Sun Mote Copse “A hug is always the right size.” —Winnie the Pooh

Rain fell, fast and hard, as Meerkat peered out from the shrubbery. Towhee stretched out beside her, seemingly relaxed but with a frown pulling at her face. The pup didn't mind her mother for the moment, fidgeting a little as she waited for the shower to pass.

As soon as it began to taper, she burst out of their makeshift shelter and then swiveled, ducking into a bow. The Regent slowly stepped out after her, shaking out her coat, which she followed by shaking her head lightly at the youngster. Her face looked even more drawn, even though the weather was clearing.

Meerkat cocked her head questioningly. -"What's wrong?"- she wondered, bounding up to her mother and nosing at her cheek. She barely had to stretch upward to reach, she'd grown so much lately.

-"I just miss your sister today,"- Towhee replied, returning the nuzzle, eyes fond but sad. -"You remember Fennec, right?"- she asked and Meerkat saw the brief alarm that entered her mother's orange gaze

-"Ya! I miss her too. Where is she?"- the pup answered.

The worry left Towhee's eyes, though not the melancholy. -"She's out having an adventure. She'll be back someday..."-

Meerkat nodded eagerly to acknowledge this, then paused as if pondering something. A moment later, she abruptly reared onto her hind legs and slung her forelegs around Towhee's neck. She staggered a moment, clinging to the Regent to avoid falling over, and then hugged tightly against her. Her tail beat the air and she just held on for a few seconds before letting go.

The hug attack appeared to have worked. Towhee was smiling a little. Meerkat returned it, then twirled again to face the wet rendezvous site at large. She wanted to run off and explore but she hesitated, in case her mom needed her to stick close right now.

Upon learning that the rest of his family (save for Nellie, who had gone off on an exploratory mission) would be moving to the Rendez-vous site, Bronco decided that he should do something to make the area even more welcoming, though he knew that the presence of his aunt and kid sister would be welcoming enough. Still, he thought- maybe a Rendez-vous warming gift, or something like that might be nice- so he trotted off in search of something with feathers, knowing that that would make a nice gift. He was well aware, after all, how much his mother liked pretty things, and that she had a soft spot for colourful feathers. 

The weather was quite miserly, but even with the rain he ended up catching a male ring-necked pheasant. Its plumeage boasted a bold caramel colour stippled with black and beige markings, and long, striped tail feathers that trailed out behind it. There was a bright iridescence to its feathers, and he felt confident it would make for a fine welcoming gift even if the kids got it at before his mother could pluck some decorative feathers from it. 

When he arrived at the site Towhee and Meerkat were there, so he approached with an affectionate growl, his tail sweeping in a low, slow wave from side to side behind him. He dropped the pheasant and opened his mouth to talk- before an idea struck him. -Hey Meer-kitty-kat- He beckoned, and gestured for her with a jerk of his muzzle. -'Mere a minute,- He beckoned, and stooped down to pluck one of the longest tail feathers from the pheasant, holding it gently in his mouth as he beckoned for her to come to him.

Towhee didn't say anything, though Meerkat sensed that she should stay here, no matter how much the rest of copse tempted her. Fortunately for her, a distraction presented itself a moment later as one of her older brothers strode into view, a dead bird in his mouth. She bounded over to greet him before he'd even had a chance to speak. The sight of Bronco with a pheasant stirred some memories already fading into the ether of her early childhood, making her tail wag.

Her eyes tracked his movements as he plucked a feather. She wondered what he planned to do with it. Before he could demonstrate his intentions, Meerkat glanced over her shoulder to check on her mother. Towhee loitered in the background, seated now and gazing in another direction, her expression preoccupied. The pup gazed at her a beat, decided she was okay for the moment, then faced forward to see what Bronco meant to do with that feather... and the rest of the bird too.

