It had taken some time to realise her ambition. What had started as a fire pit outside their little house had take on another purpose as she built up the area around it with stones she had collected from the nearby grove. The slurry of mud that Otis had packed between the stones helped to contain the heat and a large piece of slate protected the small enclosed space from the flames, but radiated the heat from the flames beneath. She had used one of the jars from the witches hut as a guide as she shaped the clay with her paws. It certainly wasn’t anything to write home about, her paws poorly suited to the task, but with Otis adding the finishing touches to her piece and leaving it to air dry for a while, it was time to see if her makeshift kiln would work as she hoped it would.

She had left the fire to burn down to embers overnight and removed the dried sheet of bark she had set as a door with some trepidation, but inside, and now cool to the touch, her little jar was hard and dry. Sedna set it to the side as she set out clay for each of her children that might take an interest, and some extra besides, just in case anyone else wanted to join them. She called to the pack, inviting any who might be interested in joining her and began to work her own allocation of clay, hoping that others wouldn’t feel that they had to copy her own design. She was sure they could make all sorts of useful things with these blank blocks of endless potential.

“Speech”

we wear red so they don’t see us bleed

-lesson 1/3-

Beru heard his mother's howl and wasted no time in making his way over to where she resided.  It was important to the boy that his momma knew how prompt he could be, and how serious he took her calls.  He hadn't been doing much of anything anyways, mostly just relaxing and listening to the distant sounds of the soothing ocean.  There were a couple of times where he'd thought to go bully one of his many siblings, but the pup wasn't quite so sure that it'd be worth giving up his peace and quiet for the day.  He'd do it for momma though most certainly.

"What's those?"  The young boy asked, quickening his pace as soon as it became clear that momma had planned some sort of activity for them to all do.  "Looks like big poopoos."  he added, smelling one of the piles to make sure that it indeed wasn't poopoos before smashing one of his large paws into it.  

”Speech”  ’Thought’

Gather 'round, we can all watch the throne fall.

Wari headed her mother's call, her dark nose crinkling at the strange new smells that settled outside of their home. Mum and Otis had spent a great deal of time making some additions to the fire, though the purpose of it was lost on the cub. Still, she enjoyed watching them work from afar, picking up new information whenever and wherever she could so long as her still-short attention span could bear it. Fortunately, it seemed that today the fruits of their labor, whatever those were, would be revealed.

Beru seemed to have some.. scholarly thoughts about the lumps their mother had left, prompting Wari's lip to curl and a disgusted glance to be whipped in his direction before she claimed a chunk of her own, the biggest chunk. "What're we s'posed to be makin' mum?"

Fuji waddled onto the scene and plonked herself between her brother and sister, grabbing at the sticky brown stuff with her long and slender fingers, probing at it curiously. When. Beru’s paw slapped into the muddy blob, she giggled and wrapped her paws around her own, “Smoooshee!”

Her eyes fell on the small jar sitting in front of her mother with some interest. She had seen similar in their home, in the room where mumma kept the plants. Maybe she would make one of those for herself, so when she started learning how to fix people she would have her own little stash for the concoctions she came up with?

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Resting on the shore of the bay after a hard morning's work of collecting fish from the net, his ears tuned into the familiar call of Sedna. Once the pups had grown big enough to be released from the confines of the hut, Roo had noticed how productive and helpful Sedna really was. Curious as to what new lesson she was heading toward, the slender boy lifted himself up with a shake to rid of the sand. Traveling at a meandering pace, he reached the small group of pups who were already playing around with mounds of soft clay. Tilting his head to the side, he smiled over at Sedna with a nod before taking his own seat nearby.

As he watched the pups play with their mounds, Kuroo grabbed his own. Gingerly placing it in front of himself, he kneaded it carefully. Unsure of what it was or what they were going to do with it, he waited until Sedna would give the next direction. "Don't ruin it too much, Beru," Roo commented with a mischievous grin at the largest boy when he noticed the pup had smashed his paw into the pile.

"Speech"

Nubby tail wagging, Tachi ambled onto the scene with his eyes alight with curiosity. There was always so much going on within the bamboo, streaks of colour amongst the green as his family and clan mates went about their day. His family of course was the brightest of them all, the best of the best. Moving over to little Fuji, Tachi made a point of giving her an affectionate shoulder bump before he tried to reach over to smush her brown lump. Ma would of course give him one of his own, there were plenty to spare...but he wanted hers. Or at least for her to think he wanted hers.

"What's it for? Eating?"  He stepped aside and then went to sniff at Hima's, before finally settling down to get his own.

