Potema had known four people her whole life. Three of them were her mother and brothers, obviously. She had spent most of her time with them, cramped in the small, but comfortable, den. But there was one figure she vaguely remembered from her birth. One figure that she had not seen or smelt in a long time.
At nearly two weeks old, Potema and her brothers were gaining their senses. A week ago their eyes had opened, and now, their ears were too. Along with hearing, their milk teeth were growing in too, meaning that in a while she could eat meat. All things that meant nothing to her compared to the urge to see this fourth party.
With her mother and brothers asleep, the white pup wriggled towards the mouth of the cave in an achingly slow pace. She had yet to gain proper control of her limbs, evidenced by the tripping, stumbling, falling, etc. But in less than half and hour (what a feat!) she found herself poking her head out of her home of two weeks, making howl-like sounds in order to summon the other wolf again, if he heard her.
I'm waiting for Lea to reply to the other one first so no one gets left out :P
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Two weeks. His children were now two weeks old and he had seen them once. But he was always close. The young father always found a way to be close to Meldresi and the pups, guarding like a zombie the area that surrounded the den when he wasn't attending urgent calls or intrusions, which for one odd reason were just too many. There was something that dragged him close to his new family, something unnatural to him but it was there, and it was strong.
Bane had even made a provisional campsite where he slept for the last two weeks, he just needed to make sure they were okay, that they didn't leave the world as half the litter had. No one was allowed close to the den, not even Slade himself, the second most trusted wolf in the pack got to walk closer than a hundred yards from the litter, whoever wanted to do so would have to pass over him, and dare them try.
But he didn't get that close either. His guard started a couple yards away from the den, there was a barrier that stopped him from coming closer, a psicological barrier that he didn't know how to break. It was fear. Fear of himself around the children. Fear of his deadly nature around the pups. Fear. The same fear he felt when he saw the white little head poking out of the den to howl. Too dangerous. Bane barked as an attempt to wake Meldresi up. He barked again, this time louder, but she didn't answer.
Fuck...
He had to do something to stop the girl from coming out to the cold snow. She would die frozen if her father didn't act quickly. So he came to rescue her. A switch clicking inside him made his body float all the way to the girl, and as easy as that he had broken the barrier. Fuck... this time he meant it, but it was too late to retreat. Meldresi!
Bane whispered trying to call the attention of the sleeping mother inside the darkness, but her own snores silenced his deep voice. Useless...
He was kinda ignoring the girl in that moment, but that soon dissappeared too. When he saw her eyes, her big blue eyes, all the previous fears he had dissipated in his mind, and they all turned into something more fierce than that. He knew he wouldn't hurt the girl, he knew he would'n hurt HIS girl, he wasn't capable of such thing. She was so beautiful, so tiny. She would easily become the light in this monster's ghost eyes.
Hey little princess
he said, his deep voice melting into a sweet whisper as he grew closer to the ground and placed himself face-to-face with his daughter.
Her newly unsealed ears flinched at the loud noises coming from in front of her. They were sharp and urgent, and yet compelling. She wriggled towards it, trying and failing to triangulate the sound. But, she found something else.
Parting from the snow and looming into her vision, was a giant white thing. It had features similar to her mother and brothers, with the sharp muzzle and ears, but its eyes were white, just like its fur. After living for a week or so with only blue eyes, this new shade startled her beyond measure. The young fur ball squeaked with surprise, the little pink mouth opening as she focused her vision on the not-snow-thing.
The not-snow-thing spoke, its words unfamiliar to her, but the timbre of it was familiar. So it was him! The other wolf, the one who had been there when she was born. Her uncoordinated paws pushed her forward towards the white muzzle, but she could only go so far. She collapsed onto his nose, large baby blue eyes blinking at him in an innocent manner that was sure to break hearts.
He had said a word, something she had never heard before. She knew a few; little, tiny, baby, babies, pup, puppy, puppies, spiderlings, precious, beautiful. Those were words her mother whispered constantly to them as they nursed or when they dosed. They were spoken with affection, and those were the words she latched onto and remembered fiercely. But the one that followed the familiar little was new to her. Princess.... "Pwin....pwin...pwin..." she echoed, the first syllable sounding like a whimper. It was not her first word, just a babble, but she was making progress. "Pwin...?"
