Noctisardor Bypass noumou

skaigona had never been the center of such chaos before.
nomon had not returned, and the ripple of her absence confused the small girl. the dark man had brought she and worripa to a familiar place. but it was not home, and eventually skaigona began to whine and cry.
the hours wore on, and now eventide had come. she stared at her brother, at sequoia, at druid, and then truly began to sob, throwing herself down just outside the den in a paroxysm of fear and anger.

By now, Druid knew Skaigona and Worripa well, favoring the former nearly as much as she did her own sister. But never had they shared Sequoia's breast as they did today. Although mildly perplexed, the puppy accepted this development without complaint and soon settled down to enjoy a nap with a bit more cushioning and warmth than usual.

Skaigona’s tantrum roused her from sleep. Blinking blearily, Druid unwound her limbs from around Witch and puttered toward the den’s entrance. Her ears twitched as she listened to her friend’s cries. They made her anxious and she looked around to see if an adult would come comfort her.

Her eyes fell upon her holly stick, now featuring several rough patches where tiny teeth had sawed through the various layers. Druid scampered over and fetched it, hoisting it almost clear of the ground and carrying it back to drop beside Skaigona.

no one came, except druid. skaigona lifted her tear-stained face, breath hitching loudly with her sobs. "where mama?" the words fell over themselves, but the girl sat up, noting the well-chewed holly stick they had both worked on.
she snuffled loudly along the length of it, and began to chew half-heartedly on one side. but she was distracted, and eventually sat up again, searching hard for praimfaya's familiar figure, or even that of their charcoal graf.

The cries stopped for a moment as Skaigona glanced up at her. Druid offered a friendly wave of her tapered tail and a smile, though it slipped off her face at her friend’s question. Her little brow knitted together in slight confusion.

There, she said after a moment, taking a seat beside Skaigona so she could raise a forepaw and point at Sequoia’s figure curled inside the den.

This answer did not seem to reassure Skaigona particularly. Druid’s face scrunched as the girl restlessly gnawed at the stick, only to abandon it a moment later and exhibit searching behaviors.

Druid sat up a little straighter, then rolled onto her feet as she queried, You hun’in’?

"yah," skaigona sniffled, a bit buoyed by druid's approach. "hun'in mama." she knew the general meaning of the word: 'hunting,' followed by a disappearance, followed by a reappearance of an adult who smelled of tantalizing things.
if they could go out, why not she and druid? she took a brave step forward, searching for praimfaya's scent in the short grass, not at all distracted this time by the low hovering of a curious dragonfly.

Druid paused, licking her lips as she considered Skaigona’s words. She couldn’t quite make sense of them, not with Sequoia in relatively clear view. But perhaps her friend only meant to practice tracking her scent. Eyes bright, she moved eagerly to join the effort.

There were always so many different smells, particularly close to the earth. Druid sidled up beside Skaigona and dropped her head, the short sedge tickling her nose as she sniffed. It wasn’t particularly difficult to pick up Sequoia’s signature odor.

Forgetting her playmate’s inexplicable mission, Druid found her attention captured by a smell new to her. She pressed her spongy nose to the soil, nostrils flaring as she audibly inhaled several times. She then raised her head slightly, nose twitching as the “digested” the unfamiliar scent.

Wishing to discover its source, Druid inhaled and exhaled a few breaths, then nudged Skaigona and motioned for her to follow as she began tracking it away from the brush and leaf litter scattered around the den.

skaigona mimicked druid from time to time, watching the other pup from the corner of her eye. instinctively she wanted to take the lead, but the passage of the last day or so had left her reticent. and so the war-girl decided she was happy to follow. 
this was druid's part of rivenwood after all. she came over to test the unfamilar fragrance as well, tail quirking behind her as she was nudged. without hesitation she followed closely beside her denmate, pausing here and there to explore two stones and a mossy branch that had fallen.

By now, she knew the scents associated with several types of prey, courtesy of both Sequoia and Mahler. Many of the creatures the older wolves ate wore pelts of fur, sometimes feathers. This new odor did not resemble the musky scents Druid had come to associate with the usual array of game. It smelled earthier, plus there was a stench to it that made Druid’s nose wrinkle. Although it still resembled meat, it did not excite her salivary glands as did the aromas of other animals’ flesh.

She didn’t wander more than two, perhaps three yards from the den when the smell became particularly strong. Druid found herself staring down at a patch of mud partially covered in sticks and other debris. And stuck in the mud was some sort of smooth stone. Although rocks did not particularly excite or intrigue her, Druid craned her neck down to sniff at this one and blinked when she realized it was the origin of this new smell.

skaigona herself would have liked to go further, but druid had paused them here. and, while she might have been initially loathe to admit it, skaigona enjoyed the intriguing scent as well. she stared down at the morass and the mess, for she enjoyed greatly the smooth side of rocks. how sometimes they were wet and other times dry. she did not collect them, but at times carried a pebble back and forth across the threshold of their den now.
she dirtied her forelegs at once climbing out into the mud, slapping her paws against the fragrant surface of the odd rock. "look!" she shouted, hollering down at a hapless worm which had chosen that moment to stick out its head.

While Druid carefully examined the peculiar stone, Skaigona tromped through the surrounding mud, careless by contrast. The slightly older of the two didn’t mind nor pay her much attention, her world having narrowed down to the rock’s smooth surface and, stranger still, the subtle patterning there.

Only when Skaigona exclaimed in excitement did it break Druid’s concentration somewhat, though she had noticed too. The worm seemed to materialize from inside the stone, flickering into view before retreating again. The tiny would-be hunter huffed in surprise, glancing at her companion before borrowing her approach. Tossing caution to the wind, she thrust her nose against the rock.

