, damn it. She couldn't look away.

She took in a happy breath though when Jasmine inched towards her. Oh heck yeah, c'mon little one. She didn't even freak out that much about kids but there was something about getting the approval of one that was just... cool.

She grinned again when the girl reached a paw towards her mouth, and this time kept her voice down a bit so she wouldn't scare her. See? If we are friends, then you don't gotta worry about strangers. I think you seem pretty awesome, and I'm pretty awesome. You have a name? She didn't know if she'd get an answer (and she had a pretty good guess which one this was anyway) but maybe?

Seems they were both caught in that magnetic pull.

Even Bridget smiled like sunlight, and a slow, but ready, grin stole over the child's face. Friends. They were friends. Jasmine's tail twitched and she latched onto this word she knew - all the while tucking away a couple others for future use, once. Awesome sounded like a good word. Everything repeated was, and she'd attach this to Bridget, not fully knowing she'd attached it to herself, and to them both, already.

The sun-girl's voice pitched in a question, and this one, the child understood. "Jasmine," she said, and thrust her chin out a little in great confidence, despite the smallness of her voice. "Whass'er'name?"

Jasmine wanted a name for the sun-girl. And if she couldn't pronounce it, she'd just call her 'awesome'.

i suck <3 but I love these two so much omg. Wrapping!

My name's Bridget. She answered. Ibis knew how to pick a name - Jasmine was a pretty (and perfect) fit for this adorable kid. And I know a pretty fun game. Want to hear?

The answer would probably be yes, and if so, Bridget would draw her into a game of seek and find. It was like hide and seek only instead of hiding yourself, you found something fun to hide and then got to watch as the other wolf tried to sort out what you did with it.

If she were older, Bridget could have some fun with the scent trials, but for now she'd keep it simple. Hopefully she could get Jasmine laughing here pretty quickly as well, "trying" to find it.