Blacktail Deer Plateau PACKTIVITY — Then the quiet explosion

Just this morning, Peregrine had taken all four of the pups aside to explain to them the nature of his relationships with Fox and Lasher. Too young to know much about love and romance—and having grown up in an atypical family situation to boot—Osprey Jr. had met the news with a few loud blinks and a slew of questions (including one about peeing on Lasher's head that had made Peregrine choke a little bit). Beyond that, she had accepted it with an ambivalent shrug. They were all family here, weren't they? She did intend to pester both Fox and Lasher at the first opportunity, since they were daddy's special friends and she wanted to know what exactly made them so special...

Her father called, as he'd told them he would, and Osprey Jr. cried out to her fellow pups, "C'mon, you guys, it's time for my party!" and made a beeline toward the rendezvous site. She exploded from the brush to find her father flanked by Blue Willow and Fox (who she'd only seen in passing so far). The growing pup ran directly to her dad and mashed herself into the space between his forelegs, facing outward. When Peregrine made no move to push her away, she settled comfortably.

Peering around his leg in Fox's direction, she said to the nervous-looking she-wolf, "You're not black." It was just a curious observation. Almost all wolves in the tightly-knit plateau pack were black and it just surprised her that someone evidently so close to her daddy would be so different, that was all.