Stone Circle do not speak as loud as my heart

For the first day, she had shadowed Steady and Valette. But as they days passed in a blur, she found that her confusion, her shock, had faded to the point of nearly vanishing. Perhaps it was that her young mind could not fully comprehend the situation, or perhaps she had simply not felt anything beyind that first night because she couldn't. In any case, she was almost the same as she had been before the disappearence of her mother, though at times she would grow silent when she thought of the woman, she was, in all other ways, normal. 

she had shadowed Valette and Steady the first couple days, but now she was alone, a short distance frm the den, practising with vigor the hunting stalk she had learned from Valette, determined to get it right. Suddenly, her gaze fell on something amazing; a huge insect, a glistening blacl beetle. Eyes glistening with barely contained excitment, she stalked forward, lunging at the last possible moment-

"ETTE! ETTE! LOOK!" she squealed through a maw full of slightly crushed beetle as she searched for the woman who had come, to be, in some ways, like her mother. Pride shone through as she sprinted toward the den, wanting to show someone what she had done.

A wild pang went through Day's heart as a little voice rang out - he recognized it as the more outgoing of Althaia's daughters, but in his current state of little rest and even less eace of mind, he could not recognize that she was crying out in excitment and not in fear.

Day barreled toward the sound, only to find the cute little pip with a beetle in her mouth, looking no worse for wear. His heart was fixing to beat right out of his chest, but a quick assesment of the situation began to calm him down.

Approaching at a less frantic pace, Day called out to the little wolf. "Hey cutie, remember me?" he asked, hoping that he would be answered in the affirmative.

The beetle was dropped by her paws as she ca,e too a sudden halt, eyes on the grey wolf suddenly before her. Her brow squinted as she sought to remember who he was, before finally settling on a name a few moments later. "Day!" She squealed triumphantly, before motioning excitedly to the beetle before her.

"Hunt! 'Ood!" She told him excitedly, before dipping down and swallowing the beetle whole. She paused a moment, excitement fading rapidly as her eyes grew in shock. "EW!" She screeched a moment later, spitting and back pedaling rapidly, bitter taste spreading as she gagged and spat, trying to expel whatever she'd just eaten right now.

Day crouched down and belly-crawled toward the other, tail fanning behind him. He was surprised that she remembered him and even more surprised that she'd been able to place a name to his place - Guess I'm more memorable than I thought, he mused, feeling very cool all of the sudden.

"What's that?" he asked, ears perking. Already hunting for herself? It made his heart hurt a little to think she was all on her own, but a more rational part of the male reminded him that Steady and Val had it covered, and that hunting was fun. "A beetle, huh? How'd you - hey!"

A startled laugh escaped him as the girl chomped down her prey and then promptly tried to spit it out. Adorable. "C'mere, let's go get a drink," he suggested, standing and nudging her in the direction of the creek.

Day was smart. As he nudged her toward the creek, she still gagging and spitting as if her life dependent on it, suddenly the water became apparent and she took a deep drink as soon as she was able, washing away the bitter taste. She smiled up at Greyday, happy that the taste was gone, but then her gaze turned downcast. "Why bad?"

she asked sadly. Valette's catches always tasted delicious...why didn't hers? Her gaze stared down at the rushing river, feeling like a failure. Why couldn't she hunt something tasty like Valette?

After a drink, the girl seemed in much better spirits - until, abruptly, she didn't.

Why bad? Hell if he knew - some things were for eating, and something just weren't. Day had found that crickets and worms didn't taste too awful, and that sometimes he could dig up fat, white grubs that were alright to eat. Mostly, though, he tried to steer clear of bugs. Most of them were nasty, and some of them were downright dangerous.

"Can't say," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Bugs are just bad, okay? Wolves don't eat them."

It wasn't the whole truth, but she could learn when she was older. It wouldn't do to confuse her and have her eat something that'd make her sick.

Bugs just were. He also said that wolves didn't eat them, which made sense if they were so bad. Still a little put off by the bitter beetle and the facts that her catch had been bad, and by no accounts as good as Valette's many catches, she simply said, "oh"

looking to the male a moment later with a curious titl of her head, she asked,  "can find something eat now? Something not bad?" She was, in truth, quite hungry, and seeing that her beetle had been a failure her mind turned to what else might fill her belly.

