Noctisardor Bypass wild child

There was an inchworm on her beloved stick (left by @Grandmother, not that Druid realized it). The puppy went cross-eyed as she watched it creep along the holly limb, her tail twitching back and forth. When the worm reached the end, its anterior rose into the air and wriggled, prompting a delighted whimper from Druid.

She couldn’t help herself then; she thrust her nose toward it. In her babyish clumsiness, she knocked the stick about an inch across the ground, causing the inchworm to drop. It righted itself and she pushed her snout toward it again, the force of her exhaled breath sending it skimming along the den floor.

On slightly wobbly legs, Druid gave pursuit until the tiny green insect was cornered against the far wall. And then it just… disappeared. The child sat up and blinked, oblivious as the larvae inched along the bridge of her snout, then up between her eyes to the crest of her little head.

playdate time, arranged w moms' permission! pping skaigona/worripa/witch

with the aid of the young mothers, mahler had found a space not far from sequoia's den. praimfaya's brood was younger, though not so young that they could not be borne here. and so, with skaigona and @Worripa in tow, he brought them to this first rendezvous. 
the young women would receive a true respite; he settled his head near the den, chuffing to druid and to witch to come out of the den and spend some time with the younger pair, hoping to begin some bonds between the lot of them.

/

the child did not quite know who mahler was, only that he had been a constant. his name was only a feeling; she was alternately carried by him and toddled at his heels, until they had come to a small place.
it also smelled of milk, and she was curious, hungry at once; the little war-pup whined, downy ears flicking toward the sly denmouth as her baby-blue gaze tilted to mahler, wondering.

Err? Druid questioned no one in particular, looking everywhere for the inchworm. She felt a slight tickle on the bony ridge at the top of her skull but couldn’t be bothered to scratch at it, too swept up in her search. Her nose dropped and she began scooting around the den, bumping gently into the slumbering @Witch and rousing her sister.

While the paler girl stretched and yawned, Druid moved past her only to pause at the sound of a familiar voice outside the den. Forgetting all about the little green worm, she bounded haphazardly out of the den’s entrance. Witch plopped out just behind her, tumbling into Druid and causing both of them to fall to the grass.

The inchworm suddenly flew from her forehead to the tip of her snout, clinging for dear life. Druid went cross-eyed again as she let out a delighted, Ey! She didn’t even see the two newcomers, at least until Witch brushed past her to get a better look at the two smaller pups. The gray youngster pushed herself into a sit, blinking curiously, the inchworm undulating on the tip of her nose.

druid made quite an exit. mahler only chuckled, and then he too caught sight of the inchworm. "aussehen. druid hat einen freund mitgebracht."
he meant the words for praimfaya's children. worripa had begun to trundle away, stuffing his face into a stand of mushrooms. skaigona had stepped closer, small tail beginning to sway as she investigated druid, sniffing extravagantly at the little green thing.
mahler watched them both, motioning witch closer and worripa back within arms'-reach.

mahler did not speak the same words as her mother, but the child recognized it as language all the same. she was fascinated by the item the other girl kept upon her muzzle. "wha!" she shouted nonsensically, wanting to take her own turn with it.
she lifted a paw to knock the worm from druid's nose, but overbalanced onto a round side.
confused, skaigona looked again for mahler, but he was busying himself with the pale girl and her brother. she turned back to the pup with the treasure, this time lifting the other paw boldly toward the small face.

While she sat there in wonder, Witch moved toward the darker pup, whose snout disappeared into a cluster of mushrooms. Druid’s eyes followed them when they weren’t focusing on the waving inchworm at the end of her muzzle. But then the other, smaller pup trundled toward her and Druid’s head turned, eyes widening as she drew back a little shyly.

She looked a bit like Sequoia and Witch, though she was new and strange. Druid peered at her, flinching a little when the younger girl raised a paw to brush at the worm still clinging to her snout. She missed and lost her balance, leaving Druid to blink down at her. The sudden angle made the inchworm drop even as Skaigona batted at her face again, its little green filament of a body tucking in between two tiny outstretched toes.

in the manner of a boy, perhaps, worripa was disinterested in witch. he chose instead to seize at reclining mahler's ear with unsteady jaws. the menace of a child already proud and strong-willed. he felt as though he might have felt the clip of budding teeth, dismissed it; he did not know the days for certain.
witch came to investigate the commotion, and just beyond, the second pair investigated scientifically.