Nearly tripping over his own paws when the call came, at least at first, Tato had gotten pretty excited about joining his family in doing... whatever it was they were doing. Still, somewhere between here and there he got distracted. A passing bee had dragged the pup's attention off to something else entirely. With his too-big paws and paddling steps, he really couldn't help himself. He was maybe a little late in joining the rest, but that was fine. They probably wouldn't notice, right? (It was hard not to notice, of course, as the chonky lad moved to join the rest.)

They were messing with something, and it was something squishy. Squishy... Potato was down with squishy! He poked at it first, looking to Tachi as he spoke. "You should lick it!" The boy giggled, eyebrows wiggling at his brother. His head tossed, and he settled (as settled as he ever was) to poke and smoosh at the wet lump. What were they making? Was it going to be fun? Potato set about getting his paws nice and messy. Fun, fun indeed!

"Potato"

Raijin Genji

Raijin still had a lot of work to do to make their hut a home. A general structure was great and tended to keep them dry, except for the few places the bamboo didn’t fit together quite perfectly, but they still needed to flesh out more of it. There were shelves to make, furs to place, and Sedna’s clinic attached to the front still had a lot of work to be done on it. This was what he was doing when his partner’s call rang out. He’d been watching her on his breaks, prodding her for information though he had an idea as to what she was doing, but the woman kept her pretty lips sealed.

He finished up what he was doing before heading out to greet his family, finding Kuroo had joined them. His usual grin settled onto his sabered maw as he went around pressing kisses to each of their heads, minus Kuroo who got a suggestive eyebrow wiggle as is to say he could get a kiss too if he asked. The man settled down next to Tate toward the end of the line, reaching out to scoop some of the clay into his paws and place it at his feet. “It’s not for eating, kids. Your mom worked hard to put it all together. We can ruin it after she starts, not before,” he said with a wink, golden gaze traveling to the woman with a joking glint in his bright golden gaze.

Speech

Sedna struggled to contain a snort of amusement at the reactions of her little family rolling up to see what she had laid out for them (Kuroo included under that umbrella whether he wanted it or not at this point). She didn't mind the kids smooshing into the clay, they would need to warm it up anyway. When Raijin chipped in too, she gave the man a smirk. Things were working out between them, much to her surprise. It seemed family life suited them both.

Turning her attention to Himawari's question, she gave an easy grin. "Well, this thing is new, an' we need ter do some experiments, so before we go gettin' too fancy I think we should have a practice run. There's a chance whatever goes in 'ere might break while it's dryin', so let's start with somethin' small? Maybe a sculpture or some beads? A bracelet? But that might be a bit tricky, because it'll be floppy while it's still wet, an' then we'll have ter leave it ter air dry before we put it in the cooker." She would leave what each individual would make up to them, pulling her own portion of clay forwards and pressing her own paws into it. “First yer have ter make it warm, an' then push it around until yer get the shape yer want. If yer run inter trouble, ask Otis fer help, his little fingers come in handy fer stuff like this.”

“Speech”

we wear red so they don’t see us bleed

-Lesson 2/3-

The boy stuck his tongue out at Wari as she approached and placed her silent judgment upon him, then shot a wide grin toward Kuroo as he exclaimed that Beru shouldn't ruin his pile of gunk.  Others were rolling in one after another now, and it wasn't long until momma was explaining what they were going to be doing with these mush piles.  The amethyst coated boy had his mind set on making a sculpture the moment the word left his momma's mouth.  He started kneading at the material to warm it up like she had said while brainstorming what kind of sculpture he would make.  

"M' gonna make Fuji."  He spoke softly, only really intending on Fuji and Wari to hear.  "'Cuz she don't smell bad like Wari do."  the boy began quietly cackling to himself.

”Speech”  ’Thought’

Gather 'round, we can all watch the throne fall.

Wari listened intently to her mother's instructions, her mind already contemplating the possibilities as she began to warm up the clay. The difficulty of the bracelets was tempting, but the versatility of beads was even more so. Thus, the girl set to work pulling bits of clay from her large blob, and rolling them into spheres with her paw. Once she had decided they looked about right her eyes went to the ground below as she searched for a small, thin twig.

Wari found her query quickly and returned to her station, where she slipped the twig into the center of her spheres, creating a little hole for thread to be slipped through. The cub took a step back, contemplating her work for a moment before deciding that it just.. wasn't good enough. Her mind worked and worked, the gears turning so hard that even Beru's comment wasn't enough to warrant anymore than a quick peek of her tongue in his direction.

Starting over entirely, the girl removed the twig, setting it aside while she flattened out the clay sphere. From there she began tearing off the excess, framing out her shape, and smoothing the sides of what would undoubtedly be her masterpiece.

