The awful sound of retching unfortunately killed the silence of the misty morning out in the Sparse Pines, Vadim's head was throbbing with each churn of his stomach until finally he'd regurgitated a plethora of watermelon-striped beetle shells. The summer had melted the snow and brought in many different insects, and honestly Vadim had been having a field day taking out his prey drive on a swarm of the northern scarabs. They didn't taste the best, but they were slow and fun as hell to chase down and chomp. It was the little things, after all.

Though, he was quickly regretting his decision to ingest as many as he had.. his stomach was growling, not out of hunger but out of pain as it worked to get all of the beetles out of him. Luckily, that was the last of them and he plopped his weight back down into the soil outside of his litter's old birthing den and laid his throbbing head between his sprawled out forelimbs. His gluttonous gut was pressed against the cold soil, hoping to provide some sort of comfort to the ache inside. That was the last time he was eating any sort of bug! Maybe.

Molten gaze was teary eyed, shimmering with a forlorn look as it drifted out into the pines. He wanted to explore, maybe find his siblings and find something to do to cure his boredom.. but he was far too weak. His nostrils flared as he let out a miserable sigh. What had he gotten himself into? Was he gonna die?

Her mother had been acting a bit strange lately, not very talkative and overall keeping to herself. Okami didn't know what was going on, but she had a bad feeling about it. She thought about going to find something that might cheer her mom up, but her quest would come to a halt when she heard choked coughing followed by a somewhat prolonged gag. Ears perked as she listened, gaze sweeping the trees but her vision wasn't very good when it came to far sight. But from the sound, and the now acidic smell, someone was throwing up. Worried that it might be one of her siblings, the large girl quickly sought out the where the scent was coming from, and as she drew closer, her nose wrinkled. She stopped a couple of feet away, blue eyes finding not any of her siblings, but one of the other pups that she had yet to meet. And boy did he look sick. She looked at him with concern, gaze shifting between him and the weird pile of whatever he had thrown up. "Hey, are you okay?" Obviously he wasn't, but she just wanted to make sure. "Talk" "You" Think

He'd been so absorbed in wallowing in his self pity that he hadn't noticed the girl's approach until she spoke up and expressed her concern about his current state, to which he offered only the watery eyes of a youth in turmoil. "No, I don't think so. I always knew I'd die young but I didn't think it would be this young." His voice rang in dramatic expression as he would attempt to lift himself up to sit on his haunches, hoping to be at least semi-presentable. His gaze wandered down to the beetle shells that he'd spilled and he suddenly felt cold and embarrassed, his limbs shivering slightly from a mixture of wounded ego and sickness. His eyes would shy away from the coral girl as his ears lowered against the back of his head, "I think it was the beetles, I'm not sure.. but my stomach hurts something fierce. If I die, tell my family it was in a crazy battle with a bear or something. This is not how I want to be remembered!" He whined and plopped back down to the earth, feeling to weak at and disheartened at the moment to fight to stay up right. His eyes found the courage to look back in the woman's direction and only then did he notice the unique amount of pink that the woman held. She was tall, tall enough that he assumed she was an adult but the way the sun brought her pelt to life with illuminating light had him widening his eyes in awe. "...who are you? Are you an.. angel?"

Wide, worried eyes looked on as he told her he wasn't feeling well at all. Ears pinning back as she gasped when he said he didn't think he'd die so young. Blue eyes found the beetles again, wondering if maybe they were toxic. Or...maybe the amount he had eaten were toxic. Perhaps one or two might have been fine, but she couldn't quite tell just how many he had eaten. Was he really dying? Was he going to keel over and lie still forever right in front of her!? Secretly, she hoped they weren't poisonous. But she didn't quite voice that because she didn't want to frighten him...or herself. When she looked back at him, he was pulling himself up and looking away. She was confused, was he just...being dramatic? "I-I'm sure it'll be alright!" She wasn't quite sure yet to be honest. She was trying to keep him from panicking, though in truth, she was probably more scared then he was! It wasn't until he talked again that her brows furrowed a little. Taking a moment to figure out what he meant. "Wha?" Her gaze showed confusion, and then realization. He was being dramatic! And although she felt bad, she couldn't help but giggle. She tried to imagine telling everyone such a wild story, and as she imagined him fighting a bear, it was just silly to think of. She had heard bears were huge and terrifying creatures, easily able to swallow pups whole she was sure. Her tail wagged just a tiny bit as she dropped her rump to the ground, blue eyes watching him as he returned to looking at her. Brows furrowed again slightly, an angel? Her? No, far from it. She wasn't sure why he asked, but then it dawned on her it was most likely due to her coloring. "No, but I can help you. Just try to relax, I think you just have a tummy ache from eating so many bugs." Her soft voice was soothing, gaze looking at the beetles again. She would have poked at them or gotten closer to smell them to see if they had any toxic properties, but seeing as how they had been thrown up and covered in bile and...other bits, she wasn't keen on sticking any part of her into it. "What's your name?" "Talk" "You" Think

When she giggled, the boy couldn't help but smirk slightly as well. Okay, so part of him knew that he wasn't going to die but man did his gut feel like something was inside of it, clawing to get out. It gurgled aggressively and he would stifle a whine, continuing to listen to her as she spoke. "Too.. many.. bugs?" He knew that, too.. but, he didn't want to admit it. ;~; Her confirming it only made it that much more of a reality, now he'd never be able to look at crunchy grubs the same! He huffed and rolled onto his left side, his hind leg stretching out to give his belly some room to breathe while he looked up at her. So, she wasn't an angel. That was too bad, but! She seemed pretty smart, he thought for a moment on whether or not he should give her his name. She seemed alright, so Vadim the cool kid slyly looked up to her with a shrug. "My name's Vadim, what's yours?"