Sleepy Fox Hollow pretty rude that it's not friday but ok.

The girl had slowly become more accustomed to her surroundings in the Hollow… though once she had, she was able to run out and release the full force of her determination to do whatever the hell she wanted. She was prancing around outside the den, getting further and further from it’s sights as she hummed to herself.
 
She only paused to look at the poppies, the strong scent of opiates from the seeds lingering in the air around her… they were starting to bloom, blinking as she sniffed at them, wondering just what they were. Perhaps @Mahler or @Wylla would know. Her parents seemed to know everything.

Isa was a pale dot in a sea of red blossoms. Wylla picked her way through the flowers toward her whirling daughter, taking care to crush as few underfoot as possible. It wasn't her area of expertise, but she knew they were valuable to Mahler and would be useful for trade in the future.

When she was close, Wylla crouched and moved smoothly into a stealthy prowl. Maybe she would sneak up right behind Isa or maybe her daughter would catch on to her before she got close enough; either way, she erupted up out of the flowers with a playful growl and tried to capture the girl between her forelegs.

She was not alone for long… she became aware of her mother’s presence just moments before she erupted out of the flowers, squealing as she went down easily, lightly batting her forelegs up at her mother in self-defense and a playful nature. She was promptly distracted from the flowers she had been investigating despite being moments from trying to put one in her mouth.
 
Instead, she was half underneath her mother, looking up at her. “Mommy, you’re silly.” She offered with a wrinkle of her nose, finding a lack of amusement but admiring the attention that she was receiving from her maternal figure.

You’re silly, crowed Wylla, nipping the toes that flurried against her chest and neck. She debated flattening Isa in the flowers so she could win the tussle, but decided against it. After another nip or two, she backed up to let her daughter rise.

What trouble are you getting up to today, mm? She glanced at the blossoming flowers around them, none the wiser to the potent medicine hidden in the seeds.

Her mother countered with her own words used against her, causing the little girl to wrinkle her nose and huff lightly as she tossed a fury of nips, Isa’s legs flailing blindly in self-defense from the onslaught as she giggled mercilessly. Okay, she won. She won. The question was met with a devious smirk on her features and a shake of her head.
 
“I’m never trouble, Momma.” She stated back rather defensively, though deep down she knew the opposite was true. “I was just lookin’ at the blumen! They’re pretty n’ I saw vater carrying some of them.” She figured maybe he had collected them for her, to give to her or her momma as a gift maybe, unaware of the medical properties they contained.

Wylla bore no love for Mahler's mother tongue and had never made much of an effort to learn it besides one misleading lesson with Phaedra. It was an effort not to pull a face hearing it in Isa's youthful lilt. She had never spoken up about it, but on some level, she resented her children learning a language that she could not understand, enabling them to shut her out if they so chose.

Oh? Anselm told me you're the most trouble, she teased back. Everyone knew Emmerich was the most troublesome of the lot, but he was also a quick and eager study, so Wylla did little to curb his enthusiasm. She thought Isa had a lot of the same qualities, a belief driven further by Isa's mention of Mahler with the flowers.

Vater, she said, resisting again the urge to grimace, uses them to make medicine, and shares them with our allies. Has he showed you anything about his medicines?

Isa blinked in a hint of confusion, a frown following when she said that Anselm that said that she was the most trouble. She did not catch the teasing nature of her tone and wrinkled her nose. That traitor. “No! Everyone knows Emm is the most trouble. He called me stupid the other day.” She stated matter of factly, if only to get her brother in trouble for using such a word to refer to her. She had been saving that one for a rainy day.
 
Her mother told her of medicine and she nodded. “He’s told me a little bit.” She confirmed, sticking to English as it was what her mother used. She’d never heard her speak her father’s tongue. “What does the medicine do?” She asked with a frown on her features, finding more questions than she felt comfortable having. “And what are allies? What do they do?”

I'm so sorry for the wait on this! I'll try to stay more on top of it from here on out.

He what? said Wylla, frowning for a moment. Anselm, Emmerich, and Isa could be a handful at times, and she knew sometimes they disagreed, but it was usually in jest. It didn't sit well with her that Emmerich had taken to insulting his sister. She would need to address that. If he does that again, you tell him mom'll knock his ears right off.

