Post by Therdde on Dec 31, 2008 18:38:58 GMT -5
Characters:
Kein - Male Adolescent Cougar
Cael - Male Cougar Cub
- Fallen Log -
Though Kein has been tired, ever since he rescued Cael from the stranger not far from here, his mood has been light. The waters have not receeded, and he still has no idea how long it might be before he can take his family back home, but the cubs are growing quickly. As long as they stay safe until the flood is over, they should be able to return to Amaranth as soon as it is over. After everyone fell asleep last night, Kein took a page from Yuma's book and climbed one of the large trees to give him a better view of the surrounding area. Kein is not as bulky as Chesmu's son, and he was easily capable of finding a comfortable branch to support him. He is still like this as the sun rises, though he is no longer scanning their surroundings cautiously, as he did when he first setled down up here. Instead, he is relying on his hearing and just looking off into space as he thinks.
The quiet is again broken by Kein's eldest son as he yawns, stretches, and disentangles himself from his siblings. At first all he does is sleepily take his breakfast, letting loose a huge milk burp once he's filled him stomach. Swiping away his mustache with his tongue, Cael bumbles a /few/ paces away from Nayeli and the rest, bright eyes peering around the forest for his father. It doesn't occur to the boy to look up in the trees, and he 'mrowls' quietly, wondering just where did dad go? Feh.
Once sounds begins coming from just below him, Kein looks down, spending a moment just focusing his gaze on his family. After that, he watches Cael with a smile, holding back a laugh as he sees the young cub obviously looking for someone. Him, most likely. After just a moment, Kein speaks up, lest Cael be tempted to go look for him. "Hey Cael. Up here." He speaks only slightly louder than normal, so he does not risk waking the other cubs or Nayeli.
Blink? Blinkblink? Poor Cael looks horribly confused when he hears his father's voice, and her trots a few paces around in a small circle, looking for where Kein might be coming out of the trees, somewhere. Blink? "Da'?" He wonders, ears swiveling one way, then the other, eyes searching. It sounds like he's right on top... Blink? Cael cranes his neck, attention flitting through the branches until he spots his dad perched on a branch /way/ high up, and his maw parts is astonishment, "Da!" he calls with no regard to his volume, "How yoo up dere?"
Climbing trees was one of the very first things that Kein learned, and he certainly wasn't speaking as well as Cael is when he learned. It isn't too early to teach him, is it? Still smiling, Kein says, "I climbed. Do you want to learn?" After asking, Kein stands carefully, preparing to leap down, since he suspects the answer will be yes.
"Crime?" Cael repeats as best he can, one ear swivling to the side as he considers. His tail taps the grass behind him, curious, and he moves off a ways, not quite sure what Kein's going to do as he stands. He shakes his head, his neck feeling a little pinched at looking up so high, but immediately after he nods vigorously. "I crime!"
Kein knew that he might like to play with younger siblings, but he had never imagined that playing with his own cubs could be so... well... liberating. He knows he has to be careful, but there is none of the fear and worry that is there even when he is playing with Nayeli. kein does not hesitate to jump down, aiming well clear of his son and landing a little heavily, but certainly not hard enough to hurt or cause him to fall.
As soon as Kein lands, the boy bounds over to his father and headbutts him, a greeting that turns into a nuzzle and a few quick noms on his toes. "Up dere?" he questions then, eyes darting from Kein to those tiptop branches /way/ /way/ /way/ up in the tree. "Das high!" he oggles, peering at Kein intently. "Yoo git all way up dere?"
Kein purrs to the boy as Cael greets him, then follows Cael's gaze up. "Well, I can't get /too/ high, because the branches get smaller, and you should probably think about starting out a little lower, okay?" All of this is said with a smile, and fairly slowly. He speaks to Cael, and the rest of the cubs, with the same words he would use with an adult, but he speaks slower to help them understand a little more. After speaking, Kein walks back to the tree trunk.
