Redhawk Caldera summer days wasting away

After playing with the babies, Seal asked her mom if she could act as a chaperone and walk her over to Brecheliant to visit @Frolic.

I’m too nervous to go alone, she would sheepishly explain. Residual anxiety had taken up residence in Seal’s spirit ever since the tiger attack.

It was fun to go on a mother-daughter outing anyway! The pair raced around Lake Rodney, laughing the whole way. When they eventually reached the borders, Meerkat explained how to howl for an audience. Seal tipped back her head and called to see if her friend wanted to play.

Frolic was picking at her dinner when the howl rose up in the evening air. She went rigid before eagerly looking at her folks, her expression pleading with them. She watched as they exchanged a look before Eljay rose to his feet. He said he would take her, if she finished her supper.

She promptly shoveled the rest of the scraps into her mouth, cheeks bulging like a chipmunk’s as she also bounded to all fours. Frolic began to run, though her father’s cry to slow down before she choked prompted her to grind to a halt. It took her several swallows to get down the gob in her mouth, after which she turned to give her dad a dewclaws up before facing forward and tearing off again.

SEAL!!! she hollered as she careened down the slope toward her friend and her mother. SEAL’S MOM! Frolic added, having forgotten her name. Hi! she called slightly less loudly as she dug her black heels into the earth to slow down and tackle-hug Seal.

Seal’s face lit up when she spotted Frolic, who was like a little golden buttercup in a vast sea of green, racing down the hill in the distance. Her paw shot up into the air and waved like a windshield wiper.

“FROOOLLLIICCC!” she hollered at the top of her lungs, which made her mother flinch from the terrific volume. Then, she outstretched her arms just before the two collided into a big hug.

“Frolic!” Seal cackle-laughed as she began to hop up-and-down. Gosh, laughing just felt so good! “I missed you!” Eventually, she ran out of breath and had to slow down. “I wanted tae visit you. Do you wanna play?” she asked her friend. Then, Seal looked to Meerkat, who seemed ok with the idea of spending a little bit of time at Brecheliant this evening.

Meerkat still felt stuffed from the hunt the other day (assuming it went well), so she was definitely down for some exercise. Besides, she was happy Seal felt up to such an excursion. She didn’t blame her at all for wanting an escort; truly, she very much preferred to go with her. Maybe she would drop in on Bronco again, though much more likely, she would just sit in the background and let the young friends visit.

She chuckled under her breath at Frolic’s slightly delayed but extremely exuberant entrance, then cringed when Seal shrieked in response. Meerkat quickly recovered and waved at @Eljay trailing a ways behind his daughter. Even from a distance, he looked a little tired. And the smell of meat on Frolic’s breath made her suddenly worried they’d interrupted a family meal.

I can keep an eye on them, get back to your dinner! she said to him, making a shooing motion when Eljay hesitated.

Eventually, he did offer a grateful nod and depart, leaving Meerkat alone with the girls. She smiled and nodded when her daughter glanced her way. She had no desire to interrupt their reunion or conversation, so she retreated to a comfy space nearby and took a seat. The cool grass felt so good, she lowered herself and began to roll, delighting in the scentsations.

Cameo for my thread log. :)

Still clinging tightly to the bouncing Seal, Frolic gasped and glanced over her shoulder when Meerkat urged Eljay to return to the rest of their family and their meal. He was leaving! For the first time in many days, neither one of her parents was watching her like a hawk. Seal’s mom was nearby, though it was totally different. Frolic felt so free!

Heck yeah! she readily agreed to the invitation to play, then gushed, I’m so happy you’re here! I got grounded and my papa keeps making me fetch leaves and stuff, it’s— Frolic glanced over her shoulder to make sure her dad was really gone, then looked over at the rolling Meerkat before lowering her voice and wrinkling her nose. It’s sooooo boring, Seal! I’m goin’ brainpoopy!

Frolic seemed to be good at getting herself into trouble! It made Seal think back to when they had met her friend and how she had been startled when Frolic suddenly jumped through the shrubbery!

“Well why’da hafta go an’ get yourself grounded, ye goon!” Seal teased, knowing her friend had an unquenchable thirst for exploration. “It’s a good thing I showed up. We cannae let your brain go all melty!” she put her paws on her cheeks and pulled down to make her face long for emphasis. “So I take it you dinnae care tae play pick-up-sticks, then?” she added with a laugh.

“I was thinkin’… we could chase dragonflies! Oorrr dig a wicked big hole and build a fort! Oorrr we could play pretend!” Seal listed a few of the many games she had thought up on the way over.

