Sun Mote Copse But when your load gets heavy, maybe call it a night

It was a pleasant day, with cloudless skies and warming temperatures. The copse was in full spring bloom, the air dancing with motes ("motes" sounded better than "pollen"). Wildfire wished she could appreciate it more fully, yet she was confined to the area near the den. She felt absolutely wretched today. Her lymph nodes were swollen more than ever and, though not painful, they were quite uncomfortable at this point. She was exhausted, despite sleeping the whole night through, and she couldn't find her appetite anywhere.

She watched @Eljay play with @Weejay and @Elfie and felt her heart clench in her chest. What if it wasn't some passing infection? What if it was something much more serious? Raven hadn't seemed ready to give her a firm prognosis when she'd seen her. But then, Wildfire's condition had worsened significantly since then. She ought to see her sister again, yet the thought of making a trip to the plateau made her feel wearier than ever.

Not wishing to disturb her mate and children (or worry them), Wildfire plucked up the energy to walk away from the den site. She then sent up a casual howl for @Kiwi, unaware that her daughter was well out of earshot.

Wildfire might have been all careful and nonchalant about disappearing from the densite, but the new detective-to-be Elwood Jr. Jr. Holmes' keen perception was not to be tricked. He had watched her walk away, while letting his sister chew on his ears, and then - under pretence that he had a very urgent business in the bushes - he went after his mom. Her having longer legs than him by the time the boy began his chase she was out of sight already, but Elfie did not let this obstacle deter him.

Nose to the ground he charged forward, ploughed through the tall grass and thick underbush like a miniature tank. Fully focused at the task at hand he ignored the frequent bumping into something or being slapped across the face by a nasty branch, he did not yelp, when he tripped over his feet few times. Soon the scent corridor grew more intense, warm and fresh and finally his nose hit very familiary hind-quarters. Here he stopped, craned his head back and looked up at the place, where he expected to find the head (don't judge him - being small and silly, not only he could not tell left from right, he also had difficulties recognizing hind feet from the front). 

There wasn't any. Elfie frowned and barked at the "nothing" accusingly.

As soon as her voice tapered away into silence, she perked her ears for a response. She didn't realize how much she'd considered a callback a foregone conclusion until none came. Wildfire blinked and thought about renewing the howl, yet what was the point? Kiwi must be out of earshot. It wasn't altogether too strange, yet it made the Sovereign's heart sink a little in her chest.

She was distracted by something smacking into her rear end. Wildfire jumped a little and turned around, her heart lifting a little when she saw Elfie. "Did'ja knock your noggin?" she teased. "Were you following me, Elfie?" She didn't mind; the pups were around the age where they would venture further afield, with supervision but soon without it. "Maybe one day you'll be a good tracker, although we may want to work on your endgame." Despite feeling as under the weather as she did, Wildfire managed an incandescent smile for her young son.

The head appeared and Elfie had not had to do anything to make it so. Just bark. He made a mental note in his mind and met his mother with face beaming and a his little chest puffed out proudly. He knew, when he was being praised, and though he had never had a doubt that he was a good boy, hearing it again from someone else was always welcome.

"Food?" he asked, craning his neck so to get a whiff of Wildfire's breath to know, what she had been eating and why so without him. He did not register anything particular and with a sigh he let the matter go. Then he squeezed through his mom's forefeet and ended up standing right under her belly. There he plopped down on his bum and peered from there up to, where his mom's head actually was and declared: "Cooove."

He made no response to her observations, as was his prerogative at such a young age. Wildfire managed a grin for him as he asked for food and attempted to smell her breath. He would find nothing interesting there; she hadn't managed even a single bite today. But, weary as she was, she would stop at nothing to provide for her pup.

"There should be a little something in a stockpile over here," she said, bending down to nose the fuzzy patch on top of her son's head, then motioning forward. She didn't begin walking yet, instead waiting to see if he would take point.

Elfie did not have to be pointed twice, he dashed off (in his mind he was as quick as Flash, in reality, of course, he managed to waddle as far as to be slightly ahead of his mom), but looked back frequently to acknowledge that he was doing the right thing. Now and then it occured to him to pick up some scents and sniff here and there, but this was, where his tracking skills ended. He relied more on his mom to find the way at the moment.

However, it would be so that he would find that stock-pile first - someone had unearthed it earlier and Elfie tripped and fell face-first right into it. Quite simply because he had chosen the wrong moment to stop and look over his shoulder to see, if Wildfire was still there.