Cael listens, like the /good/ young man that he is, and when Kein moves back toward the tree, so does he. He approaches the huge plant with some awe, sticking out his neck to smell the bark and the sap, and reaches out a huge paw to poke at the thick trunk. "Is smells funny," he murmurs, looking up toward his father with that devilish little grin. "Whacho crime for?"
Kein stands at the base of the tree, patiently giving Cael plenty of time to examine the tree. When his son speaks, though, he answers with no hesitation. "There are a bunch of reasons. You can climb to play, or to be safe, or to be able to see what is around you better." After answering, Kein reaches out to the tree and digs his claws deeply into the tree, tugging at it a couple times to show how securely he has a hold on the tree.
Kein's claws are admired with wide eyes. /His/ aren't that huge! Still, Cael reaches out a forepaw and pushes it against the tree, splaying smaller, whitish-pink claws and he wriggles his toes to get a good look at them. He looks again at his father, scrutinizing the larger paw with an intense concentration before he wriggles his claws into a rivulet running down the tree. He tugs back on his paw. Stuck! Good! Now, lets see if he can get it unstuck later.
Kein would have to remove his claws before he could climb, since he didn't place his paw nearly high enough to be climbing. So he lifts his paw to pull it back, taking very little of the bark with him. "Can you let go of the tree now?" It is, after all, an important part of being able to climb, and it's better to practice while still on the ground than while you're hanging from the tree. The last time Kein taught anyone to climb a tree, he was a cub himself, but he's trying to take it slowly and theach his son well.
But! But he just got his paw in there! Cael blinks up at Kein with both a curious and misunderstood little glare before he examines his stuck paw again. He rattles his paw but it remains firmly stuck. He chrrs, thinking, and eventually after much wriggling he tugs over and back and the tree releases his paw. Glee! He places it back on the ground and beams up at Kein. Lookeet!
Kein purrs lightly to Cael and says, "Very good job. Now..." Instead of explaining, Kein demonstrates by taking another step toward the tree, then jumping to place his forepaws up high on the tree before digging in again, after which he pulls himself up to rests his hindpaws on the tree. "See?"
Cael backs up a few backs when Kein looks like he's about to attack the tree. His ears roll forward at the sound of his claws digging into the back and his maw drops open a little bit when he sees dad suspended from the tree trunk. So /that's/ how he did it! The boy bounds forward, bumbling toward the other side of the tree that Kein is not hanging from, and pounces as high on the trunk as he can reach. His tiny claws scrape and scratch at the bark for a while before he sticks his paws in and he tries to hoink himself up and put his backpaws up just like Kein. Cael scrambles for a little while, backpaws slipping, but for a vrief moment he hangs suspended. Then the bark gives way from his claws and he slowly slides down that little ways until he completely lets go, and Cael lands with a thunk on his rearend.
When Kein hears Cael starting to try climbing, he hops off of the tree, and manages to take a few steps in time to see Cael fall gracelessly. Doing his best to hide a grin, he says, "It takes practice. You need to keep trying." At least Cael is gung-ho about it, much unlike Nayeli when she first tried. Hopefully, his son will have this down quickly, and then he can surprise his mother.
Wouldn't Nayeli love to see a flying Cael-bomb? The boy doesn't seem too upset about his fall, just like he never seems to be upset about falling and crashing everywhere, and so with a quick shake down he attacks the tree again with his claws extended. "Up!" he rars, scrabbling his back paws again until he manages to stick for a little while and shimmy a few inches up before sliding back down again.
Kein laughs as he watches Cael attack the challenge of learning to climb. "You're doing very well, Cael. Just keep it up." After saying that, Kein again jumps to get a short way up the trunk. Then, he begins climbing slowly until he reaches a branch large enough to support his weight, after which he climbs onto it and looks back down to his son.