Suddenly, Bane felt as if the colours of the world changed completely. His dull life had always been in black and white, stained with red, the crimson red blood that he so often felt the urge to spill, he always saw everything in only one way that he wasn't even completely keen on, the dark within him manipulating every aspect of his life. But the moment he saw the little girl's big blue eyes, the whole world turned the exact same colour.
The feeling that ran through Bane's spine as he touched noses with his daughter was the second most amazing thing, only after having seen her bright blue eyes open. Maybe Bane hadn't wanted to be a father at first, but now he was going though a life-changing moment that let him realize that the way he saw the world was mistaken.
And then, her voice. Her babbling actually, as she tried to repeat the words of her father. A smile lightened up the northernman's face, but this time, the smile wasn't one of those he so often displayed when he was about to murder something, this smile was a new one, a smile of pleasure, full of tenderness, and his daughter was the only one that had managed to get one of those out of him. Yes! Princess...
he repeated slowly and nuzzled his nose against hers while his tail waved behind him.
Not wasting any more time, Bane gently took his daughter by the skin of the back of her head and pulled her up to take her back into the den, it was too dangerous for her to be outside in the cold snow and he didn't want any harm done on her. A few pawsteps forward, Bane placed his daughter in the floor, and once again, he lowered his head to put it right in front of hers to lick her tiny little head.
The young princess giggled softly as her father licked her forehead, tickling the pup's fluff on her head. Her baby blue eyes gleamed with delight as she tried to urge him into a game with her. She leapt up and nipped his nose gently, instigating a wrestling game that she played with her brothers.
The girl's giggles were heartwarming enough for the Bane's tail to go crazy behind him. He had never experienced many of the feelings and emotions that he had been for the last two minutes, and they were refreshing, it was a whole new world that he was peeking into, and even though he couldn't be more afraid of it he knew that playing his role as father was the right thing to do.
The little princess attacked her father with tiny nips to his nose, and Bane instantly knew what she was trying to do. He posed himself on a playful bow and with his tail whirling behind him he followed his girl's game. He pressed her nose with his big paw and jumped back, challenging the girl to follow.
Her nose was bopped, and she squeaked happily, running towards her father to get her revenge. She landed on the guilty paw, wrapping her forelimbs around it and battering it with her hindlegs, kind of like how a cat does. All the while she was nipping the limb at random places, indiscriminate and rough.
He was caught. His paw was now at the mercy of the girl and it felt like the world was going to end for the father. He felt something building up in his throat, something that was a rarity in the snow warrior's nature. Giggles. Bane bursted into giggles when his daughter clanged onto his paw. That was something you didn't have the pleasure to behold, Bnae was enjoying his time with his little daughter, he was playing with her, and the weirdest part of it all, she was enjoying it too.
Caught in laughter, the father raised his gigantic paw, the one that his girl had chosen as "the guilty one" with her still clinging from it, and then he took the girl with his teeth, trying very hard not to hurt her and placed her in the ground, only to attack her with tickles to her belly.
The tiny pup squealed with delight however when her father started tickling her belly. It was something she didn't expect, or have encountered before. She laughed happily, and felt something building inside of her. It was strangely familiar, but with the endorphins rushing through her brain she barely could register what it was until, well it happened.
She peed on herself, to put it bluntly.
There had never been something similar in Bane's life, he was delighted by the cuteness rush that only his daughter could give him. It had been love at first sight, a love that he didn't expected to have for nobody in his life.
The tickles intensified, as well as the giggles that now flooded the caves that served as a den for the snowflake princess. But maybe it had been too much. The girl wasn't aware of what had happened, Bane knew it because she kept giggling unperturbed.
She had peed on herself.
Bane's laughter stopped, and he lifted his face to check if he had gotten any on him. Oh fuck...
he whispered, and looked around to see if Meldresi was awake. He loved his daughter, but he wasn't even close to be a father who changed diapers.
