Willows

He grinned, chuckling softly at her words, “It’s encouraged, since it’s a fun way to practice tracking, practice chasing, sparring, agility, and the like. One of our older warriors yanked Aurielle’s tail once, and it turned into a game of tag, according to her. I wasn’t there to witness it, but I wish I was.” The last he said with a laugh.

He mirrored the girl, sprawling like a cat in front of the hearth on his side, as he continued, “And the story time is… basically all kinds of story. Pups are encouraged to tell stories about the leaf monsters they vanquished, or the lessons they attended, adults might tell a funny story about a moose couple, or it might be folk tales from their own culture from before they joined Valhalla, history lessons about the lands, their family, or like my own story about my namesake and such. I’d love to see it come back as a regular thing in the pack.”

He smirked at her and her not sleepiness. It reminded him of being a pup, between his constant battles with colds, finally able to roughhouse right back, and his mother trying to get all five of them to settle down for the night so she could sleep or take a shift on sentry duty. So, he innocently began to nudge gently, falling into a low, crooning hum with no word, simply soothing and smoothing the trail into sleep.

He dozed lightly himself, though managed to keep the drowy hum going, ears occasionally swiveling at various outlying noises. He wasn’t in his alcove at home, so there was some instinctive alertness that wasn’t shaken even by sleep. If something came, he’d be on his paws and fighting before you could say “boo”.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think