Moonspear house so empty, need a centerpiece

Charon had special intentions for that day as he made his way to the rendezvous site, hoping to catch @Korei Julia , @Hydra , @Alya or @Lyra there. He had noticed the girls'd been a handful to keep in one place so it was time for some scouting in his eyes — to put their curiosity to good use. It was no surprise they were so curious and eager to explore. Charon had been the same as a child and somehow he could not imagine Ame had been a goody two shoes that didn't go anywhere without her parents as a child either.

"Girls!" he called out as he reached the fray between the woods and the rocky slopes of Moonspear; surely they were somewhere or other nearby. If no one had let them run off again, anyway. He followed the path up the lower slopes where he remembered Dhole'd fell that time they were first exploring the mountain, keeping his eyes, ears and nose open for his little girls while the sun was already past its highest point that day.

Hydra had been hiding, alongside her two favorites @Lyra and @Alya, waiting for either their mother or their father to return from wherever it was they went that they were not permitted to go. Hydra still tested their limits with her sisters whenever she had the opportunity, but today was the day of naps and dealing with obnoxious growing pains.

The sound of their father coming was distraction enough for her to get her sisters to rally to attention and do their thing. So sympatico were they that the girls rarely even needed words anymore, at least between one another. Hydra spoke, lately, when mimicking her sisters. Practice made perfect, and she already had herself down to a T.

Her eyes held her sisters, the flicking of them a countdown. One... her left ear shifted toward the right, two... that same ear rotated forward.. THREE! both ears thrust over her brow, and Hydra raced toward Charon with a rallying cry. If her sisters followed, she was not sure, but she sprinted toward him anyway!!

Alya, Lyra and Hydra were all in a bundle together, as Korei sat alone, tail thumping against the ground quietly. She didn't try to join the group, for every time did did try, she was sent away again. It didn't cause her too much unrest, for that was just the way it was. It was how it always was and how it always will be. She studied her dark sisters before movement caught her eye and her head whipped around.

It was their father! Tail beat harder and she cast another glance toward her sisters just as Hydra leapt from the group. Julia bounded after her, pink tongue lolling with glee.

When he heard the call, Charon turned to face its source. There he saw Lyralhydra (whichever one it was; on a good day, which was to say on the rare occasion that they hadn't rolled all over each other, he could identify them by scent) come storming towards him. He chuffed at her with an encouraging smile on his face. Julia followed not far, and Charon hoped that by the time they'd get here he'd know which of the triplets he had in front of him. He was just happy it was only one of them right now, because although they were hella funny together, maybe he'd actually know which one he had with him if it stayed with just one.

And anyway, it was good for Julia to mingle with the triplets, too. He liked to let them fight out their own quarrels, but it was no secret Julia was left out or victimised often. Charon didn't bother too much with this and neither did he berate the triplets or save Julia; he thought it the normal way of things, and well, kids were gonna be kids. They'd be fine. So as they came storming towards him he called out to them: "Hey girls, wanna see something really cool? Want to go on —" there he gasped for extra effect, "— an adventure?" He knew they'd be excited when he would tell it to them like this, and a large smile spread out across his face to emphasise the coolness of what they were about to do.

Whoops! Forgot about this one.

For any other wolf, Alya would have been happy to go along with her sister's plan. Maybe if she had wider attention span she might even have gone along anyway, but the fact of the matter was that when The Great White entered the scene, Alya only had eyes for him. Like Korei, her tail beat the ground and sent up flurries of dirt. She'd been lying with her sisters, working on their latest plot, but all that was forgotten when he showed up.

Hydra sprang forward, but for once, Alya was not in tandem with her, and she bounced forward half a beat later with a name on her lips. "Daddy!" she piped, giving herself away. Easily the loudest of the three, and often the most articulate, Alya bounded toward Charon and reached him a moment after Hydra, already babbling away. "Whaa kinna aventure? Can we kill stuff? I wanna kill!"

Hydra did not note that her sister had not moved with her, and so was truly only happy to have her littermate pounce with her. But Alya seemed less inclined to pounce than she did talk, and Hydra paused from her own aggressive antics and slid beside her. She adopted the meeker posture of Lyra for a moment, before she swatted playfully at Alya, who perhaps Hydra loved most of all. There was an irate look in her eye, though, that Hydra had not played along, and she simmered in disappointed silence as her sister blabbered on about potential plans for the day. She didn't have a preference, not too creative and keen on going with the motions unless those motions were obnoxious.

gonna pp Julia for the rest of this thread.

Soon, a second triplet followed behind. She was quick to betray herself, and Charon smiled at her eagerness. He didn't care how murderous she sounded, because she also sounded adorable, and it was only natural, he thought, for young wolves to think about killing stuff. She would make a good hunter and warrior, he thought proudly. "Hey sweetie," he returned and nuzzled the top of Alya's head fondly.

The other dark girl was harder to tell, for at first she came running at him with a rallying cry, but now she was acting more shy. Charon guessed it to be Hydra, because of all the pups, around him she seemed the one who most tried to play him for a fool. It didn't matter much though, as even the antics of the triplets were funny and he was proud that they were so creative and supportive of each other.

