don't be so serious

The pallid yearling had waited until the sun was nearly set before he headed out. The partial blindness that came with sunlight, as well as the sunburn, well.. he couldn't be assed to brave it. He just kept up his mother's schedule and ran some patrols at night. Which meant that when he decided to go pay her a visit at the den where he'd been born, he'd meandered over there around the time that the sun had sunk below the horizon while its last rays danced across the bruise dark sky. He'd just missed her, her scent was fresh on the wind. Out earlier that usual, and sometimes she stayed out until the sun was almost fully up. Kali's death had messed her up, and he wished he knew how to fix it all. He hadn't known the heir well, but she was still his sister. So he'd mourned like the rest, and wished that his mother hadn't been forced to feel that pain.

Lurking near the outside of the whelping den, he caught a pitchy young voice piping up to make a ~very serious~ demand. A wry grin toyed at his rosy features as the lanky youth lowered his skull to peer into the mouth of the den with his dark eye- still better suited to catching little details while the sun was setting. "The boogeyman, of course." he growled quietly, ivories flashing in the low light as he fought back laughter. Why ignore the perfect opportunity to freak out one of his younger siblings?