He cast a quick glance to Towhee, to see if he was watching while Meerkat approached him, obviously curious about the long feather he held gently in his mouth. He smiled, lips pulling back to reveal even more of the red and black striped feather when Meerkat also turned her head to look back at her mother, and at that moment, he seized his chance. With a movement deft but gentle, he nestled the quill end of the feather into the soft, beige fur at the top of Meerkat's head, and then smoothed the fur down with a lick. He pulled back, admiring his work, and grinned. 

"Awwwww!" He squealed, his voice cracking slightly as he forced it into an uncomfortable falsetto. He'd thought she might look funny- but he was surprised by how utterly adorable she looked with the long feather sticking out of her head fur, arcing back over her ticked shoulders. "You look like a quail!" He said, chuffed with the results of his hair styling.

She felt something brush her head as she turned back toward Bronco and froze even as he leaped backward and squealed at her. Meerkat stared at him, eyes narrowing (more in amusement than anything) as he called her a quail. Her lips parted to protest. She wasn't a quail! What was a quail?

Before she could ask about it, his high-pitched squeaks reminded her of of the small voices she'd heard when howling back and forth with Aunt Hydra the other day. That, of course, made her think of babies. Quite oblivious to the feather sticking out of her hair, Meerkat's mouth clapped shut only to open again a beat later with a total non sequitur.

-"How do I get babies, Bronco?"-

-Hey Towhee, lookit- 

He'd begun to gesture in order to get Towhee's attention, to show off how absolutely adorable Meerkat looked with the long, curved feather sticking out from just behind the crown of her head, when his kid sister asked him a question that made him clamp his mouth shut, narrowly avoiding cleaving the tip of his tongue clean off. His ears flicked back and he stiffened, fur prickling as though he'd just licked an electric fence. Babies. He'd  come to realize that he adored children- but this was simply because he'd forgotten, in all the excitement over having younger siblings, how they'd come to exist. And that thought mortified him. 

"Uhmmmm," He grated, and swallowed hard, dumbstruck with shock. "That's-" He began, and worked his mouth, but no sounds came out. "Prolly a question for your Ma, for another day- hey-you-wanna-pluck-some-feathers?" He forced the words out, rushing to find something else as a distraction and reached blindly for the pheasant, nearly tripping over it in the process. He picked it up and made to simply toss it to Meerkat's feet, but due to his present flustration, ended up accidently flinging it- with surprising force- directly at his sister's face.

Although young, she was already pretty good at picking up moods and showing empathy, hence why she was such a tuning fork for Towhee's emotive state today. She immediately picked up on her brother's discomfiture, although she didn't really understand it. She also heard a bray of laughter from behind her and turned, not without a measure of surprise, to see the Regent suddenly grinning. Meerkat didn't understand that either, though she beamed at the upturn in her mother's spirits.

When she turned around again, Bronco didn't simply tuck a feather behind her ear, he clobbered her with an entire pheasant. Meerkat made a strange guffaw in total surprise as the dead bird collapsed at her feet, a few stray feathers drifting around her face. She blinked loudly at Bronco and was about to burst into laughter at the entire thing when she felt something warm and wet dripping from her nose. When she instinctively lifted a pale paw to touch it, it came away with smears of red.

Towhee was suddenly right beside her, turning her face with her snout and then licking tenderly at her bloodied nose. It smarted a little, making Meerkat wince. But she didn't fuss, just sat still and let her mother clean it. She did wonder how something so soft could make her bleed. She didn't realize there were hard parts, like the beak and claws, that must've struck her.

-"Okay,"- Towhee said when she stepped back, -"you're okay."- She said it for her own benefit as well as Meerkat's, though honestly, she was trying to reassure Bronco too. It had been an accident. Meerkat was fine. Towhee recalled their conversation about hurting others and didn't want the yearling to tie himself up in knots over this.

