The two pairs of bright blue eyes ceaselessly staring at their mother as of late had apparently been enough to finally earn their release from the den. At long last, freedom! Well, their mother had announced it the previous evening, so there was a little waiting. Seiran almost couldn't get herself to sleep, she was so excited to see the world beyond what she'd always known. The stuffy confines of the den were boring now that she'd quite thoroughly explored every inch of it.

Growing impatient, the second Seiran saw sunlight beginning to filter in through the narrow opening to their den she'd leap to her paws, racing an excited lap around their sleeping area before at her mother and using the unsuspecting woman as a springboard to go flying back towards the entrance where she waited. Shrill voice cut through the little cave, "Mooooooom, it's morning, do we get to go out noow? I wanna go now! Please! Please please please please pl-"

Her mother's exasperated assent cut off her begging, causing the child to quickly replace it with a gasp and gleeful giggles as she careened out the opening into the sunlit canyon without pausing to see if her sibling or mother might be following. The golden light of morning was so bright! She had to shield them and let herself adjust to the sudden change before she could press on and go in search of, well, whatever might be out here to investigate!

Shilah's nose twitched, his jaws opening wide in a yawn as he blinked wearily at the light coming in through the den. Rolling over onto his stomach he was content to drift back to sleep. He'd been dreaming of chasing a rabbit and he'd very nearly caught it when his sister's rustling disturbed him. Shilah wondered if he could just pick the dream back up again? His brow furrowed and then his eyes snapped open as he stumbled clumsily to his feet. Today was the day! Mom was going to take them outside.

Seiran beat him to the punch though as her voice cut through the silence, stirring their mother to wakefulness. "Yes! She's awake!" Shilah bounded for the cave entrance after his sister. "Seiran wait up!" Blinking in the bright morning light, Shilah set off down the nearest path he could distinguish.

What a fool she'd been to think announcing the little fuzzballs release from the confines of the den ahead of time was a good idea! All night she could practically feel Seiran vibrating with excitement. Chipper as Shilah seemed to be, he at least was capable of sleeping when he was supposed to in stark contrast with his wild sister who seemed bent on greying Razi's muzzle early.

At first she'd thought she might have a hope in hell of sleeping till a reasonable hour. She ought to learn not to bother hoping for such things with such exciteable pups bouncing around. They were lucky she loved them dearly, especially when Razi found herself jolted awake by the shrill whining of her daughter. For a bit she'd considered making the kids wait another hour simply because Seiran was so pushy, however her resolve weakened as soon as the little voice reached an incredible pitch as the girl begged and begged to be let out. At last she'd huffed a sleepy, "Okay, okay, we can go now but," aaaand Seiran was already gone. Time to rise and shine, then.

Hopping to her paws, Razi waited only long enough to let a tired yawn fill the den she was now standing in alone after Shilah went tearing after his sister. Right on their heels, she exited the den into the canyon, squinting in the blazing light of dawn. Good heavens, it was disturbingly early to be out. "Stick close kids, I don't want you running off where I can't see you yet, alright?" she said, eyeing the two blue-eyed pups with a stern expression. The effect was perhaps a bit lessened by the slight upward turning at the corners of her mouth as she watched the tiny children take in this new world around them.

The canyon was so bright on this side in the morning, ideal for sunbathing early but not so much for seeing when you'd just woken up. Light hadn't crept too far across the floor of the canyon yet, still leaving wide swaths of shadow between the little family and the river that flowed lazily along a ways off. If the kids had been born in a different season she'd have worried about them falling in there, but as it was the water was quite low in the near-drought so she felt a little better about it. Prancing out across the rust-colored ground, she grinned and asked, "Well, are we ready to do some wandering and get acquainted with more of your home?"

Her eyes took a good minute to adjust to the morning light that shone down from the top of the canyon, just beginning to brighten up one side of the canyon as the day began. The light was so much brighter than their den, at first she was miffed that it was so difficult to see in the outside, but once she could finally make out her surroundings Seiran gave an excited little yip. Wow, it was so cool outside! Walls of rock rose up all around, with little alcoves and caves all around. Where should they even go first?! Their mother said to stick close and the child nodded, though she could probably easily forget the instruction with enough distraction.

As she padded - well, more like waddled - around the space outside their den a small bird came fluttering down from it's perch to land on the ground nearby. Immediately zeroing in on the creature, she sank into her best super sneaky crouch and crept forward towards the chirping animal. The bird regarded the pup, tilting it's head this way and that and hopping an inch of two closer. Springing forward, Seiran missed it by a mile, growling as her quarry fluttered away from her grasp quite easily.

Her tiny black ears fell back, frustrated that she'd not managed to capture the dumb bird. Before she could dwell on it, though, her mother pranced over and asked if they wanted to explore more of their home. Her eyes lit up and the girl grinned, "Yes! Yes yes yes, let's go, I wanna see all the places pwease!" Her little tail wagged so vigorously she almost tumbled over, not yet steady enough on her feet to handle even her own excitement.

Shilah scampered up a rock as tall as he was. He stood tall and proud, his tail wagging as he waited for his mom. How close was close? He was ready to go! "Yes, yes! What's the coolest thing in the canyon mom? Can we go see it?" Scrambling down off of the rock he kept right on going, anxious to catch up with his sister. When he finally did he bounded forward, seeking to gently nuzzle her right shoulder. A moment later he was creeping to the edge and peering down. Below him the river was snaking low and slow through the canyon floor. "Mom, mom! Can we go see the river?"

Her daughter was preoccupied with a first failed attempt at a little hunt which was rather amusing to watch. Poor thing was no where near coordinated enough to be effective at any kind of hunting just yet, or even really walk a straight line without wobbling just a little. Luckily Seiran's soured mood was easily altered. Meanwhile Shilah wanted to see the 'coolest place' in the canyon. "There are plenty of cool places, but only a few places you can go while you're small, my dear." The time would come when they could freely wander the canyon and all it's many paths, but for now she preferred to keep the pesky little creatures where they couldn't get themselves hurt too easily.

As her son moved to peer down at the water Razi would seek to gently pull him back a few inches by his scruff. That mothering instinct was reasonably strong in her, already she could see disaster at every turn. "Not too close, I would prefer we develop a healthy respect for that river. Right now the weather keeps it low because of the dry season, but in time the rains will come and it will sometimes rise and even flood. We can visit it later today, but I don't want either of you going there unattended, okay?" They'd barely been out ten minutes and already Razi could tell she'd be doing a lot of talking, explaining, reprimanding and explaining the rules and conditions of their outing from the den. If she didn't have a sore throat later it would be a miracle. Guiding the children back from the water, she lead them along one of the paths to an outcropping above their den's entrance. A series of caves gaped open in the side of the canyon to her left, and to the right they could better overlook the river and see more of the surrounding canyon.

"These caves are okay for you to explore. You might find something interesting in there. The river has one spot we can go visit it at, over there," she said, gesturing to the spot where the river no longer abruptly cut down from the rock but rather gradually melted into the rock in a short strip of canyon 'beach'. "Going outside has rules, and while rules are not super fun they are to keep you safe so you will obey them. You will not be exploring paths steeper or higher than the one we are on now until I say you may, and you may not go to the river unattended. Lastly, you can only leave the den when I say and may only leave the areas where I can easily see you if there is an adult with you. Understood?"

With that out of the way, she asked, "Now, which spot would you like to explore today? Still the river?"

