Redhawk Caldera burning down the house

@Wildfire - gonna play it like Fox or Perry invited her over.

Maybe it had been an effort to make amends, or maybe Peregrine just wanted to make his red-haired wife happy, but today Dove received a request to visit the family den. It was something she had been waiting for - despite having tried to locate the den on her own previously, and failing - and in the meantime, had busied herself with studying the plants of the area. Today she didn't have a bouquet of flowers for the couple; she tried in vain to find something the kids could play with, but that too was a bust. So in the end, Dove arrived at the specified time with.. Nothing. Just herself, and a sense of panic rising in the pit of her belly.

As she crept towards the den mouth, the pale girl paused and watched the darkness. How old were the cubs now? Were they mobile? What about -- and that was when it happened, cutting through all of her thoughts. A great wailing started at the back of the den and funneled out; blasting her as strongly as any gale-force wind, echoing, amplifying, and Dove took a stumbling step back.

"Uhh, hello?" She called back, the panic forming upon her face as a concerned scowl; what the hell kind of creature had her sister given birth to?

Hi auntie! >:)

Peregrine had taken the feather away from her, for reasons Wildfire couldn't comprehend (the quill had started to splinter), exiting the den to place it out of reach and take a highly necessary potty break. In reaction to her plaything being taken away, the pup threw her largest temper tantrum to date. She screamed loud enough to shatter glass and pounded the earthen floor with both fore and hind paws. She messed herself and pitched an even bigger fit when Fox pinned her to the floor to clean her. As soon as she was clean and dry, her mother put her on the far side of the den to await the Alpha male's return.

Wildfire zoomed around the open space, still wailing and buzzing like an angry cat, when the sensation of footfalls announced her father's return... or so she thought. She produced a catlike hiss, then showed an uncanny knack for orienting herself despite her lack of sight. She began to beetle toward the wolf standing in the entryway. When she bumped into a paw, she sank her nonexistent teeth into it without a single hesitation. As she angrily gummed the foot, she came to realize it wasn't her father's. The scent was unfamiliar.

Deciding she didn't care, the whelp continued champing on Dove's paw, expressing her fury over, well, everything.

Peregrine was suddenly before her, and after a bumbling second or two as they awkwardly side-stepped and side-stepped again, he was off - carrying what looked to be a broken toy with him. Dove watched for a moment, as the desperation filled her again, and then shot her silver gaze towards the void where a renewed wailing had begun. As she slipped in to the den her ears fell back, but that did little to muffle the obnoxious screeching. She took one more step before there was suddenly silence; a wetness spreading along her outstretched paw, along with some tiny pinching.

"Ow -- OW, hey, quit that!" Dove protested and tried to pull her paw away, but the little creature had quite the hold. She tried to brace herself with her free forelimb against the ground and wiggle the captive one, but that seemed to only make the animal tighten her jaws; what was this, a badger? Dove glanced sharply at Fox, as if her sister could help, and inevitably yanked her paw closer - along with the puppy - and held the girl firmly between her front legs. "Let me go you little twerp!"

Like any wild predator worth her salt, WIldfire clung to her victim even as she was shaken, jerked and even lifted briefly into the air. She didn't relent even when she felt herself being hugged against Dove's chest while someone or something else (her aunt's other foreleg) tried wrenching her loose. With the tenacity of a bulldog, Wildfire clung.

Peregrine had returned in the meantime and enjoyed the scene for a few moments before intervening. "Dove!" he reprimanded sharply when she began wrestling the pup between her legs. "Be careful, you moron," he hissed under his breath, roughly nudging Dove's forelegs out of the way and closing his jaws around the pup's midriff.

She tried to maintain her grip but Peregrine tugged firmly but gently, forcing her to let go. After shooting Dove a reproachful look, he then deposited the now hoarse Wildfire just inside the den's mouth and swooped to take a seat behind her. He would blockade the screaming child from disrupting the den's other residents and keep an eye on both his annoying child and sister-in-law.

Having been dropped rudely on the cold earth, Wildfire gave a mighty shriek, then began to bumble back toward Dove, probably intent on repeating the entire scene.

The little creature was diabolical. It stuck like glue to her paw and refused to budge - and Dove tried, she really tried, to pry the girl loose. At some point she tried a bit too hard though, and Peregrine's voice caught in her ears. Her ears fell back against her head as she relented, easing off on the whole 'saving her own toes' shtick so that Perry could intervene. She cast him an apologetic glance - absolutely sincere, even thankful - before hearing the girl's ringing, shrieking voice. It was like sounding the bell for a cage match; Dove looked steely-eyed at the pudgy child as she approached, and was quick to pull back from her reach. Dove settled in to a cat-like laying pose with her paws hidden beneath her fluffy body. Hah. Try to get me now, sucker!

When she finally caught up to her aunt again, it was like ramming into a soft but inflexible wall. The pup grunted, then began nosing Dove's chest, looking for a limb or digit or something that protruded so she could bite it. When young Wildfire found nothing, she gave an indignant screech and did the next best thing by flailing her tiny forelimbs against the fuzzy obstacle. She would beat it into submission, until it did what she wanted it to do (though who knows what that might be?).

...or not. No matter what she tried, Wildfire couldn't get a good grasp on or reaction from her uncooperative playmate. Eventually, she backed off and plopped on her haunches, only to tilt her head backward and unleash an unholy scream on the world. It might have gone on forever if Peregrine hadn't reappeared, gently clamped his jaws over the pup's muzzle, then carried her indoors. She would just have to meet her Aunt Dove properly some other time.