Tiny little growls come from Kein's son as he continues to attack the tree, slide down, attack the tree, scramble up, slide down. His tail lashes each time he rear plunks in the grass. He'll get it. He pauses to watch Kein settle himself back in the tree and now he's really determiend to get there. He licks his lips and backs up a few paces, wriggles his hindend and leaps at the trunk, scrabblesacrabblescarbble until he manages to hoink a forepaw over a small, lower hanging limp. Cael hangs for a little while, a little stuck, before he struggles to get his shoulders over the tree, then his backpaws kick at the base until they, too follow him up. Cael looks up at Kein, still a goodly ways up, but! He made it! "I crime!" he shouts!
Kein smiles widely at Cael. "Very good!" Kein is less concerned, now, with waking the others. He isn't trying to wake them, but he doesn't pay as much attention to keeping his voice quiet. "Take your time now." Kein remains on the limb, but takes a step back so that, if his son gets up this high, he will have space to join Kein.
Cael squeaks a little when the tree limb sways, not used to a ground medium that moves o.o He digs his claws into his branch as he glances around, being so high.. he can see PAST mom! WOW! Bright blue eyes are alight with excitement as he slowly turns a circle on his branch and stands, pressing his paws against the thicker trunk. There's another branch nearby, one that he can get on and not Kein, and he drps his paw over it and digs his other into the bark, grunting with the exertion to bring himself up another level.
Kein just goes quiet, watching as his son continues to slowly climb up to higher branches. He can remember a few of the things he thought when he first climbed a tree, but not many. He /does/ remember, though, that he could not climb as high as Mom did, so it will not surprise him if his son does not get as high as he is.
One more branch higher, Cael is quite tired. His paws are a little sore and his breathing is a lot heavier. "S'hard!" he shouts up, eyeing Kein so very high up. The boy eases back on his haunches, glancing back once making sure that his rear's going to end up on a branch and not thin air. Cael glances at his paws for a minute, flexing rather sore claws and noms on them for a moment; chewing is just like grooming, sure! His thick tail hangs below the second branch, his crowning achievement, and waves at his sleeping siblings. HA! I GOT UP HERE FIRST!
Kein chuckles lightly and says, "You'll get used to it. You did very well for your first time, though. I'm proud of you, son." Will Cael delight in the idea of being able to teach his siblings and other young cubs he might meet things, the way Kein did when he was younger? Time will surely tell.
Cael beams up at his dad, puffing out his chest in cubby-arrogance. "Da's proud!" he echos, flashing white milk teeth. Will he delight in teaching his siblings, or will he delight in tormenting them with something he can do and they can't? Time will tell. For now, though, Cael takes a few tentative steps out on his branch and peers down, ears tilting forward. "How yoo git down?" Blink o.o
"You jump." Kein demonstrates by, once more, leaping to the ground. After he lands, he turns around to look up at his son. "If you can't jump all the way, try jumping to a lower branch first, okay?" Of course, Kein fell, his first time. It can be a more daunting concept, jumping down instead of climbing up.
Watching Kein FALL from his crazy high branch from this angle looks horrifying. Cael swallows a dry lump in his throat and nervously wriggles his toes, glancing around to try and find that lower branch he started out on. "Ummmm," he murmurs to himself, bunching his shoulders as he scootches his paws together, aiming for said branch. He pauses like that, unsure, before a half-hearted jump leaves him in midair for a moment... his forepaws just nick the edge of the branch, and there's the GROUND! Cael squeaks, shutting his eyes before his paws his the grass and he tumbles in a little ball, a fluffy wreck, a few feet from the base of the tree. Mrew?
Kein is not concerned for his son. Even so, he does not laugh, this time. Instead, he walks over to the little ball of fluff and nuzzles at him lightly. "Good job, Cael." He'll get better at getting out of trees, just like he'll get better at climbing them. Right now, what is most important, as far as Kein is concerned, is that Cael keeps his self-confidence.
To be honest, the boy looks a little dazed and confused and as he untumbles from his jumbled up ball, wide eyes are dizzly lifted to Kein. He leans into the nuzzle, startled, but eventually he manages to shake his head and clear his dusted brain and grin. "I crimed up high /an'/ gotted down!" he laughs, batting at his dad's chest.
