Onto this new web

@Damien @Cicero Outside of Mephala's Web.

She thought they were old enough to enter Mephala's Web, the labyrinth of tunnels that lay hidden underneath Blackfeather. Her pups had grown, each showing their own personalities as they developed. Their speech was increasing as fast as their bodies, and she found it impossible to keep them inside anymore. Especially when they asked why.

So the dark mother took her pups on a trip to the pack's main headquarters. The closest entrance to the maze was not far from their own, separate den, but she kept a close eye on them regardless.

This entrance was one of the hidden ones, lying underneath a snow covered bush. Sitting by the little door, she gathered her triplets around her, prepared to tell them of what they would see.

"Advwentour!" Potema squeaked as she toddled after her mother. She was high spirits today, despite her father's mysterious disappearance. The young girl had sorely missed him after her mother said those simple words. Father gone. But it was not enough to depress her. She kept moving on, but occasionally felt pangs of loss that she could not explain.

The ash-sprinkled girl bumped into her mother's leg when she stopped in front of a bush. She shook her head and recovered quickly, though a light bump, it was enough to make her dizzy for a few brief seconds. When Potema recovered, she sat straight, her tail dancing in the breeze as she looked up at her mother expectantly. "Advwentour, mama?" she asked.

Since Cicero had never really realised that the scarred wolf holding guard outside the den was their father, he did not mourn his loss that much. Wolves came and went, beside their family, and this was just a part of life for Cicero. His sister had seemed sad about it, he had noted.

Presently, as their mother called, Cicero was swift to be outside. He had gone out a couple of times before, but was usually escorted back in swiftly once his mother found out. His sister was quick to be by her side as well, asking their mother for things. "Sees go!" Cicero said excitedly, some of the fewer words he had spoken. Compared to his siblings, he seemed a little behind on his words and, mostly, his comprehension of those words. Then, looking up at their mother, "Go?"

His thirst for adventure was soon met with agreement that the four of them would, indeed, 'go', as their mother lead them someplace not far from the den.

@Cicero Sorry for the wait

After waiting a bit for Damien to wake up and follow, Meldresi gave up on her son. She would take him through the tunnels on a later date, but it would not be as fun and enlightening as with his siblings. Meldresi nodded at the squeaking pups that tumbled under her feet. "Yes, adventure. We're going in there," The mother pulled back the bush, revealing the dark tunnel, with a faint glow at the end. "Go in, Cic' and Potema. I'll be following."

Potema only saw her brother, Cicero, and not Damien. She didn't mind it though, since her eldest brother was a meanie-butt. Cicero was nicer, but he wasn't as talkative. He didn't know as many words, but he was funny. So she didn't care.

Meldresi looked down at them and told them they were going in the bush. It confused the young princess until the greenery was pulled away, revealing a dark tunnel. Unlike home, it was damp and smelled both familiar and strange. Potema looked up at her mother with confusion, and a bit of fear. But she trusted her mother, and walked into the darkness, her snow white and ashen-sprinkled pelt engulfed by the shadows as she headed towards the faint blue light.

Their mother confirmed that they were headed on an adventure. Cicero did not care much for adventures, not in the way his sister did, though he was eager to explore places. Cicero looked over his shoulder to see if their agressive brother would join them, but it seemed that he would stay inside today. Cicero's right ear twitched a couple of times when he turned back to their mother, who swiped a bush away and revealed a tunnel.

"Oooooh," cooed Cicero when the tunnel was revealed. Unlike his sister, he wasn't afraid and bounded forward towards the tunnel. He galopped into the tunnel and started to run towards the light.

Potema walked cautiously in, while Cicero ran right in, cooing with delight. She nudged Potema in, encouraging her, while she closed up the entrance and followed behind. Soon, they entered one of her favorite parts of the cave. It was the little mini cathedral, full of glowworms dangling from the ceiling. She knew that they would be fixated on the lights for a long period, and gave them the opportunity to play with the dangling strings of mucus and water before she would herd them deeper into the Web.