What shape did Tachi wanna make? Hmm... He glanced up thoughtfully at his Mother, his gaze then shifting to his Dad as his brows furrowed. He'd never been to the original homeland of course, hadn't even left Tojo lands just yet, but he'd heard plenty of stories.  Membered that of a long noodley dragon that soared over forests and mountains alike. Squishing his lump down, he attempted to roll it long and thin. Like a sausage, but this one would be able to control water and live forever. Not your typical worm, like those Tachi had seen wriggling and writhing after it rained.

This surely would count as a sculpture right? He was certainly sculpting, smushing and mushing the clay into shape.

Raijin Genji

Raijin listened to his partner and mother of his children explain to their brood what they were going to be doing, his golden gaze flicking over to watch the pups’ reactions. He loved the way their eyes seemed to light up at the prospect of crafting something. They truly were their children. Their little paws went to work and he watched, trying to glean inspiration for his own project from what they were doing. Beru was rolling clay into…something, whispering likely something chaotic to Wari and Fuji, Wari seemed to be taking inspiration from her mother’s suggestion and was rolling little beads perhaps for a bracelet, and Tachi was making…a worm? Well, whatever it was he’d tell him he loved it all the same.

Then, the idea came to him. He grinned a bit wider, taking his bit of clay and beginning to roll it into an oval for what he had in mind.

Speech

Kuroo stayed rather quiet as the rest of the family trotted in and began gathering their piles of clay. Even as Raijin entered and shot him a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, Kuroo smiled in return with the edges of his eyes crinkling. It felt good to be a part of a family again, even if he wasn't sure they were really blood-related or not. Pulling his pile of clay closer toward him, he listened to what Sedna had to say before he pressed his paws to the lump. Smooshing it softly until it became pliable between his toes, he carefully began moving and molding it. Truthfully, he thought it looked terrible, but he was trying. Attempting to widen it a bit more and bring up the edges to start creating a bowl, Kuroo could feel his brows knit together in concentration.

"Speech"

Beru’s words bought a snicker to the pink pups lips, giggling at her own comeback before the words even left her lips. “Yer just sayin’ that cos yer can’t smell yerself,” sticking up for her sister, while not really meaning what she said at all. Beru could make a horrible sculpture of her now and she would deserve it, but this was all just a bit of fun right?

Fuji was more interested in making something useful, so she used her long fingers to prod and pinch until she had what looked very much like a storage canister, even if the top did droop a little sadly. One day she would make her own teapot, but she knew better than to bite off more than she could chew. Her tongue poked from the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. There, that should be about right, now she just had to make a lid. She took a pinch of clay and flicked it in her brother’s direction while he wasn’t looking, trying very hard and failing to look innocently preoccupied with the task at hand, a low barely contained laugh threatening to break free from her chest.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Everyone seemed to be making great progress. It didn’t surprise her that Fuji’s creation leant itself more to healing than anything else, but the rest seemed happy to get a little creative about it. “Once yer finished, bring it up ‘ere an’ we’ll let it dry in th’ sun, an’ then later I’ll get ‘em in th’ fire fer yer. It’ll take a few days ter be done but I’ll make sure yer all get yer finished pieces.” Otis continued to roam between the gathered wolves, lending a pinchy finger here or helping to rotate a piece if the worker needed it. Once this was over, they could all go down to the bay for some fishing.

“Speech”

we wear red so they don’t see us bleed

Molding clay into an object was really difficult! Kuroo almost preferred fishing over this pottery business Senda was teaching them. His tongue would slip out slightly as his furrowed brows stared at the misshapen bowl on the ground in front of him. Could he even consider it a bowl? Continuing to smooth it out until both of his forepaws were covered in clay, it would slowly begin to resemble a bowl. Feeling the sweat drip beneath his fur, he glanced up at the pups around him. How were theirs so much better?! A bowl is what Sedna wanted right? Kuroo could say he was slightly self-conscience as he sat back to "admire" his handiwork. One could say it was a bowl, but whether or not it would hold after it was dry was the real question. Standing up and carefully carrying it over to Sedna, he smiled sheepishly at her. "Thanks for the lesson, Sed. This was a lot of fun," Kuroo chirped happily before moving to go wash off his paws.

"Speech"

Her canister was a little wibbly-wobbly, if only there was a way to make it turn so she could maintain a consistent thickness as it went… but that would have to be a consideration for another day. She took her paw and smooshed down on another piece of clay, using her dexterous paws to make it fit with the top of her jar, and then sat it off to the side.

Otis inspected her work, and with his nod of approval, she took her little container to show her mother. I hope it doesn’t ‘splode.” she said as she placed it carefully out in the sun to dry, but only time would tell.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy