Redhawk Caldera With a tail as big as a kite

@Eljay, if you've got time! :) Others are welcome to join, too!

His son was growing by leaps and bounds, at least physically. Emotionally and socially, he still seemed to be much younger than his six months of age, but Elwood had accepted Eljay's quirky personality long ago. Now that he and Finley had patched things up, he felt much better about, well, everything -- and he hoped that this positive change reflected on Eljay.

It was a crisp, cool day, and as Elwood returned from a morning hunt, a gentle flurry of snow began to fall around him. He paused, turning his face to the sky as snowflakes melted on his cheeks. His breath rose in a cloud and then dissipated right before his very eyes. The Beta hastened towards home, eager to witness Eljay's first experience with the white stuff.

"Eljay!" he called as he neared the rendezvous site, looking left and right for the lanky boy. He lowered his head to the ground and gave a sniff; he knew Eljay was around here somewhere.

Eljay was just sleeping in a shallow den at the rendezvous site when he heard daddy's voice. Although Eljay wasn't truly happy, the positive changes in his parents did reflect on him. Elwood Junior seemed different each day: some days when he was out with mommy and daddy things were great, and other days when something or other caused him anxiety he would crumble. And some days he would look at his parents' happiness and feel left out, as if life had given everyone around him happy pills and he was sitting alone in the corner, sober.

When he heard his father's voice, Eljay snapped awake and turned his head in the voice's direction. "Daddy?" he mumbled sleepily and smacked his lips until he felt a little more awake. He looked at his front paws then and startled when he saw they were covered in white, fluffy stuff. His eyes widened as he looked at it, and without getting up from the shallow hollowing underneath a small tree, Eljay reached out to sniff, then lick the stuff... Only to see a couple of snowflakes drift down upon his nose as he did so.

This made me want to hug Eljay: And some days he would look at his parents' happiness and feel left out, as if life had given everyone around him happy pills and he was sitting alone in the corner, sober. ;_;

There was a murmur from nearby and Elwood honed in on the sound, pressing his ears forward as he located his son. "There you are," he said as he approached, his yellow eyes bright as he knelt down in front of Eljay. The youth was examining his paws beneath the shadow of a tree's branches, watching as tiny particles of snow drifted down and landed on his forelegs. As Elwood observed, Eljay sniffed at the snowflakes and then licked them experimentally.

"How does it taste?" he asked with a smile, his tail stirring behind him. He wasn't sure if this first snow would be heavy enough for substantial accumulation, but maybe that was for the best -- he could imagine that piles of it would easily be overwhelming for Eljay.

<3

Eljay was distracted from his snow by daddy's approach and he looked up at his father, who asked him what the white stuff tasted like. Eljay had never seen it before, and he didn't quite understand where it came from. He smacked his lips experimentally before he answered: "Like nothing." Eljay squeezed himself out of the shallow den and looked up at the sky, from where snow was now rapidly falling.

"What is it?" he asked while he looked up and found a myriad of other questions overwhelm him, such as where it came from and who created it.

Elwood grinned at Eljay's response. "Like nothing," he proclaimed, and he was right. Snow didn't have a smell or a taste, and it melted as soon as it touched something warm. It was kind of a mysterious phenomenon, and yet it fell from the sky every year like clockwork, coating the landscape in its ethereal powder.

"It's called snow. It's frozen rain," the father explained, squinting and looking up at the grey clouds. A few snowflakes landed on his cheeks, promptly dissolving into his fur. "When the weather gets cold enough, it makes the raindrops turn into snowflakes. It'll stick to the ground and cover everything in winter."

Daddy explained, patiently and calmly as always, about what snow was and how it was made. It was all complicated stuff and Eljay had never been that interested in the weather and all that stuff, but he nodded anyway to signify he understood. "Why's it only in winter? If it's sticky, why's it not stay forever?" He glanced at the white stuff, still finding the phenomenon kind of weird, while he waited for daddy to explain the next part of his questions. Daddy always had the answers to everything (well, almost always), and his wisdom was neverending.

Eljay asked a couple of questions, seeking to learn more from his father. Although Elwood didn't consider himself an expert on weather by any means, he would do his best to explain the phenomenon of snow. Had Wildfire still been a member of the pack, he would have suggested that Eljay seek her out, since she was a naturalist. He didn't know that she had shifted her interest in trades, but that didn't really matter; it was unlikely that Eljay would venture beyond the caldera's borders to visit his cousin, and he had no idea when and if Wildfire would grace them with her presence.

