Blacktail Deer Plateau staring down the hole again

Open for anyone that Mordecai hasn't met yet. May as well get him a little bit integrated with the BDP folk! :)

A shaky breath escaped him as he lost the hare down a steep ridge. Not confident enough to pursue it downward just yet, Mordecai had given up the chase with a bemused huff. The hare had known where to go to escape him, no doubt an elusive piece of game that had long shook the wolves of the Plateau off its trail. By the time he had come down from the ridge, it was gone, and so was his interest in pursuing it.

At least the hare had carried the kindness not to leave him too far off from a narrow brook. It was a bit more than a brook in the winter thaw, daring to leave the deep crevice it had forged for itself as it weaved and wove through the terrain. It was as good as any place for a drink though and more importantly, was along a major footpath through the crisp canopy of trees. He hadn't encountered much in the way of the inhabitants of the Plateau, but he knew he would soon.

The day was young, after all, there were bound to be others out.

tool — pushit

Making the assumption that he's in the area by the puppy den, so that I can hop in. :)

Outside was easily Eilidh's favorite place. Who accompanied her - or lack of - didn't matter. No matter who was with her, everything could be explored, and it was. Eilidh's range of movement outside was steadily growing bigger as she thoroughly explored the small area surrounding the den. Once that was done, she'd explore a few feet past that. No tree, bush, or track went unnoticed with her around.

But sometimes, new things entered. Not only did insects and animals come and go, but fellow wolves did too. Her mother and father came and went at intervals. Other wolves came and then left, but didn't come back. This wolf that came into her vision who was walking down a path plowed by other visitors was categorized as one of them. But, just because he would soon leave and not be seen again didn't mean he escaped her inspection.

"Ello!" Eilidh greeted, bounding towards the slowly approaching form.

You're like the first puppy thread I've had in years! This will be interestingly awkward. Also Danni, if you're still interested in jumping in from my reply to you earlier, please do!

Caught up in the drink he was gathering for himself, Mordecai had not taken notice of the den he must have passed on the way down the slope. When a very youthful voice rang out from behind him, he paused for a moment in silent consideration. And as he brought his gaze around to the hillside once more, the densite and the puppy at the peak of it most certainly drew his attention. What were the odds of meeting those inhabitants so quickly, he wondered. Dante had told him about them and Osprey had given him the name of their mother, now all that was left was apparently to encounter them on their own.

Slowly, he approached her with a waving tail. He couldn't help but be leery of the densite because of his relative newness — Mordecai didn't want the trouble of an angry wolf or wolves for him coming up so close. But it was a distant thing as well, because his own curiosity of the newest generation intrigued him. It had been a long while since he had been around any puppies of any sort. He stretched just a few yards out of reach from the youngster, a thin smile playing on his features as his stretch brought him to rest on the ground. This way, they would see eye to eye and if anything, it would make him less of a threat to the watching eyes and listening ears of nearby.

With a playful sound, Mordecai invited her to investigate him all she wanted.

Unlike the last pack-mate Eilidh had encountered, this wolf made sounds without her having to coax him into it. Being talked to and talking to others were becoming a favored hobby in her eyes, and while Mordecai may not have said any words, the sound he made was still a form of communication, so it could be grouped in with talking.

After a quick investigation that included sniffing and pawing Mordecai's face and sides, he was deemed good. Since he passed the physical inspection, there was the verbal one. "Me Eeeee-lay" Eilidh drawled, her name still unfamiliar coming off her tongue. "You?" The concept that each wolf had a name and identity was one that she was currently learning. Mommy was her mother, Daddy was her father, Cas and Connie were her brothers. All of them were different, as with the two other wolves outside her family that she had encountered but didn't know their names.

So who was this wolf in front of her?

And like Mordecai, I already wanna cuddle her... ;~;

Her investigation of him was quick and in his eyes, a little on the sweet side. She couldn't have been too old, yet the eagerness that she met him with was refreshing. Of the medley of scents that came from her, he couldn't pick out whether or not he knew her family or not. It was unlikely, as he was certain he hadn't met Blue Willow any time in the past. Still, Eilidh was a peach and already was beginning to win over the Ostrega without having to do much of anything.

