Stavanger Bay dark before the dawn

Open for anyone who would realistically be allowed inside the den ...I might also pp Ragnar in here a little bit because I can do that lol. :-)

Jorunn did not know how many days had passed since he had slid through his mother's birth canal and into the world, the disruption of what was perfect into chaos. Into something so imperfect that it's existence couldn't — and shouldn't — be possible. Time had no meaning to the young Ragnarsson. Few things had meaning to him: the rumble in his stomach, uncomfortable, and the instinct that drew him to Thistle's teat to the warm liquid that was his lifeblood, the rumble in his abdomen when he was ready to expel what his tiny body considered to be waste, and the press of his siblings at his sides. The warmth of his mother and the soft tenor of a rumble that he would, in time, come to know as father. There were other rumbles too besides those of his parents. He could not hear them, but he could feel the vibrations as they communicated to one another, their words and meanings falling upon deaf ears.

The tenor rumble was nearby, Jorunn sensed, assuming this because when he went to nurse — because though he wasn't truly hungry he did not know what else to do aside from suck on one of his siblings' paws which yielded him no satisfaction — he received nothing more than a mouthful of fur. A indignant cry left the fragile Berserker's lips, though he knew he made a noise only by the vibration that left his vocal chords; butting his head against, whilst shoving his nose rudely into Ragnar's hardened side. No soft like the milk-giver. Give me food, His insistent poking seemed to say though after a small while — for his attention span remained that of a gnat's — this ceased as he became more interested in whatever sibling happened to be the right of him, crawling and poking his nose into whatever he could find.

this looked lonely :3

Charon was taking a nap in the den, fast asleep, when suddenly something poked into his side. Charon made an irritated grumbly sound at first and closed his eyes again, determined to let whatever it was be on its way, but the poking was persistent. Maybe it was Ragna again, although there were no cries, so maybe it was one of the boys?

As he opened his eyes and rolled to his belly, Charon saw that it was one of the boys who was poking his nose about, prodding all he could find -- including Charon. "What's up, puppy," Charon said, even though he knew the pups couldn't talk back to him just yet. It was a dumb question, anyway -- 'what's up' in a puppy's mind was only one out of very few things... Most likely being hungry.

Edited Ragnar out so this can be forward dated. :3

Jorunn could not yet hear well, though the vibrations had begun to take as sounds, though they were unintelligible to Jorunn, as foreign as nonsensical babble yet; but he could see. This sense in and of itself was basic, the shadows having begun to take form to clearer pictures but he was learning, slowly, how to make sense of it all. His sight, along with his littermate's had came to the day that Ragnar's body had been found. The lingering absence of his father had been felt at first but the young legend did not understand, and though it was unfortunate would eventually forget about Ragnar. If it were not for the likeliness that Thistle and his older siblings would tell stories of the deceased Jarl he would never mean anything to Jorunn at all. An empty name of a man that had once existed; and were that to happen it would not be a lack of apathy in the young stallion but because he could not mourn what he did not remember, of someone he'd never truly known. 

Jorunn blinked milky blue eyes upwards at Charon, craning his head back to stare up at him, studying his older brother fiercely. He was as big as a God to little Jorunn, who often found himself marveling at these larger beings. Someday he would be as big, though such a concept as growing up was lost upon him. Charon's words were lost upon Jorunn, but the determination and desire to respond was conquering as Jorunn let out a soft “Gah!” in response, something he would come to recognize as pride eventually, swelling in his chest as he offered his elder brother a boyish smile.

Charon chuckled when Jorunn let out a 'gah'. It was weird to think that the pups didn't know their father at all... Sort of like Charon hadn't really known his parents. Well, he had been a wee bit older when his parents had perished, but still. They were no more than vague shadows to him now, and it was really weird to think that Ragnar would be no more than a vague shadow to little Jorunn as he grew up. Charon tilted his head as he contemplated this and looked at the small pup.

"That's right, 'gah'!" he said with a nod. "Almost like 'ma'. Can you say ma? I bet Thistle would love it if you could say maaaaaaaaaaaaa. Ma. Ma ma ma ma ma." Charon wasn't sure if this was what parents did to teach pups to talk, but whatever; seemed like a good enough approach as any to get the pup to repeat what he said. He just needed to say it enough times for the pup to get it.

Jorunn noted the continuous hum of vibrations as Charon chuckled, though the young legend had no word to associate the string of vibrations that escaped his elder brother's parted lips. There was a muffled undecipherable noise, Jorunn recognized it as a mimic to the noise he'd made. Eyes of inquisitive milky blue focused upon the bigger male, trying to determine what Charon was and if they were the same as he studied the shades of gray that made up Charon's shape. Only knowing color in his dreams, it was not something that Jorunn would even realize he was missing (until someone points out that grass is not varying shades of gray, nor trees, or flowers). The majority of words Charon spoke to Jorunn were lost upon the eldest twin, who had to tear his eyes from Charon — despite that it was rude considering Charon had not stopped talking yet — to affirm that Floki was not far. Jorunn's attention span was that of a gnat's as it was, but this behavior was not unusual for the identical twin. Jorunn poked his nose, with a lack of empathy, into the slumbering Floki's side, before, contented he looked back to Charon and loudly screamed (apparently also a lack of empathy for Charon's ears), “NUH!”.  Likely, Jorunn would have been able to mimic the word 'ma' as it was close to the few babbling attempt at words he could say, but he had to be defiant, of course.

