Ankyra Sound working hard or hardly working

The wolf that had pilfered his prize and landed him in the dog house was nowhere to be found. Sam had spent so long with his nose in @Marina's prints now that her scent plagued his dreams - it was in every musty corner and under every rock.

Life had taken him in an unexpected direction since The Incident, but Sam was a committed employee. He had left his temporary home early that morning, commuting east with the birds until he was once again among the high-rise trees of the Monolith Metropolis. The ground was alive with critters attending to the business of the day. Sam lowered his nose as close as he dared to an ant hill and asked, "Have YOU seen a wolf with an extra skull around here? Smells like seaweed and babies?"

Lilimar was growing into a terrific pain in the ass, because frankly they loved to wander. They still spoke little, taking 'actions speak louder than words' all too literally. Nipping and scratcing was increasingly common.

Trotting along they hoped to find a seagull carcass today, but instead all they found was a funny looking man staring down at an ant hill. Was he friends with them?

What a weirdo.

Scrunching their face into a sort of grimace, Lilimar stared. It was a hobby of theirs at this point, their form of birdwatching.. would this make it wolfwatching?

Just then, a sprightly breeze whipped through the trees. It zigzagged like a living thing, foraging for scents in the bumpy bark of trees and behind green ferns, touching leaf litter and grass shoots with invisible fingertips. It swept over the pup's downy head like a petting hand. It smeared across Sam's nose – just as he inhaled deeply in preparation for a sigh.

The smell of baby stopped him from letting the air go. The smell of the baby. He sucked in more air, feeling the muscles of his chest stretch, double and triple checking that yes, this was the forest-and-sand smell of Marina's footprints.

Slowly, carefully, Sam turned his head. A pair of impossibly huge amber eyes stared at him from a gurning face that matched the forest floor in color - reds, browns, a splash of grey. It was so little.

"Where's momma, baby?" Sam half-whispered, lowering his head to puppy height. Fate was doing him one hell of a favor.

Now the stranger spoke. Lilimar had heard those words many times over, usually coming from a concerned wolf who didn't understand why the babe would be alone, but this one felt different. What did he want with their mother?

Like a not so skilled trickster, Lilimar quickly glanced west before running eastwards. With those short legs and their pudgy body they weren't exactly fast, but skipping through the grass you would think they thought otherwise. Where was their mother? Back at the den, hunting?

Sam followed.

He was not particularly thrilled with the choices he was making, but they were the right ones for the job he wanted. The henchmen did the kidnapping. It was dirty work, he roll up his proverbial sleeves and get stuck in.

The pup galloped off at full speed, which wasn't very fast at all. Sam kept pace easily without ever having to break into a jog. He didn't know what he would do if the mother was home. Grab the kid, hold it hostage, hope that she didn't have friends? A better plan would be to take it with him - steal the baby as she had stolen his skull.

"Hey, baby!" Sam bounded ahead of Lilimar, then lowered his head to block their path. His brown eyes were warm and friendly.  "Let's go to the beach! You know beach? Beeeaaaachhh?"

Woah, this guy was fast. But as impressive as his speed was, his repetitive speak of the beach was much less charming. Did he not know where the beach was?

Beach. They repeated, more to mock him than anything else. But, Lilimar would comply. Paws turned to trot off to the beach, the sandy surface in their sight; or it would be if they could see a bit better.

This pale wolf was a pretty weird guy. Lilimar wondered how he had ended up here, had the birds carried and dropped him into the forest?

The pup absolutely knew what and where beach was, thank you very much, and could even say it. Sam felt a little stupid. He had spent plenty of time around puppies, but like his fellow men of the Witchwood he could barely tell a newborn from a toddler. When did they learn how to walk? Straight out of the womb, probably.

The sand still held on to the chill of night. Sam grimaced as his toes sank into it, and looked
down to see what the creature with thumbs for legs would make of the sucking surface. It would take ages to get to the mistress's tunnel. The baby would get tired, need a nap, need to poop, need food - and Sam had no breasts to speak of. He cleared his throat and asked,  ".. uh.. uppies? Up? Carry you?"

Carry them.. it was a good suggestion. Walking was much too hard, Lilimar would far rather be carried; it was a luxury they were often stripped of now that they were growing larger.

Tail wagging, Lilimar gave a bark. Take me away! It seemed like he was looking for their mother after all, so there was no harm in it. This strange man would carry them to the beach, drop off with mama, and then he would probably go on his way.

This was going great, Sam thought, and then he remembered that he was stealing a baby. Curse his conscience. It had no place in business – he would not get this chance again, and Sobeille needed that skull. For.. something. Decoration? He hoped so – Sam would not entertain the idea that his mistress was some kind of grubby witch.

He walked behind Lilimar, poked his head between both sets of legs, and scooped their little body up and back onto his own neck before there could be any protesting.

"Pretty heavy," he remarked, shimmying to adjust the weight. "Good job mom." Where was she?

They had never been carried like this; not that they were complaining. If their legs weren't touching the ground it worked.

Lilimar settled in rather quickly, wondering if this man knew the way to the den at all. It was to the right, they were pretty sure. Or the left.

Like all new parents, Sam begged the powers that be for Lilimar to fall asleep in the car.

They were at the bottom of the cliffs faster than Sam would have liked. The farther the pup got from mother,  the more of an actual crime he was committing. By the time they reached the dark mouth of the hidden tunnel, he was panting from stress, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. The child seemed to be ten times heavier now than when they had started walking.

Before he could change his mind, Sam called for @Sobeille.

when sam's voice lifted over the cliffs, sobeille moved towards it. she expected a skull, and so when she came across him in the very tunnel she'd shown him, her face fell.

a child? by scent sobeille recognized this immediately to be one of marina's. not quite connecting she'd been abducted, sobeille sniffed at the air before them and lodged a silent inquiry by gaze alone. was she hurt?

The babe had allowed themselves to fall into a light sleep on the way over. They were well overdue for a nap.

They saw no reason not to trust the man after he made such convincing suggestions; their expectation was that they would wake up back in the cave, though part of Lilimar preferred to stay here. It was much warmer.

Sobeille answered the door.

The fact that his mistress didn't immediately light up when she saw what he had done was... concerning.  Sam cleared his throat, said nothing, waited, but the questioning look on her face never dissolved into triumph or glee or and of the things he had expected.

"It's.. her," he clarified, turning his head to push the pup back into position when it started to slip. "She stole your skull, and this is her baby. I thought we could trade it." Sam tried his very best to sound casual, even though the words coming out of his mouth were not.

when it dawned upon sobeille that marina was the thief, a coldness clamped her belly. she glanced to the sleeping cub, then back to sam.

betraying nothing of the conflicting feeling nagging her that what they were doing was morally wrong, sobeille reminded herself that marina had stolen something of great importance to her. her safe harbor in the sound ended that very moment.

sobeille moved to stand over the pup, sensing that sam needed something else from her. very good. inform the thief she’s stolen something of ours, so we’ve done the same.

If Sobeille was in any way conflicted, it missed Sam entirely. He let the pup slip gently onto the ground, watching the masked wolf move to claim it with awe written plain on his face. She really was heinous – in the best way. Sam took his orders and departed, the gravity of what he had just done sitting heavy on his shoulders.

He repeated the same message again and again along the route home, howling into long and loud: @Marina we have your child.

fin!