OOC: seasonal skill thread for intellect for pups! Current word count is 221

Over the last few weeks Geoffrey had observed a change in the grown ups. Some of them now seemed preoccupied and when pressed, alluded to the coming winter. This concerned Geoffrey a little and he'd spent the last couple days mulling over what, if anything, he needed to do.

Having never experienced winter before, Geoffrey wasn't sure what all needed to be done to prepare for it. He understood that it would get really cold and that things would be different than the other seasons he'd experienced, but the full meaning of that was lost on him.

Still, he knew that if the adults were preparing, he probably needed to prepare too. It just made sense to. But how? He tried to think of all the things he thought were important. Food was at the top, being warm was important too. Were plants important? ...Sometimes? He frowned thoughtfully. What else was important? Water...but that wasn't going to be scarce, was it? It would probably help if he knew what to expect of winter.

Geoffrey let his head sink to his chest as he thought. His gaze was pointed at the dirt between his forepaws but he wasn't really seeing it. His frown deepened as his thoughts grew heavier, his expression now a concentrated scowl at he tried to think of important preparations.

It was hard to know what to expect from the coming season when she'd never experienced it herself. Caelia and her littermates had been born in the spring, when the chill of winter was leaving the lands, and much of what they had known was the dry heat of summer. Even with fall's arrival, the west was not particularly cold, so Caelia herself wasn't sure what to expect. Thoughts of the season to come were buzzing around in her mind too as she wandered quietly through the moor. Perhaps Geoffrey might have some idea of what to do. He always seemed to be one step ahead of her, his mind working in a way quite different than her own. Once she caught a whiff of his scent she trailed after it, finally coming to find him with his head tilted toward the ground. "Hey, Geo," she called out once she was within earshot of him, smiling gently at her brother, though she was trying to study him at the same time and figure out exactly what he was doing. "What are you up to?" Current total: 405 Words

Geoffrey was so lost in thought that when he lifted his eyes to look at Caelia they remained a little foggy and distant. While he didn't realize he was doing it, the tip of his tongue was poking out of his mouth just a little. This silly and befuddled expression was apparently his 'deep in thought' face.

The boy was slow to rouse but after a beat his eyes focused, his ears perked up and yes, his tongue went back to where it belonged. Perhaps Caelia would know how to prepare for winter. She was smart and thoughtful; surely she'd know something about winter that he didn't. "Oh, hiya, Caelia!"

"Well," he took a deep breath and prepared to launch into a detailed explanation of where his mind was at. "You know how a bunch of the grown ups are running around trying to do stuff before winter gets here? And they are uh...kinda worried about it, I guess? Well, I'm trying to prepare for winter too. It's gotta be a big deal if they think it is, right?"

He frowned down at the dirt for a second before peeking back up at Caelia and admitting sheepishly, "But...I don't know what winter is like so I don't know how to prepare."

He only had the faintest idea. The boy knew it would be cold and that there was this stuff called snow, but he had never seen snow. He didn't know what it was like or what it did to the ground or how freakin' cold it had to be for snow to even happen in the first place. He was imagining what it was like at night when his toes got a little chilled, only instead of it being only chilly at night, it was chilly all the time. Little did he know that the cold that came with winter was a good 20x the cold he was thinking of.

"Maybe you can help me prepare. Do you know what winter is like?" He padded over to a shallow hole in the ground that was no more than a handful of steps away from where Caelia was. Geoffrey motioned to it, then said, "I was thinking about digging this pretty deep and storing important things inside it. Like...uh, I don't know. Hides, maybe? Or food if I could keep it from going bad. Maybe dried plants for injuries and sickness and stuff." The boy shrugged. "And you know that fire that the one pack guy has? Or maybe its a girl who has it?" He thought about it for a second, but couldn't pin down who exactly had the fire, so he glossed over that detail and carried on. It wasn't relevant to what he had to say anyway. "Anyway, someone has a fire and I think I want a fire in our den too. That way we can all stay warm."

Okay, okay, so he was getting a bit rambley. But Geoffrey was genuinely concerned. If he stopped to think about it for a second he would have realized that his mother probably had everything covered, but the boy was too focused on what he thought was a very important task to consider the bigger picture. In his mind, he needed to be prepared. He, an independent man, not he, Geoffrey, the pup who still lived with his mother and siblings.

All this thinking was making his head hurt just a little. Hopefully his sister would be able to brainstorm with him and come up with some good ideas. She was pretty smart; together they'd be able to tackle this problem as well as any adult would!

OOC: Eeeee 603! Sorry it's a rambling mess but I was trying to get as many words in as I could haha

It was obvious that her brother was deep in thought, and Caelia found his focus contagious. Her own brows furrowed tightly together as he spoke up, curious as to what was weighing so heaviy on his mind. He greeted her before beginning to explain, elaborating on the fact that he was thinking about preparing for winter. Oh, that made sense! She'd noticed that everyone seemed a bit busier than usual lately, beyond the usual things like patrolling and hunting and marking their borders. How did they get ready for winter, anyway? What was winter even going to be like here? Caelia found herself murmuring softly to herself, musing over what suddenly seemed like a very complicated and pressing issue. The weather had gotten a bit chillier than she was used to lately, but beyond that she wasn't sure.  "Mama said we might get some snow, but not as much as other parts of the world," she suggested tentatively, not sure that tidbit of information would really help Geo or not. Geoffrey had some good ideas. He'd started digging a hole to store things in, and was talking about food and plants. Caelia nodded in agreement, deciding he was on to something.  "A fire would be nice but... I don't know," she said finally, with a slight sigh, not sure she liked that idea herself. If it went badly, she could picture their mother getting upset with them. "How would we even get it over here?" Caelia didn't know anything about fire, and she had a feeling those things should be better left to the more experienced and older pack members, not to she and her brother... even if the thought was an interesting one. Even if she wasn't sure about that, Caelia did like the idea of getting herbs to store for the winter for Geoffrey to use, even if she wasn't particularly sure what to do with them.  "Getting some herbs is a good idea too. I noticed the plants aren't all green anymore. They might be harder to find in the cold... maybe.." Caelia observed quietly, pursing her lips as she recalled the wilting plants she'd seen recently around the packlands. "Maybe we could get some furs too, to sleep on in the winter. They're soft and comfy, right?" She wasn't sure how they'd separate the meat from the fur though, and the only prey animals that she'd hunted herself were small, but maybe with Geo's help they could come up with something. It was a nice thought that her siblings and herself might be able to sleep on soft furs during the cold winter nights. She too was sure that their mother and the older pack members had everything under control, but she wanted to help too, to prove that she could pull her weight, even despite her age. Surely she and Geo could find ways to help, even if they didn't have the most conventional ideas compared to the adults.. Current total: 1,502