She had stirred awake rather early today and no matter how hard she tried, she could not go back to sleep. It was a bit frustrating because she didn't want to go out because she would be the only one awake. Although what else would she do until it was the proper time for the pack to rise. She rose to her feet and trotted out of her cave den heading out into the canyon. With the dry season down here prey was easy to find and easy to scavenge so she was hoping to grab something to eat. She hadn't found the temperatures of Auster to be to bothersome especially with the lighter tones to her pelt. Although this season in general was bothersome to her. She had been avoiding social contact with the pack, keeping to herself and to her den. Although she was growing tired of the solitude and why hide? A pack was the safest place to be when your in season. Ash wouldn't tolerate anyone hurting her. Moving around the female let her nose do most of work during the early hours and eventually came across a freshly dead Dik-dik. A perfect breakfast option and she dug in eating her fill. Then once she was finished she picked up the carcass and took it back towards the pack. Surely someone else would be hungry when they woke up. She dropped it off back near the main part of the pack before beginning to just wander around. She wandered for a while until the sun began to rise and her ears picked up the distant sounds of voices. Smiling she decided to be social and headed right towards the voices. She was pleasantly surprised when the forms came into view to see pups with Razi. Her and Razi had never had any personal social time, but Zin recognized her from pack meetings and being around the pack. She let out a light bark as she approached, making sure it was okay first. Then moved forward to meet them. "Good morning!" she greeted with a smile. "Zinnia Talk", & 'Zinnia Think"

Her brother caught up to her pretty quick, but he still wasn't as fast as she was. Hah. Seiran leapt at her sibling on a whim, wanting to put her front paws on his back so she could try to tug at his great big puppy ears. That was her favorite thing, pullin' on those great big ears of Shilah's. Sometimes he didn't like it though. Her eyes widened as he moved towards the water and asked if they could go down there. Hey, yeah, that might be fun! Whirling to look at her mom Seiran wailed, "Pleaaase?!" to no avail. Her mom opted to ignore the begging and instead give them rules about the river. Blech, rules were terrible. Her dissatisfaction was soon forgotten again when their mom lead them up one of the countless new paths.

It was so pretty up here! The girl tiptoed as close to the edge of the outcropping as her mother would allow, staring out at the rest of the canyon and eyeing the river that lazily wound along through it. Everything in their home was pretty! Razi explained more rules and told them where they could and couldn't go, and Seiran only halfway listened. "Understood," she chirped back automatically, though whether or not she actually did was yet to be determined. The girl was glancing back and forth between her options, trying to decide where she wanted to go first when an unfamiliar voice came from somewhere behind her. Who was that?!

She leaned her head back so far she ended up falling over backwards, baby blue eyes staring at the upside down lady who'd greeted them. Her ears pricked forward - well, ear, as the other was squished against the ground. Scrambling to right herself the child scampered over to the new woman and squeaked out a chipper, "Hello, good morning! What's your name? I'm Seiran Abraxas and today is our first day outside. You have pretty eyes, have you explored lots here? Do you like it here? What's your job? Mom says everyone here does a job for the pack and someday we'll learn how to do the ones we want to and-" she mom cut her off so she could take a breath and allow Zinnia to actually answer before the curious child could talk her ear right off.

"Awwwww ok." Shilah was disappointed that they couldn't go visit the river right that second as he shuffled back from the edge toward his mother. It didn't take long though for his attention to fix on something else. A small gray bird with a yellowish belly was chirping and singing in a nearby shrub. Instinctively he crouched down, his tail wagging as he watched the bird. Shilah was trying to listen to his mother, but it was hard. He got the gist though, don't go anywhere unless she said it was ok. "Huh?" He cocked his head to look at it her before he question clicked. "Oh, yea I undstand."

He turned back to the bird but it was gone. Argh! Yet, before his mood could sink to far his mother mentioned the river and he bounded toward her side, seeking to stand on his hind legs and rest is forepaws on her side. "Yes! Yes, the river! I want to see the river"

It was then a stranger appeared and Shilah dove down, seeking to press himself between his mother's front legs. the other woman seemed nice and she smelt like the pack. He grinned shyly. "Hi." His sister had no such reservations. She ran right over to the stranger and Shilah slowly crept after but opted to stop half way between the woman and his mother, uncertain of how he was supposed to behave.