"Well, it's because the air is so cold. When the temperature drops low enough, it makes water freeze. So that's kind of what happens to the raindrops; they get super, super cold and turn into snowflakes," he said. Then, when an idea struck him, he said, "Watch this." He drew in a deep breath, then blew it out. His exhale was visible in the frigid air, rising in a plume of steam that soon enough dissipated.

"We can see our breath right now because it's cold enough. So when it gets warmer, the snow turns back to rain -- that's why it doesn't stick forever," he concluded, though one ear tilted out with uncertainty. He didn't want to confuse his son, but this was not his forte.

Daddy's story was quite difficult to follow, but Eljay nodded throughout it as though he understood. Nature was confusing, and while some of the pack's wolves had tried to coax Eljay in the direction of Naturalism, he didn't really care much for it himself. He was curious enough about stuff, but the information seemed pointless.

Daddy's breath trick was cool, though — almost a little like magic. Eljay looked at the foggy cloud, at which point he realised that he was making equally foggy breath clouds. His head perked up in surprise as he watched the cloud, mystified by it, as though he was wondering how on earth he'd just created fog out of nothingness.

"Cool," he mumbled, mostly to himself, and then exhaled a couple of times real fast to create more magical fog clouds.

The boy only uttered one word in response to Elwood's explanation, but there was interest evident on his face as he began to inhale and exhale rapidly. Elwood smiled as he watched his son experiment with nature, his breath floating away on miniature clouds.

"Now look at this," he said, intending to draw Eljay's attention away from the cold air and back to the snow. He took a few steps away, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure he was getting the desired effect. There wasn't too much snow sticking to the grass yet, but there was just enough to leave behind a set of imprints. "If I went and hid, you could track me down just by following my pawprints," he said with a grin.

When daddy asked him to look, Eljay's attention obediently followed to what daddy was doing. He craned his neck a little to watch daddy leave paw prints in the snow! It looked funny, and Eljay was quick to come from his hidey hole and press his own paw into the snow. Then he lifted it again and looked to see a smaller print revealed.

Eljay's next move was to put his paw in daddy's prints. The sizes weren't all that much off, though it was clear that daddy's paws were bigger than Eljay's.

Elwood watched with amusement as Eljay experimentally left his own pawprint, then started to step into the ones he had left behind. The realization that Eljay's feet were nearly as big as his own was like a slap in the face; how had the last six months passed so quickly? Did he and Finley really have a son that was nearly an adult?

He exhaled sharply, creating another cloud of steam, then smiled at Eljay. "I want you to try finding me," he said, making the decision for his son. He would've asked if Eljay wanted to practice tracking, but that would leave room for the youth to say no. "Close your eyes and count to ten, then follow my footprints!" he urged, turning and beginning to trot away even before Eljay followed his directions.

He crept behind a nearby copse of bushes, crouching on the other side of its snowy branches and peeking out carefully.

Eljay looked at daddy as another cloud drifted from his mouth through the air and he left his son instructions. Eljay listened attentively, and when daddy was done explaining he closed his eyes and started to count from one to ten. ".... Ten." Eljay opened his eyes and looked around, noticing the snowy pawprints. He followed the prints in a slow trot, keeping his head low while he followed the prints and made sure that he kept on track.

Without stopping to see that his father was actually really nearby, Eljay continued to follow the tracks until he reached the copse of bushes and the prints stopped. "Found you, daddy," Eljay called out, his tail tentatively wagging a few beats.

Want to wrap this one up since it's getting old? :)

He listened to the steady sound of his son counting to ten. As Eljay neared the last number, Elwood's heartbeat accelerated with excitement; even though this was just meant to be a practice for the boy, it was still somewhat thrilling to be the hunted instead of the hunter. He hunkered down a bit lower, although it didn't really matter if he was hidden or not. Hopefully, it would be easy enough for Eljay to simply follow his footprints.

And that was exactly what the youth did. In just a matter of seconds, Elwood was looking up into the green eyes of his son as he gazed placidly down at him. "Good job!" he praised, his tail sweeping through the snow until he stood. "You're a natural," he added in an attempt to bolster Eljay's self-confidence. Maybe if the boy experienced some basic successes in hunting, he would be more likely to seriously pursue it as a trade.

sure, i'll fade :)

Eljay didn't really think that he was that great at it, and he shrugged a little, looking bashful, as daddy praised him. It felt like he was getting too old to be praised for just anything, especially 'cause Eljay might have been a little slow, but he was smart enough to realise that following a bunch of footprints in the snow wasn't really a great feat. He appreciatively smiled at daddy though, naturally wanting to appease his father. "Now you gotta search," said Eljay, and while daddy assumingly counted, the boy started to trot through the snow to look for a new hiding spot.