Blacktail Deer Plateau PACKTIVITY — Then the quiet explosion

Even young Osprey sensed something strange about the silence following her father's announcements. Only Ty spoke, asking a question that made Osprey Jr. giggle, peer around her father's leg and whisper sotto voce, "No, dummy, the law is, like... when you gotta do what daddy says." Despite the epithet, she smiled affectionately at Tytonidae.

Peregrine spoke again, causing Osprey to face forward. Presently, he invited them to get the hunt underway. The puppy bounced to her feet, eager to tag along even if she intuited that she and her sisters and brother would be barred from really participating, just as she'd been relegated to the sidelines during Stavanger Bay's pack hunt.

She was evidently tailgating her father because when he stopped, she rammed into his hind legs and bounced backward. Her ears pricked in response to his loud exclamation and she peered around his backside, blinking loudly. When she spotted the vaguely familiar female at Peregrine's fore, her brow furrowed. Aunt Osprey was back? The child felt a vague annoyance at having to share her name and her spotlight, though she was more curious than anything.

Bounding around the Alpha male's legs, Osprey Jr. peered up at her father's sister. "Hey! Daddy told me about you," she said, having only dim memories of the she-wolf herself. "He says you're Osprey One and I'm Osprey Two," she shared, butt waving gently as she began to walk again in tandem with the pack.