Heron Lake Plateau Coo coo for cocoa puffs

Tagging mainly for reference!  :)  The "hybrid" Owen is talking about is once again @Towhee (and X, sorta  ;D  ).

Owen had been very leery of confronting the earthy edge of the mysterious portal that was the den's exit. Very leery indeed, for last time he had attempted to investigate, the obdurate wall had bitten him, right on his poor little nose which he could practically still feel the sting in if he thought about it overmuch. But no matter how much he enjoyed the bountiful supply found at @Raven's belly and the warmth and safety of the den, he found to his distress that Momma Raven had been spending increasing time away from home and growing less cooperative with this whole nursing thing as her frantic brood attacked her teats with growing strength and newfound teeth both. Owen couldn't understand it. He was hungry, just about all the time, and now he had to contend with not just his recalcitrant siblings but also his mommy's frequent absences? It was not fair, not in the least, and he'd spent the better part of a day curled up in a far corner of the den sulking about it.

But even as the milkman's delivery schedule grew less dependable, even as he stalwartly tried to ignore that strange bright circle at the end of the tunnel whence came so many strange sights and smells, he found himself feeling more and more drawn to some of the exotic smorgasboard the world out there kept trying to serve up to him. Some of the scents were even beginning to smell strangely delicious, despite their whole identity crisis of plainly not being a proper serving of the milk he had always craved. It was really weird, and Owen wasn't at all certain he liked it.

But today he at last caught a scent that tickled his nose and niggled at his little brain until he found himself gradually wobbling his way upward and outward. It was a smell that reminded him of that one very strange creature who had been poking her nose into the den throughout most of his brief life, the one who had shed that strange bit of downy fluff and didn't smell quite like any of the other handful of wolves the pup had thus far encountered—the one Owen was convinced must actually be some sort of strange monstrous hybrid in a wolf costume trying to invade the den site. She had always been quite a nice monster, however, so once he passed that first tricky corner it was with more curiosity than fear that Owen toddled his way out into the shafts of strong sunlight to have a better sniff at what was going on out here. His ears still weren't the best, as was perhaps fortunate, and his eyes were dazzled by the fiery star hanging unimaginably high in the sky above. Owen had to stand there and blink the sunspots from his vision for a minute, and then had to keep blinking at the fluttering, squawking, utterly bizarre white creature that was dancing about a short distance away. Its head whipped side to side in such a fashion that Owen had to wonder if its neck was broken, or if perhaps it was simply distressed at the prospect of having only two small stick-like legs. Owen had thought his limbs were teeny compared to all the treetrunks the bigger wolves walked around on, but this creature really took the cake. He bobbled another step forward and ventured, Araraah?