Hoping to cut off any possibility of that happening at all, Towhee squared her shoulders and looked straight at Meerkat as she said, -"You can't have babies until you're older. When you're about two, you'll go into season and you'll want to mate. Mating is when a dude puts his wiener in a girl's hoo-ha. Weird, right? They do a funky dance and then he squirts goo inside her that turns into babies. They grow inside her for a couple months and then fall out of her ass, like you fell out of mine. Any questions?"-

For the moment, Meerkat only stared.

As soon as he let it go, he realized exactly how much force he'd put into the toss but could do nothing but wordlessly watch as the pheasant flew through the air, limp as a daisy, and smacked his sister right in the face. Paralyzed with dread, he helplessly watched it turn end over end, as though in slow motion, its path ending with a soft thud as it hit Meerkat square in the nose. There was a moment of hesitatin where it almost looked as though Meerkat was simply going to laugh it off- until the both of them noticed the thread of blood that dripped from her nose. 

She didn't cry out- but Towhee was there in an instant while Bronco still stood stock still, shocked at what he'd done. The majority of Towhee's soothing tones went over his head as he was slammed by a wave of cold, heavy guilt. His stomach clenched as his gaze fell to the little spot on the ground where Meerkat's blood had fallen. He looked up when Towhee stepped back, suddenly called back to reality- but at the worst possible moment. His trembling ears caught every single word of her description. And as if on cue, as soon as she mentioned birth-

-his jaw dropped and he projectile-vomited straight down onto the ground between his forefeet, like something out of a cheesy teen film.

A few dozen questions eventually popped into her little noggin but before she had a chance to ask a single one, Bronco quite loudly and spectacularly vomited. Meerkat gave a little cry of disgusted surprise and scooted sideways to avoid the spray, her nose wrinkling, which hurt. She nearly bumped into Towhee, who'd also sidestepped the fountain of upchuck, resulting in the two of them staring at the spectacle.

Perhaps Meerkat was too empathetic. Before she knew what was happening, she felt her stomach roll and then she made turned it into vomiting: party of two. Some of it came out of her nose, which really hurt, and she couldn't quite stifle a small whimper. When her stomach emptied, she swiped a paw at her nose and watched, mildly perplexed, as a black and red feather drifted slowly down into the mess.

Towhee stood nearby, looking mostly concerned and sympathetic but also like she might be holding back laughter. -"It'll make more sense when you're older. It's totally okay if the idea of sex makes you barf right now,"- she said carefully, looking between yearling and pup, biting at her lip. She said nothing else, apparently not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

When she could manage it, she motioned Meerkat closer to check on her, even while shooting glances at Bronco and querying, -"You gonna be okay or do I need to call for Eljay? Or maybe your mom...?"-

"Ugh." Bronco commented as he licked his lips, flinching as he heard- and then saw- Meerkat empathy-puke. His breath hitched- and for a moment he thought he was going to wretch again, but fortunately, this was not the case- and a rather croaking burp was all that happened. "Ouf, I'm sorry guys," He said, his apologetic, hangdog gaze falling to Meerkat. He felt ashamed of himself- he'd just puked because...Well, what had caused it? The blood dripping from Meerkat's muzzle, or hearing Towhee say something about males squirting goo, and females dropping babies out of their asses. It was probably a combination of all of it. 

He shook his head when Towhee offered to call for Niamh or Eljay. -No, please, I'll be OK. You alright, Meerk?- He asked. He'd be fine with Eljay being called- if it was for Meerkat. He didn't feel up to explaining his own predicament to anyone, and would rather just pretend that this whole ordeal had never even happened. -I'm really sorry, sis- He said, his ears drooping.

The smell of puke burned her already aching nose, so Meerkat wrinkled it and scooted away from both her mother and brother, putting some distance between herself and the puddles of sick. Once she was in the clear, she then dropped to the ground and began to writhe, letting the slippery wet grass wash away the specks of vomit clinging to her pale fur.

Forgetting what had prompted Bronco's heaving, the little girl sat up and gave her damp fur a shake. -"I'm okay,"- she said, blank expression quickly shifting back to a grin. -"Are you?"- she quipped, tilting her head at him, noting the way he looked like he might still be feeling sick.

