Blacktail Deer Plateau eats, shoots and leaves

Young Osprey sort of grasped the concept. She turned the word and its definition over and over in her head, then recalled that Blue Willow had praised her ability to defend herself. Belatedly, the pup cracked a grin and puffed up her chest, proud of this achievement, even if she hadn't even done it on purpose at the time.

"I's a good de-fen-daw," she declared, enunciating the word so carefully that she broke it into three distinct, childish syllables. "I pwotect me!" She bobbed her head in a sage nod.

Glancing around herself abruptly, Junior spotted her father watching from across the open clearing. A fun game suddenly occurred to her and she began to dart hither and thither in an excited fashion, a few sharp barks loosing from her snout as she gave the Alpha female a fiendish look.

"I pwotect daddy fwom you big meanie!" she crowed, suddenly falling back on her haunches and swiping the air between herself and the Healer. She grinned playfully, then bounded in her father's direction, trying to draw her aunt with her so they could playact a scenario in which the puppy defended her father from the big bad Blue Willow.