Arrow Lake I like my coffee like I like my nights: dark, endless and impossible to sleep through

Small tastes of freedom were no longer sufficient for Dragomir. He needed to get out there and experience the world. He was still too little to go venturing around on his own, but some loosening of the reins allowed he and Isi free roam of the grassy slope several feet outside the thicket. He took full advantage of it, spending as much of his time as possible in the open sunshine, where the wind blew uninterrupted and the world spilled out into a stunning vista overlooking the wide taiga below.

Dragomir spent a little time admiring the view for the umpteenth time, but his attention quickly shifted to littler things. Things closer to home. Out here there were more scents than just those of the wolves who frequently visited and watched over them; there were the scents of little mountain rodents and birds, the stench of bugs rising from their winter slumber, and the occasional whiff of urine on the breeze that belonged to no one Drago knew. His keen nose drank in all these things, cataloguing them away in his keener mind for reference, as he explored the area just beyond the thicket with an eagerly wriggling tail.

There on a blade of grass he spied a ladybird; he didn't know what it was, but the splash of red against the new growth was impossible to miss. Oooooo, Drago intoned, hastening on thick puppy legs toward it, only to fall back on his butt in alarm when it threw wide its shell and took to the sky.

their little world was unraveling, opening up and spilling with each day further and further into the packlands. the borders of their world were pliable, and she tested them oft, but her mother was cautious enough as to keep her well in her place should she be stricken suddenly with wanderlust. much like her brother, she spent her time investigation every corner of their range, until her most recent investigation proved boring. the sound of her brother's interest stole away her concentration, and she hastily closed the distance between them. he was sitting, and looking at nothing save the empty sky, and on a whim she gave her fiercest battle cry and attempt then to snap at his muzzle. 

The moment the ladybird took flight, Dragomir lost sight of it. He was left to squint stupidly up into the sky, attempting to relocate it and leaving him wide open for Isilmë's attack. The only warning he had was a sudden cry that made his closest ear flash in her direction; he barely had a chance to move before she lunged for his muzzle. Though mostly harmless to an adult, the strikes of the babes were hard and fast, uninhibited by any sense of control. They had none. Hurting each other unintentionally was how they would learn to control it.

AaaaAAAH! shrieked Dragomir as she bit down on the side of his muzzle. He twisted his head to the side and down, attempting as he did so to hook his chubby foreleg around her neck so he could push her down and bite her instead. All the while he furiously babbled in a language only babies could understand: ragh ba aaaAA BA DUH BLUGH!

Which may well have translated to something like KNEEL YOU CONNIVING SON OF A... for all anyone else could know.