The Sunspire I will never leave my bedroom

@Breccan

While the adults were away scouting and establishing the direction their pack would have to take in the upcoming move, Wraen had been left responsible for the pack, while Maia was doing most of the baby-sitting duty. Luckily - everything was calm at this period of time, no disasters had taken place and with a day or some more to look forward until the arrival of Rannoch and Liffey, Wraen was confident that things would stay the same. 

Whenever possible, she helped out by baby-sitting, and this she did now as well. While it was three more months before the deer and elk began to shed their antlers, Wraen had found an older specimen during her evening hunt and this was she bringing back for the kids to play. With a quiet "wuff" she announced her presence and invited any of the puppies to come out and have fun.

Tags of my PPC siblings for reference!

Breccan didn't really mind that his parents had gone away for a few days. He felt secure in the care of Maia and his other packmates, and he kind of liked the change in routine. It was fun to push the other adults' boundaries and see how much he could get away with. @Wisp, on the other hand, didn't seem to be coping as well with their parents' absence and the change in their daily structure -- but luckily, she had @Remi to tend to her.

When he heard the sound of Wraen's voice, he was quick to investigate. He bounded out into the open and his eyes widened at the sight of the antler grasped in her jaws. "Wow!" he cried, lanky legs bringing him to a halt and tail propelling rapidly behind him. "Is that a bone?" he asked as he leaned close to sniff at it.

Wraen would never reveal this to either Rannoch or Liffey, but even after almost four months in their children's company, she occasionally had difficulties at remembering, who was who. And in her mind she had nicknamed those, who she had personally met and interacted with thoroughly. Therefore Wisp had become "the shy one", Remi was "the one, who liked birds" and the other two... well, they had to yet earn their names.

And there was one coming her way and the first association that came to Wraen's mind came - Brown. And Mr.Brown would he remain, until she found out, what his real name was. In the meanwhile she could pretend that she knew everything perfectly well. "Not exactly - easier to chew on," she said and went on to explain in more detail. "If you ever or when you see deer, some of them have these big bone-like structures on their heads. They begin to grow in spring and reach their full glory in late autumn. They use it for fighting and defence and shed them later."

He continued to give the bone-like thing an examination even as Wraen began to explain what it really was. His large ears tilted towards her to listen, while his eyes and his nose worked to study the object. It smelled like deer -- a scent that he was vaguely familiar with, although he had yet to encounter one himself -- and its appearance was definitely similar to a bone. Its surface was rough and knobbly, and it split into sections, almost like the branches of a tree.

The final test was to taste it. Breccan licked it gingerly and found that it didn't have much of a flavor; it reminded him of the hooves he liked to chew on. Smacking his lips thoughtfully, he took a step back in order to look up at Wraen's face. "They fight with these?" he asked, trying to imagine the scenario in his mind.

"They do," Wraen nodded in agreement. "It is kind of a male-only thing, but I have heard that you can tell the age of a deer by, how many branches their antlers have. The more, the older - but I can't tell you much about specifics," someone Wraen had known back at home with Dante and Osprey, had been an expert on it and had tried to educate her as well.

"This is, what happens, when one does not have sharp claws and teeth," she added. "And- while not the juiciest stuff on the menu, nor the easiest to gobble down - they are edible as well."

He regarded Wraen thoughtfully as she answered his question and elaborated on the subject. He had already licked it and found that there was nothing too terribly appealing about the taste, but he was intrigued at the thought of eating the whole thing. Because he was an inquisitive young boy, it should come as no surprise that his next order of business was to nod quite seriously -- showing that he had been listening to everything she said -- and then begin to gnaw on the antler.

Breccan worked at it with his teeth for a few long seconds, his jaw flexing as his back teeth scraped against its surface. His ears swept back in concentration while his paws clasped the antler's base carefully. When he was satisfied with his experiment -- finding that this was, indeed, something that he would enjoy chewing on for an extended period of time -- he looked back up at Wraen and launched his next question. "Where did you find it?" he asked.

