Lost Creek Hollow Two, Four, Six, Eight; Everybody Excavate!

I may yet edit this later, especially if it doesn't get a reply first, but we'll see  >.> 

Jet was slightly more content with life now that she had discovered digging in earnest, and was taking her frustrations out on the dirt. In fact, with Mother @Treason lurking watchfully nearby the little girlpup thought she was being clever by hovering in the entryway of the den. It was pretty overcast and dull outside today in any case, comparatively, and Jet had it in her little head that maybe if she made the den bigger, or could unearth an entire secret tunnel for herself or something, that maybe those frustratingly long times she ended up confined to the den (not that Jet deserved any such timeouts or anything, of course!) could be made a little more bearable.

Outdoors there was a bit of a rustly commotion that caught her attention, though. Jet popped her head out from the den's entryway, careless of the fact that her once-black nose had, like her paws, now turned mud-brown. She looked about with wide eyes and eagerly perked ears for just a moment before spotting the new visitor and swooping toward the stranger's figure with an eager yelp, paws akimbo, nose atwitch, and butt a-wriggling.

Tag for reference, feel free to drop bro in!!

It was time to meet her siblings. She had put it off for a bit longer than she should've, perhaps afraid of what she might encounter. Maybe it was the fact Treason would be presiding over the litter that made Ibis so uncomfortable - she was convinced the serious-natured step-mother did not have a high opinion of her.

Since @Okeanos was also invested in meeting their siblings it made sense for Ibis to seek him out and lead him over; however, when Ibis came upon the den she noticed that only one child was presently awake. Perhaps the others would rouse with the arrival of their older siblings? A part of her hoped they'd sleep through the moment just to make it easier for herself. A terrible thought, she remarked to herself as she approached.

Whether Okeanos was with her or not, Ibis was eager to get this event over with. She plunged ahead of her beloved sibling and had to wait for him to catch up just out of reach of the den mouth; yet as she slowed and stopped, a creature of opposing force came racing from the den as if summoned from a great black pit. It was a yucky muddy thing — and ran right in to Ibis where she stood, marring her meticulously prim and proper pelt. She looked down at the cub in abject horror for a moment before managing to control her features enough to smile - though it was far from warm.

Hello little one! Ibis greeted, trying to sound cheerful and upbeat as-per-usual but deep down, feeling quite sour.

Jet was not a terribly perceptive pup, and not particularly astute when it came to picking up on social cues in particular. She didn't take much note of the stranger's rapidly-changing expressions, only that this was SOMEONE NEW and therefore EXCITING who therefore must be pounced upon and investigated immediately with nose and paws and, maybe just a little, teeth. Her paws and schnozz were made a little bit cleaner, some of their black fur starting to poke through in small hairy patches, as she transferred some of the dirt back onto the ground..but mostly because some of it readily rubbed off on the thicker, cleaner, drier pelt of Ibis. Or, well...formerly cleaner and drier, perhaps, in a moment, at the rate the overenthusiastic little Jet was going.

Hallo, hallo there! she said, sticking her nose up as high as she could get it before attempting to bury it somewhere in the vicinity of Ibis's chest to take as good and deep a whiff as she could. I'm Jet, who're you?! Why you here?! What'dja bring?!?! The questions were offered up with such rapidfire glee that it would have been difficult to get a breath in edgewise between them, much less anything like an actual answer. Jet attempted to stand up on her hindlegs on tippytoe in order to shove her nose straight into Ibis's wavering and less-than-keen smile, a quite precarious balancing act she almost managed, just before one hindpaw stumbled into the other and sent her careening down in a heap. Not at all discouraged, Jet bounced right back up and with a hasty scrape of one now-partly-white-again forepaw across her ear and face she was bounding straight back at poor Ibis's form. Y'wanna play?! I wanna play! C'mon!!

Unable to contain herself, Jet spun in place in a dizzy little circle of excitement before rearing her front paws up into the air again. Her earlier hasty attempt to comb her face and ear fur back into place had only mussed it up more, and an uneven strip of mud had been applied across the ruffled section of fur to boot. Jet grinned artlessly up at Ibis in expectation of nothing but fun and approbation and love.

I know you guys were pondering spreeing she can be skippable and mostly observing if not addressed aka cameo-ish.

Manners, came the cool voice from the den.  The pale devil emerged not too long after her daughter, but certainly at a slower, more controlled pace.  The boys were probably still wrestling around behind her (read: Spook getting pwnt), so time to see if anyone else threadcrashes.

Assumption being that Treason knows what's going on with Terance's older children at this point, she was probably not particularly pleased looking -- not that she ever looked pleased to start.  No, instead of a neutral-but-serious stare, she was a fair bit more steely.  She looked briefly at Ibis (and Okeanos if he was here) before looking back to the pup without that edge.  Her words to Jet were patient, No barging into new people like you would your brothers. Some people like space -- you should ask first.  At least Jet was less likely to bite but she was still pretty nuts.

Treason then looked back to Ibis, not vocalizing her question, but with the colder expression and a tip of her head it was probably obvious -- what did she want?  She was going to leave and had (from Treason's perspective) pretty much betrayed Terance in the process so she wasn't exactly the most welcome guest.  Like why didn't she just leave instead of dragging out the process?  Whatever.  Treason would just take a seat off to the side to supervise.

Something wild streaked its way towards her and Ibis had to contain her voice for the first time in her life, feeling it rise up through her throat as she startled back a half-step; but then there came a dim command from the den — manners! — which may or may not have affected the muddy beastie that had zeroed-in on Ibis. Regardless, Ibis pulled back another few steps for good measure and with wide eyes, watched the hellion as if it had two or three heads.

