Redhawk Caldera I know who've you been and who you'll become

tags are for reference and welcome for joining! All welcome otherwise <3

Maia had told @Eljay about the happening on the borders, but she wanted to find @Castor both to meet him and to thank him. She owed him an apology too, for not recognizing that he was there to help. She had growled at him. Growled at him! What an absolute idiot.

She'd chided herself and left the pups under the care of someone, either Bridget or her mate or daughter. They were more than their older siblings had ever been when it came to headaches and while she loved them dearly, she wished they weren't so eager to get into trouble.

The break was both nice and needed. Chickadee didn't seem to want to repeat her excursion but she'd still been on high alert since, guilty over the fact that she hadn't seen her go immediately. She couldn't miss something like that again. She'd come so close to potentially losing them both.

Chapter 6

Day 52 of established existance

Grounded to home-base. Practice in digging trenches and hide-outs. Daily paw to paw combat training with siblings. Air-raid howls improving in duration and volume. 

Situation: stable
Mood: slightly bored

End of update

Ever since the incident at the borders Dwin and her siblings were confined to the den area and any obvious attempt to venture further beyond the established line of defense was swiftly interrupted. For a week or so it seemed that even this hyperactive puppy had accepted the new rules. When she was not sleeping (and those precious hours of peace were becoming shorter with every passing day), she was busy, exploring every inch of the area she was allowed to play freely in. 

To those, who were not observing very carefully, she was doing all the things a nearly three months old puppy would do. She was digging, she was chewing, she was fighting with her siblings, she was annoying and needy with her parents, she got on the nerves of her nannies, she was hard to get back inside den in the evening and she was the first to wake up and be very impatient to get back outside. To those, who might have paid more attention, they would have noticed that here and now the cunning little thing was also mapping the perimeter and testing the weak spots in the surveillance. 

One such place was under a bush, where Dwin had dug a little hollow to hide away from the mid-day sun. What people did not know was that right beside it there was a short tunnel created by roots and washed out sand that led right on the other side of the invisible fence that Dwin was not supposed to cross. An opportunity to use it presented itself, when Maia decided to have time off. Dwin obediently waved her a good-bye, but at the first opportunity went through the secret passage and bounded after her mom. 

Target in sight. Accelarate!

Her mother was a bit of a distance ahead and it took some effort for Dwin to catch up with her, but eventually she did and instead of alerting Maia of her presence she went straight to nip at her heels. That had been a new past-time of hers lately. 

Maia had taken this jaunt away to have a break from the energy of her kids, but as soon as she was in the company of her own mind, it began to drift towards things she'd been avoiding to that point. Like how tired Eljay seemed these days, and how much it reminded her of....

Things she wasn't going to think about.

Maia closed her eyes briefly and stopped, just in time for Ceridwen to have closed in. Ah! She let out a startled noise and jerked around as her daughter nipped her. She'd thought it was something else!

Ohmygosh, Wen, I thought you were a snake! How'd you..... she trailed off, wondering if she should say something about her sneaking off, but deciding against it instead. She was grateful for the distraction and they were getting older. Besides, Ceridwen had come out and followed her rather than heading for the borders or somewhere else by herself. That was way better and definitely not something she wanted to discourage!

Want to try that on something else, if we can find something? She asked instead. It was a little early for a full on hunting lesson, but it was never too early to start learning to pick up a trail and stalk something.

Dwin grinned devillishly at Maia and came closer, tail wagging, butt-wiggling to get some well-deserved praise. She was a tomboy in every sense of the word, but she also liked cuddles and basking in attention. If you had three other siblings there was never enough of the latter. Her parents rarely told her "no" and the girl did not expect her mom to send her back anyway, still it was nice to be invited along. She nodded her head eagerly and stood up straight and proud, when her mom suggested doing something together.

"A giant?" because that was the biggest thing she could imagine and Dwin was never the one to start small or from the bottom. Her style was aiming high and taking opponents way larger than her first. "Or... or Bronco?" that guy was the next best thing besides a giant, though recently he had begun to shrink in size somewhat. 

Maia wasn't often mischievous but she was delighted with the choice her daughter gave. A giant or Bronco!? One of these things offered a lot more fun and, funnily, a lot more practical experience.