-"Well,"- Towhee said, clapping her paws together and causing Meerkat to look over at her, -"I'm sorry, I'm sure that sucked for both of you but I really needed that laugh."- With the rain passed and her mood lifted, she decided, -"I ought to patrol. Bronco, would you like to come with or stay here with your spewing sidekick?"-

He nodded, and gave his sister a weak, but fond smile. She was already so considerate- much more kind and caring than he'd been at her age. Towhee caugh his attention, and he looked up at her at the same moment Meerkat did. A laugh? Sure. But he was too fond of Towhee to be too ashamed of what had happened, and she was probably the only wolf in the pack who could've passed off such an embarassing moment. While they knew how to egg each other on, she also knew how to gently make light of an otherwise icky situation. 

-I think I'll patrol later,- He said. -Meerk, you wanna go to the stream with me? Might get rid of the bad taste,- He said, inviting his little sister along with him should she choose to do so.

It pleased Meerkat when her older brother opted to stay with her rather than go patrol with her mother. -"See ya!"- she chirped as Towhee turned and left, her youthful attention quickly skittering back to Bronco. Despite what had transpired in the past quarter of an hour, she beamed at him.

-"Yeah, that sounds like fun! Can we go swimming too?"- she wanted to know, bounding to stand beside Bronco in preparation to begin walking in tandem with him.

Well, despite the fact that he'd thrown a dead bird at his sister and made her vomit by nearly barfing on her feet, she seemed pretty perky. He was always impressed by Meerkat's ability to rebound despite whatever it was that was thrown at her- whether it was literally or figuratively. She asked about swimming and he smiled, nodding. 

For a second, though, he was struck by a flashback- a rushing wall of water crashing past the banks and pushing past tree trunks, flattening shrubs and bushes on its way. It was a fleeting, surprising memory- and it came to mind almost every time he envisioned going into the waters of the river- but by this point, he was able to push that dread aside. There was no way that was ever going to happen again. 

-Yup!- He said. He was about to ask her how long ago it'd been since she'd eaten- as he liked to play by the rules and knew better than to go swimming on a full stomach- but then he remembered. Right. They'd both just emptied their stomachs...So they should be fine. -Wanna race there? On yer mark, get set-

Her heart leaped when he assented and she was ready with a loud, "GO!" Giggling loudly, she burst into a run, fully aware that her older brother would easily catch up to her as she hadn't quite grown into her legs yet. She wasn't quite as clumsy anymore, yet it would take some more time and development before she could properly harness grace or speed.

Meerkat took up his offer and while she got a head start, he knew that he could either just use his genuine speed- which would inevitably win the race- or he could give himself a bit of a challenge, and make things more fun for Meerkat. So he huffed and puffed along at her side, and nipped at her elbows as he herded his sister, bounding to and from her side as though to tease her and goad her forward. He remained a few steps behind, until he got another idea. 

"BRONCOSAURUS" He yelled, having put on a burst of speed just so that he could reach her ears. He gnashed his teeth together and hunched his shoulders, running kind of strangely, as he tried to imagine what a dinosaur might look like while running. The answer: ridiculous.

"You're such a weirdie!" Meerkat chirped with all the affection in the world as her older brother traipsed around like some crazy, prehistoric beast. She nipped at him and then giggled, leaping sideways to veer away from his strange, ungainly movements.

There were many small streams that forked through the copse (and a few larger, more notable ones near its peripheries) and it was only a matter of time before they came across one. It wasn't really large enough for swimming, yet Meerkat leaped right into the water and splashed around in the shallows a moment before dropping her head and taking a big, sloppy drink.

They made it to the stream, with Bronco nearly pulling several muscles here and there with all the crow-hopping and foolishness he was trying to do, and like Meerkat he wasted no time splashing into the shallow water, pausing for a moment to lap up a few mouthfulls before he  began to slap his feet in the water, splaying his toes so that he could send as much water flying in all directions as possible. It might've been too shallow to swim in- but he was bound and determined to make sure that in the end, they both ended up completely soaked.

