Post by Therdde on Jun 19, 2009 21:00:38 GMT -5
Characters:
Abel - Male Wolf Pup
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Ashen - Male Juvenile Cougar
Hilltop Vista
With a loud growl, Abel takes off in a sprint and bites at his target. Unfortunately, the bird quickly takes off and avoids the jaws of the wolf by a solid distance. He smiles as he sits down, not at all discouraged by his inability to catch songbird. Panting, he looks over to the den and mom, wondering if she saw his pathetic, though ambitious, attempt. Abel has been very active and playful lately, as his size is growing over the spring. He tends to be the one to start the roughhousing with his sisters (or Ashen).
Skelaghe does her best not to chuckle, or at least, not to chuckle audibly. She doesn't have it in her to make fun of her pups, but how can she possibly be blamed if she thinks that absolutely everything they do is cute? Well... She could be blamed quite easily, actually, if she knows anything about pups, which is why she tries to keep her laughing silent. She obviously saw, though, and as the boy looks to her, she calls out to him, "That was a great attempt!" One day, she will teach them all about respecting all living creatures, but let's try to wait until they're a bit older before she threatens, unintentionally, to inspire in them some neurosis about eating something that can talk, yes?
Abel pants and tilts his head, a bit frustrated that she saw his miserable hunting. He closes his muzzle and trots proudly to Skelaghe, bumping into her and looking inside the den at his resting sisters. "Uhm... Next time." With a big sigh, he looks up at mom and smiles. "I'm hungry..." He whines, nudging Skelaghe, hoping she would actually take him hunting.
Skelaghe can't, of course, leave her other sleeping cubs behind because one of them is hungry. They are not fully weaned quite yet, but given what he says, Skelaghe can guess that he's not interested in nursing right now. It really won't be much longer before they /are/ fully weaned, at this rate... Which makes mealtimes rather more troublesome. "How hungry are you?" Yes, it is a stalling tactic, but she does not remain lying down. Stalling won't work for long, but the longer she stalls, the more likely it is for another pack member to wander by. With food, if she's lucky.
Abel doesn't like that question, if he's hungry; he's hungry! Still in a playful mood, he feigns starvation and drops to his belly, then rolls on to his side, then on his back over to the other side, whining, then laughing. As he opens his eyes, another bird catches his eye. It's on a bush, but it's low enough to get! ... Determined now, much more than hungry, to show his mom he can do it, Abel slowly rolls back to his paws and stands. "Mom... Look..." He whispers, eyes wide and excited... and hungry. Wolves eat little birds, right?
Skelaghe laughs at Abel's acting. She would have no hope to keep this laugh silent. Before she can speak, though, he points out another bird, and she crouches down to whisper to him, "If you're going to try to get it, you have to be very quiet, and move very slowly, okay?" This, she'll watch, but if this fails, and he still complains about being hungry, and no one else comes by, she'll try to strike a deal with him that will allow her to search the immediate area for food and still not have to worry about her pups.
Abel licks his chops and takes a painstakingly slow step forward, listening to mom's instructions. This is a second chance, for sure; the puppy will try his best to catch this for Skel. A second step forward and he tries to remain quiet as possible. By now, the bird sees the wolves, but makes no attempt to flee. Even making direct eye contact with the avian, Abel believes he can catch it. A third step, and the pup's patience wears thin; he breaks out in a sprint. As his first sudden movement is made, the bird flies off, chirping birdly curses at him. Abel laughs and makes a bite at the airborne creature directly up in the sky.
Yes, they are still /much/ too young to go hunting, whether they are close to being weaned or not. There is no room in hunting for impatience. Speaking up, Skelaghe calls after him, softly, "See? You have to go slow." There is no condemnation in her tone. She is simply reemphasizing what she told him earlier. Running has to be at the last possible moment, because there are very few prey species that either can't outrun a wolf or else can't fit somewhere a wolf wouldn't be able to follow.
"Oh." Though Abel sounds dismissive, he is very attentive and tries to learn and repeat what his mother says and does. "Okay." He turns around, not by any standards disappointed with his performance. He's shown to his mother that he is ambitious and willing to give hunting an attempt. With a sigh that morphs into a yawn, the puppy nudges into Skelaghe. "Where's Ashen?"
Skelaghe nuzzles against Abel lovingly after he asks his question, before she answers. She is, most likely, the most affectionate adult of Ute. It's unlikely that she could ever get enough of just nuzzling and snuggling with her pups, but after a short while of nuzzling, she answers, "I don't know where he is right now, puppy, but I'm sure he'll be around eventually. You think you can stay up long enough to wait for him?"
