Moonspear take it to the top

Hydra had discovered a small boulder within the rendezvous's vicinity that had caught her eye. She did not know why it had not yet caught her attention, but now it had, and now, the immovable thing was decidedly hers. Hydra made a mad dash toward it, flinging scree every which way as she did so, before making a valiant leap upon the boulder. Were she not so small, it might have looked impressive, but she felt pretty badass as she stood upon it for her parkour and her makeshift claim. Her eyes peered around her to see if anyone had seen her cool maneuver, all too ready to show off. She need not even say anything to do that, her quiet air sometimes seemed to be enough to draw attention to her most of the time.

And indeed, Hydra did draw attention to herself.

Floki was passing through the rendezvous site, the hunger gnawing at his belly spurring him down the slope so that he could hunt. He was always on the lookout for his nieces when he was nearby, and the sound of clattering rocks and scrabbling paws attracted his notice. He altered his course slightly until he came upon the source of the noise: Hydra, standing proudly atop a boulder like a princess surveying her claim.

The Beta grinned as he approached, tail waving. "Look at you up there," he said, stopping to peer up at his niece. He peered at her carefully, ensuring that this was, in fact, Hydra and not one of her identical sisters. Now that they were getting a bit older, it was becoming easier for Floki to tell them apart, and he was confident that he was correct in guessing the identity of this particular pup.

Hydra's wedgelike snout whipped toward Floki as she heard his approach, and her ears cupped around his words as he spoke them. Her tail, lifted high and proud, waved at the sight of him. Floki she did not mind; he never got up in her personal space, or gave her kisses when she did not want them. Not only that, but he saw her cool act and regarded it. Yeah, she responded, Look!!! The young girl held herself a little taller at that, feeling quite pleased with herself.

This my rock, she informed him next, and after a beat, she pondered aloud, What's doin'? Her grammar and speech were still a work in progress. She excelled at beating others up, but talking wasn't truly her strong suit. Not yet, anyway.

She drew herself up proudly and Floki bobbed his head as he stepped closer. He lowered his stance slightly, bending his knees into a crouch so that in order to look at Hydra, he had to tilt his head back and look up at her. "You are so tall, up there on your rock!" he said with a laugh.

Without straightening, he answered her second question. "I was about to go hunting, but I think playing with you might be more fun," he replied. Then, an idea struck him and he suggested, "How about a game of hide and seek?"

Hydra's chest inflated at his words, and her eyes grew big as he fed her ego. Yeah!!! she said, perfectly agreeable as he said precisely the words she wanted to hear. It helped, too, that it looked like he was bowing to her—at least, thats what her mind had her believing. She was narcissistic, and all surrounding her unknowingly fed the trait. Truly, it only affected any in an adverse manner when she felt unappeased. But as most were content to feed her ego and keep her quiet, well, that was truly rare.

Floki spoke about hunting, which caught her attention. She wanted to hunt! Hydra desired to do all things adults did that she could not yet do—but fortunately for Floki, he appealed to her primary desire of playing, which she knew to be fun. Curiosity came second, it would seem. That, and the fact that playing with her, Crown Princess Hydra, was more fun... well, perhaps hunting wasn't as cool as she figured, anyways.

Still, better let him think she had to contemplate spending time with him...

After a beat, she decided, Okay!!! Le's play! I go!!! NO PEEK, she squinted at him, watching his eyes.

Boisterous as ever, Hydra happily agreed with Floki's suggestion. Naturally, she took charge and assigned the roles herself -- she would hide, while it was Floki's job to find her. He nodded, keeping his face solemn to show her that he was taking his task very seriously.

"Okay," he said, rising from his crouched position and padding around to the backside of the boulder. "I'll count to one hundred while you go hide." He knew that he probably wouldn't need to count that high before Hydra managed to obscure herself from view, but he was also aware that she likely couldn't accurately count yet -- so the bigger the number sounded, the better.

Then, with a quick gesture of his snout out towards the foliage to encourage her to get going, he rocked back onto his haunches and ducked his head behind his left foreleg. "One...two...three..." he began to count dutifully.