"Mordecai," he said, slowly. Trying to enunciate his name in some way that would make it easy for her to grasp onto. Easier to remember, even. With his tail beating evenly on the damp ground, he pawed at her gently, tempting her to whatever form of play she knew. "Where's your mom?" he decided to inquire gently, wondering if she had gone out for a short while. If that were the case, he was surprised no one was watching the den. Unless of course, they were watching it from afar — another likely reason he refrained from rising.

Free cuddles for Ku and Mordecai! :)

When Mordecai gave his name, Eilidh saw it as a collection of syllables, even if she didn't know what syllables were at her age. "Morrr-deee-caiii" Eilidh repeated, drawing out each syllable. Deciding that was too much of a mouthful, she came up with a nickname for him: "Cai!" The last syllable of Mordecai's name was currently her favorite, so it gained the right to be her name for him.

"Mommy?" Eilidh questioned when he mentioned her mom. She spun in an incomplete circle, stopping with her snout pointing towards the den. "Mommy insee!" She answered with her form of the word inside. Then, she turned back to face Mordecai and his paw that had nudged her moments before. Seeing as how it had attacked her, Eilidh took the bait of playfully attacking it back.

With a small, playful growl, Eilidh pounced on his paw, attempting to pin it down.

Aww yeee! <3

Oh, the mother was inside of the den. Well, in that case she was no doubt evidently aware that he was there. And since he hadn't been run off just yet, Mordecai took that was a good sign. Perhaps she had been aware of him longer than that, who was to say. As Eilidh went for a go against his paw, Mordecai allowed himself to relax ever so slightly.

As she pounced on his paw, he attempted to remove it from beneath her in some squirrely fashion, wriggling his leg about. A quiet, playful growl left him in the process, only hoping it would rile her up just a little more. He'd probably learn his lesson in the end — when she probably caught his paw — but for the time being, he was content to roll about and cause a little ruckus with a wolf a fraction of his size.

Mordecai's paw was one of her favorite play-things Eilidh decided as he tried to prevent her from catching it. She let out a louder, playful growl in response to Mordecai's. Then, in a rather cat-like fashion, she tried to land her front paws on his larger paw. When that method of attack proved to be too difficult, she switched tactics. Now, she used the full force of her body to try and tackle it. But alas, his paw was just too fast!

Having collided with the ground as a result of her failed attempt, Eilidh swallowed the mixture of dirt and mostly-melted snow that was in her mouth. Her attention was drawn off of Mordecai's paw as she looked up and saw his face. Mischievously, Eilidh disregarded his paw as she got up and moved towards his snout. Then, she let out a battle cry of, "Bah!" before gently grasping his nose in her mouth.

It was a rather bold move, trying to assert dominance over the much bigger and older wolf. (Her mouth wouldn't fit over his entire snout, just the nose.) But to Eilidh, there was more ways than one to win a game.

I have a feeling I'm off about how far in development she is, but, eh, NO CARES GIVEN. I couldn't resist making myself chuckle. Once, when my friend's son was about a year and a half old... he bit my knee in response to me blocking his path by propping my leg up on the coffee table lol. And that's when I learned that toddlers bite hard.

There were several times when she got so close that he could feel the presence of her body long before it ever came down on him. This became especially true when she full out tackled it and missed, the movement that he made so slight that it threw all her attempts out the door. And that ultimately appeared to be the last straw for the little girl, who carried a mischievous glint as she surveyed her next target: him.

Mordecai had no more angled his muzzle to the side to question what she was doing when she sprung it on him. And it was a bold move for someone so young, but this didn't cross his mind. He was instead locked in admiration for the tactic — he had never considered that she'd go for the much easier, prone target that the foot belonged to. And rightly so, because the razor sharp milk teeth that lurked in her mouth captured his nose.

For a second, a searing pain rolled through his snout. He hissed through his teeth and pulled back, which only intensified the sharpness of her playful assault. Never in a million years had Mordecai ever considered that the inside of his own nose was tender, but it was a lesson learned the hard way. "All right, you got me!" he said, offering her a whining few notes. "You got sharp teeth!" And never once did he find that he raised his voice; like so many ways he handled things, Mordecai never saw the point in screaming uncle.