Brainmelty! Frolic amended, grinning at Seal’s apter description. I’ll do whatever you wanna do, she added earnestly, just happy to spend time with someone who wasn’t related to her for a change.

She caught another glimpse of Meerkat rolling around in the grass over Seal’s shoulder and smiled at the sight. For reasons unknown to her, it prompted a thought and she caught Seal’s eye again, still clutching at her shoulders and giving them an excited little shake now.

Oh! I’m learning about trades—my dad’s a medic an’ that’s why we gather leaves—and I dunno what I wanna be when I grow up yet but definitely not a doctor! Do you know what you wanna be? We could work on that, if you want?

Curiosity embellished Seal’s happy expression. “Trades?” Seal parrotted to let her friend know that she followed along with interest. It was true that every wolf at Moonspear played a specific role in the pack. Seal had already begun to develop inclinations, but she hadn’t thought about them in any kind of formal way.

“That’s a gran question!” Seal observed with a laugh. She thought for a moment and then Seal’s expression turned sheepish. She rubbed the back of her own head, embarrassed that her idea of a good time, picking leaves, was Frolic’s personal hell. “Well, I think I might want to be a doctor.” A pause. “Maybe.”

She went on to explain. “I’ve been learnin’ a lot about plants… an’ my leader, Sialuk, started tae teach me about mendin’ wounds when I was hurt. But I dinnae ken… not really…” Then she quickly switched the spotlight off of herself. “What about you? What other trades are there?”

Frolic blew a raspberry when Seal declared she might want to be a doctor, though of course she didn’t fault her friend. Even if assisting her father bored her out of her mind, she could recognize the merits of such a trade. After all, Eljay patched her up at least once a day.

I’m not sure of all of ‘em but I know there’s medic and storyteller, Frolic shared, knowledge of course informed by her parents’ fortes. Mama said that scouting is a trade and I could be a ranger someday… when I’m older and not grounded anymore! She groaned, then laughed. I think there’s hunters and fighters too.

Despite her predilection toward wandering, Frolic didn’t much like the thought of turning it into a job, at least at this point in her life. She just wanted to have fun, not work! Although, on second thought, perhaps framing it as homework would get her mom and dad to loosen the leash a little bit…

But for now, Frolic wanted to focus on Seal and exclaimed, Hey, you wanna play doctor? You can practice on me! I can pretend I’m hurt or sick… or you can treat one o’ these, she offered, holding out her forelegs to show her collection of cuts and scrapes, all in various stages of healing.

Seal cocked her head to and fro as Frolic shared what she knew about trades. Orca popped into her mind. What would her sister decide to be and do, she wondered. She thought of the curse Orca had put on the hellcat. Maybe she would speak to the spirits through bones like Sialuk… Or maybe she would be a hunter! Or a councilor like their M’am.

“Okay!” Seal agreed to a game of doctor. But when Frolic showed Seal her abused legs Seal gasped. “Frolic!!!” she chided, wheezing a laugh. “You’ll no have any fur left if you keep this up!”

Quickly, Seal went to work. First, she stamped down an area of grass, folding it into a makeshift bed. Then, she took Frolic by the shoulders and steered her into place. “You can lay down here, miss,” Seal explained with a gentle voice as their game of pretend Grey's Anatomy began.

When Frolic was lying down, Seal stooped to get a closer look as if she held a magnifying glass. No detail would go unnoticed! She put herself in Sialuk’s shoes and tried to imagine what questions a healer would ask.

“Now, miss, tell me... how did ye hurt yourself?” Seal asked as her paw moved over the scrapes with a feather touch.

Frolic could only titter when Seal playfully scolded her about her marked-up arms, then began to laugh. There was something extremely contagious about that sound.

Stop before I catch the giggles! It’s a disease! she jested in turn, balling a black fist and bumping it playfully against a freckled shoulder.

A moment later, Seal moved out of Frolic's reach and began preparing a spot in the grass. Right when she opened her mouth to offer her assistance, her friend clutched at her. Frolic giggled and went willingly, prostrating herself as she played the part of proper patient.

After a cursory visual assessment, Dr Seal consulted with Frolic about her symptoms. Sprawled on her back, the pup tossed a foreleg over her forehead in a dramatic swoon.

I’ve fallen and I can’t get up, she bemoaned, because a smelly beefalo stepped on me. Oooh, it hurts so bad in my thrapple, Dr Seal!

Seal almost broke character when Frolic began to bemoan about her thrapple.