When there was food at stake, Elfie didn't need to be told twice. He ran ahead, with Wildfire trailing after him and smiling at his antics. She laughed outright when he not only stumbled right over the stockpile but tumbled into it too.

She came to stop over him, looking down at the puppy spread eagle on a cushion of stiff corpses. Although he was really getting too large for it already (especially with his healthy appetite!), the Sovereign gently scruffed and lifted him clear of the cache, setting him down beside it.

The food inside sort of turned her stomach a little, though Wildfire nonetheless nosed through the cache's contents and announced, "Would you like a rabbit, a rabbit or half a gopher?"

Wildfire pulled Elfie out of the lunch-plate and set him aside, but the boy was soon back on top, nosing through the contents greedily and getting in his mom's way. She named two or three brands of food that were on the menu today and Elfie replied to each offer with an affirmative "woof". He was not picky about, what he ate, and quite often his curiousity drove him to eat some inedible objects as well. Hence the occasional pieces of wood or tiny pebbles in the poop. 

In this case, however, he showed preference to a rabbit's ear, got hold of it and attempted to free it from the rest of the body and the pile, but failed. An inquiring look in his mother's direction, if she was - perhaps - inclined to help him out, and then he got back to the job again.

She took his response to mean, "Yes, all of the above," and snickered at him, even reaching out to poke at his belly. Before she could decide on which of the carcasses to actually offer him, he went for a rabbit's ear. He couldn't quite tug the dead hare free, though, so Wildfire quickly bent to assist him.

But instead of pulling out the rabbit and simply giving it to him, she dangled it near her son's nose and gave it a shake, inviting him to an impromptu game of tug-o'-war. She would've been hopeless against an adult in her state, yet Wildfire thought she could hold on long enough to give Elfie a good game.

Elfie was always up for a challenge and he swallowed the bait right away (both in figurative and in literal sense). He grabbed the other end of the rabbit's ear and began to pull heftily, shaking his little head (or rather the rabbit's ear and it's holder shaking him :D ), kicking back with his feet and basically doing his finest and best to get, what he so desired. 

Would Wildfire give in and let him have an easy win, hmm?

He latched onto one of the silken ears and planted his feet, clearly giving her his best shot. Wildfire braced herself and gave back, chestnut eyes dancing merrily over the body between them as her son shook it back and forth. She did not go easy at him, at least not yet, but the carcass was a different story. She could feel the flesh and fur beginning to tear in her teeth and knew that if it gave way, it would send both of them flying backward.

It happened exactly as Wildfire predicted, though Elfie was thrown back a little more than his mother. He rolled back on his feet, shook his coat and looked around, baffled by, what exactly had taken place now. Maybe sitting down and scratching his ear would do the trick? He did this, as the idea entered his mind, but no genius ideas came to his tiny brain. Therefore with a resolution that "momma knows best" he stopped burdening himself with thinking and padded over to her. After all she was the one, who had got all the meat now? Better make positive dipolomatic relationship right away. In case she is not inclined to share.

The hide split, somewhere in the vicinity of the rear of the dead rabbit's neck. Elfie flew backward into a hard sit and Wildfire jerked but did not lose her footing. Much of the carcass remained in her jaws, though she set it at her feet and smiled as her son tried to parse out what had happened. It wasn't long before he regained his feet and padded over to her.

The Sovereign bent down to nudge the cold, stiff meat toward him. "Eat as much as you like and I'll take the rest," Wildfire said, winking as she though to add, "if there's anything left."

Elfie's needle sharp shark teeth made for biting softer tissue - such as milk-tanks, toes, tails and his sister's ears - but were not strong enough to grind the whole-meat. He gave his best effort, though, at eating the stiff rabbit himself, but there was more struggle than actual result. And after some 15 minutes, not entirely full, but very exhausted, the boy simply fell asleep with his head in the "porridge-dish", jaws still doing some meek attempts to chew.

I think that you can fade out in your next post. Too bad we did not get a chance to play out more quality time together. :)

While Elfie did his best with the rabbit meat, Wildfire decided to try howling for @Kiwi again. Ten minutes later, her eldest had not appeared and her youngest was face-down in his spoils, sleeping off his effort or his meal, likely both. Although sad that her Regent wasn't responding to her summons, the Sovereign smiled affectionately at her son.

Reminded of her own weariness, Wildfire folded herself beside him with a sigh, curling her legs beneath her body like a doe. For a while, she simply watched Elfie sleep, even once bending forward to brush her nose across his forehead, where she placed a lick. The Sovereign then loosed another sigh and let her head drift down beside him, her chestnut eyes closing as she joined her son in dreamland.