Kein - Male Adolescent Cougar
Cael - Male Cougar Cub
- Fallen Log -
Though Kein has been tired, ever since he rescued Cael from the stranger not far from here, his mood has been light. The waters have not receeded, and he still has no idea how long it might be before he can take his family back home, but the cubs are growing quickly. As long as they stay safe until the flood is over, they should be able to return to Amaranth as soon as it is over. After everyone fell asleep last night, Kein took a page from Yuma's book and climbed one of the large trees to give him a better view of the surrounding area. Kein is not as bulky as Chesmu's son, and he was easily capable of finding a comfortable branch to support him. He is still like this as the sun rises, though he is no longer scanning their surroundings cautiously, as he did when he first setled down up here. Instead, he is relying on his hearing and just looking off into space as he thinks.
The quiet is again broken by Kein's eldest son as he yawns, stretches, and disentangles himself from his siblings. At first all he does is sleepily take his breakfast, letting loose a huge milk burp once he's filled him stomach. Swiping away his mustache with his tongue, Cael bumbles a /few/ paces away from Nayeli and the rest, bright eyes peering around the forest for his father. It doesn't occur to the boy to look up in the trees, and he 'mrowls' quietly, wondering just where did dad go? Feh.
Once sounds begins coming from just below him, Kein looks down, spending a moment just focusing his gaze on his family. After that, he watches Cael with a smile, holding back a laugh as he sees the young cub obviously looking for someone. Him, most likely. After just a moment, Kein speaks up, lest Cael be tempted to go look for him. "Hey Cael. Up here." He speaks only slightly louder than normal, so he does not risk waking the other cubs or Nayeli.
Blink? Blinkblink? Poor Cael looks horribly confused when he hears his father's voice, and her trots a few paces around in a small circle, looking for where Kein might be coming out of the trees, somewhere. Blink? "Da'?" He wonders, ears swiveling one way, then the other, eyes searching. It sounds like he's right on top... Blink? Cael cranes his neck, attention flitting through the branches until he spots his dad perched on a branch /way/ high up, and his maw parts is astonishment, "Da!" he calls with no regard to his volume, "How yoo up dere?"
Climbing trees was one of the very first things that Kein learned, and he certainly wasn't speaking as well as Cael is when he learned. It isn't too early to teach him, is it? Still smiling, Kein says, "I climbed. Do you want to learn?" After asking, Kein stands carefully, preparing to leap down, since he suspects the answer will be yes.
"Crime?" Cael repeats as best he can, one ear swivling to the side as he considers. His tail taps the grass behind him, curious, and he moves off a ways, not quite sure what Kein's going to do as he stands. He shakes his head, his neck feeling a little pinched at looking up so high, but immediately after he nods vigorously. "I crime!"
Kein knew that he might like to play with younger siblings, but he had never imagined that playing with his own cubs could be so... well... liberating. He knows he has to be careful, but there is none of the fear and worry that is there even when he is playing with Nayeli. kein does not hesitate to jump down, aiming well clear of his son and landing a little heavily, but certainly not hard enough to hurt or cause him to fall.
As soon as Kein lands, the boy bounds over to his father and headbutts him, a greeting that turns into a nuzzle and a few quick noms on his toes. "Up dere?" he questions then, eyes darting from Kein to those tiptop branches /way/ /way/ /way/ up in the tree. "Das high!" he oggles, peering at Kein intently. "Yoo git all way up dere?"
Kein purrs to the boy as Cael greets him, then follows Cael's gaze up. "Well, I can't get /too/ high, because the branches get smaller, and you should probably think about starting out a little lower, okay?" All of this is said with a smile, and fairly slowly. He speaks to Cael, and the rest of the cubs, with the same words he would use with an adult, but he speaks slower to help them understand a little more. After speaking, Kein walks back to the tree trunk.