Ashen is not too far from the den's entrance, actually. Nevertheless, despite having tripled in size since he first met Skel, the young cougar is naturally well adept at camouflage, even when he's not /trying/ to hide. He just happens to be resting in a patch of sun-scorched grass, attracted to the texture and not the fact that it matches his fur. His head is tilted back, enjoying the remaining warmth of the late-day sky brushing over his face. Ashen loses track of time so easily, but curiosity at the sound of voices and small paws tearing over the ground eventually drives the boy to stand up and meander lazily in their general direction. But in spite of his laid-back demeanor, he does seem a bit distracted by something.
"Yeah... I can wait." Of course, right on cue, as soon as the pup declares his plans, he yawns again, looking down at the ground. As he lifts his head he laughs. "Ashen!" He calls out to his best friend, taking off in a trot to greet him. "Hey Ashen!" Abel has absolutely no shyness around the cougar anymore. He stops, tail wagging rapidly, in the puma's line of sight.
How's that for predictive power? Skelaghe draws her head back as Abel takes off towards Ashen, remaining where she is. She watches closely, though, smiling as she does so. If only Ashen and her pups knew how often she describe them as 'adorable' in her head on any given day...
Ashen's ears twitch in reaction to the pup's greetings. "Abel." He smiles. Although he's unaware of the fact, his pupils drift toward the youngster, managing to stop right on the mark. "Hey. What's going on? You guys playing?" He surveys the area with his hearing, although he can't pick up the voices of Abel's siblings. They must not be about today.
"Yeah!" Well... at least Abel is. Mom is just spectating and commenting. He runs back over to mom. "Ashen's here!" Because, you know, Skelaghe might not have noticed the shouting and laughing. Grinning, he sits down again. Poor timing, Abel's starting to lose steam; chasing birds all day is tiring on a pup.
Skelaghe laughs again as Abel comes to report to her. Moving her head to bump her nose against him, she says, "Thank you, puppy." She then looks at the cougar and asks, kindly, "How are you today, Ashen?" She did not notice his earlier distraction, and she is rather expecting just a standard answer.
"What were ya playing?" He sits back, laughing quietly as he listens to Abel joyfully announce his arrival. "I'm well. I was watching the clouds." He answers casually, as if he'd not spoken something rather absurd, considering his condition.
Abel lays down and looks ahead at Ashen. "I was catching birds. Uhm... I didn't catch anythough, I'm too fast." A rather misguided interpretation and response, but it's all in good spirit. He listens to Skelaghe and him talk, trying to immitate what he hears, all apart of his learning process.
Skelaghe would really like to ask Ashen if any of his sight is returning... But, on the very likely chance that Ashen was simply imagining clouds, she asks, after Abel speaks, "What did you see in them?" Skelaghe has spent enough time daydreaming with her eyes closed. She knows how well the imagination can fillin what can't currently be seen.
Ashen quirks a brow at the pup. "Birds? You should be careful around those." Him and his ornithophobia. The cougar tips his neck back, turning upward. When he stares long and hard enough, he really can imagine like he really *can* see the clouds as they float overhead, and the sunlight as it filters between them. "I saw one that looked like a little mouse." He remarks, with a soft, almost wistful smile. "I watched it all day, until the wind carried it off."
Be careful? "Birds...?" He's a bit confused, he sits up again and looks up at mommy, hoping she will shed some light on the truth, though she is preoccupied with Ashen. Like a good little pup, he waits patiently, and doesn't interupt. Though he does seem anxious to hear why Ashen thinks birds are dangerous.
Skelaghe tilts her head just slightly as Ashen expresses a concern over birds. She knows very little of Ashen's past, and she won't prod... But she can't help but be careful. Looking down to her son, she answers his question. "Most of them are not very large. If you do see a large one, though, you should probably wait in the den for Mommy or Daddy." There /are/, after all, predatory birds that are large enough to make off with a young pup. Not many, but they're out there.
Unfortunately, a real explanation is not forthcoming. The cougar only offers an unhelpful nod. "You should listen to your mother." Ashen lifts a hind aw to scratch at an ear, his mind wandering to the topic of hunting. It's hard to hide the forlorn expression at that, but Ashen is at least calm enough to not make it a big deal.
Abel whines gently. "Big? Like... How big?" His ears flatten to his head and his curious eyes point to the skies. Birds aren't supposed to be predators! They're supposed to be tiny and annoying, and tasty, possibly. Hmmm... Abel is right at Skel's paws, so he has no reason to be scared now, but he still does look rather spooked at the idea of a bird bigger than he is.
