Ankyra Sound No wings of wax or endless mountains

He was mighty. In only three weeks he had tripled in size. His eyes had opened and their vision had cleared enough for him to make out nearby objects; his ears had popped, flooding his senses with muffled sounds that made them twitch and strain; his muscles had tightened so that he found his paws and his ability to move about with greater ease; and he was beginning to look more wolf and less jellybean with each passing day.
It would be a long time before Ephraim really looked like anybody worthwhile—even then his hybrid ancestry would always reflect heavily in his sharp appearance—but he was getting there, and damn, did it feel good.
Only, Ephraim was also growing lazy. While his siblings presumably puttered around the den on the daily, practicing their locomotion and verbalization, the young brown coywolf was content to lay about at Caiaphas' side. That wasn't to say he never had bouts of activity, but they were driven primarily by curiosity or necessity rather than any abundance of energy. Given a choice, Ephraim would let his legs fall off so that others had to bring things to him.
As his vision expanded hour-by-hour, he became increasingly aware of a light coming from elsewhere in the grotto. At first he hadn't even registered it. Even now, the blue was difficult to make out from the usual gloom of their oceanic dwelling; only when a shadow played across the wall did he really take note of it. His navy blue eyes were wide as he lifted his head from his paws, then found his unsteady footing and began to toddle in the direction the blue light was coming from. Specifically, he began to toddle away from Caiaphas and her nest and toward the grotto's center, where the ritual pool with its glowing bacterial inhabitants was.

Anyone!

LOUD SHRIEK  

day by day the small terrors at her side grew. they were voracious, restless -- she regarded each with a mother's triumph. their lives had only just begun, yet already she felt the strength in their squirming bodies.

they would be hellions, she was sure of it.

speaking of hellions -- she counted only three in the crook of her hip. alarm set in and she abruptly rose, depositing her children unkindly into the stone. she could just barely make out ephraim's muted coat -- and he was headed directly for peril. instinct overcame her, the want to scoop him from danger -- yet she did not intervene immediately. perhaps it was too early in his life for a lesson, but caiaphas felt her heart hammer in her throat as she watched him blissfully waltz closer to a rather cchilling baptismal.

There were a few turns between Ephraim and the pool that he awkwardly navigated by half-blindly stumbling into the walls. His progress was slow, tedious, and painful to watch; at one point he scraped his tender nose against a rough rocky surface and whined sharply in protest, yanking back his head so that his ears flapped against his scalp. The sound was enough that they immediately perked to hear it and Ephraim froze, but only for a moment.

He was off again quickly, now that the blue glow was plainly in sight. He stumbled about fifteen times on his way, giving Caiaphas plenty of time to intervene, but assuming she did not, he would pause at the edge of the pool. He was halted not by an understanding that this was dangerous, but by the sheer wonder of it all; his blue eyes were wide as plates and wholly focused on the fuzzy blue lights winking in the water.

try as she might to rein in the fierce instincts that chewed at her, her maternal instincts bitterly sparred for contention. ephraim was slow in his progress, but he was so close -- too close. caiaphas could hold her hand no longer and protectively surged forward like a python coiling around a babe. she watched as wonder, or what she perceived as wonder, crossed his tiny, cherubic features. would it that he could stay so young, so blissful, forever -- caiaphas studied those milky eyes, the slack in his jaw. here, illuminated in sharp blue and darting shadows, she forgot about the world outside -- her only purpose to protect and provide for him. she hunched down before the pool, an arm draped protectively forward to bar him from tumbling into the watery depths.

As the blue glow began to ensnare him, Ephraim started to til ever-so-slowly in the direction of the water. The steady drip that echoed through the caverns seemed to fade into obscurity as his focus fell singularly on the pool. Just as he was about to unbalance himself and topple in, a pale shade stole across the grotto, causing the blue light to dim and flash as shadows danced along the way, and barred his way with a slim leg.

The spell was broken and tiny Ephraim craned his head back to point his cherubic muzzle up at his dam's chin. She was painted blue in the somber grotto's glow, too. He was quiet and still for a moment, watching her carefully, before he turned his attention back to the shimmering pool. One tiny paw came to rest against her arm as he leaned out, now safe, to reach his other foreleg outward.

caiaphas had forgotten the mystique the world often held -- and it took the bedazzlement in ephraim's gaze to draw that childish wonder out from her once more. she  watched his blue-fringed form as he looked up at her briefly -- and when he leaned back towards the pool she lightly braced her front limbs forward as if to oblige him in his interest.

she had no intention of letting him fall in; not anymore -- the life that stirred beneath her muzzle was too treasured to the she-wolf, and came at too great a cost. gently, she pulled one leg to the side -- though she kept a watchful eye on him as he leaned closer to the pool's incandescent blue rim.

It was fortunate that Caiaphas lingered there, cradling him so that he couldn't fall into the water, or Ephraim's curiosity would have bested him that day. It was instinct for an animal to kick its legs in water, but likely he was far too small and too weak to succeed at it, so he would have drowned without her intervention. Luckily, his mother was more attentive than that and Ephraim was saved from unintentional suicide.

He leaned as far as he could while fixed in place by Caiaphas' wrist, and it was just far enough for the soft pads of his toes to brush the water's surface. With his weak eyesight, he couldn't see how it rippled gently away from the point of contact, but he did notice with an acute thrum of shock how cold it was. Whipping his paw back to himself with a sharp whine, Ephraim tilted his head back to search his mother's face once more for any sign of alarm; if it didn't scare her then it didn't scare him, even if its newness felt dangerous.

caiaphas craned her neck downwards as ephraim leaned into the pool - it took great restraint to not pluck him then from the simmering aquamarine edge, to place him safely somewhere dry and distinctly not life-threatening. yet she could see the curiosity, bright as the incandescent blue around them, swim in ephraim's gaze.

she tensed as he dangled a paw in the water, relieved when he abruptly pulled it back with a cry -- no doubt the sensation of ocean water was new for him. she recalled how she had not cared for water much either --one of life's odd and inconsistent ironies, considering the homestead she had insistently selected for herself.

she tilted her slim muzzle sideways and offered him a reaffirming nudge, done more to silence any future cries than encourage him.

The sensation of cold water on his feet would become commonplace in time, but not today. Today, Ephraim waged war on water, shooting it a baleful stare as the ripples from his touch settled back to glassy stillness. Caiaphas' bracing nudge comforted him and his voice died in his throat, but then he turned toward her narrow chest and sought to clamber over her legs and shoulders, back in the direction of their sleeping quarters. As he went, he shook his wet forepaw.

He would have to reflect on the blue glow in the cavern and the cold slippery substance it came from, but he meant to do so in a dream alongside his mother and siblings.

caiaphas turned her gaze to the small dimple of riffling waves left by ephraim's touch. it struck her that the water was in many ways like life -- one small stirring with a thousand ripples in aftermath.

ephraim's distrust of the cold embrace evinced a small smile in the she-wolf -- she too had taken too long to welcome the brace of icy brine. as she considered how long it would be before the pups got their sea-legs, ephraim stirred and tottered as if drunk away from her. in afterthought, she was tired -- and she rose slowly and plodded after him with the smile still lingering on her narrow features.