& we will crawl, we will

Ivy did his best to right himself where he sat... no, it couldn't be broken. It was a good thing that puppy bones were pretty springy, or something like that. Springy? Well... puppies were sturdy. Ivy was less sturdy than some of his siblings, sure, but he was still tough. Tough, and he could be strong too! Well, at least he would be as he got bigger. Something about building strong bones, and strong muscles. Oh if only the boy knew, if only he understood. It would be another part of his mother that stayed with him always.

His paw was scraped and bleeding, and Ivy tried to kill the whimper in his throat. It wasn't until he heard a woman's voice that he even knew she was there, approaching carefully. If he'd had the don't talk to strangers lesson yet, it hadn't stuck. She was just a little bigger than mom, dark as shadows cast long on the ground. Ivy's gaze flickered to the stranger, eyes a little wider than he'd intended. Are you hurt? she asks, and his first instinct is to lie. What if she told pops, and he got in trouble for being a dumbass? Still, as the pup shifted his weight, he could feel the skin of the wound tugging uncomfortably, and more blood bubbling to the surface. "Just a little hurt," there, the truth. Though she was a stranger, she wanted to help. There were no thoughts of why in his head. No, just the soft voice and gentle presence of a healer. Healers had to be okay... mom had been one too.

"I scraped my paw." The voice of a child, a small boy. Though he was used to the small wounds that came from play fighting with his siblings, this was different. A chomp and a nibble from puppy teeth were different than a scrape from a rock, and he'd certainly venture that it hurt more.

"Ivy"