'Ki began his counting, and Hydra squinted at him for a moment before darting away slowly. Once she was behind him, she made a mad dash away. Hydra felt the best place to hide was a place she wasn't meant to go, and so that was what she vied for. A little laugh sounded off as she bounded in that direction, preparing to hide. No doubt Floki would know what she was up to as soon as she began to sprint off like the little shit she could often be.

Floki kept his eyes closed, though he wanted to peek and see where Hydra was going. But that wouldn't be fair, would it? And he certainly didn't want to incur the wrath of the tiny princess. Instead, he listened for her footfalls with his ears; she hesitated at first, as if she was making sure that Floki wasn't watching her, then he heard her began to creep away. Soon, the cadence of her feet quickened as she darted off in search of her hiding place.

He skipped a few (okay, a lot of) numbers and continued: "...eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven..." His voice was loud enough for Hydra to hear as he neared the last number, but he didn't make any moves to follow her just yet.

The rambunctious girl strayed farther than she should have, but she heard him reach the tail-end of his numbers. Hydra panicked as she looked first left, then right--and then she threw herself into a bush losing its leaves to midautumns hunger. Her tail stuck out of it, though she did not know this; she felt herself an expert, and hidden perfectly. When Floki passed her by, perhaps she could creep further away from where she was supposed to be...

"One hundred!" Floki bellowed, a devious grin snaking across his face as he opened his eyes and lifted his head from behind the crook of his leg. He looked in the direction that he thought she had gone and began to creep along, moving slowly and allowing his gaze to scan his surroundings carefully. All too easily, he could have simply followed her scent trail -- but that didn't seem fair when playing hide and seek with a youngster.

After a few steps, he paused, his gaze drawn to a particular bush. There was nothing outstanding about the collection of branches and leaves, save for the fact that it seemed to have grown a tail. He raised his eyebrows and stifled a snicker, continuing on past the shrubbery. "Where oh where could Hydra be?" he called out in a sing-song voice.

Were she a prey animal, Hydra would face certain doom.

She was most unlike her sleuthy sisters, who were quiet and sneaky and good at that. Hydra was more direct, and more aggressive, than either of them. So it was no wonder that, shortly after he passed her by, Hydra thrust herself forward and projected herself out of the opposite end of the bush, beginning to sprint to another hiding spot. She dove behind a tree, but again, her little tiny tail could be seen beyond it. Her tactic was to creep closer and cloesr to where she wasn't meant to go.

There was a rustle of leaves behind him, and Floki turned slowly. He suspected that Hydra was abandoning her original hiding place, and he was right; he pivoted just in time to see a tell-tale flash of black. He pretended not to have noticed it as he casually retraced his steps, but he barely bit back a chortle when he realized that now it was a tree that had sprouted a tail.

Curious to see what she planned to do next, Floki peered around a neighboring trunk but did not lay eyes on her just yet. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" he said cheerfully.

When next Floki spoke, Hydra edged forward. She quickly, and, amazingly, quietly, darted to the next tree out of his eyesight... but again, Hydra betrayed herself with her wagging tail that curled around the next tree she had moved. Closer and closer she drew to 'out of bounds' for her, but, well, now she was being supervised, wasn't she?

And so Hydra made a wild, foolish dash toward a tree a bit further out. She threw herself behind it and breathed heavily, and, feeling certain that her silver companion knew where she was now, she made a wild run for it.

Hydra reacted much the same way as before: by selecting a new hiding spot with her tail out in the open. Realizing that this could go on for ages, Floki grinned. He hadn't caught on to her ulterior motive of trying to push the boundaries of where she was allowed to travel, but he figured that it was time to turn the tables on her and give her a turn to be the seeker.

"Found you!" he cried, reaching out to tap the tip of Hydra's tail. He danced in place, shifting from paw to paw. "Now it's my turn to hide," he said; but before beginning to look for his own hiding spot, he waited to make sure that she would oblige. It wouldn't be unlike Moonspear's littlest princess to attempt to change the rules for her own benefit.

After a few more rounds of hide and seek, Floki coaxed the little girl to return to the densite, with promises of more playtime in the future.