Broken Boulder How Tweens Are Ruining Education

@Eleuthera

she spends as much time away from the den as she is allowed. it’s not fair she loses her mother and she’s replaced by an entire-fucking-family. what kinda bullshit is that? the one puppy she’s spent time around was kind of annoying and her siblings aren’t happy about the others, either. why did they have to come here? aren’t there other places they could live?
 
well, maybe there’s other places where she can live. maybe @Solomon and @Mali will come to. they can get it set up and later she’ll tell @Delight he can come too, i guess.  good job. great plan. this will totally work.
 
brilliance looks left, then right, out of the den, and struts off into the distance with no real destination in mind. anywhere was better than that cage.

There wasn’t much occupying Eleuthera’s days anymore. She, quite honestly, did not think about Sunspire much anymore of what once might have been. Now it was too far removed, and her most recent memories consisted of being toted across the wilds with her mamas and brothers and sisters, and even that she considered to be a long time ago. All that mess was in her past, but this new land was in her present! Time to make it a gift. 

If Eleuthera had been capable of such self-actualized thoughts at the time, she might had noticed herself maturing bit-by-bit. She still experienced some frustration at the hands of things that, proved to her to be, illogical — like how she couldn’t leave the territory, not even with a chaperone, and how mama olive always tried to make her eat plants?? — but even at her young age, her passive and dulcet bloodline was already beginning to make itself known. The little lilac girl questioned, as a child should, but she rarely became flustered.

One thing that she tried, so very hard, to get used to was the presence of new children who were not Séamus or Ibis or Okeanos. It was so strange; they did not have a mama, but she had two? and they had a dad? Who even had fathers nowadays?! A little bit baffled by this change in her perception on how life is for others, Eleuthera approached the bespeckled girl as she trounced around the territory and in an attempt to grab her attention, shouted “Hey!!!” in quite a bellicose manner. Who cares that they didn’t really even know each other yet?

she isn’t gone for too long. a few minutes pass by. nothing in particular  sticks out to her and she grumbles. determined to find something, she keeps on. but so rudely is she interrupted, turning her head over her shoulder to see the grey pup bounding in her direction. it’s one of them.
 
u g h.
 
they have a weird family but can assumes the girl to be the boy puppy’s brother. pale blue eyes blink a few times before turning her head back ‘round, ignoring the other girl, and continues onward to find whatever it is she’s looking for.

Out of all the reactions that Eleuthera had expected to garner from a pup she didn’t know, that was not it. No one ever really ignored her like that within her small nuclear family, the priss-pot that she was. Whether it was Mama Olive or Mama Seabreeze or any of her brothers or sisters, generally, if she spoke loud enough, someone acknowledged her.

But this one didn’t!!!!!!!!!!!

The lilac girl faltered in her approach, standing still with mouth agape for a moment. Then she pursed her lips and grappled with the new emotions she was experiencing. Yeah, she could handle everything life had thrown at her thus far, but this was unforeseen and generally not appreciated. With a shallow huff of breath, Eleuthera announced her displeasure.  “UMMM…” she said, as if thinking out loud and to herself, but she was doing anything but. “Excuse me! There’s no way you didn’t hear me!!”

one ear twitches irritably as the other puppy expresses annoyance. brilliance rolls her eyes and she doesn’t stop. instead, she keeps going. what use is the other puppy to her but her own source of annoyance? she’s got shit to do.
 
“i heard you,” she announces from over her shoulder without faltering in her steps. briefly, she wonders if she needs to run but she keeps an even pace for the time being. perhaps she’ll decide to run later if Annoying Puppy doesn’t go away.

Oh wait, did I say that Eleuthera had matured past relatively unprompted expressions of sheer frustration and anger?

Oops. 

Maybe one day the young girl would inherit her mother’s refined sense of grace, but today was not that day. Instead, Leu huffed a very loud huff with all the force that her narrow chest could muster. Why wasn’t this girl listening to her? For all of about five seconds, her brain churned to figure out the reasoning behind this, but when her mind came up blank, she stuck out her tongue and spoke much in the manner with which she spoke to Séamus when he was being stupid. “Oh my god,” the girl stated with an exasperated sigh. The other girl hadn’t stopped walking away, but Eleuthera did not deign to follow. She didn’t want to know this other puppy any more than she didn’t want to know her. Instead, Eleuthera spat a claim of “You are so rude.” and turned to leave, but not before feeling a sudden upwelling of offense and barking out over her shoulder “And annoying! ” in an accusatory tone that she hoped might prompt a response.

the girl doesn’t know when to shut up.
 
oh my god.
 
brilliance rolls her eyes and takes another few steps.
 
you are so rude.
 
she licks her lips and looks ahead, she keeps walking but she’s slowed.
 
and annoying!
 
she comes to an immediate stop, tail twitches upwards, and she considers for only half a second to ignore her. fuck. that. the younger girl spins around on her heels and dives forward, quickly closing the distance between her and the retreating puppy. when close enough, she launches forward—though sloppy and unbalanced—and aims for the other girl’s back with angry growls and barks.