"Big enough for you to see them coming, puppy. Don't worry." Wolves are really not any bird's standard fare. Caution is good, but fear... Well, Skelaghe rarely fears anything, so perhaps she is not the best person to determine what should and should not be feared. Looking make to Ashen, she catches the expression, and her smile fades. Soon, she thinks, she will have to have a private talk with Ashen. But not today. "Abel was hungry a little bit ago. How about you, Ashen?" Blind or not, Skelaghe trusts him as a pupsitter, even with that one time that Abel snuck away.
Ashen had, on his part, been especially ashamed of himself upon finding out that Abel had managed to slip him by. Since then, the cougar has been working on doubling his efforts to keep a nose on the pups. "Yeah, I could go for a bite or two of something." He would never ask directly for anybody to go hunting for him, but since Abel already needs feeding anyway, he sees no problem. Just like the pups, he's growing quickly, and a virtual bottomless pit when it comes to food.
Oh yeah! Hunger! Abel puts giant birds to the back of his mind and refocuses on food. The thought of it envigorates him again as he stands up and wags his tail. "Me too, mom!" He nods, troting back to his close friend and nuzzles him, licking his head. "I'm hungry."
Skelaghe laughs as Abel finds it necessary to remind her that he's hungry. She stands before lowering her head to nuzzle her son, then says, "I know, puppy. You stay here with Ashen, and I'll go get you both food, okay?" After that, she walks the few steps required to nuzzle against Ashen, too. For a while now, she has seen him as just another of her 'pups', much like she once viewed Sketch, and she treats him accordingly.
Ashen purrs, returning the nuzzle. He's long since grown accustomed to being treated as a part of their family, as as she is to treating him as a son. "Good luck." He bids Skel with a grin. "I'll take care of Abel."
Life is about as good as it gets for Abel; he gets to play with his closest friend, and his mom will come back shortly with food. He sits down next to Ashen, panting. Honestly, Abel might be too tired to play for too long. Ironic, really. "Bye mom!"
It is now your pose.
"Thank you. Both of you." After speaking, Skelaghe heads off. Maybe, if she tracks down Helaku or Teketa, they can manage something more than the standard Ute fare of fish or rabbit, but no matter how long it takes, she will be bringing both the boys some food.
Ashen senses that Abel's energy is slipping away so soon. Was he ever like that? The cougar shakes his head, turning at Abel. "You wanna play anything?" He asks, all the same, and know the answer will be... or at least *should* be a negative.
Abel - Male Wolf Pup
Skelaghe - Female Wolf
Ashen - Male Juvenile Cougar
Hilltop Vista
With a loud growl, Abel takes off in a sprint and bites at his target. Unfortunately, the bird quickly takes off and avoids the jaws of the wolf by a solid distance. He smiles as he sits down, not at all discouraged by his inability to catch songbird. Panting, he looks over to the den and mom, wondering if she saw his pathetic, though ambitious, attempt. Abel has been very active and playful lately, as his size is growing over the spring. He tends to be the one to start the roughhousing with his sisters (or Ashen).
Skelaghe does her best not to chuckle, or at least, not to chuckle audibly. She doesn't have it in her to make fun of her pups, but how can she possibly be blamed if she thinks that absolutely everything they do is cute? Well... She could be blamed quite easily, actually, if she knows anything about pups, which is why she tries to keep her laughing silent. She obviously saw, though, and as the boy looks to her, she calls out to him, "That was a great attempt!" One day, she will teach them all about respecting all living creatures, but let's try to wait until they're a bit older before she threatens, unintentionally, to inspire in them some neurosis about eating something that can talk, yes?
Abel pants and tilts his head, a bit frustrated that she saw his miserable hunting. He closes his muzzle and trots proudly to Skelaghe, bumping into her and looking inside the den at his resting sisters. "Uhm... Next time." With a big sigh, he looks up at mom and smiles. "I'm hungry..." He whines, nudging Skelaghe, hoping she would actually take him hunting.
Skelaghe can't, of course, leave her other sleeping cubs behind because one of them is hungry. They are not fully weaned quite yet, but given what he says, Skelaghe can guess that he's not interested in nursing right now. It really won't be much longer before they /are/ fully weaned, at this rate... Which makes mealtimes rather more troublesome. "How hungry are you?" Yes, it is a stalling tactic, but she does not remain lying down. Stalling won't work for long, but the longer she stalls, the more likely it is for another pack member to wander by. With food, if she's lucky.
Abel doesn't like that question, if he's hungry; he's hungry! Still in a playful mood, he feigns starvation and drops to his belly, then rolls on to his side, then on his back over to the other side, whining, then laughing. As he opens his eyes, another bird catches his eye. It's on a bush, but it's low enough to get! ... Determined now, much more than hungry, to show his mom he can do it, Abel slowly rolls back to his paws and stands. "Mom... Look..." He whispers, eyes wide and excited... and hungry. Wolves eat little birds, right?