I swear I was going to reply to this like.. a year ago... And then I forgot............ My apologies :(

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Why did they always had to ruin nap time? The calls, he heard them, but the little shadow was far from feeling adventurous that day. Getting up from his cozy crib and walking out into the cold snow just wasn't worth it.

But then he felt alone. Not mother, not Potty, not Zero (that's how he insisted on calling his younger siblings), and the cradle was getting cold. :(
And then fear consumed him. What if they didn't come back? What if they went away forever like Daddy had? Not again.

The eldest son ran out of the den and tried hard to track down the fading scent of mommy and his siblings until he reached a big hole that swallowed all the light. He looked up, confused and hesitant. Are they inside? Why would mommy want to go in there? What was it?.... Was it there where daddy had disappeared?
He didn't want to go in. What if it swallowed him?

"Mommah!!" the dark pup howled expecting an immediate response with his tail dancing behind him, but none came. "Where mommy?!" he asked desperately. He wouldn't go in there, not until he knew it was there where mommy was.

Potema's sapphire eyes were focused on the dangling spit-threads, as they waved in the air. The young girl sat back on her hind legs, reaching up to touch one before her strength failed her and she fell. Potema was not like her burly brothers, growing strong of limb, though she was quite fond of going on little walks every now and again. Speaking of burly brothers, as Potema's strength gave out and she fell back on her front legs, the sound of her brother Damien crying out wrenched her attention for a brief moment. "Da'men! Mommah hwere!" She called to her brother before attempting to reach the spit again.

"Ooooh," Cicero excitedly cooed as he looked at the dangling glow worms. He wasn't sure what to do first; look at the worms that were alight, or the threads that dangled to and fro, just enough to captivate his attention. Cicero had completely forgotten about the existence of his siblings and mother, so he did not miss them when Potema went to fetch Damien.

Cicero stared at the pretty toys that dangled from the trees; most were too high to reach, but a few were dangling a little lower. "Sees toy get!" he shouted loudly in uncontained excitement, and Cicero batted at a couple of the glow worms and strings that hung lower. Cicero soon got his paw stuck in gooey string, and it refused to let him go! "Ick!" Cicero squeaked while he waved the paw back and forth, trying to get the string off. However, it seemed that no matter what he did, he only got more entangled into the string.

Meldresi smiled at the little pups as they batted at the dangling strings of gelatinous substance she had yet to identify. She determined it was harmless, though extremely sticky, almost like a spider's thread. It was fitting to have in Mephala's Web.

The priestess' gaze snapped quickly from her playing children and to the squeak from the tunnel entrance. Swiftly moving from Potema and Cicero, Meldresi crossed the distance to the opening and revealed herself to her son. "I am here, little spiderling." She said affectionately, licking his forehead before grabbing him by the scruff and bringing him down to the cavern.

I got a bit carried away here... Sorry for the wait, I'll always come back, I swear!

Damien's plan was to rush into the cave once he heard Mommy's voice, but that soon changed as his mother suddenly materialized from the shadows to take him with the rest of the family into the obscurity. Damien jumped gleefully at her sight, and even when he was hanging from his mother's jaws, the pup's tail swayed airily.

It was weird inside. Wet and cold, and even when his big eyes were wide open he couldn't distinguish anything in front of him. Until the lights appeared. glowing droplets hung from the ceiling, millions of them, and instantly, the pup felt an immense intrigue about them.

As soon as mommy put him in the floor, the shadowed pup, blending with his surroundings rushed to his siblings' side to do the same they were doing. He wanted to catch the lights, and he tried hard to reach them but they were just too high. He looked around, searching for another one closer to the ground, and there were plenty further ahead. He went in, nose pointing upwards to the lowest thread he could find, but he didn't see where he was going, and a hole in the ground swallowed him without notice. He felt like the world was going to end, it felt like an eternity of falling, but when he touched the bottom, about a couple centimeters below ground level, and catching back his breath the pup continued forward to reach out for the glowing droplet that soon turned into something that he didn't expect. It was sticky, too much, and it felt really gruesome. He tried to get it off, but the more he struggled, the stickier it got. "Mommy!!" he called desperately, covered by the glowing glue.

