Redhawk Caldera Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates

Rain kept the family indoors this morning. Wildfire slumped near the door, sulking as she stared outdoors at the crummy weather. She desperately wanted to go outside and add some more sticks and rocks to her collection. She didn't even mind the wet. But her parents told her no and so she brooded there in the doorway, unaware that her eyelids eventually grew heavy and then closed.

When she started awake an hour later, the shower had tapered off to a drizzle. Wildfire jumped to her feet with a loud bark that made everyone else in the den jump. "Wawawawawa!" she proclaimed loudly, dancing on her toes. Her golden eyes grew wide as she looked pleadingly from Peregrine to @Fox then back to her father again. "Hiyeeeee?" She was desperate to get outside, not only to collect some items for her stockpile but because she had to go potty!

The uptick in the pups' vocalizations was not such a bad thing. In a lot of ways, Fox enjoyed their senseless babbling, and it meant that they were coming along just right as far as speech development went. Startled awake by Dhole's latest antics, she blinked as her red daughter continued to babble about... well, whatever it was she was babbling about. Fox glanced at Peregrine, then said, "I'll take her." What Wifi wanted, Fox wasn't quite sure about, but it was clear that she'd been pent-up all day and wasn't going to stand for it much longer. The rain had died down quite a bit anyway, and Fox had never minded it anyway.

Fox nudged Dhole outside, following closely behind. While she was protective of the children, Fox knew that giving them some freedom was imperative to them maturing correctly. Not enough supervision, and they were in danger from predators. Too much supervision, and they would never learn to deal with things on their own. Fox blinked away the droplets that accumulated on her eyelashes like tiny clinging monkeys, then turned to Dhole. "What did you want to do out here, anyway?" she asked. True, Wifi probably wouldn't know exactly what she was asking, but talking to the pups seemed natural.

Although Wildfire couldn't understand her mother's words, she read her body language like a book and leaped to follow at her mother's heels as Fox led the way outdoors. She looked over her shoulder, whining a single note to see if Raven was coming, then her full bladder forced her to proceed without her beloved sister. She gamboled to a patch of spring grass perhaps six feet from the den's mouth, then squatted and copiously watered the already moist ground. She finished with a murmured ahhh!

The pup then sprang back toward her mother, rubbing against the Alpha female's foreleg and then cocking her head at her dam's query. "Toodoo ahhee hanery!" she said in response, then dropped her golden eyes to scan their immediate surroundings. Little Wildfire's nose dropped to the ground as she began combing around for any small objects—sticks, rocks or anything else that she could fit into her mouth—to begin hoarding.

The first thing she came across was a stick, or so she thought. When she grabbed it with her teeth, it wriggled. The pup yipped and dropped the squirmy stick, blinking and staring at it, then looking up at her mother with a WTF?! expression on her face. Wildfire then tentatively reached out a paw to touch it, causing the "stick" (read: worm) to wriggle uncontrollably and earning a wild shriek from the little girl.

I had a reply half-written for this on Friday, but I accidentally closed the window. First time that's happened in years! :(

Fox watched as Dhole answered the question she was about to ask with actions, rather than words. A pee break made sense, especially since they'd spent most of the day inside. Fox chuckled when her daughter punctuated her pissing with a sound of complete satisfaction. Wifi returned to her leg, rubbing up on her in what Fox could only assume was an affectionate manner. Dhole then proceeded to spout of a number of nonsense words, and Fox cocked her head. The pups were talking alright, but they weren't making a lick of sense.

"Indeed!" Fox replied, watching as Dhole waddled off to pick up a worm. Apparently, she hadn't realized it was a worm, and Fox hooted when her daughter yelped and dropped it with a puzzled look on her face. "Got yourself a worm, do ya?" she asked, grinning all the while. Fox took a few steps through the drizzle and pushed the worm with her nose. It contracted, apparently unhappy with touch from outsiders. Fox looked at Dhole again, "Worm!"

That's a bummer! I comfort you with my 100th post. :)

Fox moved closer, speaking to her, and the babe shot her mother a bewildered look. The Alpha female seemed amused and her tone was light as she spoke to Wildfire. The puppy blinked, then watched as the worm wriggled on the wet earth. It was unexpected, though she wasn't the type to fear strange or gross things. In fact, she would soon become quite fascinated with all things nature had to offer. This would be one of her earliest lessons as an aspiring Naturalist.

"Um!" she (somewhat) parroted her mother, blinking some misty drizzle from her eyelashes. She then reached out a paw to touch the worm again, recoiling with a slight giggle when it jerked in response. The third time, Wildfire didn't remove her paw so hastily, in fact pressing it down and trapping the worm beneath it. She stared, fascinated, as it struggled between her red, outspread toes. It tickled!

Rackin' up that post count! :o

Dhole attempted to mimic her mother's word, but failed to capture it exactly. Grinning, Fox tried to get her to improve her pronunciation a little. "Wwwwooorrrrrmmmm," she said, slower this time. That would help, right? Being more deliberate about saying the word might help her sprog learn it quicker. Fox was finding that teaching her kids new things was the most enjoyable part of parenthood for her. While Peregrine was capable of loving them just "because," Fox loved watching them learn and grow. That part was far more fascinating to her.

Fox watched as Dhole planted her foot on the wiggling creature. "Wiggly worm!" she said. Fox then saw something out of the corner of her eye, and noticed a frong hopping just a few feet away. "Oh, look at that!" she exclaimed, using her muzzle to point toward the funny amphibian. "That’s a frog. Can you say ffffrooooooog?" she asked, giving Dhole a questioning look.

