Redhawk Caldera the shadows under the world

While the puppies were at their puny size, they didn't seem real to Reyes. They certainly didn't send the same kind of warning signal through his brain and body like other wolves; but they were more bean-shaped, and sometimes when they were sleeping, he wondered if this was really happening. If they were real. If his life had really somehow normalized.

And other times, the chaos borne of their need to cling, climb, and crow made him want to do some pretty terrible things. Chief among them was escape; which was what Reyes hoped to do while they were sleeping. As soon as he was at the sunlit border of the hobbit hole's entrance, he was tackled by not one eager child — but all of them at once.

Tierra in the lead — or was that Sphyra??
Caracal rising to the squawk of his sister—
Sphyra - Tierra ??? to follow, bouncing in the rear.

He felt them collide with his feet and had the sudden and horrible thought that he'd stepped on one; his initial reaction was to stride further and shake his feet as if he'd stepped in mud, bopping Tierra on the nose rather hard in the process. As Reyes half-emerged he was mid turn, trying to separate the children without being too rough; checking on Tierra's poor snoot; shushing them and generally floundering while they mobbed him.

Sorry, Bronco — for now you're in for a show, and Reyes didn't have enough spoons left to accept audience participation.