Family Reunions Keep Getting Bigger

More family, he seemed to have so much already! Unlike his mother his own enthusiasm was tempered he'd already learned that family didn't always mean they wouldn't be mean to him and his sisters. It also meant a very long trek, walking wasn't exactly his strong suit. His hesitance turned into irritance as the time wore on and somehow despite the fact that he was by far the slowest of the caravan Dread was making it a point to hang behind even him. He loved his brother, really he did but there was a frustration there, about the way he worried non-stop, the way he watched them all but especially him and their sisters that Crux still didn't wholly understand. One day he would know how to vocalize it, someday he'd be able to express how insulting it felt to have his own litter mates treat him like he was a piece of precious china... But for now, all he knew was that it was getting on his nerves.

All of this was brewing inside the child, feelings more complicated than most of his able-bodied siblings would be forced to grapple with this young, so when they arrived at the garden he wasn't exactly in a great mood. Crux let himself be checked over by his father before he managed to slip away to join his mother and older siblings around Briar and his new nieces and nephews. He felt hyper-aware of the way his gait wasn't even or smooth like everyone else's, the skin on the back of his leg where the crystal cuffed it itched in the way that it always did when he was anxious about how someone new would perceive him, an itch he'd never soothe for the growth that covered his flesh there was too tight for even a good stick to get in and scratch it, he'd tried. As Crux grew closer and names were exchanged his emotions swung back towards nerves and he slid up to push himself into his mother's hindleg, trying to angle himself so that his crystalline marked leg was tucked out of view of the other pups, his gaze sliding to his paws as he leaned into his mother as if doing so would hide him from the eyes of so many new pups close to his own age.

Speech