I understand how you feel! Even with a guide for playing puppies, I probably play them smarter than they are quite a bit, especially with Eilidh. I keep thinking she's older than she actually is, until I do the math to figure out how old she actually is. But, Ouch! I've never been bitten by a toddler, but I definitely don't want to know what it's like firsthand!

Eilidh was almost as shocked as Mordecai when he pulled back. She let go of his nose - but not before her grip tightened for a moment as he instinctively tried to pull his nose out of her grip. Once her teeth were safely inside her mouth, she looked up at Mordecai who was making his whining sounds for her benefit.

By the looks of it, Eilidh had done something bad. With a small whine of her own, she shrunk into a rather submissive position. She didn't know that it was called being submissive, but instinct told her it was the right way to act with how she was feeling. She hadn't meant to hurt Mordecai, and hadn't even realized she had hurt him.

It totally sucked, but it was hard to be mad because he made the cutest faces afterward. And then he gave me a hug. I was all, "... I can't even be mad at you, just don't bite me again..." x_x

When she let go, there was a relief that was more than a soothing balm. Though he could acutely feel his pulse though the very spot she had bit him, it was minor in comparison to the would-be eye-watering point. Eilidh shrank away from him as a result, something that he was well aware of and addressed.

"Hey, it's okay," he ushered, nudging her small form with his muzzle. Avoiding the nose, of course. "You got me pretty good there. I bet you like to bite your siblings, don't you?" He had little doubt in his mind that she had done the same thing to them, feeling around for those faint edges of instinctual dominance. Finding her little place in the world already and perhaps even without knowing it.

Even though Mordecai first seemed upset with her by his first reactions, he seemed fine now. While most of his words were lost on her with her limited vocabulary, tone of voice helped her comprehend the basic feelings behind the words. Right now, the tone of Mordecai's voice wasn't mad, but gentle - like how her mother spoke when she or a brother was crying.

Eilidh planted a small lick on Mordecai's muzzle, signaling she was alright too. Then, she tried to say something. Even if the sentence he spoke was too complicated for her to understand, she still tried to respond. "Ay. Ee ay boo!" The babbles didn't hold any meaning; they were just her repeating some of the sounds she had heard when Mordecai spoke.

Fade soon?

A smile spread across his face as she offered him a show of affection. Surprisingly, he found this motion much more warming than if it had come from another. This time around, her ability to form some sentences seemingly dissipated and this he chalked up to her prior excitement. Mordecai knew very little when it came to the development of children; he couldn't quite remember his own coming up into the world well any more.

Offering her a return lick at the top of her head, he briefly entertained the thought of what it would be like to have children himself. But he considered this premise rather unlikely, as children did not entirely suit the lifestyle he had been living for years. He couldn't have imagined trying to travel around with children in tow, let alone finding someone who have shared the same thought. So far now, he was rather content to revel in the light of someone else's child.

Okay, this thread's been really fun! :D

In reality, Eilidh's vocabulary was very limited. Yes, she a few words in her bag of tricks, but when there was none for the situation she was in, she resorted back to basic babbling. Plus, babbling was her process for learning new words. She had to know the sounds before she strung them together into words, right?

Even more simpler than sounds were actions. Without any words being spoken at all, she knew Mordecai was happy with her because of lick he gave her. Eilidh giggled as she moved closer to him, until she was resting her head against his paw. Now that she had played a bit, she would be fine with cuddling with Mordecai until she grew restless.

I'll fade here. We'll totally have to have another thread in the future! <3

Seemingly content with his actions, Mordecai was further warmed by her settling down against him. For something so young and so innocent to decide that he was simply okay — never minding that perhaps, she simply knew no better — was one of the highest reassurances there was. Though he was tempted to pull his paw away for another game as before, he also reminded himself that she would not have the stamina would have expected from someone older. And so, much like she was, he was content to settle and relax until the restless beasts within stirred anew.