Noctisardor Bypass Please lay your eyes on me

Left to be watched by someone that wasn't mother, Indra was more forthright about things. When there was food she ran straight for it and ate without thinking, just so nobody could compete. If a new toy appeared within her line of sight she would grab for it, become possessive, hellish; screaming if it were taken by another child.
Mother was not here to watch her, so Indra felt the most free, the most bold. It was in these small acts that she found a voice.

filled with confidence from her successful jaunt to the glacier, heda bore back a mountain bluebird. she had caught it with more care than usual; she meant to save the feathers for witch and the bones for druid. maybe bracelet would like them.
heda rounded a corner and almost smashed right into a tinier child, though one far more brash. she chuffed a greeting, swinging her pale plume at her hips. "hullo."

Something giant and pale came out of nowhere and smacked right in to her like she was an errant pile of maple leaves to be quashed. As those reedy limbs connected with her still-too-big head and the momentum of the collision knocked her back, Indra crowed sharply.

The stranger's greeting was missed because of the blooming pains all across Indra's little body. It wasn't much of a blow, more of a surprise than anything, but the child was swiftly learning to abhor strangers and the surprises they brought with them.

"oh my god, oh my god!" heda stressed. she dropped everything in her grasp to approach the younger kid with the chagrined air of an elder sibling who has flubbed up.
"don't cry, please," she begged the red child, knowing that such an entreaty would definitely bring mahler over, perhaps even to punish heda!

The look of utter betrayal upon Indra's face only grew stronger as the other child began to exclaim and worry over the situation.
The way the other child begged for calm gave Indra a sudden sweep of raw emotion—some powerful stuff that she had no word for—and she sucked in a fresh breath, calling out with every ounce of might within her tiny body:
MAMAAAAA!

"oh my god. please. don't." but it was too late. 
heda rushed into the action of an older sibling, seeking to clap her paw across the kid's mouth. "listen," she hissed. "i don't want your mom to beat me up!"

indra did not expect the abrupt reaction of the other child. to have a fist forced against her face, to be touched, handled; her cry became louder and higher of pitch as she found true surprise and discomfort.
but the other was successful. the sound hiccoughed, indra found her baby teeth clipping at the stranger's palm as the rest of her struggled back and away, wild eyed.

heda jerked her paw back, snipped. "you don't need to scream like that. use your words, okay?" this must be one of laurel's children. the entire family kept to themselves. she didn't know why. 
"what's your name? i'm heda."

Who was she? Why was she so mean, and so big, and not listening to her? And where was mother?!

At least one of those questions was answered when the bigger child introduced themselves, at which point Indra did not want to listen, sniffling and glaring instead.

Muh mama's Laurel. Her voice was meek, and her mother's name was said with more haste than necessary, turning it in to "la roo".

laroo? there was no one in the pack called that name. heda's brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of the little red girl's words. chalking it up to baby babble, the war-girl swished her tail firmly. "why don't i walk you back to where your mom is? laurel, maybe?" heda corrected, trying not to smile at the foolish cuteness of the younger child.

There came the gregarious rolling of one's eyes.
Tha's what I tol' you!
But the mention of her mother brought a lightness to Indra again, a calm, and she began to bumble around in search of her mother's scent so that she could lead the way.

heda would follow, intending to help the girl warm up to her by pointing out birds here and there. there wasn't a lot she could do, but bonding with the younger children of the pack was both important and instinctual.