Nova Peak pot luck

Introducing pups to Gamekeeper trade. @Scimitar @Pasha @Allure II @Swift @Whittier @Jorunn - set before the twister. Anyone from the pack welcome; if it makes sense to post out of order then please do so.

Ideas: Pup runs into a warren and has to be dug out, den turns out to belong to an (angry) fox mother... >:)

Being brand new to the whole parent lark, Bazi had little sense of what sort of timeline for learning was appropriate for her children. They were too small to accompany the adults beyond the borders, but that didn't stop Bazi from staging mock hunts within the territory itself.

There were plenty of rabbit warrens around - particularly on the more sparsely wooded slopes up the mountain. Bazi herded her children into one of steep meadow above the treeline, where the earth was too shallow to support trees. White tails flashed out of sight, disappearing into shrubbery and tunnels dug under scattered mounds of dirt.

Bazi dropped the severed leg of a previous kill onto the ground. "Rabbit," she declared, motioning for the pups to refamiliarize themselves with the scent. "I want you to scatter, find us some rabbit holes, and signal everyone else when you do. First one to find a warren doesn't have to drag the kill all the way home." Bazi certainly wasn't carrying anything.

Trouble-finding haphazard son at your service!

There was a row of plants laid carefully on one of the flat stones in the rendezvous site, and Swift was checking on them, gingerly touching his nose to them. The sun had taken much of the moisture out of the plants, but some remained, and so the smallest Frostfur left them alone. He had yet to understand why he treated his plants this way, but he was so greatly compelled to do so he could not help himself.

Before he could decide to go look for more, his mother arrived with a rabbit leg in tow, dropping it on to the ground. Swift sidled over, taking a big sniff of the leg. He had shown little interest so far in doing anything but meddling with greenery, but he was intrigued by this game of find-the-rabbit-hole, and promptly strolled off to do just that.

He found many holes, but none matched the scent of the leg Bazi had brought them. From one hole burst a cantankerous chipmunk that squeaked sharply at him before scurrying down another hole mere paces from the first. Just as he was beginning to feel discouraged, he spotted one: a large hole in the side of a small bank. He hurried to it, and success! Smelled rabbit. So thrilled by this was he that he overlooked the other scent, a barked excitedly to alert his family to his find.

With a wagging tail he started down the den. In no time at all he found himself wedged, struggling to move forward or backward. Panic settled in quickly, and he started to wail loudly.

His bright eyes lingered upon Bazi as she began to makings of a hunting arena. He was perhaps more amused by the antics of his mate than by his children’s reactions to them, yet he still attempted to withhold his gentle smile. The Frostfur children would certainly never know boredom with Bazi as their mother – and he wondered once more as he looked upon them how they would grow to be.
 
His own form lay stretched out, bordering the tree lines of their new home. One cream paw remained crossed over the other – and he made no move to interfere with the antics before him. He was content being a spectator for now.

Swift was the first to get into trouble. Of course. Bazi flashed her mate a tired look and wondered if she could realistically leave Swift to sort out his own mess and flop next to her mate. "No, no, he might suffocate and die, and that would kind of suck," she grumbled bitterly, moving past the more cautious of her children to sort out her littlest hell-raiser.

"SWIFT?" Bazi poked her face into the hole and yelled into the darknes. Swift's wriggling rear was stuck no more than a foot into the warren, well within reach of his mother's teeth - which closed, hard, around the pup's whipping tail.

Kieran trotted towards the alphas intent to help where he could. He watched in amusement as the babes hunted. He approached Scimitar and spoke softly, Can oi be av assistance? Then he waited silently, if this was a family thing, he would turn and just go back the way he had come no problem, no question. He just was anxious to help where he could, not to mention he wouldn't mind the gamekeeper trade.

He was the smallest of the litter, and had he remained calm and been able to coordinate his movements, it was possible he could have freed himself. But he could not. Panic gripped him, and he flailed and twisted to no avail. His mother came, calling his name into the hole, and he paused his struggle. "I'm stu—" his word ended in a sharply drawn gasp. There ahead of him, two beady eyes appeared. Now he was bathed in the scent in had previously overlooked. "Monster!" he screeched as his nails dug grooves into the soil in his frantic effort to push himself back up the hole.