In a way chewing antlers to canids was equivalent of smoking cigarettes to humans. Both activities helped to relax, helped to collect thoughts (some people claim that nicotine does) and contained health hazards. Antlers could chip and break teeth, life-long smoking habit could lead to emphysema or lung cancer.

Anyway - metaphor aside - Wraen watched Rannoch's son work on the antler and did not hesitate to answer his question: "Down in the plains. There are a lot of meadows there, where deer love to graze and they often pass through there as well. When you are older, we can go down there and I can show you."

Breccan's gaze naturally strayed down the slope of the mountain when Wraen spoke of the plains. He imagined the grassy area that she described, filled with deer and other animals. But he wasn't satisfied with her promise to take him there when he was older; in his mind, he was ready to make that trip now. Growing up on a mountainside, he was sure-footed and athletic, which meant that he would have no problem navigating descending to the meadows.

"Can we go now?" he asked, giving her his brightest smile. Pleeeeeease?! his expression said.

"Ain't you a little charmer," Wraen said smiling, when the boy tried to convince her that he was old and strong enough to go on hunting trips. She gave him credit for his determination and he would make a fine companion, but somehow she did not want to take the responsibility of Rannoch's son beyond Sunspire's borders. Here it was part of her duties, out there was her world and she really did not want to worry progeny of her best friend. What if something bad happened?

"Well, it is a custom that your parents have to take you out on your first hunt," she lied smoothly. "So, if you feel you are ready, I suggest you go to them and ask. I can't speak for Rannoch, but Liffey is quite an adventurer. And, if she says "no", ask her about that time, when I and her fought a cougar."

"Hmph," was Breccan's response; he was disappointed that Wraen wouldn't take him on an adventure right then and there, but her answer placated him enough. Now he was looking forward to his first hunt with his parents. His eyes grew wide, though, at the mention of the cougar; and naturally, although Wraen advised him to ask his mother about it, he just couldn't wait.

"A cougar? What happened?" he pressed, the antler forgotten for the moment in his excitement.

"That was, when me and your mum, dad and Terance lived in Moonspear," Wraen began the story, carefully choosing the words so that the kid did not get an idea to combat cougars on his own. "A cougar had wandered inside the territory and Liffey and me tried to drive it out," she went on.

"It did not go well and turned on us and attacked us. Things got very rough and were it not for Terance, we would have been pretty dead," she summed up. "Moral of the story - learn from the stupid mistakes of adults and do not attack cougars."

We can wrap up if you would like! :)

Breccan listened raptly to the short story, soaking up the details that Wraen provided. He recognized "Moonspear" and knew that was where his family had lived before they came to their current home at Sunspire. Although Wraen didn't go into an intricate description of the events, the moral of the story was clear even as she summed it up. Cougars did not sound like something he wanted to tangle with.

"I won't attack any cougars," he promised solemnly, ears falling back against his head. Although he still wanted to explore the previously mentioned plains, there was a little bit of nervousness rising in his chest at the realization that there were lots of unknown creatures to be encountered out there. For now, he found that he was content to hear tales told by the adults and chew on the antler that Wraen had brought him. He reached out with a paw and pulled the horn closer to him, resuming his gnawing with gusto.

"I believe you won't," Wraen replied, hoping that Breccan took after his father, who was more down-to-earth and pragmatic than Liffey. It might be so that she was not doing the alphess justice, it had been a while now since they had had a heart-to-heart chat together, and there was no way of knowing, whether childbirth and raising a litter of four had changed the young mother entirely. 

"While you are chewing, I could tell you a story about the Deer King," she said, getting comfortable. She did not have to rush anywhere for a change. "The story goes like this... it happened around the time, when my grandmother was alive..." she went on telling, how her pack had cornered the deer of all deer once and what had come out of it. A story with a grain of truth, more grains of imagination and lore, mixed up with a useful life lesson.