"Well, whether you'll get to kill anything depends on how good a hunter you are," Charon said to Alya with a grin. Then he said, "Let's go!" and he was quick to lead the pups away. Julia stayed near the back and was quieter now that two of the triplets were there, and after making sure Lyra was going to stay here Charon took his children away from the rendezvous site. They followed a path that lead up the mountain, a narrow path with some tall grasses and dry plants growing along its side. Charon said: "Have you ever seen a cave?" He already knew the answer would be 'no'. "It's like a really big den with lots of rocks." And he intended to take them to one of his favourites; a drippy cave with a small waterfall inside.

Even as focused on Charon as she was, Alya noticed her sister's ire. She was far to in-tune not to catch on to something like that, even if moment of excitment sometimes caused her to sin against the nature of the Cereberus and step out of her role. She shot the middle head a look of contrition and moved quickly to place Licks of Affection and Askance for Mercy upon her most beloved sister's chin.

Hoping this would appease Hydra, she fell back into her rightful place at her sister's side and listened dutifully to the words the Great White was speaking to them. Maybe they would get to kill something! Alya shot Hydra another significant look and thought about going to wake Lyra - but the moment was now, and if they didn't take it, they would never know what might've happened!

So she followed Hydra and Daddy, trying her best to contain herself and to behave with the solemnity and decour that a princess such as herself ought to have.

But a cave? What was a cave?

"Cave," Alya whispered excitedly, imagining a large wolf with rocks instead of skin, and maybe grass instead of fur but obviously you couldn't see a lot of grass because grass didn't grow so well on rocks. Duh. "Are they bald?" she asked, bouncing slightly even as she carefully flanked the Crowned Princess.

Alya's contrition appeased Hydra swiftly. As quick as she had been to become angry, she was quicker to appease. Her most fluent language was that of wolf, reigning supreme over spoken tongue. Hydra nipped Alya fondly, and swiftly forgot she was even pretending to be anyone else. Her fathers words gained her primary interest when he spoke, and Hydra moved to bounce toward him, encouraging Alya to do the same with a simple look. Their pale sister drifted toward the back, as ever, and Hydra peered over her shoulder to make sure she was okay. Julia endured a lot of abuse, but Hydra didn't hate her. Hydra would beat up anything that hurt Julia other than she and her sisters, because no one, no one would mess with her family. 

Hydra thought about Lyra too, briefly. But Lyra would get to hang out with mom all alone, which was equally as cool as hanging out with dad, and so her attentions were all upon Alya. I hasn't, she said imperfectly in answer to his question, her baby blues peering upward at him. Alya was more exuberant than Hydra was, which was no surprise and also no bother at all. Hydra loved Alya and Lyra fiercely, and would never be able to find anything bad at all in her mirror images.

He couldn't help but chuckle at his daughter's question whether caves were bald. "Sometimes," he said with a grin. He was also amused at Hydra's answer and the way she said the word. He didn't correct her, thinking it cute and knowing that the girls would pick up the correct way to say things soon enough as they grew up, considering they were around proper-speaking adults all the time.

As they came around a corner further up the path, Charon looked over his shoulder to see if all girls were still there. Julia was still rounding up the back and Hydra and Lyra were still following too. Charon went round the corner and stopped there, pointing his nose at a hole in the wall. He poked his head in to look — the hole wasn't big, sized for an adult wolf to fit through but likely too small for a bear or such — and then poked out again. He turned to the girls and said, "Go have a look inside!"

Inside of the cave they would find a trickling miniature waterfall coming from a hole up above, trickling down into a shallow waterfall. The ground consisted of wet rocks and drippy rocks occasionally drip-dropped water droplets onto the shallows and rocks below. Charon waited for the girls to go in first now that he had checked that it was safe inside so they could see the cave for themselves.

@Korei Julia feel free to pop back in if y'want, but if not that's fine too and we can pp Julia :)

Though a cave sounded like a scary creature, Daddy didn't seem to think they would have any trouble with it. He looked into the dark hole and then ushered them in, and that was all the invitation Alya needed. After a quick glance exchanged with Hydra, the young girl rushed in, ready to kill whatever bald cave came their way!

But, as her eyes adjusted, she realized there was nothing interesting in the dark hole. Just some lame water and some weird drippy walls. (Okay, it was sort of cool, but not as cool as killing stuff.)

Affronted, Alya turned to her sister and shared an indignant look. What was all that about?

"We could make this our secret clubhouse," she said in a stage whisper, though there wasn't as much excitment in the suggestion.

After his girls'd gone inside, Charon followed, a smile on his face as he watched the familiar interior of the cave.

Charon was so absorbed into how awesome and beautiful this place was that he didn't notice Alya's affronted face. "Cool, huh?" he asked his children as they entered the cave. He watched them whisper amongst each other and glanced up at the drippy rocks, listening to the peaceful drip-drop of the falling water. He had always had an eye for aesthetics and he loved seeing beautiful things; this cave was special, of course, because it not only looked cool, but it had also been the place he and Ame had first gotten close after they'd come to lead this mountain together.

want to wrap this up soon so we can have newer threads? :D

"Super!" Alya agreed, making herself comfortable in her awesome new cave. Hydra didn't seem to like it quite as much, but that was okay. More caves for Alya!

Soon enough, though, the girls grew tired. It'd been a long trek (for such little legs), and it was high time they get back home and take some long naps. Maybe they could come back (secretly) with Lyra a little later.