Cael listens, like the /good/ young man that he is, and when Kein moves back toward the tree, so does he. He approaches the huge plant with some awe, sticking out his neck to smell the bark and the sap, and reaches out a huge paw to poke at the thick trunk. "Is smells funny," he murmurs, looking up toward his father with that devilish little grin. "Whacho crime for?"
Kein stands at the base of the tree, patiently giving Cael plenty of time to examine the tree. When his son speaks, though, he answers with no hesitation. "There are a bunch of reasons. You can climb to play, or to be safe, or to be able to see what is around you better." After answering, Kein reaches out to the tree and digs his claws deeply into the tree, tugging at it a couple times to show how securely he has a hold on the tree.
Kein's claws are admired with wide eyes. /His/ aren't that huge! Still, Cael reaches out a forepaw and pushes it against the tree, splaying smaller, whitish-pink claws and he wriggles his toes to get a good look at them. He looks again at his father, scrutinizing the larger paw with an intense concentration before he wriggles his claws into a rivulet running down the tree. He tugs back on his paw. Stuck! Good! Now, lets see if he can get it unstuck later.
Kein would have to remove his claws before he could climb, since he didn't place his paw nearly high enough to be climbing. So he lifts his paw to pull it back, taking very little of the bark with him. "Can you let go of the tree now?" It is, after all, an important part of being able to climb, and it's better to practice while still on the ground than while you're hanging from the tree. The last time Kein taught anyone to climb a tree, he was a cub himself, but he's trying to take it slowly and theach his son well.
But! But he just got his paw in there! Cael blinks up at Kein with both a curious and misunderstood little glare before he examines his stuck paw again. He rattles his paw but it remains firmly stuck. He chrrs, thinking, and eventually after much wriggling he tugs over and back and the tree releases his paw. Glee! He places it back on the ground and beams up at Kein. Lookeet!
Kein purrs lightly to Cael and says, "Very good job. Now..." Instead of explaining, Kein demonstrates by taking another step toward the tree, then jumping to place his forepaws up high on the tree before digging in again, after which he pulls himself up to rests his hindpaws on the tree. "See?"
Cael backs up a few backs when Kein looks like he's about to attack the tree. His ears roll forward at the sound of his claws digging into the back and his maw drops open a little bit when he sees dad suspended from the tree trunk. So /that's/ how he did it! The boy bounds forward, bumbling toward the other side of the tree that Kein is not hanging from, and pounces as high on the trunk as he can reach. His tiny claws scrape and scratch at the bark for a while before he sticks his paws in and he tries to hoink himself up and put his backpaws up just like Kein. Cael scrambles for a little while, backpaws slipping, but for a vrief moment he hangs suspended. Then the bark gives way from his claws and he slowly slides down that little ways until he completely lets go, and Cael lands with a thunk on his rearend.
When Kein hears Cael starting to try climbing, he hops off of the tree, and manages to take a few steps in time to see Cael fall gracelessly. Doing his best to hide a grin, he says, "It takes practice. You need to keep trying." At least Cael is gung-ho about it, much unlike Nayeli when she first tried. Hopefully, his son will have this down quickly, and then he can surprise his mother.
Wouldn't Nayeli love to see a flying Cael-bomb? The boy doesn't seem too upset about his fall, just like he never seems to be upset about falling and crashing everywhere, and so with a quick shake down he attacks the tree again with his claws extended. "Up!" he rars, scrabbling his back paws again until he manages to stick for a little while and shimmy a few inches up before sliding back down again.
Kein laughs as he watches Cael attack the challenge of learning to climb. "You're doing very well, Cael. Just keep it up." After saying that, Kein again jumps to get a short way up the trunk. Then, he begins climbing slowly until he reaches a branch large enough to support his weight, after which he climbs onto it and looks back down to his son.
