Redhawk Caldera Nobody puts baby in a corner

"Choo choo!" Wildfire exclaimed as she trotted just behind Peregrine, the tiny red caboose to his big black steam engine. "Choo choo! Choo choo! Choo choo!" Some words were more fun to say than others, so she said them as often as she could, often in a long, repetitive (and annoying) stream. "Chooooo, duh-dee!"

"I hear ya," Peregrine replied, quickening his pace. Maybe if he sped up enough, Wildfire wouldn't have the breath to spare to keep spouting words—rather, the same word over and over. He liked hearing his children talk more and more these days, yet the endless repetition could grate on even the most patient parent's nerves. The buzzwords even haunted his sleep at times."Think you can catch me, little engine that could?" he teased as he began to outpace her.

Wildfire squealed, her paws slapping the ground as she ran as fast as she could to catch up with her fleeing father. It was only a matter of time before she stumbled and fell. For the moment, though, she looked exactly like her namesake: a streak of bright orange wildfire blurring swiftly across the landscape, leaving a trail of smoke dust in her wake.

Tiger had been immersing herself in the pack territory, steering clear from everyone when her time had come. But after her heat had passed and she was quite certain she'd not be a nuisance to anyone, and jeopardize her future here, Tiger moved to find something more productive to do than lurk and explore plants and their uses. Given Spring was here and the snow had melted, discovering herbs was easy enough for the striped Blackthorn. Tiger wasn't much of a medic, but she was a decent quartermaster. At least she could identify life-threatening from the safe to ingest plants.

The pale, pretty sylph moved and heard a hollering in the distance. Curious, Tiger moved to investigate it. It sounded more excited than fearful, but one could never be sure. Her pace quickened and Tiger was upon the scene in no time, watching the sprinting Wildfire and trotting toward her father. She preparing for field day? she quips, watching the blur move at a pretty impressive speed for one her age.

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Peregrine began to slow, allowing Wildfire to catch up to him. When she came within reach, she swiped out a paw and slapped the back of his leg with a loud, "Hee!" Her yellow eyes lifted to his face, though they cut sideways at the sight of an approaching wolf. The pup's ears quivered when the stranger spoke. She bit her lip, shifting partially behind her father's leg but peeking out curiously.

"What's field day?" Peregrine was saying to Tiger. Before waiting for an answer, he said, "Hey, can you watch Wifi for a minute? I've gotta take a dump." He didn't bat an eyelash as he made this announcement. He shifted so he could look at his little girl. "I won't be far and I'll be right back, wild filly," he told her, shaking his head slightly when she made to follow him.

All it took was a stern look to cause Wildfire to plant her bottom on the ground, ears flattening. She didn't like it when her daddy walked away, leaving her with someone she didn't know. Her lip quivered. It took a long moment before the bashful puppy worked up the nerve to face Tiger. She had no recollection of meeting this particular wolf. Wildfire kept her head low, her black tail lying like a limp black snake on the ground. Contrary to her earlier swiftness, she now remained absolutely motionless.

Tiger was about to explain to him what field day was, when he cordially announced his need to take a dump. Tiger did not so much as blink. Her brothers were as succinct in their delivery of these matters as he was, and though her father was a bit more verbose as opposed to blunt, it mattered not. Everybody poops. But then she was left to face the tyke... alone. Tiger had never dealt with this before, and so she blinked at the girl, tilting her head. 

"Well, your dad went to poop," she said, thinking this to be a great conversation starter. "How about a game of... tag. Y'think you can catch me? I'm pretty fast." Tiger wiggles her eyebrows, and jumps backward, sliding her forelegs forward in the universal gesture for play, tail waving to coax and egg the girl on. Eh, eh?????

Had it been her mother, father or another familiar relative, Wildfire would have jumped at the exuberant invitation to play. Since she didn't know Tiger, she instead hunched her little red shoulders and shook her head lightly. At the same time, she looked up from beneath long lashes, her golden eyes apprehensive and mistrustful. Why would her father leave her with a perfect stranger?

"No," she murmured, though it wasn't obvious whether she was responding to Tiger's question or the idea of playing altogether. Wildfire glanced over her shoulder momentarily, wishing her father would return. But he was nowhere in sight, so she slowly faced Tiger again, her expression still very uneasy.

Tiger blinked at the girls bored reply, and withheld a frown. I'm so bad at this. Kids hate me. Oh, gosh... Tiger hoisted herself upright and mimicked the cub, now sitting. "No, you don't think you can catch me? Or, no, you don't want to play?" Tiger wasn't sure what exactly cubs could express or understand at her age. But, she would learn today!

"My names Tiger, by the way. Hey," Wildfire probably didn't know her name, not from sight, so Tiger just wanted the other to know. "I bet you know my sister, Finley!" Conversation piece, way to go, lets make this magic happen. Tiger wasn't very sure how to deal with shyness, or really, if she was doing anything right. What she did know was Wildfire was so fekking cute and dammit if she didn't want to be well-liked by the girl!

Instead of answering again, Wildfire dropped her gaze, her golden eyes fixing on her own front feet. Her lip began to protrude in a pout as she grew more and more uncomfortable. She shook her head, not in reply to Tiger's questions but to indicate that she had no intention of answering them. Wildfire just wanted to be left alone and for this perfect stranger to stop needling her.

Then Tiger said the magic word: Finley. Wildfire's head jerked upward, her eyes now fastening on Tiger's face. "Flea!" she shouted without realizing she was even doing it. Her eyes began to cut left and right, searching for her aunt. Like her father, however, the Beta female was nowhere in sight. "Flea?" she said again, more quietly, disappointment beginning to crumble her youthful features again.

