Dragoncrest Cliffs clocks on the wall talk to watches on the wrist

@Thibault
Prompt: Glacial meltwater has created several vernal pools in the Teekons

glintwater's depths had swelled since spring. val tracked the lake's borders, eyeing the reeds immersed in crystalline water. elsewhere in sapphique, little communal pools had appeared.

some of them even bore dinner.

he moved past glintwater towards the den which housed mireille's children -- his children. val knew little of mireille's exploit before him, and being naive, or perhaps willingly obtuse, had never considered the fact they might not be his. sapphique did not encourage paternity at its most basal -- and while val would never exert his paternity over them, he felt a bond to them that could only be called filial loyalty.

he ducked his head under the massive roots, chuffing for any puppy that might wish to accompany him this sunny morning.

He can walk! He can shove his legs around and move, move, move, move! Four weeks old, from learning how to wobble and hobble to learning how to advanced wobble and hobble. Sleep was a beautiful thing, he learned. Once he'd gotten over his pissy opinions of light, and even now the sun was his enemy, he chose to keep his eyes open. He learned of Miette's blob of colors, Tousaint's blob of colors and Chantale's blob of colors! Mama's blob of colors really didn't need identifying, considering she was around so often. 

He identified mama from her quality milk production. Taste like mama, must be mama.

Thibby fumbled around, long on his feet and had been pestering his siblings with poking, prodding and whining. It had been the sound of a large, massive chuff to his ears that pulled in his almighty attention. Quirking his head towards the entrance, he stood there like a sack of potatoes with no moving legs, no expression besides an open mouth, and staring with a shaky body. While he did not squint, he seemed like he could have.

... What was THAT blob of color? And why was it weird? Was that even a color?

And then he immediately tried to run to it, or run to what his little-big legs could to go investigate with no hesitancy! He would discover it's weirdness, wobbling over to Val to try and sniff his feet.

from within the den, a round little head popped up.

val grinned as he recognized the boy thibault. his chestnut face was alert, little ears pricked -- in him, val saw heartbreaking notes of erzulie.

don't be timid, val crooned, hunkering low to the ground so that the boy might sniff his nose and face. how would you like to go on an adventure?

He leeeaaannnnned!

Then, he wiggled his nose and snorted air up his nose to the best he could. He leaned so heavily forward that he stumbled hard into the ink blobs nose. "BOOF!"

Landing his bottom jaw on the man's face, his sprawled legs tried to push him back up to be eye level. His chunky body started to shiver again. Very little had he dared to try crawling away from mama, but he'd felt enticed to do so today. His voice was gentle, this blob. He felt fuzzy. Warm smell. Thibault did not answer, he hardly knew how to, but he stared. Stayed near. Stared..

And then tried to climb on his nose again.

val laughed, for it was usually him that did such booping. his nose retracted gently, careful not to upend the tot which now balanced precariously upon him.

whoa there, he cautioned, feeling the instinctive urge to helicopter. he kept it at bay, instead opting to remain eye level for little thibault.

it was best he did so, for the boy leaned forth again - how much was of his own volition val did not know. he licked thibault’s cheek and pulled away with a grin. think you’ll need to work on your balance before we go exploring, maybe. he peered down at thibault, who now had made objective of climbing his head.

His tail waggled like a loose snake was wriggling on his behind! "SSUh." Suh. Suh... Sssssuuuuuuh....... Big yellow thing in the sky!

This had been, very likely, his first exploration outside of the den, or at least by his own choice. Now that he was out, or now that he'd been coaxed out, his clunky paws started trying to take him not on the ground, but on new blobs head. "Hhhhe! Heh!" He was not one to laugh. In fact, most of what he did involved growling and crying. One of those more than the other, and that was guessable judging by his timidness.

But at Val, and as he tried intentionally exploring his face like a mountain, airy, raspy giggles made way from his mouth. "Espore!" X was too hard, and the 'ing' must've just been too much. Or he was too lazy to add it.

val supposed one of the latent joys in life was succumbing to the idea of becoming your child's jungle gym. for the safety of daring thibault, val laid himself flat upon the ground. any tumble from such dashing heights would be harmless.

suh! heh! 'splore! the little voice crowed atop its newfound zenith, its owner tottering ever closer to val's shoulderblades. muffled beneath pointy feet, val covered his eye with a paw so no unintended poking occurred. even if single-eyed glares ran in the family, val wasn't one to risk it. what do you see up there, great explorer?

"BEHhhhhhh!"
He wasn't sure what that one meant.
BEhhhh! BEHHHH! Up on blob's head, where suh attacked him. Wiggling on Val's head, his neck outstretched towards suh, his tongue poked out between his teeth as his gums lifted in fight. Bubbling, rumbly growls vibrated on his lips as he let out audible, forced, "grrrrrr!"s. Then, he started trying to hop, failing miserably, seeing as he hobbled and wobbled as it was. Big blob good ride! Not as wiggly as his sisters and brothers or mama! "BEH-BEH."

Beh didn't mean anything.

He just found out that he liked saying it.

from atop val's head came a series of vibrations and rumbling.

ah yes, the puppy batteries were kicking in.

he remained expertly still while thibault cycled through his new repertoire of exciting sounds -- but when thibault began to hop val deftly pulled out from under him, offering a leg in soft landing before he shoved down into a playbow and yipped BEH! right back.

"BEHH!"

Startling backwards, he saw Val coming down as a giant wave, and though he was a little man, he was certain he could do it back.

Flopping down on his belly, he starfished outwards, hiccuping out a, "BEH," next. Hic..hic.."BEH!" 

Waddling his trunk legs back up. "ESPORE!" Slow, but ecstatic giggles left his lips again, his eyes coming to a soft close and his open-mouthed smile so present. Then, he copied Val's playbow again, nipping the air and waggling his tail. Thibault didn't have a concept of 'being too young and fishlike'.

BEHH val parroted back, grinning mid playbow. something about puppies awoke his own inner child — long had that voice been silenced. 

he didn’t know what thibby muttered next; more toddler nonsense, he assumed — but the boy’s intent was clear in his own mimicked playbow and nip at the air. 

val raised one paw ever so slowly, aiming for the world’s gentlest boop right on thibault’s ‘behhing’ nose.

in a toddler's world, play was hard work. eventually val tired thibault plain out. as the boy nestled against the crook of his arms, val was filled with an overwhelming sense of love and peace.

he fell asleep holding thibault tight to his chest.