Moonspear a place to anchor

He steals away looks at the planes of his father's face. Even now, wrenched from him a coveted stick, does his sight fall upon the relaxed figure of his sire. In front of the den mouth, @Dirge lays, attention never straying far from his rambunctious children.

Since their first introduction, Dirge is a frequent presence. Not as ubiquitous as the Cerberus but frequent enough. Often he would come and go as he pleased, sometimes leaving for an hour or two before coming around again. Once night falls, he would disappear for the night...only to return the ensuing morning or evening.

There is now another set of eyes upon Moonspear's newest brood. This one, Atlas thinks, is easier to exist beneath. So he believes.

Pardoning himself from Vega's and Osiris' disagreement over who should chew on the branch in peace — a feud he had a paw in stirring up — Atlas ambulates on over to the reposed Alpha. Pausing four feet in front of his sire's outstretched limbs, Atlas does something unexpected: he looks Dirge directly in the eye with the scantiest furrow of his brow.

Now, Atlas does not understand things like rank. He does not understand that direct eye contact could be seen as a slight. However, he is not completely clueless regarding the heavy implications of looking at someone else in the eye. How vulnerable it makes him feels and how he usually withers beneath continued stares. Why just the other day he had locked eyes with @Hydra. It had been intense. The memory is still so fresh, he hurriedly tears his eyes away from Dirge in favor of his paws.

He does not understand why holding the gaze of one of his providers is so difficult. He can hold staring contests with any of his siblings, no problem. In fact, he enjoys doing so as it sometimes leads to instigations or some form of "what are you looking at?" But with adults, he can't do it. It is mentally onerous.

For a boy who is still becoming, Atlas views this as a weakness. A weakness that is fresh within him but has, thus far, amassed plenty of reflection. And though he is positive he can shoulder this strange, new weight, he cannot deny its burden in what should be a tranquil moment between father and son.