“Thrapple?!” Seal exclaimed as she suppressed a giggle. “A beefalo! Oh my, that is verrae serious.” She placed a paw on Frolic’s shoulder and gave her best caretaker smile. “Dinnae fash, Miss Folic. I’ll take good care of you. Promise.”

“Now,” Seal’s attention returned to Frolic’s leg. “I’ll be sure tae mend all the cuts on the outside, but we must make sure nothin’s broken on the inside. Does it hurt when I do this…?” Seal gently manipulated Frolic’s wrist and bent it slowly.

Frolic snorted, amused by her own idiotic jokes as well as Seal’s reaction to them. She removed the foreleg from over her face and proffered it to her friend for assessment. She supposed she’d always known she was pretty ticklish—it came up particularly when sharing close quarters with her family, namely her brother and sister—but just now, it caught her off guard and she let out a breathy shriek as she wrenched her leg out of Seal’s grasp.

Ticklish! she wheezed, tittering as she tentatively placed her leg back in Seal’s care and did her best to sit still. But no, it doesn’t hurt. Nothing ever hurts, out came the truth before Frolic remembered she was playing a part, except for my thrapple, ‘course!

Seal’s paws retracted towards her chest when Frolic pulled her paw away. “Oops!” she chirped. She hadn’t considered how her patient felt. When Frolic offered it back, Seal held it differently. A bit more firmly, as if to try avoid any tickling sensation.

“Okay, well it’s a good sign… that the beefalo’s hoof didnae break your thrapple,” Seal explained. “So now… I’ll apply a balm of dandelion tae prevent infection. That’s… that’s when a cut gets all red and puffy. If that happens you could become sick.” To teach was to learn twice, right?

“Wait here, I’ll be right back!” Then, Seal jumped through the long grass. Dandelion wasn’t in season, so she collected pretend “herbs” for their game.

She returned with a variety of plants clutched gently in her teeth. Then, she collected two flat rocks.

“First I’ll grind tha plants…” Seal placed a purple coneflowers head and a few blade of sweet grass between the stones and began to turn them into a lumpy poultice.

Seal mentioned the term “balm.” Frolic should’ve known what that meant, especially after spending so much time apprenticing with her father, but she drew a blank. Her curious gaze followed the older girl as she bounded away to collect the flowering plants.

When her friend returned, she began to grind the greens into a pulp with a pair of stones. Although Frolic admired Seal’s innovation, she suddenly wrinkled her swarthy muzzle.

I’m not eating that! she exclaimed, insisting, I’m allergic to anything green! Cue a dramatic pause. GUESS I’LL DIE.

Theatrically clutching at her thrapple—which happened to be her throat apple—Frolic made a choking noise and flopped over into the grass, where she rolled onto her striped back. She thrust all four stockinged feet into the air and let her head drop to one side, eyes closing and tongue lolling from her mouth as she grew deathly still.

“Oh no!” Seal exclaimed when Frolic played dead. This changed everything. Now, it was a code blue!

“Our patient isnae breathing! Her heart has stopped!” The medic resident abandoned her plants and stones, throwing them aside. Then, with one paw placed atop the other, Seal began to perform chest compressions.

“You’ll no be dyin’ on me today, Frolic! Breath, lass, breath!!!”

When Seal tossed her supplies aside and began performing chest compressions on her, it reminded Frolic of Glee’s attempts to toss her up into a tree the other day. She began laughing helplessly at the recollection, not to mention the fact that this was also pretty ticklish.

Frolic held out as long as she could before grasping Seal’s wrists and pushing them away gently. She wanted to reassure her friend that she was okay, though she was breathless from laughing. She sat up and tried to catch her breath, beaming at the aspiring medic.

You did it! You saved my life! And my thrapple! Frolic declared as soon as she could speak, then rolled onto her feet to throw her arms around her friend’s neck. Thank you, Dr Seal!

When Frolic laughed, so did Seal, and together they broke out into a case of contagious giggles.

It was enough to raise Frolic back from the dead. Seal’s arms shot up into the air in a victory pose before they came down around her friend’s neck just as Frolic embraced her. “Oh, I’m so happy!” she jeered, smushing her cheek against Frolic’s. “I donnae ken what I’d do without you!”

Even though it was just a game of pretend, Seal couldn’t help but reflect on how good it felt to help. It cemented her decision. Yes, she would become a medic!

Together they played until the sun went down and Meerkat gathered Seal to return to Moonspear. She gave Frolic one last hug goodbye before setting off, beside her mom, back towards the packlands.