It's time to go back to mommy
he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust, and then, he took the girl by the thick skin of her neck and carried her back to where her mother was curled with the rest of the pups. He placed her in the ground and touched Meldresi's shoulder, careful not to startle her but sharply enough to wake her up.
Meldresi was tired, though she had slept peacefully for a few moments. Her pups were wearing down on her, especially the soon to be named Damien and his antics. So when the father of her children nudged her to tend to her child, Meldresi responded with an uncharacteristic "What.", a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes accompanying the blunt question.
When her eyes opened and she smelled the ammonia in the air, Meldresi regained her normal, stoic posture as she looked down at her daughter. The priestess gathered the white pup to her, preparing to do the dirty deed of cleaning the rancid smelling pup, before she paused and looked up at Bane. "Thank you." she sighed, grateful for Bane reporting this to her so she would not have an even ruder awakening.
Potema looked up at the white wolf, whimpering softly as she tried to drag herself back to him. She didn't mind the stinking, damp mess on her hindquarters at all. She just wanted to play with the man, her father, again. "Pwin...." she whined. "Pwin, pwin, pwin...."
Poker face. That's the only way you could properly describe Bane's expression. He wasn't sure whether he should stay or leave the mother to do the proper butt-cleaning. So he just stood there, poker-faced. She was trying to escape the den and I brought her back... Bane explained. He hoped he hadn't been to rude in awakening the mother; he could tell that taking care of pups was more energy-draining that he'd thought.
"Uhmm... She kinda said a word about five minutes ago... She was trying to copy it from me.." he barked swaying his tail to avoid the awkwardness. "She said Pr..." but he was interrupted by his daughter, who one again was repeating the word she heard from his father's voice. A smile touched his face, "Princess..." he woofed, nuzzling his daughter's cold nose with his own.
Potema was the littlest of the bunch, which made Meldresi relieved to know Bane had intervened before she got into anymore trouble. Or even into the jaws of whatever dark predator was lurking around, a raccoon....a crow or raven....[size=xx-small]Grimnir[/size] Meldresi flashed a small, but grateful, smile to the father of her pups, and was ready to clean up Potema's hindquarters when Bane started speaking again.
Her only daughter, the last born of her children, was the first to speak, or truly attempt to! She was glad to hear that, but even more so when the little white furball started whimpering the half-word. Princess. Meldresi's eyes beamed with pride, and she was trying not to gush over how adorable this whole scene was. She had to retain her image around Bane, but once he was gone she was start cooing over her daughter. "She's the first one." she whispered happily. "I see she's taking a liking to you, Bane. No wonder why she copied your words. Thank you, again."
Bane smiled, only that. The icy spiderling had cracked Bane's heart's rocky surface open and would always have a place in there for her. Even if she was the smelliest pup he'd ever known. Bane was starting to get a little too disgusted by his daughter's piss, but hearing her repeat his own words was holding him in place, unable to leave the den.
"That's fine. I may be getting a little too fond of her as well." Bane said hesitantly, he'd never felt this towards someone in his life. "What can I say... She's my little princess." he finally said and looked over at Meldresi in the eyes, her deep indigo eyes that weren't glimmering as strong as they did before. Bane supposed it was because raising pups was a heavy task and so he didn't blame her and offered a smile and a light wag of his tail. "I think I'll leave you two alone so you can... Do whatever comes after that..." he pointed over at the girl with his head and after another two seconds of looking at her with a big smile he turned around and left the den. That was a day he'd always remember.
She nodded to her parental partner as he left her to tend to the stinking white pup, who was cheerfully squeaking the half-word to herself. The girl did not seem to realize the fact that she was stinking and wet, but once that urine lingered on her fur for too long it would be a nightmare for everyone. Meldresi beckoned her child close, not looking forward to this disgusting task, but it was something she had to get done. All the while, the priestess smiled to herself, pleased that the father of her children wasn't going to be a stranger to them. He would definitely live up to his title as 'father'.