Redhawk Caldera Circle of life

Nightjar wasn't the first cub to rise, which was almost a first for him. His stores of energy seemed to grow to unlimited capacity overnight so that he was usually the first on his feet, sometimes even beating his Warden father to the punch. For some reason, it was much harder to get up this morning; he was still lying in the den, pretending he was asleep and wishing he could be, when Wildfire discovered the leg.

With a final nudge from one of his parents, the cub rolled onto his stomach, stretched and yawned. He immediately went to Fox—he liked the taste of meat, but was proving to be the most resistant to being weaned—and yelped when Fox nipped roughly at him, deterring him away from her spent teats and putting him in his place all while directing him toward the leg. His tail snaked between his thighs as he crept closer to the meal, though after a bite or two, it swayed over his hips and his mother's punishment was forgotten.

Soon enough, Peregrine roused them and cantered off into the distance. Never one to miss an opportunity to either chase or fight someone, Nightjar scrambled to his feet and set off after the Alpha male at a brisk run. To look at him now, one would never know he was once a clumsy butterball. He was now a sleek young two-month-old, strong but actually pretty slow. His sisters overtook him soon enough, and by the time they reached the rendezvous site, Nightjar was panting, but bright-eyed.

The hill rolled on in front of him, and he resisted the urge to run down it for exactly two seconds before he flung himself along in Wildfire's wake. He was only halfway down when he tripped over a rock. His fall didn't break his momentum, though, and soon he was whirling away in a somersault that stopped only when he crashed into the trunk of an evergreen tree.

Being a young boy and therefore remarkably resilient, Nightjar stood up slowly, aching but whole. Wildfire was staring back up the hill, and Fox was saying something about rods and knees. Nightjar shook himself, freeing his coat of about thirteen pine needles, and began to pad slowly back up toward his parents, babbling, "owd knee owd knee," all the way.