Potema could hardly see her brother when Meldresi dropped him onto the floor. The little girl had been cursed with her absentee father's bright white, Arctic coat. She did not have the dark shroud of her mother and Damien, or the mottled patterned of Cicero. She was a beacon in the dark.

So, naturally, she did not notice when Damien ran off into the shadows. Instead, one of her blank-eyed moment came about, and the princess drifted off into space, unaware of everyone except for the strange, dancing figures in front of her. She remained in her dream world, until a cry took her from it. It was Damien. "Wear Da'men?!" she called out.

poor Meldresi XD

"Ick," Cicero repeated while he struggled to try and get out of the sticky thread. The more he pawed at it, the closer it wrapped around him. It wasn't that he couldn't move altogether, but every step he took felt super funny. Cicero put a step forward, but everything felt sticky as he did; why wouldn't it go away? "Toy done!" Cicero strictly told the sticky goo. He was done with it, it could go away no. It had to go away now.

Cicero hadn't ever lost his temper before, since most everything amused him, but now that he had lost control over his own body and every step felt sticky and weird, he was beginning to feel frustrated. "Toy done!" he repeated in irritation to the sticky stuff, shouting down at his own sticky paws, but it refused to listen. So, there was only one option left.

"Aaaaaawwwwwghhh!"

Cicero opened his mouth and started to howl and cry and shout for his mother, the only one who could possibly solve this sticky situation. He didn't even hear Damien call out for help, nor had he seen his brother fall, consumed by his own awful situation.

Meldresi's ears pressed in the two different directions of her childrens' screams. Damien had disappeared into the darkness, and besides her, Cicero was entangled in the thread of a glowworm. Choosing what she believed to be the child more in danger, she turned to Cicero and snapped an order. "Cicero, stay still. I will be back." Hoping the mottled boy would not squirm and fidget in the entanglement of the worm, Meldresi wandered towards the sound of her son's calling.

"Damien? Where are you?!" She said, genuinely worried, until she felt her paw drop down a few centimeters. "Damien?" She called down, hoping he was not hurt. The drop was far for a young child of his age.

The fall had been nothing compared to the horrible stickiness of the glowworm's thread, the one in which he was completely wrapped in, the one that didn't let him move, and the one that made him yelp in disgust. "WARRRLGH!!" was the one that came out the most, but there were also "NAWW!"s and "MOMMY!"s resounding in the caves, all of them carrying a lot of desperation and anguish.

Damien was trying hard to get it off, but the darkness summed to his inability to move properly was too much for the cub to handle. He would need mommy's help fast, just as Cicero who was also pretty much wrapped in the same situation... Literally... "Help Dameen Mommy!"

Potema's ears slicked back at the disarray. The cries of both her brothers rang out and bounced against the walls, filling her ears with the jarring sound. It was bad enough that voices whispered to her in her sleep, constantly filling her with sound and never allowing her piece and quiet. But now? This was all too much for the white princess. Especially with her mother calling for Damien.

Potema sat down and covered her ears in a futile attempt to block out the sound. Instead, it just came drumming through her ears, rattling her head. She choked out a sob, begging them all to be silent for just a moment.

While his mother went to save Damien from the pit he'd fallen into, Cicero just waited and kept on wailing. He was unaware of the distress that his brother or sister were in; as a young child, all Cicero's mind could grasp was his own wellfare, and he didn't like how he was doing right now. He just kept wailing and howling for his mother to come while he wriggled and just seemed to keep wrapping the sticky stuff further around him, rather than getting rid of it.

