Sleeping Dragon this one is for the chewed up

anyone! i'll pp gyda as needed so don't be shy! the puppy guide says their eyes open anywhere between the 11-15 day mark and these bebes are 11 days old so here's a pioneer!eske :p i also assumed she'd begun hearing the guide doesn't say much about when their hearing develops so since they can howl and babble a bit during the transitional stage...i kind of just guessed? /end long occ note

The world around Eske had tilted on it's axis and began to change in what felt like a whirlwind to the young grounder. It had all started with the fact that she had slowly begun to hear things. Nothing was clear or all that discernible to the grounder princess — most of the time it was white noise though a few words came across to her...not that she understood what exactly they were. She did not understand the words her mother spoke, nor any of the others that came to visit them. It was babble to her, yet not wanting to be left out — seriously how rude! — she tried to mimic the strange noises the adults made. It was still a bunch of unsatisfying coo's, followed by her famous banshee wails and demands, and a series of grunts but well, she thought she was doing good. That morning (it was always morning for Eske who really had no concept of time) she'd woken up and was contented to blindly fill her stomach as she suckled though slowly her eyes peeped open. She froze, the soft and pudgy muscles pulling taunt as she realized that she saw something.

She released the teat she'd been drinking from and wiggled back a few steps, blinking rapidly at the giant blur that was her mother, before her head moved to the shadowy blurs that was her siblings — not realizing that the expression upon her face was that of someone who was ultimately judging hardcore — before she let out a loud banshee wail. What the hell is this? the sound appeared to be communicating.

She would be departing shortly to visit the caldera, as soon as an escort (likely Gavriel) could be procured. In the meantime, Wildfire spent a lot of time skulking around the whelping den. Often she brought food for the nursing mother but sometimes she arrived empty-handed, simply eager to see them, even from a few feet away.

Presently, she loitered around the doorstep, unwilling to come closer uninvited. But a banshee wail from just inside caused the seated yearling to crane her neck forward, large ears pricked and nose wriggling. "Uhhh, everything all right in there?" she whispered sotto voce, black tail sweeping over the short, cropped grass beneath her.

The strange shapes moved which only caused Eske to suck in another greedy breath — a small moment of solstice from said previous wail — and let out one louder than the one before. She could hear the high pitched noise that burst from her small lips but couldn't be bothered to care much that she was in jeopardy of potentially waking up any of the shield-maiden's neighbors. Too bad. The Grounder Princess was not accustomed to being able to see and she wasn't sure she liked it so they were going to have to listen to her. End of story. A slightly, kind of, but not really familiar voice came from somewhere behind Eske as she screamed for her mother to make the shapes go away or to calm her down enough for her to realize that being able to see wasn't so bad.

“It's fine,” Gyda assured Wildfire from over Eske's drawn out wail which ended only when she needed to pause for a breath. Seizing the opportunity Eske let out a disgruntled noise when Gyda pulled her closer and licked her. Eske squinted at the blurry shape that she would come to learn was Gyda's paw, wishing she could burn a hole through it because despite her fight the swipe of her mother's tongue was a soothing gesture and it calmed the grounder princess. “Eske's eyes have opened, would you like to see?” Gyda invited Wildfire in during the reprieve of Eske's temper tantrum. Large, milky blue eyes blinked at the blurry light and dancing shadows content in her silence at the moment to attempt to make sense of it.

When Gyda's voice answered her, Wildfire froze momentarily, unsure whether the den mother would welcome her presence. When she was invited to witness a very important milestone in Eske's development, her heart swelled. She nodded, then realized the Viking Queen likely couldn't see her, so she added an emphatic, "Oh my gosh, yes, please!" and scooted forward.

She ended up lying like a sphinx in the doorway, amber eyes gliding over all four little shapes before resting on the one one she knew to be Eske. "Hey there," Wildfire greeted, reverting back to a a loud stage whisper despite the infant's own noisy cries. "What'cha yellin' about, babu?" Where the hell had that come from? She didn't question it. "Don't like what you see?"