"Erm!" she repeated, which sounded more like what her mother had said, if not a perfect mimicry. As for wiggly worm, well, that was even more of a mouthful. But that didn't stop Wildfire from trying. "Glee erm!" That sounded right, didn't it? More or less, anyway.

No sooner had she mastered the pronunciation than another creature hopped (literally) onto the scene. Wildfire's paw remained on top of the worm as her mother pointed out the frog, though she unwittingly released it as she sprang nearer to the green amphibian. Whereas Fox had merely pointed at it, the cub thrust her snout up close and personal, her moist nose brushing that smooth, almost silky skin. The frog, naturally, leaped away.

Wildfire uttered a low scream of delight at this, then bounded after it. "FOG!" she bellowed. "Gono!" she chirped, swiping at it with a fiery paw. But she was much too slow; the frog was rapidly making an escape.

*gets back into the groove* Wolf vacation was totally worth it. :)

"Fog" wasn't that far off from "frog," and Fox was satisfied with Wildfire's attempt at the word. The children's language was only going to improve from here on out, and she knew they needed to have some leeway in how they spoke. She wouldn't be much of a mother if she beat her kids every time they made a mistake (although it could make her story a heckuva lot more interesting, eh?). The playful shrieks that Wildfire spouted reminded Fox of her daughter's younger days, and she winced slightly. Thankfully, Dhole had toned down the screaming quite a bit since the earliest days, but she certainly hadn't lost her voice.

The frog continued to hop away, making its usual ribbit sounds. Not wanting Dhole's first "catch" to get away, Fox trotted over, herding the slimy amphibian back to her daughter. The frog did not seem particularly pleased to be shoved around, but it wasn't like he could complain. What was he going to do? Hop higher? Ribbit louder?

I've been on an unwitting one the past few days. House hunting is distracting.

Before the frog could slip away from the young wolf, her mother quickly stepped in and shepherded it back toward her. Wildfire cackled, excitedly thrusting out a paw to knock the frog upside the head. She didn't mean to harm it, at least intentionally, but when the critter went flipping over onto its back from the force of her playful strike, the cub felt something surge through her. She couldn't know that it was her predatory instincts coming alive, driven by blood lust.

With a loud battle cry, the puppy sprang on top of the upside-down frog, smashing it between her red forepaws. She felt its slippery little body give beneath her weight. Wildfire paused, then slowly moved her feet away. The frog was flat, its guts spilled on the ground. She bent down to sniff at them. They smelled tempting, yet sort of strange too. Her golden eyes lifted to find Fox's face, wondering if she'd done a good job and what she should do next.

This thread is a lot older than I thought it was, oops! *moves toward conclusion with life lessons, yo*

In a surprising turn of events, Dhole made her first kill. An approving smile flitted over the Alpha's face in response. Instinct seemed to run deep in their veins, something Fox was quite pleased with. The last thing she wanted was some over-emotional softie who couldn't bear to kill its own food. Besides, instinct was important for other aspects of life, too. It was what kept them out of trouble (for the most part) and contributing to their pack.

"The first of many, I’ve no doubt," she mused at little Wifi. "But you should know that we must eat whatever we kill. Failing to do so is just as wrong as not killing it." With that, Fox gestured at the frog, hoping Dhole would get the hint that she was expected to eat the slimy creature. If she refused, it would be an even more poignant lesson.

The Alpha female rewarded her with an approving smile and Wildfire beamed up at her mother. Her lips parted to say something when Fox instructed to eat her kill. The puppy licked her lips, trying to compute the instructions. Her capacity for language was still limited yet. "K-ill?" she repeated quietly, looking down at the squashed frog. It hadn't been intentional and she hadn't done it with her teeth, yet on some level she intuited that, somehow, she'd turned the frog into food.

And it did smell good, if unlike anything she had ever put in her mouth before. Wildfire sniffed at the sticky, squished carcass, then licked at some of the red viscera smeared on the ground. It tasted much like any other meat and blood, though with a decidedly fishy tang to it. She scrunched up her nose but kept lapping at the soupy innards. As for the frog's flesh, well, she decided to keep that as a souvenir.

After polishing off the remaining entrails, Wildfire plucked up the flattened frog body. Her squeal of laughter was only partially muffled as she swung it around in the air, delighting at the way its dangling legs flopped about and struck her in the muzzle. It made a great toy and would be an even better addition to her growing collection of odds and ends.

Dhole seemed to like her newfound toy, and wasn't perturbed in the slightest by her actions causing her plaything to turn into food. Fox, of course, thought this completely natural. Wolves were predatory creatures, built to kill and eat. Anything less would have worried her, even though she was leery of killing and eating foxes (for obvious reasons). It was a good thing dholes didn't live around here, or little Wifi might have had to cross that off her own list. Lucky for her, she was safe from such name-inducing worry.

"Come on," Fox encouraged, shuffling Wildfire back toward the den. "Let's go show Pops what you've got!" The new mother had no doubt that her beau would be pleased to see the latest and greats in his daughter's development. It would be a good story to tell years from now, too, when Dhole would probably only remember this as a mere whisper.

Fox allowed her child a moment to enjoy her new plaything before announcing that it was time to head back to the den to show her father her prize. "Eee!" was Wildfire's only reply to that. She continued swinging the frog's body around as she fell into step behind the Alpha female, her little red paws slightly damp from the time spent outdoors in the rain-soaked wilderness. Surely Peregrine the Gamekeeper would delight in her catch (and she would certainly love to show it off to him), though mostly the little Naturalist-in-training couldn't wait to show it to her brother and sister... and promptly forbid any of them from touching her latest treasure.