Atreides just flopped his head in the grass and made grotesque faces at his sister as she ran through various versions of his name to end in RABIES. Like that was supposed to be insulting! "I was not going to do that!" he protested with a giggle that completely negated what he was saying. The shrieking of the girls as they declared a game of tag and said he was IT caused him to groan goodnaturedly but he pushed himself back to his paws and bounced after them. Sirius was over by the forest, stalking something, and Trei altered his course to take a running leap around the rocks Siri was stalking in an attempt to tackle her.
His mother's voice - the unmistakable command in it - froze him in his tracks. What did he do? Were they in trouble? He had a moment to process these questions before she was suddenly yelling for Integra to get them into the back of the den and stay there. Trei straightened indignantly. Why was EGGY in charge? Why did they have to go in the - what he saw flattened him back to the earth, his white ears flattened to the side as he peered over the grass with wide eyes. What were THOSE? Why were they fighting Mama? Were they HURTING HER?
"Siri?" he whined, unable to pull his eyes from the limp form of his mother to look for his older sister. There was... red. So much red and Mama wasn't moving from where the bears had thrown her. Why was there so much red?
Twin blurs of white and gray thundered past the hidden pup to merge into the massive brown forms of the bears in snarling, snapping combat. He and his sisters had fought, but nothing like this. Nothing so... desperate, so vicious and visceral. Atreides could not move, but he couldn't keep his eyes off it either. But then one struck Daddy, like it struck Mama.
"DADDYYY!!!" The bawling cry tore from the young pup, green eyes nearly swallowed by the black of his pupils dilated in fear. There was so much red... But Daddy bounced back to his feet, driving the bears away with a mighty bellow and slashing charge.
And then he was standing over Mama, and Trei quivered. Daddy looked so... different, standing there, staring at her, and then he was curling around her and something felt broken. Integra bounded out of the den, and the movement seemed to release Trei from some binding and he rushed forward to creep against his father's side, shaking and silent. Everything felt wrong and the fun of that morning so far away, all color drained but the red. Why wasn't Mama moving?
""
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