Meldresi slid down into the hole gracefully, tutting softly at her son's predicament. "Damien, stay still." She hissed to him. It would worsen his situation if he kept struggling. These strands were designed to ensnare. Her head tipped as she examined the situation. How to get him out? The best way would to be to cut the web, but she had no real way to do it...unless she bit it.

She licked her lips nervously before she grasped the strand in her mouth, maneuvering it to her back incisors, the scissor-like teeth in the pack of her mouth. She bit down and slid her teeth across it, until she felt the strand being sliced. She kept repeating the motion until it split, and she spat the remains of the strand out. Vulgar.

Meldresi bent her head down, grasping Damien in her jaws. "Don't squirm. I'll get the rest off later." She said, muffled, as she began climbing out of the hole.

Damien squeaked in desperation while his mother grabbed him and took him out of the pit he had fallen into. The sticky stuff felt gross on his body, and he wanted to get it off as soon as possible. Too bad he hadn't gotten a chance to fully admire the magic of the glowworms, he would now probably hate them for what they had done to him. Meanies.

"out mommy." he implored crying. He didn't know what was of his siblings, nor did he know the terror they were going through, all he cared about was to get that thing off and get the hell outta that place. It was just full of bad stuff.

@Damien @Cicero Sorry. > - >

Potema curled up tightly, her ears covered by her paws, not listening to her brothers and mother anymore. Their voices were blocked out, but the voices in her head were still prominent. Potema whimpered, shaking and hitting her head in desperation. Never had they been so loud before.

Steadily, they retreated, fading back into whispers as she began to settle down. She looked up then, towards her mother. "Mama I wanna go home...I wanna sleep..."

let's finish this soon, since it's old? :) feel free to pp Cicero getting free and going home or w/e in a fade ^^

Cicero was still trapped, and he waited for his mother while wailing and struggling to get free. Until he was freed he would continue to struggle and yelp, unable to get free on his own accord and instead getting himself entangled further and further.

He did not notice any of the other things going on, absorbed in his own woes, did not realise that his mother was still rescuing his brother before she could get to saving him.

Last post.

Meldresi climbed out of the hole, dropping Damien gently on the floor and giving him a gentle lick on the head. "Stay here, I'll go get your brother." Meldresi strode across the cavern, back towards her squirming and yelping middle child. "Cicero! Stay still!" She commanded her son, walking towards Cicero. Her fangs flashed out again, tearing at the sticky strands, cutting and pulling until her son was freed, though many strands still were attached to her son's body.

Coughing the strands out of her mouth, she turned to her remaining children. "Damien, Potema, come here. We're going home." She said, ushering Cicero out of the den and weaving her way through the glowworms' strings and out of the den, silently hoping her children would not be scarred from this. The tunnels would have to become their home someday.

Last post for me too! ;)

indentHis hero had come to the rescue. Mommy swiftly bit off the sticky threads that tied him, and with rush she helped Cicero and Potema too, who in their own course of action had fallen into similar distressing situations only mommy could fix. She was amazing, unlike the caves, and Damien was grateful for having mommy be his mommy. There weren't other mommies in the world that were as good as mommy.

indentDamien would, however, keep his distance from the caves for a good while. They were evil, and he feared he would get trapped again if he ever came inside on another ocasion. He would avoit the torture even though mommy expected the opposite. Tough luck. They would have to deal with that later on. But for the time being, Damien was happy to follow mommy out to the dim light of the woods, growling at the annoyance of the remaining threads of worm-think that refused to leave him alone. "Bath mommy." he required as he followed Meldresi to the den and to a well deserved cleaning session.

Potema was overjoyed when her mother had saved her brothers and given the command to go home. She scampered after her, her tail waving slightly at the prospect of going home and sleeping. Like her brothers, she would not dare crawl back into that dark expanse known as the tunnels for eons (aka weeks). Instead she would find more comfort in the embrace of the surface, in the dark forest known as Blackfeather Woods, her kingdom. And that little castle known as her mother's den.