& we will crawl, we will

The rain had been pretty much relentless, ceaseless, as the days had gone on. Mud had slowed their travels, bogging down the cart pretty badly. They'd been taking lots of breaks, which really wasn't a bad thing... it left them time to explore! Exploring was really most of the fun of being out here, Ivy had decided. It was cool, sleeping in a new place every night. He was still holding onto the fact that mom would be able to find them, no matter where they were and no matter where they ended up. Ivy would hold onto that for... well, for however long it took for him to really understand. Explaining death to children is much, much less than ideal. Only time would tell.

He was contemplative as he tromped through the tall grass near the river, careful not to get too close. Pops had been very specific, after all-- don't drown. The best way to not drown, as far as Ivy was concerned, was to not get too close to the water. You didn't have to tell him twice, despite it being summer, he found the river to be frickin cold. Instead he trotted through the tall, soggy, reedy grasses, looking for any interesting plants or bugs as he did. If there was anything really cool, he'd have to call Lotus over and they could investigate together. For now, he figured he'd let his brother nap. What was it with Lotus and napping sheesh, when there was so much exploring to do! Maybe if he'd been paying a bit more attention, he would have seen the hole.

It wasn't a big hole. No, just about the right size for a pup to step inside and go tush over teakettle. With an undignified yip, Ivy fell squarely onto his face. The pain that followed wasn't that bad, but it was certainly enough to be jarring for a young pup. He whimpered as he righted himself, carefully inspecting for damage. He could wiggle his toes, and nothing was broken, but there was a decently sized scrape in the skin. Ivy had come down on a rock, one that was jagged enough to cut him up pretty good. The boy knew better than to go whimpering about it to one of the adults, but he hissed softly as he put it down and tried to walk. The skin pulled in all directions when he tried to use the paw and it was pretty uncomfortable. Blood oozed down from the cut. How long would that take to stop? Ivy figured he'd just hide until it had scabbed over, however long that would take.

"Words"