Tiger was happy to see her thrilled over her sister. But evidently she had misunderstood. Did she think Finley was here? "Not here, no. She is my sister..." Tiger wondered if the girl would understand that. Tiger moved to lay, so the youth could see her stripe. "We have the same stripe." Tiger was glad her sister was received well by the tyke and only hoped she could achieve "Flea" status.

Tiger placed her chin on her paws gingerly, watching the pup from below, wondering if her stripe might register to the girl, or if any association could be built from there. Probably not, but it was worth a try.

It quickly became clear that Finley was not here. The puppy exhaled sadly, eyes returning to her paws. She watched Tiger lower herself out of the corner of her eye and lifted her head to peer at the stripe down the female's back. It did make her think of Finley, which sparked the minutest amount of trust in little Wildfire's breast. But still she did not budge.

Not until she flopped on her own belly, at least, her nose pointed in Tiger's general direction. She had overcome enough of her shyness to look at Tiger candidly, though she made no real attempt to communicate. In fact, Wildfire let her chin sink to the ground beside her forelegs. She would just lay here until her father returned.

"Why are you starfishing?" a familiar voice boomed out behind her perhaps twenty seconds later, startling Wildfire and causing her to rapidly lift her head, then jump onto her feet. "Duh-dee!" the child cried, pressing herself into his black foreleg. She licked him and included an indignant nip for his abandonment.

"Hey!" Peregrine said laughingly, then looked over at Tiger. "She can be a bit bashful sometimes. I'm sure she'll warm up to you soon enough. Do you wanna play a game with Tiger, Wifi? Maybe we could play... freeze tag?" Without waiting for a reply from either one, he suddenly launched forward, tapping the subordinate with a cry of, "Tag, you're It! Run, Wifi!"

With her father there playing along, Wildfire's entire demeanor changed. Eyes sparkling, she laughed shrilly and darted away from Tiger, dashing just behind her father as they tried to escape being tagged (and frozen) themselves.

For a while, she just lay there, watching Wildfire. She had no idea what to do. I'm a failure. But she also made a note to visit the cubs more. Maybe next time she'd be more successful when Peregrine went to poo. But soon he was back, and Tiger pushed herself to a sit. Wildfire was much more exuberant in his presence, and Tiger listened to him. Bashful. Right. Made sense.

His suggestion she had no time to reply to before he simply acted on it; and Tiger jumped a bit. "Wh-!" Y'snooze, y'lose." She wasted no time. He was playing against the champ of freeze tag. She totally destroyed her siblings in this. Her eyes fell to the little Wifi, then to Perry. Ty reached out to poke lightly at the red pup before lurching backward, but Perry could perhaps be caught in the crossfire. Tiger would laugh if she missed, resuming fire.

In her excitement (not to mention her usual clumsiness), it wasn't long before Wildfire totally crashed into Peregrine's hind legs. She screamed, bouncing backward. She screamed again when she felt a soft tap to her shoulder. The puppy gave an indignant cry, playfully baring her teeth at Tiger. Refusing to play by the rules (or else oblivious to them), she didn't freeze at all. Instead, she leaped at Tiger, trying to bite at her flailing paw. Emboldened by her father's presence, it seemed she had shed every last trace of bashfulness as she made to playfully attack the grown she-wolf.

The girls screams were ridiculously loud. Tiger's ears swiveled and leaned backward, and when she felt that she had succeeded in catching the girl she felt a tiny thrill run through her. I DID IT! But the girl didn't freeze. "She has super powers!!!!" She remarked playfully to Perry, but feigned horror toward Wildfire as she came for her. Try as she might, there was no escaping Wildfire's quickness when she had anticipated the girl becoming frozen, so she could not withdraw said flailing paw in time. And as soon as she was tapped, she went frozen, as the rules decreed, hollering a quick "OH nOOOooO--" before going rigid in her stance.

Tiger's cry did not register with the youngster, as she was too busy trying to tag her in turn. But when the adult froze, the puppy giggled and retreated, golden eyes seeking her father's location. She was probably supposed to tag him but Wildfire considered him a teammate, not an opponent like Tiger. So the youngster more or less considered the game won, what with Tiger successfully frozen.

And that gave Wildfire a moment to finally absorb what Tiger had said. "Supaaa poooowa!" she crowed loudly, showing almost no trace of her earlier bashfulness. It was evident that her father's presence (and perhaps a bit of adrenaline) had caused her to fling her shell to the side. "Choo choo!" she added loudly, as if it was a cry of victory.

If you want to fade 'em playing that's fine with me! I held this up, sorry x_x

Tiger stood frozen, grinning at the girls victory cry. Tiger looked to Peregrine, waggling her brows. Free me, free me!!!, the look seemed to suggest. Then she'd give the girl a run for her money, and come back to life reborn, keen to play the faux-villain in this game. She would wait for an assist, and then make a speech and give herself a great villain name and decree Wildfire the super hero Frostbite since, well, it fit in the game. It contrasted entirely with her actual name, but that amused Tiger all the more. She herself? Well, she neglected to give herself a cool villainness name, maybe Perry or Wifi could come up with something cool.

No worries. I'll conclude. :)

With the game won, Wildfire paid no further attention to Tiger. Actually, she began looking around for a puddle. Between the race earlier and the game just now, she was suddenly desperately thirsty. When she couldn't find anything to drink, she looked imploringly at her father with a cry of, "Firsty, duh-dee!"

"Okay, let's go find you something to drink," the doting father replied, shooting a look at Tiger. "Thanks for playing. We'll catch you for round two another time." He waved his tail at her, then looked back to Wildfire and said, "Come on, caboose. Last one there is a rotten moose turd!" He then began to trot.

"Choo choo choooooo!" was Wildfire's only reply before she scampered after him, her dry tongue lolling from her maw as they disappeared in the direction of some water.