His first thought was to take her to the nearest cache and let her eat her fill - and then to Steady or Valette, after that. He couldn't hunt affectively with the little girl in tow, and he wouldn't bring her near the borders without heavy backup. That meant she was deadweight to him, cute as she was, and he had to get rid of her before he started his day.

But, in the end, her cuteness won out. He wanted her to like him, and the best way to do that was to be the cool uncle - the one that took her hunting even though he should really be hunting on his own.

"Alright - let's go see if there are mice in the field," he suggested, tail wagging as he turned and led the way to the meadow surrounding the Stone Circle. Automatically, his eyes darted up to the sky, checking for birds large enough to carry the girl off. There was a hawk sitting in a tree nearby, but he didn't think it'd go for a pup Keoni's size. Safe enough, he thought, though he kept his eyes peeled.

"What you do," he said importantly, crouching down beside the little girl, "Is find a little trail in the grass - you have to get real low to see them, cause sometimes they're hidden under the top layer that you can see."

He realized that Keoni was below the top layer, small as she was, and then quickly shrugged it off. It'd be good to know for when she was older, he suppose. "See, like this one," he said, nosing some grass aside to reveal a divot in the grass and dirt. "Mice run along these paths and rarely step off of them - even when you're chasing them. Smell the mouse here?"

Mice! That sounded exciting, certain moreso than the ground food which was already deaded. Thus she followed with a waging tail and eyes focused solely on Grayday, who to her seemed pretty awesome at the moment. 

she listened intently,  popining down on her rump as he stopped, and after a moment slipping forward onto her stomach so she could be low,  just as Day said. When he revealed the divot,  she lurched forward,  burying her muzzle in the grass and inhaling deeply, scenting the mouse easily. Tail wagging her excitement,  she looked up to Grayday; asking eagerly, "mice come nows? "

"Yep! Mice are coming up. You wait right there and get ready to grab it - I'm gonna scare them away from their nest, alright?"

Without waiting for an answer, he nosed through the field, searching for where the mouse-smell was strongest. It did not take long for him to find the entrance to their den, and from there, it took only a few seconds of digging to reveal the muddy, grass-ball nest.  Instead of trying to fish them out of it, he merely stomped on it until two mice shot out of the hole and down the divot that controlled their lives. "There they are, Keoni! Get 'em!" he called, following them down the path to where he'd left Keoni.

She nodded eagerly, tail wagging, and positioned herself above the little divot. Grayday walked away, and moments later, there they were! An excited lunge had her jaws close around the first one, the second running in a blur passed her paws. The shock of having a real live mouse between her jaws had her drop the creature, who fell shocked to the ground,  though a moment later she scooped it back up once again. She smacked her jaws together, and with a wet crunch killed the mouse rather ungracefully. She dropped the slightly mangled bit if prey, shouting "Day! I did! Look!"

"Yeah, look at that!" Day laughed as he approached the ecstatic girl. "Good job, Keoni - you got one! You're a great hunter."

He crouched down and marveled at the mangled creature, feigning awe at this incredible feat. True, it was only a mouse, but Day still thought it was pretty cool that she'd caught it. He couldn't remember his first kill, but he was willing to bet that he'd been older than this. Even if he hadn't been, a kid's first warm-blooded kill wasn't anything to sneeze at.

"Let's go find your daddy and show him, huh?" Day suggested, encourging her to pick up her trophy so that they could take it to see Steady. He glanced around one more time to make sure there wasn't any danger afoot before ushering Keoni back toward the trees.

Feel free to close up or tag Steady or do whatever <3

His praise had a wide beaming smile blossom on her muzzle, her tail wagging eagerly. When Grayday had finished marveling at her amazing piece of prey, she scooped it up, stance full of pride. She agreed excitedly to his suggestion, following him as he ushered her back to the den. She couldn't wait to see what Steady would think of her catch, and hurried after Grayday with vigor.