Ouroboros Spine i guess i’ll go through life, just catching colds and missing trains

@Kausiut

the eldest baptiste spent his morning the same way he’d spent most mornings; birdwatching. there was always an abundance of them at this time. most idly pecked at the forest floor, for this was one of the only times in the day where they could feed without being crossed by a wolf. that was the conclusion lómion had come to after many days of study anyhow.
the little songbirds were unaware of the boy who watched them through the shrubs.

Kau had taken great interest in hunting fallen leaves. One eyed or not - her instinct of catching motion was impeccable. Therefore most days, when she was not having inarticulate conversations with the voice in her head and barking at walls or invisible objects, she spent crouched on the ground, observing the surroundings carefully and "attacking" the leaves. 

Today, however, that hunt had taken her a bit over the edge - quite literally. With a leaf in her jaws she had not teetered off the slope and fallen in the scrub of vegetation below. Taking her proportions into account as well as her general awkwardness on her feet, getting back to the playground was a bit of a struggle. She shuffled in one direction, then - in the other and, when no viable solution came to her mind, she sat down and began to yell and yowl loudly. In her experience that always drew attention.

so sorry about the wait ToT

a holler sent the birds to the skies and lómion leaping to his paws. startling it was. his first instinct was to flee, but after taking a moment to breath a blooming curiosity took over.
lómion walked through the shrubs until he came across kausiut. he’d come to label her as family over these weeks, though distant.
he leaned over the edge and blinked. are you ok? he asked with no particular urgency.

An adult would have been preferrable - in Kau's opinion they were more powerful about dealing with stuff that were wa-a-a-ay bigger than the puppy itself. No wonder that Lomion's appearence was met with a skeptical scowl and silence. She was yet too young to have mastered speech. Kau knew some words and understood, when she was addressed, but she did not yet know that the indistinguishable blabble could be used as means to communicate efficiently and clearly. 

Kau stared at the other puppy, rolled her eyes and then sprang to her feet. Nose down to the ground, she began searching for another solution on how to get back to the randevouz's site.

she said nothing, only frowned. a silence fell between the two pups, an uncomfortable one. lómion shifted in place, looked around, then his gaze returned to the other child. she’d already started heading a different direction.
wha? w-wait! the boy shuffled closer to the edge. his little claws dug into the earth, but it wasn’t enough to support his weight as he leaned over. lómion lost his grip and tumbled down with a yelp.

The sound of somebody falling made Kau stop in her tracks and look over her shoulder. The unhelpful pup had tumbled down, making himself even less useful. But such thoughts were pushed to the side, when the inspiration of the moment to playfully attack the other. 

She ambled towards him, tail wagging and eyes twinkling mischievously and before he had a chance to get to his feet, she pounced at him, aiming to grab his scruff or any other part of that loose fur around his neck.

he hadn’t even got the time to get back on his paws when he was knocked off of them once more. lómion stared up with the one eye that hadn’t been shoved into the dirt, mouth agape with shock, at his cousin.
unlike her, he had no desire to partake in these games. he never did, and yet he was always dragged into them one way or another. once one of the pup’s chose him as their chew toy there was little hope of worming his way away. 
lómion yelped with surprise when kausiut grabbed hold of his scruff with her needle teeth. he squirmed underneath her helplessly.

Kausiut was not good at picking up subtle social cues, but with verbal ones (they were very straightforward and obvious) she had no problem. The moment Lomion yelped, she let go of him and sprang back. One would think that was out of empathy or pity, but the quick, frantic glance around, as if she was searching for someone, betrayed her. Kau had got carried away in a play-fights before and on more than one occasion one of the caregivers had had to interrupt and tell her quite firmly to stop and chill down a bit. She did not yet understand that others could feel pain the same way she did, so screaming puppy comrades in her vicinity were associated with angry adults. 

No one heard them, no one came and she let out a breath of relief. She gave her chosen chew-toy a semi-angry glance that meant "Watch it!" and then she began to wander off, looking for more interesting things to occupy her time with.

it hadn’t lasted long, much to his relief. one distressed cry was enough to get the girl off. aside from the rapid rise and fall of his chest, lomión lay still for a moment, surprised and baffled that she’d stopped so quickly, before scrambling back to his paws.
he’d almost thanked kausiut for sparing him, but her glare caused him to bite his tongue and make himself smaller.  it caused even more confusion.
the corners of his mouth tilted down into a frown as he watched her head in the other direction. w-wait, he called softly as he followed with apprehension. he did not want to follow this frighting pup, but he also didn’t want to be left alone down here.

The fact that the other puppy had been so visibly affected by Kausiut's demeanor, stirred confusion in her, which was overcome by a sense of power. Up until now she had accepted the fact that it was pointless to quarrel with adults to prove her point too much, because they were bigger and they were stronger. Samani also did not allow Kau to torment her too much. Therefore someone submitting so readily to her was something new. She liked it. 

Her scrawny pawn called out to her weakly, making her stop and look over her shoulder at him. He had pulled himself to his feet and was following Kau, looking absolutely miserable. Which awakened a sense of power within the crippled girl. She let him come near enough for her liking (baring her teeth and growling at him to indicate, at which distance should he remain), then moved onwards with confidence in her stride, head held high and no idea, where they were going.

she let him follow behind her at a certain distance. the line of which was drawn with a show of little fangs.
and after a long moment of tense silence, lómion asked timidly; where are we going?

Kausiut did not reply Lomion's inquiry - it was no more as a pitiful whine that did not deserve the least bit of her attention. There were more important things at hand, such as... such as... she looked around for some danger (or anything extraordinary) and then came up with an idea. She yelped in surprise and scrambled in panic to find a hiding place. Once there, she cast a glance over her shoulder to see, where her companion was, but then turned her gaze, focusing on the (in)visible enemy ahead.

silence.
lómion swallowed the lump in throat, more tense now than he was before. he awkwardly shuffled behind her, and stared at whatever she stared at. Nothing it seemed, until she yelped in shock.
he too yelped, and bounded over to where kausiut hid.
w-w-wha happen? his eyes darted around wildly.

Kausiut had all the confidence in herself being a master con-puppy. But being THAT good - came as a surprise! Lomion did not even care to look around himself, he took the bite in one go and scurried to hide behind her. A brief glance over her shoulder conveyed all she thought of him - Naive fool.

She was back to business again, crouching to the ground, gaze focussed forward, body tense, as if ready to pounce any moment. With a loud roar she charged forward, making as big scene as it was possible and without paying attention to her footing. If she had, she would not have tripped over a deer skull seconds later and landed quite unceremoniously on her face.

They played around for a good while, until they were found by one of the adults, who brought the tired bunch back home.