Stavanger Bay rawr, the boy genius

This thread looks lonely, and Charon's too cute for me to resist. :)

Ever since the birth of his children, it seemed like Verrine slept with one eye open. He was so afraid that one of them would awaken in the middle of the night and wander off into the darkness alone, and Verrine shuddered to think about the consequences of that. Julooke was vigilant too, and they often took turns keeping watch so the other could get some decent sleep. It was tough, though. Four newborns were not easy to sleep around. Someone was always crying, or fussing, or hungry, or needing to be cleaned, or just plain restless. Verrine's aspirations to climb the ranks and earn a trade for himself in the pack had pretty much gone out the window for the time being, as so much of his time was demanded by his puppies. He didn't regret it one bit, though. He cherished every minute of it.

He had been dozing a little when a soft scuffling noise drew him immediately to alertness. He felt his heart lurch with fleeting panic for the briefest of moments before he looked around and saw that all was well. In the dim glow of starlight at the mouth of the den, however, he saw the outline of little Charon. He was clearly fascinated by the stars, and the boy's father smiled. Verrine watched him for a few minutes, finding it very hard not to laugh at the child's attempts to touch the stars. When several moments had passed, Verrine very gently and quietly pulled himself to his feet -- being extra careful not to wake any of the other kids or Julooke up -- and edged up alongside his pale-furred son. He smiled at the boy, licking him tenderly on the cheek, and whispered quietly, "Stargazing already, eh? You are so Julooke's son." He knew his kids were still too young to understand much of what he said to them, but that didn't stop him from talking to them anyway.