Redhawk Caldera The world is having more fun

He’d been dreaming- exhaustion had dragged him into a much deeper sleep than he had anticipated having, so when he was awakened he was groggy and disoriented. He felt a light nudge and heard his name spoken again, so he lifted his head and blinked. The fur on one side of his face was mussed and flattened against its usual flow. 

He blinked and squinted at the sight of Killdeer. He felt surprised to see his half-brother. ”Oh, uh, yeah, I-“ He drew in a breath as he tried to shake himself away from his dreams and back into reality.

The clipped tone of his sister, however, served as a bucket of ice water. He watched wide-eyed as she brushed past their gentler older brother and he shrank slightly in his snow dug-out as she poked and prodded him. Beneath him, his tail wriggled furiously against the snow. 

He was more surprised than anything else, that she received him so stiffly. He wanted nothing more than to give her a hug and show how relieved he was to have found his way home, but he felt like he was in a slide under a microscope, and remained pinned to the spot out of sheer shock. Exhausted and underfed, he wouldn’t have had the strength to resist anyway.

He jerked his head away, however, when he heard his mother’s voice. He uttered a soft, strangled sound as he scrambled to his feet and with his tail thwacking at his ankles, he clamoured his way out from beneath her well-intended paw so that he could squirm excitedly against her chest, pecking at her jaw with kiss after kiss. Whale-eyed and whining, he sought forgiveness and acceptance.