Do you think you can find a Bronco? Maia asked, as if it were some new thing she'd never heard or seen! If Ceridwen seemed to struggle with where to start she could offer a clue, but she wanted to see how the pup began to look!

"Okay!" Dwin replied eagerly and made a little jump on the spot. For a moment there she seemed to be waiting for instructions from Maia - adults did that all the time. Tell you, what to do, or more often, what not to. Neither were particularly interesting save for instances, when such propositions were supplemented with appropriate bribes. 

"This way!" she told her mom and ran ahead, as if she knew exactly, where she was going. Which she did not. But lack of experience and limited intelligence often boosts confidence and Dwin was no exception. "Hurry up! Bronco will be eaten!!!" she urged her and then took off.

Maia had expected Ceridwen to think a bit about how she might find a packmate, but instead she was promptly pulled into a full speed rescue mission. She could have sidelined it into a lesson, but she was definitely not the sort of wolf to ever let learning get in the way of fun. Besides, what better way to learn than from mistakes?

Oh, no! Maia gasped at the implication of Bronco being eaten, of all things! And she allowed her daughter to lead the way, happy to follow. Maia was perfectly happy to allow it to drift into a game, but she was also ready to offer guidance if Ceridwen seemed to get frustrated. Despite the absolute dire situation they were in, needing to save him (!) Maia felt no need to rush her daughter at all.

Maia was a fun mom to have around and it was evident that Dwin fully appreciated it. Her face lit up, when the adult joined her game, and she ran even faster in a childish hope that someway somehow she could outrun the other. With the help of imagination she transformed from a dirty and slightly smelly odd-proportioned puppy to a tall, regal, agile and all-powerful hero. Here she had to decide between being a dragon, dragon tamer, knight, superhero or a mix of it all. 

"Awowoowowowooo!" she hollered, pausing briefly in her run to look at Maia, as if saying - your turn! - and then she was off again. Tripping and falling over a tree-root did not stop her - she quickly recovered and was running again. Until they reached the lake edge, where she splashed knee deep, drank greedily and still panting from the run, she looked around. "He's been taken by the fish-monster," she informed her comrade.

Whatever luck Ceridwen had, it'd drawn her to the place Bronco often went to rest. He'd pulled cat tails up from the lake and made himself a nice resting place nearby, and had begun to make himself a Bronco-sized nest in the old reeds along the lake's shore as well. It was cooler at night, and he liked the sound of the wind rustling through the reeds. It blocked out invasive thoughts, and as they grew taller, they provided him shade as he lay at the lake's edge. 

Of course, with the summer beginning to fade, the cat tails had begun to shed their seeds, as had the thistle which grew nearby. Having gone for a swim and curled up in the middle of his patch of reeds for a nap, Bronco'd unwittingly set himself up to be covered, gently, with the beige fluff of cat tail reeds and thistle down as he slept. 

A caterwauling voice awoke him, and he chuckled when he realized that it sounded like Ceridwen and Maia were close by. When he lifted his head, he realized then that he was almost completely covered in wooly cattail fluff. It might've bothered him on another day, but when he saw Ceridwen and Maia approach the lake's edge in the distance, he figured he might as well use it to his advantage. 

He carefully dipped a paw in the mud, and nuzzled it, so that at least his usually beige cheeks might be a bit darker. When he moved forward, he stepped into the lake some distance away from the others, moving carefuly so he did not dislodge the thick layer of fluff that covered him from the crown of his head to the point of his hips. Would his disguise work, he wondered, at least on Ceridwen? 

Her imagination was strong enough that he didn't see fit to make any ominous sounds or startling movements. He swayed his down-covered head from side to side, the way an elk might as it walked (boy, he wished he had antlers now!) and waded calmly out into the waters, before turning his benevolent gaze in their direction.

Maia didn't need much prompting and was happy to run hollering off with her daughter in the lead. They'd make the area pretty un-huntable for the remainder of the afternoon, at least, but the urgency of their quest could not be denied! The alarms must be sounded!

Oh, no! Not the fish monster! What do we do, captain!? Clearly this was the role Ceridwen held in this scene, Maia merely a private in her troop.

Maia definitely wasn't expecting that their trail would actually lead to Bronco, but fate seemed keen on having Ceridwen succeed. He was unmistakeable playing along and she was more than happy to welcome him into the game. So she gasped as she saw him, audibly, and awaited orders.