Dragoncrest Cliffs he could hardly speak.

AW for sibbies but maybe @Jadou ? :o

i got you a treatie. sobeille announced to the first sibling she saw, dangling what looked suspiciously like a chewed canid ear in front of her sibling.

she couldn’t promise she could tell them all apart. she’d more or less remained indifferent to them all once she’d returned from her trip. part of her was still bitter that her maman had more children. she’d already made the perfect one, why did she try for more?

what insulted her more was that a man had touched her maman in the first place. sobeille was a year old today - she understood enough of wolf biology to understand there were two components necessary to reproduction.

but personally, she only preferred the one component.

sobeille sent the mangled ear towards her sibling’s nose with a lazy flick. eat up, dummy.

GASPS EXCITEDLY

i's not a dummy! jadou's crackly voice shouts from the back of the roja den. sobeille had rudely woken him from his daily afternoon nap with the raunchy-smelling ear that now sat placidly in front of his face. the gall! the audacity! you be de dummy, dummy.
in all fairness, jadou did not yet know what to make of his older siblings, either. sobeille was the only one he had grown familiar with in any sense, and she was certainly... a person who existed.
wut is dat? he prods at the offering with an extended toe, concern sweeping the pudgy little face. his glare is pitiful as he stares up at the elder seagirl.

okay, dummy. sobeille responded to the boy’s outrage by swinging a leg over the stone. as he prodded the ear she seized it, and dangled it just out of reach.

too slow! her eyes twinkled. while she was a year old, she would never be so old as to not have a little playfulness. she stilled, waiting for jadou and his crackling voice to make the first move. it’s mine now, dat’s what it is. she began to chew it thoughtfully, as if she might chew the whole thing to bits right there.

this bitch. jadou was appalled! he was the little one here, and frankly, he expected to be provided for! fierceness flares behind the dark baby blues. he ought to bite her, and yet —
he decidedly could do nothing but pout.
i'll get maman, he tuts, little red ears panning out to either side of his head. i'll tell 'er you be starvin' me, an' dat i'm gonna die!
he tries to reach up to grab it with his fat little puppy paws and his tiny little puppy teeth, snapping at her like a wild gar and swinging wildly with uncoordinated jabs to her shoulders and her chest. his growl is similarly comically pathetic as it weaves out from his clenched jaws.
where you even get dat, anywheys? he'd done tired himself out after a good thirty seconds of nonstop thrashing, and now, defeated, he flops back to the ground with a plop, shoulders slumped in disappointment.

all sobeille had to do was crane her head out of reach. it was an unusual feeling, being taller. sobeille decided she quite liked it.

go’hed, sobeille answered the boy’s pugilistic challenge between grit teeth. she was not afraid of maman, and if maman happened to chastise her for bullying the kids sobeille would sulkily point she was here first.

jadou’s milk teeth snapped at her fur, but eventually he plopped to the ground in a huff, a small cloud of pollen and forest dust haloing him. sobeille stepped forward, the ear tip dangling from her teeth teasingly.

i got it from de cache. she held it towards him. you want?

why you be lyin'? he retorts, a frown curling at the corners of his mouth. he was resolute enough to not cry, but he certainly wanted to, the muscles in his chin wobbling and burning with the effort it took to hold himself together.
no. he was stronger than this. he was strong! and he was also smart; a little lightbulb goes off above his head as the gears begin to turn. where de rest of it be, den? he crows, the frown slowly twisting into a shit-eating little grin. you can 'ave de ear. i want de big meats! bring me de leg or i'll 'ave maman git rid a' you!

a little smile curled the corners of sobeille’s lips. all mine, den. she murmured through the chewed velveteen fur. she did not wait for protest — she sat down, pared the ear between her outstretched paws, and chewed it with the rough gusto of a hungry dog. it went down her gullet in a matter of seconds, and she savored the way the gristle crackled on the way down.

de rest of it is in de cache, dummy. sobeille informed in the patented tone only a long-suffering older sister could muster. she licked the fleckings of fur and flesh from her whiskers, crossing one paw in front of the other as she looked pointedly at the (dummy) boy who’d refused probably the first — and last — gift he’d ever get from her.

bossy little shit. mebbe i take your leg instead. sobeille leveled him a look that regrettably informed she was serious. dat would be a nice lil treatie.

as he watches her eat it, his face suddenly scrunches in disgust; really, the whole thing? hair and cartilage and all? jadou was only used to regurgitated slop, in all fairness, having only recently begun to dabble in solid foods — but he was given the good stuff, all the big muscles and juicy, fatty bits.
the cache, she says again. bold of her to assume jadou knew where the hell that was. a brow raises in condemnation as he levels with her, tongue poking out and flicking over his nose in a serpentine fashion. but he is not about to admit defeat, lest he be called dummy yet again. he was not a dummy!
go'hed, he mocks in the face of her threat, bravely puffing out his chest and thumping his tail against the ground. see wut 'appen. i dareeeeeee you.

the boy’s tongue darted out in colubrid fashion. for a moment, sobeille looked over him in the detached manner of a entomologist observing an insect under a rock.

her muscles tensed at the invitation. it would be so easy —

but he was family. sobeille had some provisional rules in place about family.

the girl’s resolve steeled as she rose. nah. licking her lips, sobeille sauntered right past him where the rendezvous site spilled out into a trail. i got tastier things to eat.

