Pale blue and pink eyes blinked open with a wide yawn and she groggily lifted her head to look around the room. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, but she did see one of her father’s dogs laying in front of the door standing guard. She got to her paws, giving herself a shake that ended up toppling herself over back into the bedding thanks to her still developing sense of balance. She flopped over with an “oof” that made the dog lift its head to look ar her. She got up again and noticed that the canine’s attention was on her and she shushed it with a little shake of her head, grinning as she carefully worked her way down to the floor from the bed, using one of the furs that had slipped over the edge like a slide to get down. “Don’t tattle on me!” she demanded of her father’s companion in a hushed whisper. The dog didn’t seem all that impressed with the tiny princess and just put its head back down, but Ruse took that as a win and grinned as she stalked trying to find something in the room to mess with.

There was shelves of stuff on one side of the room. Most of it she couldn’t name, she just knew it was stuff her mother and Aunt Siren messed with a bunch so it must be something she could play with too! There wasn’t anything fun on the lowest shelves, just some old dusty books, so she started trying to reach for and climb onto the second shelf. Her pale, speckled paws did manage to hoist herself onto the second shelf… Only to pull herself right into a stack of ceramic bowls. Her head was down as she focused on getting her footing which made her head butt the bowls quite hard, making them topple over and a couple of them go falling the couple of feet to the ground with a loud clatter, one of them breaking apart into smaller pieces and a couple more cracking. It startled her with a gasp and she stumbled back, falling over the edge and falling back to the wooden floor with a soft thud and an irritated grumble, pouting as she started rolling herself back to her feet again.

"Rusalka Alondra Klein"

A clatter from Siren and Dalila's rooms caught Chimera's attention as he was striding past. The big man halted in his steps, backtracking until he could poke his head in the room. Gem was there, staring at the flailing form of Rusalka who had just broken some of the pottery in the room. Pushing into the room, Chimera shot the small child a disapproving look. "Rusalka..." Once she'd managed to right herself, Chimera used a big paw to spin her around so that she was facing the items that she'd broken. "Now you have to clean up your mess." Chimera understood that children broke things, but he wanted them all to have that sense of responsibility that came with wrongdoing. If she had broken the bowl, then it would be up to her to both clean it up and then tell her mother what she'd done after.

Chimera seated himself, watching the girl as he waited for her to start picking up the pieces. Thankfully, only one bowl had broken and it had only broken into a few big pieces. She would be able to push the broke pieces aside and he would help her to pick them up.

"Speech"

Ruse's ears perked and she jumped a bit at the sound of her father's voice, her two-toned gaze darting over to him startled by his sudden appearance... and at the fact that she had gotten caught. Her ears flicked back guiltily at his disapproving look. It seemed like getting her canine guard to not snitch on her was pointless since she'd gotten caught all on her own! She got back to her paws and hung her head as he told her to clean up her mess. "Yes, daddy," she replied with an overly dramatic sigh before starting to nudge the pieces of the broken bowl together into a pile. A couple of the smaller pieces she could push with her paw, but the bigger ones she used her forehead to scoot across the floor. Once they were all more or less in a pile and kind a sorta in a stack she decided that had to be good enough and started nudging the bowls that hadn't brown and had just toppled over back onto their bases.

When the mess was picked up and the bowls returned back to their proper place with the help of her dad's height she came to sit herself between his front legs, leaning into his dark foreleg and peering up at him with wide, sweet, blue and pink eyes. "I'm sorry I broke the bowl, daddy," she told him, leaning her head into his leg. "I just wanted to see what was on the shelves!" She couldn't wait till she was as tall as her dad so she could see all kind of stuff too and reach so many things! "I bet there's nothing you can't reach, huh, daddy?" she questioned with a grin, her tail brushing against the floor. "You're so tall! I bet you can reach anything!"

"Rusalka Alondra Klein"

Though looking sheepish at getting caught, the girl did as she was bid, moving the broken items away and picking up the things that weren't broken. She did it without complaint and Chimera surely appreciated that. He did not want to fight with his children. He wanted them to listen and obey the first time. He was having a difficult enough time with Scylla. The girl was a whirlwind that she was tricky. He had higher hopes for Rusalka.

With the items picked up, the tiny child came to sit before him, explaining what she had been doing. Her little tail wagged a mile a minute and she complimented him with the faith that only children could have in their parents. The massive brute slid down to lay upon his stomach, a thick foreleg on either side of the girl. "You'll be able to reach things when you're older, but listen to me, Rusalka," though still even, there was a sternness to his vocals. "There are things here that could harm you. Things here that could kill you. End your life." Yes, she was small, but Chimera believed in starting them out early. "I need you to be careful and cautious. I need you to listen to me and your mother and aunts, understand? Don't climb the shelves. Don't touch the herbs or plants unless they allow you to do so."

One paw moved to scoop the girl closer and he slid his tongue between her ears, flicking off a bit of dust that clung to her after her fall. "I don't want anything to happen to you." Big softy... Chimera loved his children and Ruse was no different. Even after the dirt was gone, he continued to cradle the girl between his strong forelegs. She was a little miracle. a mixture of her mother and himself surely. A lovely child.

"Speech"