Skelaghe laughs at Abel's acting. She would have no hope to keep this laugh silent. Before she can speak, though, he points out another bird, and she crouches down to whisper to him, "If you're going to try to get it, you have to be very quiet, and move very slowly, okay?" This, she'll watch, but if this fails, and he still complains about being hungry, and no one else comes by, she'll try to strike a deal with him that will allow her to search the immediate area for food and still not have to worry about her pups.
Abel licks his chops and takes a painstakingly slow step forward, listening to mom's instructions. This is a second chance, for sure; the puppy will try his best to catch this for Skel. A second step forward and he tries to remain quiet as possible. By now, the bird sees the wolves, but makes no attempt to flee. Even making direct eye contact with the avian, Abel believes he can catch it. A third step, and the pup's patience wears thin; he breaks out in a sprint. As his first sudden movement is made, the bird flies off, chirping birdly curses at him. Abel laughs and makes a bite at the airborne creature directly up in the sky.
Yes, they are still /much/ too young to go hunting, whether they are close to being weaned or not. There is no room in hunting for impatience. Speaking up, Skelaghe calls after him, softly, "See? You have to go slow." There is no condemnation in her tone. She is simply reemphasizing what she told him earlier. Running has to be at the last possible moment, because there are very few prey species that either can't outrun a wolf or else can't fit somewhere a wolf wouldn't be able to follow.
"Oh." Though Abel sounds dismissive, he is very attentive and tries to learn and repeat what his mother says and does. "Okay." He turns around, not by any standards disappointed with his performance. He's shown to his mother that he is ambitious and willing to give hunting an attempt. With a sigh that morphs into a yawn, the puppy nudges into Skelaghe. "Where's Ashen?"
Skelaghe nuzzles against Abel lovingly after he asks his question, before she answers. She is, most likely, the most affectionate adult of Ute. It's unlikely that she could ever get enough of just nuzzling and snuggling with her pups, but after a short while of nuzzling, she answers, "I don't know where he is right now, puppy, but I'm sure he'll be around eventually. You think you can stay up long enough to wait for him?"
Ashen is not too far from the den's entrance, actually. Nevertheless, despite having tripled in size since he first met Skel, the young cougar is naturally well adept at camouflage, even when he's not /trying/ to hide. He just happens to be resting in a patch of sun-scorched grass, attracted to the texture and not the fact that it matches his fur. His head is tilted back, enjoying the remaining warmth of the late-day sky brushing over his face. Ashen loses track of time so easily, but curiosity at the sound of voices and small paws tearing over the ground eventually drives the boy to stand up and meander lazily in their general direction. But in spite of his laid-back demeanor, he does seem a bit distracted by something.
"Yeah... I can wait." Of course, right on cue, as soon as the pup declares his plans, he yawns again, looking down at the ground. As he lifts his head he laughs. "Ashen!" He calls out to his best friend, taking off in a trot to greet him. "Hey Ashen!" Abel has absolutely no shyness around the cougar anymore. He stops, tail wagging rapidly, in the puma's line of sight.
How's that for predictive power? Skelaghe draws her head back as Abel takes off towards Ashen, remaining where she is. She watches closely, though, smiling as she does so. If only Ashen and her pups knew how often she describe them as 'adorable' in her head on any given day...
Ashen's ears twitch in reaction to the pup's greetings. "Abel." He smiles. Although he's unaware of the fact, his pupils drift toward the youngster, managing to stop right on the mark. "Hey. What's going on? You guys playing?" He surveys the area with his hearing, although he can't pick up the voices of Abel's siblings. They must not be about today.
"Yeah!" Well... at least Abel is. Mom is just spectating and commenting. He runs back over to mom. "Ashen's here!" Because, you know, Skelaghe might not have noticed the shouting and laughing. Grinning, he sits down again. Poor timing, Abel's starting to lose steam; chasing birds all day is tiring on a pup.
Skelaghe laughs again as Abel comes to report to her. Moving her head to bump her nose against him, she says, "Thank you, puppy." She then looks at the cougar and asks, kindly, "How are you today, Ashen?" She did not notice his earlier distraction, and she is rather expecting just a standard answer.
"What were ya playing?" He sits back, laughing quietly as he listens to Abel joyfully announce his arrival. "I'm well. I was watching the clouds." He answers casually, as if he'd not spoken something rather absurd, considering his condition.
