Special Delivery!
Beat
02-01-2021, 10:59 AM
The boy was snuggled in among his siblings, their warmth and their scents swaddling him in familiar comfort. He was so deeply asleep he didn't even notice his mother picking him out of the puppy pile of his siblings and only started to stir as the cool winter air hit him for the first time in his life. The rock pocket in the side of the mountain that Recluse had taken for her den had the benefit of being nice and warmed by the molten lava that ran below the stone so the boy had never felt such cold before, he squirmed against the feeling, little groans of discomfort pulling from his lungs. He roused, eyelids lifting though they brought no sight to the boy. "Momma? What's happening?" He squeaked. His mother gently shushed him and he was left with more questions, his father? As far as the boy could remember his mother had never spoken of such a wolf, but that did not worry him too much, he was excited to get to meet new wolves and as far as he could tell, the first of his siblings to be allowed to not only do that but also leave the den! The boy knew he was different from his siblings, it wasn't hard to realize that when he struggled with things they never seemed to... but he wasn't totally aware of how. He had never seen, he had no way of knowing anyone else could either... just that his siblings, particularly his brothers moved with more confidence than he could, that they always seemed to be able to find him even when he was holding as still and quiet as he could... he was not particularly fond of hide-and-seek. The next step of the journey seemed to be a bath, his mother gently dunking him in ice-cold water, and thoroughly cleaning him. That part was a little disquieting to the boy, she was stripping him of the scents of his siblings... scent meant much more to the boy than it might to other wolves, scent was the only thing he had to identify others with and the traces of his brothers and sisters on his pelt was an integral part of his own self-identity... Then his mother cleaned herself of them too and he whined softly, ears pulling back. He was much too naive to understand the implications of what it was his mother was doing but it put him on edge. His mother dried him and the boy's coat fluffed up to keep warm and they were off again, moving along beside the river, its bubbling telling him they were quite close. Then the cadence of his mother's footfalls told him they were near the mountain again. He had no idea where they were going but the familiar scent of the pack his mother ran helped to reassure him. He was gently lowered and left to wander, but he was still feeling a little uncomfortable with having had his scent so easily stripped and set about clambering over his mother, trying to get her scent all over him again, flinching slightly as his mother suddenly howled but otherwise unbothered by whatever it was she was planning. "Speech" |
Base by therougecat |
Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.