A muffled cry squeezed past Swift's fuzz and into his mother's ears. "Hold still then!" Bazi half-roared at her son, renewing her grip on his tail and giving it an almighty tug. Rather than going limp and allowing himself to be extricated, Swift was doing the most unhelpful thing possible - it was becoming a trend - by tightening his muscles and wedging himself in the hole. By this point, the other pups had gathered around to watch the spectacle whilst the menfolk watched on from afar. Bazi was half tempted to let let her son find his own way out of the mess he was in. Half tempted.

Amusement formed upon his features at the look Bazi gave him before dramatically flopping down – and then, in retrospect, decided their son wouldn’t make it through his rather ungraceful efforts. The loud wailing was rather ear piercing, and Scimitar would have moved to aide in the rescue attempts of his son if Bazi had not. “Suck indeed,” he muttered after her, one ear flicking in the direction of Kieran as the gentle beast spoke.
 
He did not return an answer right away to the offer – instead, the antics before him were far too endearing. “But then the entertainment would end,” he determined, hushing his voice so that maybe his wife would not hear.

The monster was a fox. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the burrow she had nestled her cubs, and now was glaring at an intruder. She started to his and snarl, her teeth becoming visible beneath black lips as she crept toward the stuck Swift. He shrieked louder, and doubled his efforts, which were not helping his cause at all. Fortunately, his mother had not abandoned her mishap of a son, and clamped down on his tail. She gave a solid tug and out he came in a mad scramble of flailing limbs, hollering all the while. Charging up the burrow next was the vixen, but she stopped at the entrance to her den when she realized she was faced with not just a pup, but an adult wolf as well.

Kieran switched his tail back and forth. CHuckling at the antics of the little family. He settled to his haunches and just studied bemused. He laughed louder at the foxes face when she came out ot look around. He shook his head and twitched one ear and then waited silently if they needed anything of if he should just head back to his own duties. Maybe he coudl do some hunting.

Bazi would have rooted out all four of their combined balls and snipped them clean off if she had heard the exchange between the two men. Luckily, she was too busy rescuing her son from himself to pay them much attention. Swift came exploding out of the pup trap, yelling loudly and incoherently. The fox followed, all sharp teeth and glaring eyes - until she spotted the mother of the wolf whose face she had intended to savage. A tense three-fifth's of a second passed before Bazi lunged and the vixen fled, followed by the echoes of an angry mother's barking.


Bazi was 98% Unimpressed Face when she rounded on her son. "Don't get stuck in holes." Was that really something you had to learn? After making certain he wasn't injured, the long-suffering mother departed her child's company with a sigh and a shake of her head and lumbered over to the parents' corner. With any luck, the kids would get on with their games without need for further intervention. 

Concluding this. :) Let me know if you want to continue.

fine by me! last post

His mother lunged, and the fox darted back into her hole while the Frostfur son stood staring. His mother rounded on him then, and he flattened his ears, scowling as he looked away from her. He was embarrassed; it seemed no matter what he did he found trouble. Hell, even just waking he would trip or stumble into something. Bazi left, and her son slinked away, muttering to himself about how he didn't want to be a gamekeeper anyway.

Last post for me.

He shifted upward as the Fox came to view – Swift was already running away, and Bazi was already taking care of that and revealing her anger at the vixen. The boy seemed unhurt, and Bazi’s angst only went so far as to chase the vixen from the scene before trudging back to the small group.
 
Nudging his mate as she settled down, his eyes struck out over the children, bemused by their antics once more as they continued to play. The adults wiled the rest of the afternoon away, and later they would call the pups to dinner.
 
For now, they would let the children entertain themselves under the watchful eye of the adult wolves.

Kieran didn't say anything. Seeing that the small family was content. He stood and with a small smile at all of them. He turned and trotted back the way he had come. He would have stayed, but it had seemed like a family affair and he hadn't wished to intrude. Besides he needed to get some hunting done.