The worm did not reappear though something slithered out of the rock’s farther side, capturing the youngster’s attention. She raised her head to look at it and gave a little shriek. She had never yet seen an amphibian or a reptile, though some instinct warned her to be wary of this snake.

Just like the worm, the larger snake withdrew back into the rock. Druid froze, eyes bulging as she pointed her snout, hound-like. Would either the snake or the worm make a second appearance?

she grumbled softly at the noise, then rolled over to continue her sleep. it wasn't until skaigona shouted something in their shared baby-babble—look!— that witch finally stood and shook the slumber from her eyes. she looked around the den blearily, but only worripa remained at mother's side. it was druid's shriek that truly set the little witch in motion, and she scampered a bit clumsily to the den's entrance, her limbs not yet fully awake.

witch carefully settled in between the two, lowering her belly to the ground to follow their gaze, a hungry curiosity in her eyes. in a whisper of their shared language, wha'issit?

druid's shriek brought skaigona sharply to attention. she had seen only the flash of miniscule scales, not the serpent itself. the worm was swiftly forgotten; the girl trained her attentions upon the rock's surface, and then druid again.
for once she was silent, instinct awash in her small body. the line of her sharpening gaze followed that of her milk-sister.
what had been spotted?
under its fair spattering of mud, her youthful hackles stood sharp and upright, pudgy body tensed to protect druid if need be, though she had no word for this sensation.
presently, witch stepped between them, and skaigona tensed. when the other girl was near, the war-daughter felt that her budding sense of hierarchy was then muddled. sequoia fed and nurtured each of them in the same manner, but the clear bond between druid and witch pushed skaigona outward.
only a nebulous concept for now, but this time she did not react to the second child, instead keeping herself trained inquisitively on the stone.

They did not, though Witch made an appearance, effectively capturing Druid’s attention for a moment. She waved her tail in greeting, then pointed her snout at the rock again. Hopefully her sister could read her well enough to understand that she must look, look!

When the stone remained in stasis, Druid grew impatient. She pressed her nose to it, drawing in that murky scent. She skimmed it along the textured surface, then down toward where the stone lay flat in the muck. Wrinkling her nose, Druid wedged it underneath, seeking to root out these mysterious creatures.

Instead, she managed to turn the rock over entirely, revealing a flat, pale underside. Surprising herself, Druid drew back half a foot, letting out a small noise of surprise when four clawed paws appeared to flail in the air, along with the snake and the worm!

her eyes moved from druid's face— look, look!— to stare at the stone, head tilting to one side as her ears strained forward to hear. there were no sounds that the child could track over the trio's breathing, all trying to remain as quiet as possible to fool their prey. frustrated, witch tilted her head upwards to sniff delicately, eyes still trained upon the stone. it smelled musty, earthy, cold. nothing like the ducks and rabbits she was familiar with.

before she could take action, druid stuck her nose beneath the stone and flipped it. witch's eyes went wide as her dear sister moved backwards out of her field of vision with a startled sound. without thinking, or even fully understanding the threat, the pale child went rigid and stepped forward to block druid from attack. teeth bared, hackles rising all along the darkening blackthorn stripe, a tiny growl escaping from deep within her chest.

many things happened at once, and skaigona only reacted with the blind swiftness of a purely instinctual creature.
druid fearlessly butted ahead, exposing the secret of the rock. the reptilian body and clawed paws evoked a signal of bright-red danger inside the girl. witch, too, stood with raised hackles, her growl fueling skaigona's own.
the little blackthorn-blooded babes, standing around the potential of a threat.
she threw herself forward, small jaws snapping wildly for the creature as hackles stood puffed from hips to shoulders, a snarl vibrating in her fuzzy throat as she sought what it meant to be wolf.

Within a few seconds, her curiosity overruled her knee-jerk reaction to withdraw. By then, both Witch and Skaigona had crowded closer to the stone—no, the creature—in preparation to attack. Druid let out a small, Ooo… even as she slowly pushed in between the other two girls to peer down at this over-sized pebble come to life.

Despite the three young wolves looming over it, two of them quite intimidatingly, the mysterious animal didn’t move. Well, it did move: it flailed and pedaled its limbs quite restlessly. But it didn’t go anywhere, remaining stationary in its upturned position.

Although it didn’t smell like any prey she recognized, Druid couldn’t resist the lure of small, jerking movements. Without bothering to bare her teeth or growl, she darted in to nip at the turtle’s exposed head with her teeth… and actually managed to grab it, earning a sharp pinch for her efforts that elicited an involuntary ki-yi!

it was like nothing skaigona had seen! she stared with round eyes at the thing, stepping past witch to come as close as druid now. but kittenfur suddenly spiked as her sister cried out, and skaigona growled loudly.
this time her own puppy teeth closed on the thing's skin. it snapped at her as well, but missed.
skaigona went down all the same, lunging away suddenly in fear. whatever that thing was, she wasn't about to have any part of it. she whined fiercely at druid, hoping to draw her away before issuing a bark for sequoia.
let's go back!

She scrambled backward, her tail tucking between her legs as a forepaw came up to touch her smarting lip. When Druid glanced down at her toes, there was a spot of blood there. Her ears drew backward, flattening to her head when Skaigona’s growl was quickly followed by a whine. She put her foot back on the ground and scattered with the others.

Soon they were tucked back in the safety of the den. It bitsed me, Druid whined softly to her mother. Of course, Sequoia was quick to kiss her boo-boo and soothe all three girls until, one by one, they dropped off to sleep.

She didn’t know it consciously but the dreaming Druid had learned an important lesson for any young, aspiring hunter: sometimes, the prey bit you back.