Tiny little growls come from Kein's son as he continues to attack the tree, slide down, attack the tree, scramble up, slide down. His tail lashes each time he rear plunks in the grass. He'll get it. He pauses to watch Kein settle himself back in the tree and now he's really determiend to get there. He licks his lips and backs up a few paces, wriggles his hindend and leaps at the trunk, scrabblesacrabblescarbble until he manages to hoink a forepaw over a small, lower hanging limp. Cael hangs for a little while, a little stuck, before he struggles to get his shoulders over the tree, then his backpaws kick at the base until they, too follow him up. Cael looks up at Kein, still a goodly ways up, but! He made it! "I crime!" he shouts!
Kein smiles widely at Cael. "Very good!" Kein is less concerned, now, with waking the others. He isn't trying to wake them, but he doesn't pay as much attention to keeping his voice quiet. "Take your time now." Kein remains on the limb, but takes a step back so that, if his son gets up this high, he will have space to join Kein.
Cael squeaks a little when the tree limb sways, not used to a ground medium that moves o.o He digs his claws into his branch as he glances around, being so high.. he can see PAST mom! WOW! Bright blue eyes are alight with excitement as he slowly turns a circle on his branch and stands, pressing his paws against the thicker trunk. There's another branch nearby, one that he can get on and not Kein, and he drps his paw over it and digs his other into the bark, grunting with the exertion to bring himself up another level.
Kein just goes quiet, watching as his son continues to slowly climb up to higher branches. He can remember a few of the things he thought when he first climbed a tree, but not many. He /does/ remember, though, that he could not climb as high as Mom did, so it will not surprise him if his son does not get as high as he is.
One more branch higher, Cael is quite tired. His paws are a little sore and his breathing is a lot heavier. "S'hard!" he shouts up, eyeing Kein so very high up. The boy eases back on his haunches, glancing back once making sure that his rear's going to end up on a branch and not thin air. Cael glances at his paws for a minute, flexing rather sore claws and noms on them for a moment; chewing is just like grooming, sure! His thick tail hangs below the second branch, his crowning achievement, and waves at his sleeping siblings. HA! I GOT UP HERE FIRST!
Kein chuckles lightly and says, "You'll get used to it. You did very well for your first time, though. I'm proud of you, son." Will Cael delight in the idea of being able to teach his siblings and other young cubs he might meet things, the way Kein did when he was younger? Time will surely tell.
Cael beams up at his dad, puffing out his chest in cubby-arrogance. "Da's proud!" he echos, flashing white milk teeth. Will he delight in teaching his siblings, or will he delight in tormenting them with something he can do and they can't? Time will tell. For now, though, Cael takes a few tentative steps out on his branch and peers down, ears tilting forward. "How yoo git down?" Blink o.o
"You jump." Kein demonstrates by, once more, leaping to the ground. After he lands, he turns around to look up at his son. "If you can't jump all the way, try jumping to a lower branch first, okay?" Of course, Kein fell, his first time. It can be a more daunting concept, jumping down instead of climbing up.
Watching Kein FALL from his crazy high branch from this angle looks horrifying. Cael swallows a dry lump in his throat and nervously wriggles his toes, glancing around to try and find that lower branch he started out on. "Ummmm," he murmurs to himself, bunching his shoulders as he scootches his paws together, aiming for said branch. He pauses like that, unsure, before a half-hearted jump leaves him in midair for a moment... his forepaws just nick the edge of the branch, and there's the GROUND! Cael squeaks, shutting his eyes before his paws his the grass and he tumbles in a little ball, a fluffy wreck, a few feet from the base of the tree. Mrew?
Kein is not concerned for his son. Even so, he does not laugh, this time. Instead, he walks over to the little ball of fluff and nuzzles at him lightly. "Good job, Cael." He'll get better at getting out of trees, just like he'll get better at climbing them. Right now, what is most important, as far as Kein is concerned, is that Cael keeps his self-confidence.
To be honest, the boy looks a little dazed and confused and as he untumbles from his jumbled up ball, wide eyes are dizzly lifted to Kein. He leans into the nuzzle, startled, but eventually he manages to shake his head and clear his dusted brain and grin. "I crimed up high /an'/ gotted down!" he laughs, batting at his dad's chest.