i be tasty! jadou caws, grumbling as he watches her saunter away. he did not fully comprehend the reality of what he said, but that did not matter — sobeille had started a competition, and jadou was now determined to win.
the earlier test of his stamina now buried by seemingly boundless puppy energy, he begins to toddle after her, ducking around the thorny undergrowth and jumping up to get her attention. either he's a lot taller than he thinks he is, or she's a whole lot shorter than she looked before, because if he springs up with just the right amount of force, he can touch his nose to her chin.
with this newly discovered skill, he levels her with a new challenge: how well can she ignore her own instinct? he begins to nuzzle and bump against the corners of her mouth, tongue grossly lodged between her lips, hoping to stimulate the urge to regurgitate.
this way, he could have his treatie just the way he liked it.

all meat is tasty, sobeille clapped back, hardly realizing she’d said the same thing to shardik several weeks before.

she strode past, wondering if jadou would follow. the scamper of his feet informed her he had; suddenly he was underfoot, leaping with such annoying insistence that sobeille’s muzzle wrinkled in a silent snarl.

jadou continued the barrage to her senses; twice sobeille pushed past, only to feel the cold press of his wet nose to her cheek. on the third touch something happened; her stomach dumped its contents through her mouth, ending up in a steaming and half-frothy pile at her feet.

sobeille recoiled, cutting the child a look that was equal parts revision and annoyance.

at first he was met with annoyance, but soon enough, his hard work is rewarded. she spews the contents of her stomach at him; chewed and yet undigested, the perfect consistency and temperature. she looks at him with ire. he meets her with a triumphant lift of his chin and the soft, shrieky cackle of a child.
he bends down to gulp it down in haphazard bites, smacking his lips with shit-eating emphasis. tanks for de treatie, he mumbles, mouth smudged with crimson juices. i winned yer game.

as angry as sobeille was, it did not stop the asp-like thought that slithered unwelcome into her head.

maleah. the crumbs of oleander petals. the shriek of the wind off the cliff as maleah's eyes grew heavy.

how hard, truly, could it be..?

he ate the entire of her gut's contents. sobeille watched with a sense of dark satisfaction.

the boy threw back his head in a cackle. i 'ope you like cubmeat. sobeille replied airily. whether it was a bluff or not, her body language did not say. with a swipe of her paw at his hindquarters sobeille rose, training her gaze on the distant waters. how long before he tested the waters, and by proxy, his birthright?

you not a cub, jadou responds matter-of-factly, licking his chops as a little hiccup seizes his diaphragm. because of course she meant who gave him the food, not where it came from, right? you be old.
satisfied, he struts toward her and flops down at her side, fighting away the post-treatie-drowsiness with a bat of his lashes. he cranes his neck to look at the dark-lashed face of sobeille, studying the long train of midnight black which cupped her eyes and snout.
because he never got his fill of annoying questions, he proceeds to chitter; why you look like dat? as he raises a plump paw to gesture at her face. maman not black. where you git dat from?

sobeille scoffed to herself, irritated by the treachery of her own instincts. jadou’s counter went unanswered, largely because she lacked the battery life to deal with every minute aspect of their interaction.

she was considering how to best rid herself of her new shadow when said shadow spoke, prompting quiet reexamination. never once had sobeille given much thought to her looks; she felt, in many ways, she was the perfect amalgamation of sapphique’s blended heritage. while sapphique did not recognize fatherhood in the traditional sense, sobeille understood that there was one male figure in specific who was a little too affectionate to her maman for it to be coincidence.

okay, now you really be a dummy. sobeille teased, casting her muzzle to the air in fanning superiority. you don’t be knowing any black wolves in saffique?

um, jadou pauses to think for a long, long moment, lips opening and closing like a fish out of water. matant chacal? me brudda an' me sistah? lafayette ak lucette? none of who he listed was black-coated, per se, but they were certainly dark — darker than maman. jadou himself was darker than maman, even if only by a little bit. who else was—?
and then
VAL?! he shrieks, eyes going wide as he cackles that loud, heinous little-child-cackle. tonton val be our odder maman?! whadda FACK? whaow!
he supposed it made sense, in some way; val was almost always hanging around the den, but so did chacal, and that woman with the yellow eyes who had gone off to — eresta, whatever that was. however, when he looks down at sobeille's feet, he also happens to notice the two milk-white phalanges, of which val also had. that could not be a coincidence!
he felt like a super sleuth, happily parading around in a circle with his tail waving behind him. but then, that begged another question: does maman know?

sobeille’s ears laced back as a third — or fourth — or millionth — volley of cackles assaulted her ears. 

she raised her paw slowly, envisioning just pushing jadou’s head underground. his laughs would not be so loud if they were muffled by dirt, yeah?

she sighed and pushed away the impulse. does maman know? sobeille parroted back with a scoff, pretending to entertain this absurd notion with her eyes widening. mebbe she doesn’t. a loud gasp, then. why don’t you be goin’ off to tell her, jadou?

how very like a man to think the women around him needed informing!

probably last 4 me unless sobeille follows him <333 these two bring me great joy

oblivious to the fact that this was likely a ploy to get rid of him, jadou now felt as if he were deployed on a sacred mission. okey, he crows, beginning to toddle off without checking if sobeille followed him. because of course she would, they were friends now — right? right?
could your older sister be your friend?
childishly oblivious to insecurity which would likely inevitably plague him later on in life, he hums a rather tone-deaf tune which meant nothing as he disappears into the ruff of sapphique's undergrowth.

they are hilarious together. new one soon?

he was so trusting! sobeille admired it as he trounced off, cheerily humming some timeless tune as he went. sobeille imagined what mireille’s response would be and cackled silently to herself, already slipping off into the tangle where he could not follow.

she occupied herself the rest of the day by counting the thinning contents of her deerskin. she wished she’d stolen that chipmunk skull from the crone! with a wistful sigh sobeille began setting them back one by one in their pouch, casting them and studying their orientation with the world around her. what did they mean, what did they say?