Nova Peak shake my little soul for you now toy

open for anyone!!

Today, he did something he would not have normally done.  Today, Pasha dared to venture just a touch further than he was supposed to.  Or at least whatever the mental stipulation of too far was.  The den mouth had disappeared in his imaginary rearview mirror as he peddled forward, feet scampering across the loose terrain as though he was going a million miles an hour, and subsequently getting a million miles away.

While the path was somewhat familiar to him — learned on an excursion with his mother — it was soon not of the familiar sort at all.  He had veered off into the lush undergrowth, disappearing as though he had been swallowed whole.  Here the flowers and plants were wild and rank, their smells overwhelming to the Frostfur youth.  But he drew them all in and this time, he did not smash them.  He bounded through them instead, pouncing upon loose twigs and leaf matter as graceful as he could get in his few-weeks-old state.

He growled and tussled with them, somersaulting about as his milk teeth gnashed the feeble sticks.  They snapped once and once again as he made his choices.  He was quite content with his hiding spot, which was nothing more than a narrow copse resting in what had been or was becoming the well worn pathways of the Peak.  This play he continued for some time, only contentedly rolling onto his back his with quarry to gaze upon the forest canopy.

What he saw there was another world altogether, and the gnawing slowly ceased as his wonder took over.

glass animals — pools

Though she had avoided her brother and his brood for a few days now, her heart would no longer let her. She needed to apologize to her brother and promise never to leave again. He knew she would lay down her life for her niece and nephews, and nothing in the world would keep her from them. She had simply let her worry for her sister outweigh the worry for the pups for an instance. She would not let that happen again.

But as she approached their clearing, Kaskara saw something was amiss. A small black body had bounced from the clearing into a copse of trees and started barreling around happily. She smiled and crept quietly closer, wondering what on earth that child was doing. As she neared his copse of shrubs and bushes, Kaskara crawled onto her belly and stuck her nose into the darkness, and once her eyes adjusted, saw him laying on his back staring open-mouthed into the canopy. She laughed softly and said, "What are you doing under here, Pasha?"

Something out of his peripheral became blocked, his big screen television of a world had a smudge on it. Only that smudge wasn't exactly a smudge, and his field of depth was hardly a television. It took him a moment and the recognition of a voice to cause him to realize that his secret hiding spot wasn't exactly secret. And nor was it a hiding spot, not even in the slightest.

He rolled up onto his feet by the time Kaskara had come to an end of her question, and bounded over towards her eagerly. As though he hadn't been sneaking off and totally doing anything wrong at all. Wordlessly only because he was speechless, Pasha tackled her legs with a happy yip. Playmate! I found you!

Kaskara laughed as Pasha saw her and came bounding over to tackle her legs. His yipping was music to her ears and she bent to rub his head with her nose, relishing in his softly dirt-laced scent. He was a pup, a boy pup, and he would forever smell of dirt and loam and adventure. "Wanna play, Pasha?" she asked softly, nudging him gently so she could extricate herself from the bushes. Once she was in a clearer space, Kaskara bowed to him playfully, and waited for him to make the first move.

hi i suck

His excitement cranked up to a solid ten, a breathless yeah, yeah! escaping him as nothing more than a gasp. Of course he wanted to play! Life was all about play and exploration. And since he didn't really have anyone else at hand to play, he wasn't about to turn down his aunt. Not that he would have turned her down at all; she had been there presumably since the beginning and so far for as long as he had known.

Bounding after her, he galloped around uncontrollably for a moment as she dropped down into a bow. And then with the same energy as before, he bounded towards her carrying on, his barks nothing more than a cacophony as he plowed into her. To him, she was no different than his siblings, and he wasted no time in nipping at her muzzle and pawing away at her limbs.

Its okay <3

Kaskara loved the sound of playful puppies, the tiny yips and barks and the scuffle of those tiny paws on dirt. She could play with her niece and nephews all day, and while that wasn't truly possible, she did try to spend as much time with them as she could. Kas wanted to be a great aunt to them, and though she wasn't sure what that meant at the moment, she was determined to learn and grow right along with them.