Abel lays down and looks ahead at Ashen. "I was catching birds. Uhm... I didn't catch anythough, I'm too fast." A rather misguided interpretation and response, but it's all in good spirit. He listens to Skelaghe and him talk, trying to immitate what he hears, all apart of his learning process.
Skelaghe would really like to ask Ashen if any of his sight is returning... But, on the very likely chance that Ashen was simply imagining clouds, she asks, after Abel speaks, "What did you see in them?" Skelaghe has spent enough time daydreaming with her eyes closed. She knows how well the imagination can fillin what can't currently be seen.
Ashen quirks a brow at the pup. "Birds? You should be careful around those." Him and his ornithophobia. The cougar tips his neck back, turning upward. When he stares long and hard enough, he really can imagine like he really *can* see the clouds as they float overhead, and the sunlight as it filters between them. "I saw one that looked like a little mouse." He remarks, with a soft, almost wistful smile. "I watched it all day, until the wind carried it off."
Be careful? "Birds...?" He's a bit confused, he sits up again and looks up at mommy, hoping she will shed some light on the truth, though she is preoccupied with Ashen. Like a good little pup, he waits patiently, and doesn't interupt. Though he does seem anxious to hear why Ashen thinks birds are dangerous.
Skelaghe tilts her head just slightly as Ashen expresses a concern over birds. She knows very little of Ashen's past, and she won't prod... But she can't help but be careful. Looking down to her son, she answers his question. "Most of them are not very large. If you do see a large one, though, you should probably wait in the den for Mommy or Daddy." There /are/, after all, predatory birds that are large enough to make off with a young pup. Not many, but they're out there.
Unfortunately, a real explanation is not forthcoming. The cougar only offers an unhelpful nod. "You should listen to your mother." Ashen lifts a hind aw to scratch at an ear, his mind wandering to the topic of hunting. It's hard to hide the forlorn expression at that, but Ashen is at least calm enough to not make it a big deal.
Abel whines gently. "Big? Like... How big?" His ears flatten to his head and his curious eyes point to the skies. Birds aren't supposed to be predators! They're supposed to be tiny and annoying, and tasty, possibly. Hmmm... Abel is right at Skel's paws, so he has no reason to be scared now, but he still does look rather spooked at the idea of a bird bigger than he is.
"Big enough for you to see them coming, puppy. Don't worry." Wolves are really not any bird's standard fare. Caution is good, but fear... Well, Skelaghe rarely fears anything, so perhaps she is not the best person to determine what should and should not be feared. Looking make to Ashen, she catches the expression, and her smile fades. Soon, she thinks, she will have to have a private talk with Ashen. But not today. "Abel was hungry a little bit ago. How about you, Ashen?" Blind or not, Skelaghe trusts him as a pupsitter, even with that one time that Abel snuck away.
Ashen had, on his part, been especially ashamed of himself upon finding out that Abel had managed to slip him by. Since then, the cougar has been working on doubling his efforts to keep a nose on the pups. "Yeah, I could go for a bite or two of something." He would never ask directly for anybody to go hunting for him, but since Abel already needs feeding anyway, he sees no problem. Just like the pups, he's growing quickly, and a virtual bottomless pit when it comes to food.
Oh yeah! Hunger! Abel puts giant birds to the back of his mind and refocuses on food. The thought of it envigorates him again as he stands up and wags his tail. "Me too, mom!" He nods, troting back to his close friend and nuzzles him, licking his head. "I'm hungry."
Skelaghe laughs as Abel finds it necessary to remind her that he's hungry. She stands before lowering her head to nuzzle her son, then says, "I know, puppy. You stay here with Ashen, and I'll go get you both food, okay?" After that, she walks the few steps required to nuzzle against Ashen, too. For a while now, she has seen him as just another of her 'pups', much like she once viewed Sketch, and she treats him accordingly.
Ashen purrs, returning the nuzzle. He's long since grown accustomed to being treated as a part of their family, as as she is to treating him as a son. "Good luck." He bids Skel with a grin. "I'll take care of Abel."
Life is about as good as it gets for Abel; he gets to play with his closest friend, and his mom will come back shortly with food. He sits down next to Ashen, panting. Honestly, Abel might be too tired to play for too long. Ironic, really. "Bye mom!"
It is now your pose.
"Thank you. Both of you." After speaking, Skelaghe heads off. Maybe, if she tracks down Helaku or Teketa, they can manage something more than the standard Ute fare of fish or rabbit, but no matter how long it takes, she will be bringing both the boys some food.
Ashen senses that Abel's energy is slipping away so soon. Was he ever like that? The cougar shakes his head, turning at Abel. "You wanna play anything?" He asks, all the same, and know the answer will be... or at least *should* be a negative.