By the time she slaked her thirst, her chest and legs were pretty wet. Bronco made short work of the rest, much to Meerkat's delight. She returned his splashes even as she whirled and began to stomp around the shallow stream. The water was quite chilly after the rainfall, though for that reason, it was particularly refreshing. She stopped only when she was soaked inside and out.

Her belly heavy and sloshing with the water she'd drunk, the pup eventually collapsed beside the small creek, hind legs trailing into it. She let out a long, happy sigh and grinned silently at Bronco, as ever entertained by his antics. She loved Figment too, so she could never choose a favorite, but Meerkat loved both her older brothers so much, her heart ached sweetly with it.

That made her think of Towhee's melancholy earlier. -"Hey, Bronco, do you know my older sister, Fennec?"- she wondered. Wait, was that a dumb question? Meerkat remembered her vaguely, all of said memories tinged with fondness. -"Could you tell me more about her?"- she asked, right before a yawn wrenched open her mouth and she flopped sideways so her cheek rested on the cool ground. She perked her one good ear, waiting.

Once he felt cooled down, albeit heavy with water, he too moved to the embankment, and was considerate enough to stroll a few paces away from his little sister before he shook the majority of the loose water from his pelt. Always one to share body warmth, he flopped down on the ground next to her so that they could dry side-by-side in the sun like a pair of beach bums. He set his chin on his paws and huffed a content sigh, and was about to close his eyes for a cat-nap when Meerkat suddenly brought up a name that made him stiffen slightly. 

He lifted his head, and the first thing that hit him was a pang of regret. He was still sore that Fennec had chosen to run off with Penn rather than stay with him and their young siblings, but he was also surprised...He hadn't given Fennec too much thought recently, and that made him feel a bit ashamed. How was it that he'd been so upset over her choice, only to move on and continue living life as though she'd never even been there? Perhaps it was because when he focused on something, he really, really focused in on it- and right now, his youngest siblings were his entire world. 

"Of course I remember Fennec," He said softly, and began to groom his little sister's shoulder, helping it dry faster by licking away some of the water that was embedded in her pelt. She asked to hear more about her bigger sister, and he hesitated for a moment, because his gut reaction was simply to point out that she was fun but she had horrible taste in men. "Fennec's...She's a lot of fun. She kind of has the same sort of...Dry sense of humour. She's a lot like your Mom, actually," He said. The more he thought of it, the more he realized how independent "She's bold, and she's brave, always speaks her mind," He said, trailing off a bit. "And sometimes that hurts feelings...But she's a good wolf. Adventurous." He said, albeit a bit sadly.

She felt a little sheepish at his initial reply, though Bronco didn't make her feel bad about it. He quickly obliged her, in between licks to her shoulder that caused Meerkat to let out a purling growl as her eyelids drifted shut. Utterly contented, she listened as he described Fennec, comparing her to Towhee and singing her praises. He did mention that sometimes Fen hurt people's feelings and the pup's eyes opened again, remembering the Regent's sadness again. But she didn't comment, her eyes slowly closing once more.

Meerkat meant to ask a followup question about her older sister's sense of adventure in particular. Instead, she drifted off to sleep, her last conscious thought a simple question mark at the sad note in Bronco's voice when he said the word "adventurous."

He could feel his sister relazing against him as he spoke, and he realized with a smile that he was probably lulling her to sleep. He didn't mind, though. And fortunately for Meerkat, he knew better than to even attempt a hum, because he- like his mother- couldn't carry a tune to save his life, and he'd had to fall asleep to plenty of atonal lullabies as a child and it hadn't helped. So when Meerkat silently drifted off into sleep, he set his chin back down again, perused through his few good memories of Fennec, and fell asleep as well.