Whitebark Stream love is an echo

@Kaori as discussed, @Toshi feel free to join in too! And anyone else who might be welcomed into the den :)

Kiyoshi had first found sight, and then he had found momentum. Now, he dabbled in that babbling thing called speech. His efforts were rudimentary, an incoherent gabble of consonants and vowels that hardly bore intentional likeness to any like any words known by the wolvine ear. The hatchling himself knew very little of what he meant to be doing. He simply enjoyed the full range of sounds his mother procured from her lips, and wished to copy, in whatever fraction of a way.

He tottered out of his sun-patch near the wall of the cave to floop down at mother's side, to stare up at her with wide pale eyes that had already begun to pool outward in the warmth of a cosmos brown. A smile perked his lips, and he babbled something up at her, and fell to silence with an expectant thump of his tail.

The boys were growing, discovering their senses as all hatchlings eventually did. Oftentimes Kaori found herself wondering how long their youth may last, how much longer she had until they no longer sought to curl up against her; the day would eventually come, she knew, despite how much she wished it wouldn’t. She spent as much time with them as she could, leaving the den only when absolutely necessary to do so—before long, perhaps she would even be able to bring them along on those short outings. But for now, she rested within the den, all thoughts of the future washed away by the look in her son’s eyes and the babbling that spilled from his lips.

Smiling, the dragoness pressed her nose against his cheek, greeting him affectionately. “What might you be up to, little one?” she asked, although she hardly expected an understandable answer. To herself, she noted, “Soon your words will find you well.” Soon, her hatchlings would have plenty to say and understand. Soon, she would have even more to teach them.

When mama turned to smile at him, he bubbled out a laugh, and bumped his little nose against her cheek in a clumsy reciprocation of her love. Her voice spread through him like the warmth of her milk. Soothing him, and flooding his mind with a comfort he had already learned to associate with her.

He had little idea what mama said, his ears not yet attuned to understanding, but he wished to express the inexpressible feeling that fought to find his surface. The little knight shuffled back, and bowed to the ground, bright eyed, mouth perked with a grin. He babbled a little more, as though explaining something she might understand, before he leapt toward her chest with paws extended, and the full intent to lay on her his most winsome cuddle.