Go wild!

As usual, the spindly little boy was trapped at the bottom of the pile of sleeping bodies, only the end of his thin snout poking out from under one of his sister's armpits so that he could breathe. So he was plenty warm, soundly dozing without a care in the world. At least, until Odie left the pile and the heat of her much larger body was lost. Then Astra was gone, though she had not been tangled amidst the rest of her siblings and so he did not stir as quickly as when Odie did. Once Fern was gone as well, he found himself waking in earnest. Brilliant cerulean eyes flickered slowly open, long lashes brushing against his cheeks as he blearily blinked the sleep from his eyes. He withdrew his leg from beneath Maggie, having caught the tail end of Odie's declaration that they were free to head outside. His ears, still folded over and painfully endearing, perked up at that news.

His awkwardly proportioned limbs carried him at a galloping, excited gait towards the mouth of the den, heedless of any sisters that might be in his way. They would probably survive if he ran them over, since he was arguably the smallest and frailest among them. His dark fur instantly warmed as he stepped out into the sun, squinting against the sudden brightness. All around him, a symphony of new sounds and sensory input. His thin little sides heaved with growing excitement, tongue lolling from his maw as he panted to try and settle himself. The impossible volume of new scents, spicy and floral and musty and acrid all wrapped up together. The myriad colours of the world around him, dark stone against verdant greenery mingled with bright spots of unusual colour where flowers were blooming to life. It was all so much. The susurrating of the breeze through leaves all around him was like a symphony. Tears welled in his electric blue eyes, overwhelmed by everything he was looking at.

Without so much as a word, the boy began to walk. Uncertain and awkward on his paws, but head high and long tail swishing across his rump with delight as he blinked the glassiness from his eyes. He needed to touch stuff now. To stick his nose into the flowers that were blooming on the edge of the little clearing around the den, and see what they felt like against the soft, sensitive flesh of his nares. The sensation of rocks, pebbles, grass, twigs, all underfoot, catching in the tresses of his growing tail fur. It was amazing, truly. He didn't care one bit about anything else except drinking it all in.

pixels courtesy of king-lulu-deer & lvx-1