Stupid little puppy was stubborn like a mule, it seemed -- he replied with a 'nuh' instead of repeating the word that Charon told him to. "You gotta repeat the word, not say no to everything," Charon said with a roll of his eyes and a dramatic sigh -- this puppy so dumb, he didn't even understand how to repeat after someone else.

"Well, fine, we'll lower the bar, since you're being dumb. Say 'nuh' then. Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." Charon crossed his paws and waited for Jorunn to repeat this word. He'd already said it, so he couldn't pretend like he didn't know how to. They would work into 'ma' from 'nuh', or whatever.

Of course Jorunn had no intentions of actually listening to Charon — not that he could understand much of what his elder brother was saying anyway — he was a Ragnarsson. Defiance ran in his genes as sure as his stockings were the color of warm sand on his legs that faded and gave way to the platinum silver, so very much like his deceased father's. It just was, though it might have been only Jorunn that had taken to it so quickly, as he had seemed to do everything else (except his sight). Charon then repeated Jorunn's own screamed word back him, though the older male did not scream it. He chanted it for a small while like a mantra, causing Jorunn's ears of platinum silver to splay back to either side of his head. His too-large head canted ever so slightly to the side as he took in Charon's form, appearing to be monotone — as did everything. Instead of repeating the word, or even attempting to say anything else, Jorunn just gave him a cheeky, toothy grin and chose (for once) to remain silent — not unlike the recently departed Jarl, something that Ragnar did often though Jorunn did not and could not possibly know this quirk to be one he shared.

Charon watched expectantly at the puppy, but no words came out. He didn't like this one bit, because Charon always preferred for everything in his life to go his way. None of these damned puppies were listening to him at all! Instead, Jorunn just laid his ears back and gave Charon the silent treatment. Typical puppy, ungrateful useless sacks of meat. Trying to teach the puppies things made Charon feel even more old and mature than he already did as of late.

"Fine, be a useless blob and sit there looking dumb!" Charon said and he rolled his eyes, throwing a tiny tantrum of his own. "I guess I might as well tell you a story since you're just sitting there not even trying. It's about a little boy who didn't listen to his older brother. Whenever the older brother tried to teach the little puppy something, he would just shout 'NUH' like a baby and defiantly look the other way like he doesn't even care.

So then one day, there was a giant tidal wave! So the big brother, cool as he was, was going to save the little puppy. He came into the den and shouted, 'Quick lil' dude, you gotta come with!' And the puppy just defiantly turned his head to the sky -" With saying this, Charon lifted his head defiantly into the air "- and said 'NUH!' The cool big brother tried everything, but the puppy wouldn't budge. Then they were both killed in a tidal wave that washed away the whole den, and they died all because the little boy was a stubborn little brat. The end." Charon didn't really expect it to teach Jorunn anything, because he was still so small and probably didn't understand half of the words, but whatever. He figured he'd get plenty of opportunity to repeat this story some day when Jorunn was a bit older. And anyway, losing as many family members as he had in his young life, Charon rather wanted stories and things that needed to be said out in the open -- before you knew it, 'later' never came...

Jorunn was not yet at the age that he fully grasped the concept of emotions  that went beyond his own — though in truth the understanding of his own was a hazy thing filled with many unknowns and uncertainties. Though the young legend could not fully understand that he had upset Charon, he had sensed from the mood change in the atmosphere that Charon wasn't happy with him. Despite this vague awareness that he'd done wrong, affirmed by Charon's tone. It was not to the point of reprimanding, but Jorunn's ears splayed to either side of his head, nevertheless. Still, Jorunn was as stubborn as he was defiant and refused to make the attempt at amends. He didn't want to babble because someone was telling him too, he wanted to babble because he wanted to communicate, or impress them by the fact that he could.

The small curve of Jorunn's chest puffed with indignation as he continued to silently stare down his older brother, ears cupping forth towards Charon as the older boy spoke, though, admittedly, most of his words went in one ear and out the other without much but extremely minimal understanding happening. Someday, should Charon decide to retell his tale Jorunn would better understand it (and possibly find it a bit morbid with his and Charon's deaths?). Instead, Jorunn puffed out his cheeks and let the air pass through his lips slowly, wondering if Charon had more stories for him, or if his patience had reached it's limit.

Jorunn remained silent throughout the story, and his mood seemed to switch between indignation and guilt (well, sort of; at least he looked like he knew he'd done something wrong). Charon wished that Levi was here, so that he could work his magic on the pups; he was way better with these tiny things. It was like he just asked them nicely and then they did it, but when Charon asked something they all turned into tantrum-throwing crying screaming babies. Admittedly, it was for the first time since... well, ever, that Charon saw Levi as a growing man instead of a tiny boy that needed the help of his brother around every corner. Even though Charon loved caring for and helping Levi, so he didn't mind that he needed help a lot, it made Charon proud to see his caring brother finding a purpose in looking after the pups.

"That's right, I'm bigger and older, so you gotta listen," Charon said matter-of-factly. "Now you're being a good boy, Jorunn! Do you wanna hear another stoooory?" Charon asked and looked at Jorunn, waiting to see if he actually wanted to hear more or not. He wasn't sure if Jorunn actually understood what he said, but he would soon find out (or not find out, and get another 'nuh' when the real answer was 'i don't know what you mean').

Without waiting for answer, Charon started on another story. For a while he told stories to his brother, before it was time for him to sleep again.

fading here :)