you gotta fight for your right to laze

Motion sounded from the same place that had originated the voice. Either was real or this was a pretty serious hallucination. Regardless, there was no more hiding, and still Clouse held still as though it were somehow possible to just not be seen. For once, he'd love to be overlooked, not because his dad wasn't a good father but because the preteen had not a clue what to do about suddenly being just yards away from someone he thought was on another continent. Scully had expected this, but Clouse really hadn't; it was just him that had gone, not the whole litter, after all.

Judas' muzzle parted the reeds and appeared above him. Clouse had grown considerably since he'd last seen the man, but even from this viewpoint it was clear he was still much smaller than his predecessor. Great, so he had that to worry about too.

Sheepishly he smiled, the fronts of his teeth showing awkwardly as he pushed at the cattails around him before steadily rising to onto his paws. Time to face the music about how much more he still had to grow. Mother above childhood took forever to pass.

"Okay so... you're not mad..." he honestly hadn't been sure about his father, but he felt very confident that his mother was certainly irate. Little did he know this wasn't true, and Nineva was only worried that she was finally facing the loss she'd witnessed so many other parents be destroyed by; the death of a child.

"You... we came so far, how are you... ?" It was still too hard to fathom, Scully had to have taken more than just him or pulled some horrible prank as they left that Clouse didn't know about. Maybe he was even wanted for worse; the guy was kind of an ass.