Ibis could not remember ever liking the mud as much as this child; nor could she remember ever being this ill-behaved, and was repulsed. Maybe a part of her was bothered by the fact this was one of her half-siblings, but she liked to think of herself as welcoming and loving, open to all of her family — and as she had quite a mixed-up family, that made sense. But seeing this tiny wolf who resembled her father so strongly made her look at this child as a replacement, and thus, she felt a strong jealousy.

But the child was innocent. Ibis glanced away from it for a moment and caught Treason's gaze, feeling the burn of it and reading the wrong message there. It wasn't a hostile expression on the woman's face but it was far from welcoming. Ibis felt a stinging sensation in her heart, and looked away. It feels like she hates me, she thought. Like she knows what I'm thinking and she hates me for it. It wasn't a fair assumption, but Ibis was a simple girl and often jumped to her own conclusions.

Um, hello there! She tried again, trying to sound up-beat despite the chill in the air. She didn't need to lower herself to the kid's level but she did so anyway, smiling. I'm Ibis! I'm your -- your sister! Was the kid even old enough to understand? Would they care, would they love her like Okeanos loved her? It felt wrong to be here, suddenly.

Jet conveniently failed to hear her mother's first reprimand—not a hugely uncommon occurrence for the little miscreant these days—but the second, longer correction was harder to pretend her backswiveling black ears simply...missed. Jet made a face. No barging, whut. What fun was that?! But she did obediently back off from Ibis—a bit. Half a pace or so. She kept her brown-splotched white paw placed assertively forward though, as she gazed up at the stranger with shining eyes and widely-wagging white-tipped tail. This stranger didn't seem to want to play right away, instead peeking over at the authoritative figure of Mother for a moment as was probably understandable, but maybe she'd change her mind in just a moment. Any second now. Come on, come on... Jet was ready and waiting here and surely this older wolf just couldn't resist! Any reluctance or fakery on Ibis's part went right over Jet's head; the youngster took it all completely at face value.

Jet's tail turned into a frantic blur as the bigger girl greeted her and then lowered herself down to Jet's level. Yessss! Jet's forepaws immediately rocketed off the dirt and attempted to stick a landing directly on Ibis's conveniently-lowered muzzle. With a gasp, the baby's eyes went wide with delight at the older girl's next words. I 'ave a sister?! she said, thrilled enough that her voice went all squeaky on the last word. What amazingly good fortune! Jet had had her fill of brothers, goshdangit, and right here bowing down before her was obviously the perfect replacement. Sisters had to be so, so, so much better than brothers, right? And obviously a lot less bitey than Thief, to boot! Oh! Oh! Yer verreh big—'joo eat all your brothers? That was the only reason this Ibis could have gotten so big so very quickly that crossed Jet's mind right now. (And it also didn't cross her mind that any sister of hers would, naturally, have all the same brothers as she—or previously have had—but family trees were complicated things, okay? Jet didn't have time for such intricacies of botany when there were new sisters on the line, here!)

The prospect of a cannibalistic puppyeating canine probably should have given her a scare, but Jet seemed more enthralled by the prospect than anything. She reared up further and tried to wrap her small legs around Ibis's big furry ruff. The continued toweling-off of mud from Jetpaws onto Ibiscoat was uninintentional but likely to continue nonetheless, with so plushly tempting a magnetic target for all the mess to wipe onto. 'Zat why yer in trubble? Jet breathed to the older girl in a quite loud stage whisper that anyone within sight could readily have heard, as Jet rolled her eyes tellingly back in the direction of Treason. The two seemed to be exchanging some significant looks which were chilling the air to an icy thickness that even oblivious Jet couldn't quite fail to notice. Even if she completely misattributed its most likely source.

Jet rolled her whole head back further on its axis to give her mother a mostly upside-down look of her own, trying to make sure her own self wasn't about to get another taste of discipline. Nah' barj-ing! she said, trying to head off any criticism at the pass. M'only huggin', see!

Ibis tried to focus on the child instead of the woman beyond, feeling as though Treason was staring at her a little too intensely; but that was Ibis for you, super sensitive and feeling like her step-mother was a hair's breath away from charging over and driving her away for no good reason what-so-ever. It was a vibe she felt off of the woman that unsettled her, and for the life of her Ibis couldn't understand why her kind, loving, reserved father felt such kinship with the woman. Right - focus, Ibis, you're here on a mission and you need to stop getting distracted.

The child spoke, which surprised her, but it shouldn't have since Rannoch's kids were talking already and they must've been born somewhat close-together. She managed to understand the babble and was amused when the girl commented on her size - but with an opposite reaction to what everyone else had; give it time, Jet. You'll probably out-weight your half-sister within a month. 'Joo eat all your brothers? Jet queried, and Ibis couldn't help but laugh aloud at the implication — Of course n-- Zat why yer in trubble? --ot. Oh. So even the youngster could register the tension between the two women? That wasn't a good sign. Ibis took a deep breath.

I love hugs! Thank you, she confirmed as Jet smothered her further, flopping about in a most amusing - and odd - fashion. This was probably the most rambunctious child Ibis had ever seen! Granted she'd only known a few, but Ashlar had been playful and well-behaved, and Aengus had been charming and adorable. Jet seemed like all of these things but with more energy than a hummingbird! I have one brother, his name is -- I call him Okee, he's much, much bigger than me. I dunno if I could eat him - I might need help. Have you met him yet? She hunkered down upon her belly and nudged the girl's chin with her nose, wondering if they'd one day grow up to rival even her mountain of a brother.