Wasting absolutely no time, the youngster abandoned the area around the barn in search of greener pastures. Quite literally. Gangly legs carried him at a slow pace over the unfamiliar terrain, head carried low between his shoulders as he relied on his long whiskers to warn of anything that he might bump into. Tall auds flickered constantly to drink in the new sounds that came to him over the susurration of the dew laden grasses. He could hear some exceptionally large bodies moving somewhere, and he was determined to figure out exactly where. He kept to the low lying areas initially, but when the first steep incline reared up before him, the dark furred boy decided to make the climb. It was surprisingly difficult work, forcing his short little legs to make each stride. The incline was much steeper than the gentle rolling hills around the barn, where he'd spent all of his time so far. By the time he reached the summit of the hill, his flanks heaved with exertion. Tongue lolling from his jaws, panting heavily, he flopped down on his side at the crest of the slope. While he waited for his breathing to even out, he decided to try and sort through the smells that were coming to him. Each lungful of air came with a fresh aroma to dissect. The musky, heady smell that he typically associated with the sheep in the barn was just as heavy around here. It was a little different though, not necessarily stronger, but it had a few different notes to it. It smelled more tangy, and less like wet straw than the sheep and goats did. Did they have other herds grazing around here? The little Saxe child knew about the goats and the sheep, and they knew about him. However, he hadn't heard about any large animals. Had his dad said something about some big animals? He was drawing a decisive blank on that one. Shaking his head, he cleared up that boring train of thought. The most prominent smell was of the animals and the lush grasses that surrounded him. The thick fog that blanketed the lands were hiding a great deal of the scents he might have picked up, even those of the wolves that lived around here. He flexed his paws in the grass, pinching some grass between his toes and tearing them from the dirt. Lifting the uprooted strands to his nose, he breathed in the sweet, tangy scent. A quick pass of his tongue over the fronds revealed that they were mostly smooth to the touch, though on a second pass of the other side he met with some prickly sensations along the flat portion of each blade. How weird! Snorting softly, he dropped the grass back down onto the ground. With his breathing mostly evened out, more of the sounds around him were noticeable. All of the sudden, he could hear the lowing of the animals all around him. Their voices were impossibly deep, and he could almost feel the rumble of their calling in his very bones. Punctuating their occasional calls, he could hear the thudding of incredibly heavy hooves against the ground as they moved. How had no one mentioned the massive creatures that lived so close to them? He rolled to his paws, making a slow descent part of the way down the slope. The youngster was following the loudest calls, trying to get a better grasp of what he was dealing with. He definitely hadn't come up the hill this way, but he wasn't too concerned about that yet. Most important to him was figuring out what the hell was down there in the valleys! Sightless gaze trained on something in the middle distance, he kept his head tipped on an angle to let in the most sounds possible. He had no idea this was how his dad's owls had their ears arranged for the exact same reason, all he knew was that having his ears offset had been getting him the best results. He was fairly certain he was nearing the bottom of the slope, because the animals' calls were much louder now. A thunderous snort somewhere to his right stopped the boy in his tracks. The air ruffled over his cheek, a distinct wetness had splattered over his face. He'd gotten pretty dang close, that's for sure. A bellow from the animal served as all the warning he needed not to keep going forward. He turned his head towards the source of the deafening roar, which had fallen silent and left his ears ringing. He could hear the animal breathing, and counted the seconds between each exhale. Oh, this thing was massive. It stamped a hoof against the damp earth, and the impact rattled his skull. He stamped a paw right back, but it clearly wasn't much of a display, and all he got in return was another wet snort from somewhere in front of him and well above his head. "Alright, alright, I get it.." the blind pup muttered before he turned slowly until his forepaws filled the indents in the grass where his hind paws had been. Before the giant animal could yell at him again, the boy ambled back up the hill to listen in on their grazing from a safe distance. ((FINAL WC: 889)) ""