There was more nonsensical adult babble that was easy for Eske to tune out though it was the approach of another blurry shadow that caused the grounder princess to let out a gurgle that cut off her wails for sure (or rather, for the moment at least) and she let out a small chirp of a noise and wiggled away from Gyda, her singular minded path being Wildfire. She heard Wildfire's voice but understood her about as much as the adults likely understood her — which was to say not a lick. This inability to communicate was highly frustrating to Eske but she didn't focus upon it as the big, red blur babbled to her. Wildfire was a curiosity as far as Eske was concerned who presently couldn't really answer the flame kissed woman's questions. She gave another small gurgle that Wildfire could take however she wanted — for all intents and purposes it was up to interpretation. The truth was: Eske hadn't liked the strange and foreign shapes that had appeared from what appeared magically out of thin air to the Grounder Princess. They'd been there all along, of course but Eske had yet to make that connection, and thus couldn't understand that it was she that had changed and that, relatively speaking, everything else had stayed the same. For the ease of it all: it was their fault. “gah!” Eske cooed as she crawled her way towards Wildfire though it was a slow progression, admittedly.

Little did Wildfire know how much the wee pup in front of her hearkened back to her own youth as a supersonic whiner. The grunting and bawling didn't bother her one bit, though. Her lips twitched into an affectionate smirk as the colic child scooted in her general direction. Knowing it might result in an even louder protest, the yearling decided to help her along by craning forward, closing her muzzle gently around Eske's midriff, then lifting her and drawing her back into the doorway. She plopped her between her outstretched forelegs, tucking her toward her chest so she could begin running her tongue up and over that sweet, grumpy little face.

"You have very pretty eyes," Wildfire paused long enough to croon down at the youngster. She could truthfully only see a gummy little sliver, yet the blue reminded her of the very summer sky that vaulted over them.

If there was one thing Eske had learned thus far in her very short life it was that she did not enjoy being man-handled. Any time an adult scooped her up she wriggled and fought but of course while she could make their grip on her a difficult thing to maintain at the end of the day her fight was a fight tallied to her losses. Adults were stronger than her and overpowered her easily and appeared to know her kryptonite: attention. Whether it was a brush of a muzzle or a swipe of a tongue she enjoyed it. Well, she didn't always enjoy the baths...but she definitely enjoyed the attention, nevertheless. The Spear of The Gods was not destined to be a meek nor shy woman. The day that Eske was anything other than bold, brash and commanding meant that lions were becoming lambs. Eske might have been born the smallest of her siblings, the youngest, the “runt” but she was no lamb and she intended for everyone to realize that she was a lionness. Wildfire's tongue across her face, nor the nonsensical babble that the fire-kissed woman offered her was not quite enough to offset the upset at being manhandled and stubborn the grounder princess let out a grouchy “hmph.” determined not to give in. At least, not yet.

Eske didn't seem particularly moved by the flattery, though of course there was no way she understood Wildfire's words. It was even possible she couldn't hear them at all. The yearling paused, wondering why it was she felt the need to babble at the babies if they were as good as deaf, then shrugged inwardly. Why not? It definitely couldn't do any harm to talk to them, especially on the off chance they could register sounds on some level.

"Hmph right back at'cha," Wildfire said with a smile, crooking her foreleg and gently nudging little Eske's cheek with the knob of it. "Are you only grumpy in the mornings? Or all day long?" she teased before reaching out and nipping very delicately at the tip of the puppy's tiny tail, just to see what she would do.

Wildfire mimicked her Oscar-the-grouch impression but babbled some more adult babble that went entirely over Eske's head. Instead, she focused on the mimicry, trying to determine how she felt about being copied — never mind that in a few short weeks she would be copying everything she heard coming out of their mouths ...or to her credit trying to, at least. Something nudged at Eske's cheek and her jaws parted as wide as they would go, attempting to bite it — whatever it was — though if it successful or not was yet to be determined. A half squeak, half shriek left the grounder princess' lips when Wildfire nipped at her tail and twisted her body around to lash at her attacker with a part of her jaw and a low growl rumbling in her throat. Her milk teeth had yet to come in (which was probably lucky for Gyda and her siblings, admittedly) thus currently all she could do was gum uselessly at Wildfire if she managed to catch her.

Watching the exchange Gyda left out a soft chuckle, offering “I think she is grumpy when it best suits her.” in response to Wildfire's question aimed to the small child.

Eske responded defensively and Wildfire grinned. "Those are some quick reflexes there, girl," she acknowledged even as the pup managed to latch onto the thick, soft tissue of her upper lip. She held still, making no real effort to shake off the pup just yet. It didn't hurt, after all. It kind of tickled, actually, and Wildfire couldn't help but shake with quiet laughter.

Her amber eyes flicked to Gyda as she spoke, giving her a sympathetic half-smile (seeing as half her mouth was otherwise preoccupied). Wildfire considered lifting her head to see if the puppy would cling like a fish on a hook. But what if she dropped her? It wasn't worth the risk. Instead, the yearling gently pried the whelp off her lip and then tucked a foreleg around her, cradling Eske close to her chest again.

"So foshes," she teased the grumpy baby, now trying to lick the small tuft of fur atop her head into a tiny Mohawk.

Someday Eske was going to kick ass and take names but until the time when she was old enough to undergo warrior training she was stuck practicing on her mother, siblings and the poor, unfortunate guests who had probably only came to see the cute puppies. If they wanted to see cute little puppies, admittedly, Eske wasn't the cute one to go for. She was the smallest of her siblings and at a clear hierarchical disadvantage than her older sisters or even her brother who was the only male. She had to make up for it all somehow. Currently, though, while being the smallest might have inspired some of her behavior upon instinct alone she wasn't aware of the other things and thus was mostly just fierce by nature.

Eske had managed to latch onto Wildfire's lip, and held on, victorious until the older and stronger woman pried her off, albeit with a gentleness. A noise that resembled a scoff left the Grounder Princess' lips, wiggling against the strong foreleg that tucked her close. “hmph,” Eske repeated herself from earlier, a heavy sigh leaving her lips in a pout when Wildfire began licking the top of her head. Despite herself, it was enough to soothe Eske and aside from the scoot of her butt occasionally Eske held, mostly, still for the ministrations of Wildfire's tongue as the woman mussed the fur atop her head.

Eske offered up some token protests in the form of a grunt or two, though more or less held still for Wildfire's ministrations. It wasn't long before her tongue swept the babe's peach fuzz into a tiny tuft. She leaned back to grin at her handiwork, then glanced at Gyda to see what she thought. "She needed a hairstyle to match that fierce personality of hers," she said, feeling a little bit of self-conscious heat in her cheeks even as her eyes glowingly regarded the little girl.

Since Eske was getting slower and quieter, Wildfire figured she was tired, hungry or possibly both. They were still so young that visits should be kept pretty short, she knew. Incredibly grateful for these stolen moments, the yearling nonetheless scooted the feisty youngster toward her mother and then slowly stood. "Thanks so much for letting me visit. Think the others' eyes will open soon too? Would it be okay if I swung by again, same time tomorrow?"

After giving the mother a chance to reply, Wildfire somewhat reluctantly scooted backward out of the den, eyes lingering on not only Eske but her brother and sisters too as she retreated. She hadn't brought anything with her this morning, so she decided her next task would be hunting down some small game so that the next time she swung by the den, she would come bearing gifts. With a mission in mind and a smile on her lips, she departed.

Eske's ears perked as her mother let out a soft laugh as the adult babbled at one another, though the girl didn't quite understand it was at the mohawk that Wildfire had given her. She let out a low noise of curiosity that despite her attempt to pretend otherwise led into a wide yawn. “Hopefully,” Gyda responded to Wildfire's question about the other babies' eyes opening. “Of course, you can visit whenever you'd like Wildfire. You are always welcome.” The mother informed the flame colored girl. Eske let out a small grunt of protest when she was shuffled back to Gyda though despite her small protest (weak compared to the protesting she was capable of) she found herself nosing in Gyda's belly fur until she found a teat and began to suckle, realizing quite suddenly that she was rather famished. Eske didn't really notice when Wildfire left, though her attention had been admittedly focused on filling her stomach before she slowly began to doze off for a nap.