She turned her attention to the red blooms. When Isa asked what they did, she shrugged. I think it's for pain, but I'm not sure how it works. You'll have to ask your father!

The other half of the question, though, Wylla could supply an answer for. Motioning for Isa to walk with her in the flowers, Wylla indicated the mountains looming over the hollow. Allies are wolves from other packs with whom we have a beneficial relationship. The wolves of Mereo, for example, over the mountains there. Your father and I trade what we gather with them in exchange for things that they have, and the ability to call on them for aid should we ever require it.

She glanced sidelong at her daughter. Once, she had had no use for allies; she thought such arrangements were bound to fail. One side would inevitably take more, or one side would fail to uphold their end when the time came. Now that she was older, and their hollow pack limited to only family, she saw more value in them. They're soldiers, Mereo. They train for fighting. Maybe someday you could learn from some of them.

You're good! Sorry this one took so long, adjusting into a new writing schedule now that I've started my big girl job <3

Isa found a sense of retribution, pride over the fact that she was getting her brother in trouble for his misbehavior and outright disrespect of her. “I’ll try, Momma, but he’s really mean about it just because he wants to do icky fighting things and I don’t.” Oh, her brother would be in for it now, and she hoped she was there to see her mother scold him.
 
Her mother explained that the plants were for pain, and she tilted her head to the side, humming with more questions. She would need to seek out Vader to inquire about them.
 
They were using the plants as a trade for the other pack up in the mountains. “Could I meet the allies, Momma?” She asked softly, wondering what they were like… it sounded like a fun adventure, and the opportunity to meet someone who wasn’t her parents or her stinky stinky brothers. “I don’t know if I want to fight, Momma… it seems just so… dirty.” She didn’t know how else to fully express her disinterest in the subject.

She couldn't help an affectionate rumble. In so many ways, Isa was nothing like Phaedra, but her disinterest in fighting reminded Wylla of her leucistic girl. Most of the time, Isa's sometimes brazen attitude made her think of her eldest daughter...

But Wylla kept Tiercel ever at the periphery of her thoughts, and she would not allow her darkling daughter to invade them now, when she was at peace and happy.

Sometimes, we have to do the icky fighting things, even if we don't want to, she said. But that is also a part of why we have allies — to avoid having to. If Isa didn't wish to learn from Mereo, Wylla would not force her to. She thought she was a perfectly adequate teacher herself. She'd been in enough scrapes in her life to know how to get out of them, at least, and no child of hers would go without that skill.

Next time we visit, maybe you can come with, she suggested, if you think you can be on your best behaviour. What do you say?

The affection kept Isa running, that soft rumble giving her the power to go on, craving it like the greedy little gremlin that she was. Wylla explained that sometimes they would need to fight and she wrinkled her nose. “What is the point of having brothers if they don’t just do all the fighting for me?” She asked with a pout, though Isa loathed the idea of needing to lean on her brothers for anything as well.
 
She would have to figure that one out later. “Our allies will fight for us?” She asked, finding herself curious about that idea as well… it sounded ideal, having someone else fight her battles for her. “I am always on my best behavior, Momma! It’s the boys who aren’t!” She would point out with a light huff. “I wanna go. I wanna see outside of the territory! When do we get to go??”

I'm cleaning out all my threadlogs to try to do a bit of a reset for myself to try to help my muse, so I'm going to wrap this one here. I hope that's okay and hope we can have an updated and hopefully faster paced one soon!

Wylla laughed aloud this time, amused. It brought to mind her own brothers. Those memories weren't so sharp with loss as they used to be, and she could think back on them with fondness now, although not in great detail. Seeking to appeal to Isa's natural competitiveness, Wylla said,You wouldn't want your brothers getting all the credit, would you?

She then explained to Isa that allies didn't necessarily need to fight — that sheer numbers were enough to turn the tables in any conflict even before blood was drawn — and told her that she didn't know when they would next visit their allies. But we'll make sure you're first to know, she promised.

Giving her daughter a playful nudge, Wylla suggested a game of hide and seek. She let Isa go first, and when her daughter hunkered down in the meadow to count, she pranced off to find a good hiding spot nearby.