Eleuthera didn’t know what she expected — perhaps she might be ignored or something like that, like what her brothers and sisters did whenever Leu threw a fit — but it certainly wasn’t that. The dark, speckled female advanced on her quickly and without warning. Eleuthera released a dramatized yelp and fell to the ground even without impact, kicking and flailing in an attempt to prevent the girl from simply touching her at all — and if she happened to kick the girl in the neck or the face or something, then Leu would be fine with that too.

the other girl does not offer resistance and instead throws herself to the ground. brilliance toppled over her unexpectedly and steps on some legs or something but she doesn’t care. the sharp cry causes her ears to twitch but it doesn’t deter her. her own growls happen again and she drops her mouth to grab onto something, anything, and shake until she feels better. whatever it takes to teach this girl a lesson that this is her home and her family and her dad and the grey puppy can’t do anything about it.

For a moment the two puppies were a tangle of limbs and falling bodies; growls and screams. The girl was trying to bite her — her! — and in a fierce way that she had never before experienced with Séamus or Ibis or Okeanos. Her aquamarine eyes grew wide with fright as the girl’s teeth managed to clip the thin, sensitive skin of her hindquarters. Eleuthera parted her teeth to utter her blatant displeasure and immediate pain, but no noise would come out; perhaps a different reaction to this offense was warranted. Whereas the lilac cherub might have once called out her for her mothers, she instead forced her paws to find purchase on the rocky terrain and pushed her body up, reaching out to cuff the girl’s cheek with a deft right hook. For then, it was the best she could do. 

brilliance has never been in a fight before. she has barely tussled with her siblings or her father, let alone anyone else. and now she’s here, biting down on what she can with what little baser instincts that pulls with the adrenaline. blood pumps through her ears and her heart beats right out of her chest into her mouth, tasting blood as sharp baby teeth tear through thin baby skin. however, before she knows it, she’s whacked upside the head with who knows what. whatever it is causes her to release her grip and stumble back, taking a second to try and find the girl. “GO AWAY!” she screams, threatening to throw herself back into the ring.

The second that the two girls parted, Eleuthera’s maw darted to her hindquarters and began to lick at her smarting wound. Perhaps turning her attentions away from her aggressor would have been a foul move in a true spar or fight, but what she saw immediately grabbed her with a shocking force that threatened to send her tumbling backwards. There was blood that seeped from the small incision above the bones, and though the scarlet staining was slight, it was enough to remind Eleuthera that she had seen this before. her brother. his crumpled form. the pool of blood. The blood had come from his leg too, and he had died from it. Fear suddenly gripped her heart like a vice. 

“oh no, oh no, oh no”  she moaned, her babyish voice cracking with simple, innate dread. It replaced all the anger that she had felt moments before. “i’m gonna die,”  she said sorrowfully. Then, a sharp look cut towards the bespeckled, murderous girl. “You killed me.”  the lilac girl claimed, with utter contempt.

the girl doesn’t move but she doesn’t come for her again. all the angry and hate disappears from her face once she addresses the wound, a la brillo, is bleeding. when the grey kid does speak, it is different than before, wailing something stupid and babyish and oh-so-immature. if brilliance had the vocabulary, she’d tell her to stop being so dramatic and suck it up. instead, she burrows her gaze into the wound, as if it would ignite under the red, hot sun.
 
brilliance rolls her eyes. “don’t be such a baby,” she tells her, turning on her heels and going back the way she’d been going, this time without interruption.

Eleuthera swung her head back to look at the be speckled girl, eyes wide with fright, as if she might actually come forth and apologize for the heinous act of killing her in her family’s new home, on her new turf! Oaxaca’s death had been one of the reason they had left the mountain, her mamas has told them eventually — so did that mean that they could not stay here either, and she had forced her family onwards… without her? Ohh, they would be so mad at her, like it was all her fault that she had died when really it wasn't.

And the girl didn’t even look sorry about it!

Instead, the other girl turned to leave and the little lilac one let her, without as much as a squall or an objection. Instead, hot tears prick at the back of her eyes as she thinks how much she will miss her mothers and her brothers and sister, and she darts back towards the family’s small rendezvous site, not stopping to notice how the small infliction upon her hip didn’t hurt even a little bit, not even at all.