Hideaway Strath a tapestry of clover,

Momotzli woke before the sun, in that hour before the clouds had adopted their soft hues of candy floss and the golden rays of the sun breathed life into the summer paradise of the Strath. The light was muted and grey, filling the den that had been her sanctuary for the past month of life with the cornflower blue of dawn and softening the shadows like charcoal smudges upon a canvas. When the wolfdog’s drowsiness fled and she became aware that she was in fact, awake, the puppy’s blonde head popped up suddenly — swinging to the right to drink in the sight of her parents curled around each other with a mismatched gaze of precious metals, her childhood hues almost faded. In time, the last of the murky blue color would be replaced by small flecks of brilliant azul.

 The girl’s brow wrinkled slightly, uncertain. She’d never woken up before her guardians did — the pale duo her neonatal brain had once known as Life-Giver and Protector. Their hues and scents had been almost interchangeable at first, the only difference their newborn daughter had known between the two being that the Giver had the milk scent. Their features had taken shape as her eyes opened and vision became pronounced, the Giver becoming Mantli and the Protector taking on the form of her Tatli.

Mantli was tucked up against her papa’s chest, the way Momo sometimes slept herself, but she’d rolled over in the night — a single feathered paw outstretched towards the chimera as if she had subconsciously reached for her daughter in their slumber.  The golden ball of fluffy down pattered over to her mother and father on paws that she was still learning to control, already losing her childhood chub and becoming gangly — bound for the same willowish and gamine build her dam possessed. She poked at @Vein’s muzzle insistently, trying to prod him into rising and regurgitating some breakfast for her — not yet aware that it didn’t quite work that way and her father wouldn’t have any meat recently stored in his belly for her to eat.  When that failed, she tried nosing at her mother’s face but Aerin must’ve been tuckered out from being a new parent because she too only murmured softly in her sleep before rolling back towards her husband. 

Momotzli flopped down on her rump, a whisper of a whine working its way up her throat — as if the instinct to cry until they woke up and tended to her needs was still predominant. But as she had grown, she was losing some of her babyish aspects and taking on the typical traits of toddlerhood. Like any small child, she was curious. Instead of howling until her parents woke, she ended up becoming lost in the whimsy of her own thoughts for a moment before her gilded orbs flickered over to the den’s threshold and lingered there.

It was with slow, overly cautious steps that the child toed her way over to the entrance — peering out as the sun began to filter through the trees, lighting the  leaves with a hue of electric jade wherever the light struck the canopy. She cast a hesitant glance behind her at the still-dozing medics, catching a glimpse of crimson as she turned back to the scene outside. Just barely able to make out the field of ruby from the doorway of her parents’ dwelling, Momo found that her curiosity outweighed her fear. Without another thought, the little girl raced from the whelping den towards the patch of red hidden amongst the trees.

She stopped at the boundaries of the meadow, wide eyes of silver and gold turned upwards as she examined a flower for the first time. Too short to reach, the pup sat back on her haunches and stood up like a gopher might, straining towards the petals with her forepaws outstretched.