Arrow Lake and i'll stand on your shoulders to watch us grow older,

part 6 of "be a good dad" -  i was gonna have this as a RO since it's a one-post thing, but if you two want to throw in a response (feel free to PP) before i archive, feel free to @Stigmata @Takiyok  <3

he had been told to find out what it meant to be a good father - to find toys in which his children (or, singular - child) and others in diaspora could enjoy. ingram had learned much from the wolves he had come across, some had been more helpful than others, and some had left him with knowledge useful to his mission.

the antler he had found just before encountering rhaenys was held in his jaws, its points filed diligently against a stone outside his den. to this, he presented to takiyok's brood. it was weighty, and certainly not an easy toy to master -- but its points had been done with, and ingram felt (or hoped anyway) no eyes would be lost once the brood was more mobile.

there was one more thing ingram left the sandraudiga, though he was loathe to part with it he knew it would be better served in the wondering paws of pup. it was a split segment of 'shale', and though ingram did not know it, it would have been prized by fossil collectors, for it was a mesomorphic rock that held an unusual silurian creature in it -- the formidable sea scorpion, known to no wolf alive (and thank god for that).

ingram had found it weeks before, while he had been rooting around the shale that split like teeth in diaspora's hidden basin. at first ingram had considered the strip of stone a nuisance (he had been hunting marmots, and it was obstructing the hole of a particularly elusive marmot) but his eye had been drawn to a dark shape sprawled across the stone's surface. he had sprung back, thinking it was some strangely flattened spider -- only to realize whatever it was, it was imprinted within the rock rather than standing astride it.

ingram lacked the faculties to understand how such a thing had transpired - but he had known the rock was special. it fit in his mouth, no larger than a brick -- it would be some time before a puppy could carry it.

leaving these toys outside of takiyok's den, ingram would stay only long enough to exchange pleasantries; blodreina was likely eager for his return, for a chance to stretch her legs while he watched little praimfaya.