"Pasha!" she said with a laugh, dropping her nose to his tiny body as he nipped and pawed at her. She grinned, flopping her body down onto the ground so he could climb on and over her if he wished. She returned his nips with soft ones of her own, touching her nose to his belly, then his head, then his tail, all the while chuckling softly at his antics.

And as she lowered herself to the earth, he went topsy-turvy trying to keep up with the motion. Somewhere tangled about, he simply slid down into her forelimbs, though the rest was momentary as he was quick to rise back onto his feet and stomp all over her just like he did the rest of them. The touch of her cool nose probably had something to do with that.

Yeah, he'd climb her alright (and wow, out of context that's perverse); his feet made easy footholds out of her build as he scaled onto her back. Up there was another story, a poor first attempt of balance almost sent him head over feet to the ground. Instead he stood atop of her, little tail waving as fast as it could go. For a moment he could have acted like he was seeing everything in the world, but in reality the view was not that much different.

Besides, he noted as he wrapped his gangly-growing limbs about her head, he got her.

"Got-chuuuu," he drawled impishly, laughing.

Kaskara laughed, a warm heart-filled sound, as her nephew climbed - and slipped - onto her back. She twisted her head around to watch him and smiled. He nearly lost his balance, but in the cool way of puppies, he righted himself almost immediately. And it was after a moment of surveying his domain that he looked at her and proclaimed, "Got-chuuuu." She laughed again and nodded.

"You got me!" She rocked her body slowly back and forth, feeling his little paws anchored in her fur. "Watch out, an earthquake is coming!" She shook her body very gently, not wanting to topple him completely, but wanting to test his balance.

Oh man no, not those dreaded earthquakes.

Those are just the worst, like seriously. Before Pasha even had the inkling of what was really going on, Kaskara had him rocking and rolling about her back. His feet didn't know which direction to go, a pattern hardly discerning itself. Pasha yipped, completely surprised, and jumped off of her. Sort of.

It was more like his legs tried to jump and instead he kind of just went with the flow of motion and let himself get thrown off. His landing wasn't that spectacular either, but he didn't get wrecked by eating dirt as he stumbled off.

And in moments, he was whirling back around to climb right back up to the shimmy-shaker, bound and determined to be some sort of master of Aunt Kaskara Earthquake or Mountain or Whatever She Was Now. He stumbled up her like he stumbled down her, this time choosing the safe bet of awkwardly straddling her body as he wrapped his forefeet around her neck.

Take that, earthquake mountain.

Kaskara laughed as her movements caused him to stumble off. It wasn't that she laughed at his misfortune, but enjoyed his ability to turn around and climb her regardless of his previous fall. Pasha was plucky and smart, a boy whose abilities would only grow and strengthen as he aged. He climbed her carefully and wrapped his legs around her neck. She laughed again, a jovial and lighthearted sound, and shook a little more. "Hold onto me!" she crowed, gently and slowly standing up. His body was equally weighted on her back, so she moved forward a few steps, slowly and as gracefully as she could manage, giving him a ride around the clearing. "Pasha, you're so tall!"

legit went "d'awww!" just now

He hung on, easily doing what he was told.

And his glee was only contained until his aunt had risen up and commented on just how tall he was. Which whether or not he'd totally grow up and be super tall, who knew. Pasha already wanted to grow up and do what all the adults did (then again, didn't all youth want that?), and his glee expressed itself with a squeal of joy.

"Higher!" he shouted, more than likely mangling the word.

They're so cute! <3 Wrap up?

Kaskara laughed at her nephew's excitement, moving her shoulders up and down to placate his desire to go higher. She giggled as she traipsed around the clearing near his den, momentarily forgetting the quarrel with her brother and the issues they needed to work out. Today, Kaskara was simply going to enjoy her time with Pasha. There would be plenty of time later to figure things out with Scimitar.

Indeed! <3

He didn't notice that she had brought him back to where he had escaped; Pasha was too busy making all the gleeful little sounds he could. If his siblings heard him, there was little objection that they would have been jealous. And he was willing to beam such little smug smiles at them all because he was the big wolf, they were the little ones.

And so they played and played, no doubt tiring Pasha out and giving him the opportunity to tire out early into the evening.