Redhawk Caldera marlfox

when/if u have time!

"DADDY!" chickadee screamed at the top of her lungs. @Eljay might be dismayed to find that there was no immediate danger, just a very large centipede.
"i found it under a big tree!" she exulted to her father when he arrived. "it has MANY LEGS! look! count!" she cried, vibrating with excitement at the very idea.

Eljay was asleep when Chickadee's cry echoed through the rendezvous site. He snapped awake immediately and looked around. He didn't immediately see his daughter, so Eljay jumped to his feet and headed in the direction of her call. His legs were stiff as he rushed into motion and it didn't him very long to find her.

It soon became clear that there wasn't anything going on, except that Chickadee had found a centipede. Eljay felt himself calm, seeing that she was alright. Oh? he asked as she mentioned finding the centipede. She then exclaimed that it had many legs, which made her excited. Eljay chuckled and he started — Hmm, let's see... One, two, three, four, five — Wow, that's definitely more than yours or mine! And we have so many more legs to go.

her father showed right up! she was delighted to see him, standing on tiptoe to lick at his jaw respectfully. "yeah! five! at least uhhhh at least like thirty-fine, right?" her tone was casual; she looked at him and then the bug.
"what's it called?" she asked, looking back at him once more. "it tried to bite me too!"

Thirty-five, huh, Dee? Eljay said as he leaned down to look at the bug. He vaguely recalled his first time seeing a bug. He'd seen so terrified. He didn't know yet at the time that bugs were mostly harmless, albeit a little.. creepy crawly, still. He looked sideways at Chickadee and asked, How do you know it's at least thirty-five? Did you count them?

Chickadee then asked what it was called, and Eljay answered, I believe this one is called, uh.. He dug his memory — this wasn't really his area of expertise — and came up with, Centipede, I believe. He chuckled at Dee's admission that it had tried to bite her. She was truly fearless; must have gotten the adventurous side from Maia's side of the family, or perhaps from his mother's side.

she shrugged her shoulders up and down. "i counted ten! then i guessed!" perfect math. "cen-tee-peede," she repeated slowly. her father's inspection of the creature inspired another of her own.
"if it can bite me, can i bite it? can i eat it?" her eyes grew wide, and her tail lashed to and fro. suppose there were other things to eat besides meat and certain plants!
chickadee was certainly ready to try.

Eljay chuckled at Chickadee's explanation of how she calculated how many legs it had. Well, he could hardly fault her there. She repeated its name, continuing to be intrigued by the critter.

At the question about trying to bite it and eat it, Eljay grew uncertain. He wasn't sure if it was poisonous or not. He honestly couldn't imagine anyone wanting to try and eat something like this, so he had never given it a thought. Now, after a few seconds of doubt painted on his face, the caretaker quickly said, No! No eating. It might not be healthy.

"what's healthy!" she crowed always full of questions. she opted to heed him tho, albeit reluctantly.
"WELL" she decided next, stomping her foot. "i'm still hungry! do other bugs have lotsa legs?" she smirked and danced around him, forgetting the organism more and more.

The patient father chuckled when his daughter asked what 'healthy' meant. Healthy stuff is what's good for you. Things that are not healthy are not good for you. Well, that was the gist of it, anyway; no need to make it harder than it had to be.

Chickadee then started to dance around him, which prompted the smile on Eljay's face to grow further as she asked further questions and declared her hungriness. Well, he started, equally patient as before, Most bugs just have six legs; three on each side. There's only a few that have a lot of legs like this one. Eljay really had to think on that before he said it, because bugs weren't exactly his area of expertise, but he was pretty sure that what he said was right. Do you want to find something else to eat? We could go find a cache. There ought to be some food around here somewhere for Chickadee to delve into, even though it might not be fresh.

good for her, not good for her! boring! but chickadee wasn't about to say that. daddy explained the bugs and just like that the girl nodded and lost interest, moving swiftly to the next thing.
"a cache!" she exulted. "one time i found a rabbit! and a bird!" she paused, moving to her father's side. "what things do not go in caches, daddy?" the girl asked with great curiosity.

Chickadee seemed to have moved on from the subject of bugs by now, and she instead asked about caches. While they started heading out towards a nearby cache, Eljay said, Well, I guess you could put anything in a cache. He sounded thoughtful, as if he too needed a moment to think about this question. There's some things that shouldn't be in a cache, though. Such as bugs. He smiled as he revisited the previous subject briefly. Or water. Or, uhm... Little wolf pups. He definitely preferred his children above ground.

chickadee nodded. she didn't understand why bugs couldn't go into a cache, and calmly prepared to throw the question at eljay.
but what he said was so funny that she gasped and started to giggle.
"what about aiden?" she chortled. "he could like a cache!" the idea was hilarious, and soon she was beside herself at the very idea of caching her brothers.

Eljay was glad that the 'funny' comment hit home. He was not generally a very humorous guy, but thankfully he could make his children laugh at least sometimes. Eljay chuckled when Chickadee suggested Aiden might like a cache. Well, he might like being in a cache, but we should make sure he doesn't get buried in it. That wouldn't be very good for him. Meanwhile, they arrived at a place where Eljay thought to remember a part of a squirrel was buried. Hmm, I think it's here, he pondered. The smell was only thin, and he didn't remember exactly when he had buried it. Had someone already taken it..? Well, only one way to find out — dig it up.

wow so sorry on the wait! shall we wrap and have an updated one? <3

chickadee snuffled roughly against the ground. she wasn't exactly sure what daddy was looking for but she could catch the hint of meat-aroma filtering through the ground.
instinctively, chickadee set her little paws and began to dig.
clods of dirt were kicked toward her father in her excitement.

no problem at all <3 yes, we can! i'll wrap this up. :D

Eljay smiled as Chickadee excitedly started to dig up the meat in the cache once they had reached it. He sat back and watched her work with a soft smile on his face; they were growing up so fast. Seemed to go faster with each year, honestly.