Rhian was bouncing around as usual. She gazed up at a hill, watching the grass wave back and forth, and after a moment of silent observation, she charged up at full speed. It wasn't a very big hill, but she wasn't a very big pup and only young, so it still felt challenging. But she wasn't the type to back down from a challenge, and she pressed onward. Adventure thrummed in her veins, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She held her breath as she sprinted until she was out of breath. But by then, she was at the top of the hill. She devoured a few lungfuls of air and stepped to the opposite slope of the mound. She then raced down even quicker than she'd run up. Despite, or perhaps because of, her enthusiasm, she tripped and fell about halfway down and rolled the rest of the way. When she stood up at the bottom, her eyes sparkled with the newfound game. Rolling down a hill was fun!

But of course, it wasn't as much fun as it would be with somebody else to play with. Today was Rhian's lucky day, apparently, because one of her brothers wasn't far. She ran up the hill to him, still full of boundless energy and entirely ignoring whatever he'd been doing before she decided to play with him. "Raven!" she yelled. "Play with meee!" It wasn't a request.

Just as he was getting to the crest of the hill, he heard thunderous paws approaching. Keen ears swivelled towards the source of the sound, though his head did not follow. As the sounds of her panting breaths became more clear, and the subtle vibration of her paws could be felt through the dirt beneath his paws, she called out to him. Most of his siblings struggled with volume control, but he found it to be more of a boon than anything. He could track his littermates across the entire territory just by following the sound of their play at any given point. Well... most of them, at least. Sometimes Daemon was a little too quiet for comfort, and thus was sometimes capable of dropping off Raven's radar entirely. He stopped moving, waited for his sister to catch up. When Rhian finally scrambled up alongside him, he tipped his head in her direction so she could tell he was, in fact, listening to her demands. He tucked his chin down ever so slightly with a sharp jerk of his neck, a distinctly avian movement. "What are we playing?" he asked with a growing grin, tail sweeping excitedly over his heels. "If it's hide and seek, we gotta go back to the barn first." he said, shifting his weight so he could lean towards the sound of her exuberant voice and bump heavily against her. ""

Raven turned his head to look at her. Well, not "look". Rhian was well aware of what blindness was. He asked what they were playing and assumed that it was hide and seek. "It's not hide and seek, boring! Rhian could not be expected to like a game about sitting still and waiting patiently. She didn't mind seeking nearly as much because at least then she was doing something, but she did always insist that she be allowed to tackle anyone she found when she found them. And still, it was far from her favorite game. It was, well, boring.

"We're running up the hills and then rolling down as fast as we can!" she explained. "Come on, you go first. There's a nice one right there to your, uh, left-ish forward." She bounced over and stood at the base of the hill. It wasn't very tall, and there weren't even any rocks sticking out of it! But Rhian did have a surprise up her sleeve. "I'll wait down here and make sure you don't hit anything," she said. But that wasn't really her reason. Once Raven got close, she was going to tackle him. She wouldn't be content with waiting for anything unless it was violence.

He could tell from the derisive snort and soft shaking of downy fur coming from his sister, that she was absolutely not in the mood for hide and seek. Which was kinda lame. He was getting real good at seeking, since it didn’t always rely on being able to see. Rhian’s suggestion was to race up the hills of the knolls and then tumble their way back down. A curious crooning sound burbled up from his throat, and he danced a little on his oversized paws.

She prompted him to go first, directing him to a particularly nice choice forward and slightly to his left. As he plodded in that direction, he started to notice the ground sloping ever so slightly upwards under his feet. Rhian said she was going to keep an eye out and make sure he didn’t hurt himself on a loose rock or nearby shrub. A small frown crossed his features, and he hesitated. ”But then how are you gonna- “ He started to ask how she was going to play if she was going to be sitting at the bottom, and then.. boom! A collision!

A surprised Oof! was all he could manage as the wind was knocked right out of his narrow little chest. He could fight his sister off, as she slammed right into him and tackled him to the ground. Instinctively, he opened up his jaws and tucked his chin down. Waiting for her attack, he’d try and bite whatever part of her he could find in range!