Blacktail Deer Plateau PACKTIVITY — Scary monsters and nice sprites

Making some assumptions. If anybody minds, just PM me. :)

Since it was a particularly humid June day, the two able-bodied parents had taken the four pups to Hawkeye's waterfall for a few hours of swimming and splashing. They were headed home now, damp and hungry and weary. They walked in sled dog formation, with Osprey Jr. acting as leader, the other three as swing dogs and the two adults as wheelers. Their traces and their sled were invisible, of course, nothing more than figments of one of the pups' vivid imaginations.

En route, Peregrine's call reverberated through the darkening trees. A dozen ears pivoted, listening, and half a dozen tails twitched as the party of six hearkened to the leader's summons. Osprey's tongue lolled from her mouth as she galloped the remaining distance to the rendezvous site, then exploded into the clearing (at the exact same time that Blue Willow materialized next to Peregrine) with a booming bark.

"Daddy!" she cried joyously, enunciating the word with nearly perfect clarity. She bounced toward him, though she stopped short when she remembered his broken leg and carefully bumped her little muzzle beneath his chest. "Hi!" she added for Blue Willow's benefit, two-toned eyes glowing as she grinned at her aunt. "Wanna heaw stowies!" she let them both know, plopping herself next to her dad and leaning against his good side.

As she sat there, her damp black body warmed by Peregrine's hulk, Junior's belly gave a telltale rumble. "Snacks?" she whispered sotto voce to her daddy. It was technically dinnertime but Osprey Jr. wouldn't be fussy about terminology, so long as she got some food in her belly while she listened!