Blacktail Deer Plateau i should have worshipped her

@Casmir

The time had come to visit them. Pura had kept his distance from the litter, watching the comings and goings of well-wishers. The pack had been made stronger (or at least larger), and the 'children of the pack' no longer referred exclusively to Pura and his sister.

It was damp and unpleasant when Pura eventually chose to approach the den. He had waited for Blue Willow to ease herself out of the den and leave Lasher to tend to the young. He preferred Lasher. Blue would fuss and prattle, and watch him too closely at a time when Pura needed time alone with his subject.

Bearing a gerbil with a missing leg - the only thing going - he moved to cast his shadow over the den and waited.

Casmir had overcome the sickness that had grasped him these past weeks, and had at last joined his siblings in the exploration of their faculties. from Eilidh he had learned to babble, and from Constantine he had learned to bulldoze, and so all was right within his world.

The air held the chalky scent of moisture, and with it an unfamiliar wolf-scent. blinking the milky blue of baby's eyes, Casmir disentangled himself from the wrestling grip of his siblings and toddled unsteadily toward the denmouth.

"wh'sat?" he mumbled, shooting a glance for approval toward his father, who lay with eyes half lidded in the deepest recesses of the cave. the beta male gave Pura a short bark to allow the boy knowledge that his entry was invited, and Casmir almost fell over himself with startled interest.

He was invited - and trusted, apparently. Pura could scarcely believe his luck as a toddler emerged without its father in tow, toeing the invisible line that separated Inside from Outside. The grey titan moved closer, lowering his great head to puppy level as he approached, one slow, thudding step at a time.

It was so small. Pura paused, waiting for the child's tangled senses to make sense of what was going on and see him. His grey eyes stared unblinkingly at the fragile body on its unsteady little legs.

the other was huge, a hulking stone in the otherwise unrippled sea of the den's darkness. along with the fruition of his sense, casmir had acquired a streak of daredevil attitude, and tottered only once on the dark stubs of leg beneath him before emitting a loud BAH! in the mastodon's direction. tiny ears trembled as he tried valiantly to hold them athrust toward pura, and instinctively he bristled, the smallest of guard hairs rising along his shoulders, perhaps too small a gesture to be seen.

he was not afraid, and displayed this with the tiny lift of his grublike tail.

Bah! said the boldest baby, standing broad-chested (hardly) and tall (right!) in front of a wolf that out-sized him by a multiple of twenty. He was brave. Whatever size he grew to, he would always be brave - and that was a problem.

Slowly, Pura lowered his head to the child's level, moving slowly closer. Without emitting a sound, he slicked back his ears and arranged his face into a silent, terrifying snarl, his face crinkling into an unpleasant leer around parted teeth.

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luckily for Pura, Lasher had chosen that moment to look toward Eilidh and Constantine, and did not see the devil's grin the behemoth granted the unsuspecting child. Casmir's expression changed from one of friendly airs to the shock of a thunderclap; he stumbled over himself jerking back from Pura's massive teeth, and promptly slammed himself against the denfloor.

for a long moment, he shivered there, utterly silent. and then the long, low train whistle began, building in intensity and volume toward the thin cry of a terrified baby, and Casmir's eyes ran with tears of confusion and horror as he wailed for Lasher.

Pura quickly relaxed his face and assumed the bewildered stare of someone that had no idea why he was being squealed at. He stared at Casmir's ugly, squashed little mug as he cried - the bare gums, the fat belly. If Pura had ever been this small and defenceless, he did not remember it now.

"He's scared of my face," Pura told the approaching Lasher, ears swivelling bravely into the noise. He reached a broad paw forward to tap awkwardly at the pup's round, fuzzy side. This one was obviously broken.

Slight PP?

that's fine!

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Lasher's questing nose found Casmir, and the boy's cries settled into hiccuping snuffles, though his wide eyes soon turned back to Pura. Small sides shaking with the effort of containing his snuffles, the boy shrunk back toward his father, away from the behemoth's paw, and Taltos smiled apologetically at Pura. He will learn not to fear you, the man murmured, nuzzling the frightened child gently.

Pura watched the father soothe his son. His weak, stupid, tiny, crying son - the son that took up all of his time and demanded constant attention. The titan moved back a few paces, keeping his eyes on the dark, tear-streaked face of his target. "Does he make you angry?" he asked. The mere sight of the child ignited a primal hunger in Pura that he could not imagine ignoring - the need to end the spread of another's genes, though the boy did not understand the biology. All he knew was hunger.

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he did not understand the other's words; he shrank back against his father's leg as the beta began a gentle discourse with pura, unknowing of the poisoned seeds taking root 'round the behemoth's brain. no, taltos murmured softly, glancing down at his tiny son. i will admit, when the three of them cry in unison, it can be quite frustrating, but i have no anger toward him.

his gaze was curious upon pura; casmir watched the huge man with a mixture of intrigue and terror. why do you ask?

Casmir continued to be deeply suspicious of Pura - a predisposition to caution that might one day save him. The beast righted himself slowly, never allowing his gaze to stray. why do you ask? Lasher asked him. Because they make me angry, Pura kept to himself. "They .. take up a lot of time," he settled on.

that is true, lasher answered. but i wished for them. and so they are here, and i love them. and fondly the man looked upon casmir. the boy kept his eyes trained upon the humongous Pura, waiting tensely for the moment that the man would depart, and allow his tiny body to relax.

Lasher's explanation was from a mental plane that Pura neither had nor would ever tread upon, and he dismissed it as gibberish without a moment's thought. Outwardly, he nodded, and with one last long look at Casmir, turned to leave without further word to either of them.

watching pura's abrupt departure, lasher then herded casmir inside, soothing the boy with a low chuff.