"oooou," skaigona cooed involuntarily, eyes widening as the inchworm touched her. she tucked her haunches below her body by sheer luck, no longer wanting to answer the instinctual call of hierarchy. 
the worm teased her still-adjusting gaze; she felt a bit sick as her own eyes crossed.
and then, skaigona began to covet having it for herself.
she breathed noisily through her mouth, drooling down toward the speck of green.

Her ears flicked at the other child’s wondering exclamation. Druid also stared at the little inchworm between Skaigona’s toes. She wanted it back, though she didn’t possess the verbal skills to ask nor the bravery to simply take. She sucked in her bottom lip, pouting a bit as she accepted that the worm now belonged to someone else.

Something cool touched her cheek and Druid turned, cheered by her sister’s closeness. Its, she cooed nonsensically, pawing affectionately at the familiar pup before glancing between Skaigona close at hand and Worripa pestering their mutual father figure.

Now Druid chewed on the inside of her cheek and cast Witch a questioning glance. She was curious about these two new playmates, yet she didn’t quite know what to make of them. Her sister didn’t seem quite so hesitant. In fact, Witch scooted a little closer to Skaigona to investigate the inchworm, leaving Druid to observe her minuscule friend’s fate from the background.

the gargoyle pretended to succumb to death beneath the boy's jaws, and thought he might have caught an amused hum from sequoia's daughter. worripa, pleased, now stumbled toward the other child, ready to prove his might a second time.
but witch had rejoined druid.
he spared a look for the four of them, eventually crowded around something he could not see from here. perhaps the worm, though he did not expect its life would be long.

its, the other one said. "its!" she shouted down at the worm.
and now her brother, trundling close, shouldering his way past the second girl. "pa!" she held up her new treasure.
but the worm was gone, inching back in the direction of druid.
skaigona stomped her foot in anger, missing the thing by quite a ways.

When the solitary boy pressed closer, Druid’s attention lingered on him. The only male figure in her life loomed in the background, a fixture in her life alongside Sequoia and Witch. Meeting a second intrigued her, though soon her attention drifted back to the poor inchworm, now the center of four young pups’ attention.

But Druid wasn’t among the group, not really. Finally, curiosity overrode her bashfulness and she inched forward (not unlike the worm), shouldering in between Witch and Worripa. Her eyes flew wide when at that very same moment, Skaigona flung out a paw as if to stomp the little inchworm now making its way up a blade of grass. Luckily, she missed.

“Its!” Druid cried right as her litter mate dropped to her belly, her nose touching the tiny wriggling critter. It clambered onto her nose readily and Witch rose with a giggle, turning to grin at her sister even as the small bug wormed along the taper of her snout.

Relief washed through young Druid and she pressed her muzzle against her sister’s. It was only a matter of time before the inchworm made its way to her, at which point she turned and began furtively slinking back toward the entrance of the den.

last for mahler!

eventually mahler rolled heavily to his paws, shaking leaf-clingings from his coat before coming to loom over the quartet. the inchworm, miraculously, had survived, residing once more with little druid. witch assisted, and worripa turned away from them to growl puppishly toward the shadowpriest.
"komme jetz," he told praimfaya's pair. "ve vill play out here until sequoia returns."
not long off, he hoped, leading worripa and skaigona some feet from the den, and putting a cedar stick before them.

and for skaigona

the little reaver stared after the two, witch following druid. part of her wanted to go after them, but she was quickly distracted by worripa's sound, and the half-understood rumbling of the giant man.
she was happy to oblige, pawing at the object with her small foot, soon tumbling beneath feral little worripa as he clumsily worried her. 
a full day. the inchworm was by now, forgotten.

Druid hid the tiny inchworm in the far corner of the den, then turned to see that Witch had accompanied her inside. In the presence of her sister, her shyness dropped away and she frolicked closer, rumbling soft, happy noises at her sibling. Eventually, the two of them wound up near the entry again, peering out as Mahler engaged the younger two in play.

Whether or not Witch ended up joining them, Druid remained there in the threshold. She was content there, more or less. She did wish to get in the thick of things, yet she felt more comfortable here on the fringes for now. Perhaps another time, when she grew accustomed to these strangers, she would involve herself.

After a while, she grew sleepy and withdrew into the den, back to where she’d left the worm. It was gone, of course. Druid frowned and looked around, though her eyelids felt so heavy that she plopped down mid-search, falling fast asleep.