Dusk was sneaky. It was easy to move around from shadow to shadow, blending in with perfect camouflage. Okay, so she wasn't perfectly camouflaged, she was just good at waiting until no one was looking. Using this tactic, the obsidian child made her way out of the castle and out of Hallowed lands, creeping away towards the walled in space nearby just to explore on her own and see something new. It was getting harder and harder to stay in one place. The girl felt as though she'd explored every inch of her packs territory and it was getting boring.

As the girl moved along the edge of the stone wall, a growl from behind her caught the girl off guard and caused her to leap forward. She saw a hole in the wall just as the boar rushed at her and she squeezed through, but didn't stop there in case the boar climbed the wall or got through the hole somehow. Dusk kept running, ducking beneath low hanging branches of the various trees now that she was within the garden.

Pain pulled a yelp from the girl as the long fur of her tail was roughly yanked. The boar had gotten her! Dusk turned to do what she could against the big beast, but was surprised to see nothing there. The girl's head tilted slightly and she looked towards her tail. A long, twisted piece of wire was wrapped in her fur. Dusk tugged at her tail and the stretch of wire came with her. She flung her tail around, trying to dislodge the wire, but instead of coming loose from it, the wire broke off of the big knot and stayed in her tail. Again Dusk whipped her tail around and this time she was surprised when the edge of the wire sliced through the leaves of a bush with an audible 'shnnk'.

Now, Dusk being Dusk, the child's mind immediately went a million miles a minute. Weapon. She'd somehow created a weapon. This was terribly interesting to the girl and for the next hour she worked on trying to master the swinging wire tail thingy that she didn't quite know what to call it yet. She'd placed a few rocks and chunks of wood on top of a fallen tree and was working on her aim, trying to snap them off of the log with her new tail wires.

"Dusk Carpathius"

Thorn was not one to go outside of pack land without permission and that meant having one of mom or dad's companions with him.  Thorn had his own companions of course, somewhere.  The fox had gone off to hunt and the cardinal had been busy showing off to the ladies of his own kind lately.  Thorn imagined the falcon far above might be his but it could be another wolf's, it was hard to tell when they were so high up.  They wouldn’t have met the stipulation of one of his parent's companions anyway and besides, Thorn wasn’t planning to leave the pack land at the moment.  At least, he hadn’t been until he caught Dusk’s scent along the edge of the land, heading into the garden.

Well, she probably had one of their parent's companions with her right?  Maybe but maybe not.  Well, if she did have one of their companions then there was no harm in Thorn going to see what she was doing.  Dusk had gone through a hole that Thorn found questionable for his own frame to squeeze through.  He’d been growing fast lately and getting stuck didn’t sound fun.  

Thorn gave up on speculating the hole with the intent to go back to where the wall allowed for entry but instead found a good spot where rocks and vines made climbing up and over the wall easy enough.  The leap down had Thorn stumble a stride, his teeth grit into the handle of his wooden sword.  Shaking out his coat he cast the wall a glance then jogged towards where the hole should be in the wall to pick up Dusk’s scent.

A nagging part of his mind warned him that right now he was neither with Dusk nor with his parent's animal companions.  How far away from the castle had she gone anyway?  He found Dusk’s scent well enough at the hole and started following it, noticing Dusks’ lengthened tracks.  Thorn went around some of the obstacles it looked like she had gone straight through.  A few branches had bits of black fur on them to show Dusk’s passing.

Finally, he heard some soft sounds ahead.  There was a thin scraping sound for just a moment and then another scraping sound.  A whistling sound of wire-slashing air came but Thorn had no concept of what the noise would be.  A flash of black was seen between the leaves of a brush and Thorn knew he’d found her. “Hey, Dusk!” Thorn charged forward, hopping over a downed tree to see what his sister was up to.  He saw something stuck in her tail but was more interested to see if any of her parents were companions with her.  

"Thorn Carpathius"

Again and again Dusk sent the length of wire slicing through the air. The hiss that it made when it flew was rather pleasing to the ears and the girls tall ears lifted and swiveled, following the sound. She found that the sound changed depending on the direction that the wire was flying in and so, as she worked on her trajectory, she also tried to match up the sound to her strikes. So focused was she on learning her new tail whip that she'd lost focus of everything else. That was the turning point for the entire day.

As Dusk spun, flinging the razor wires towards the downed tree, her brother's voice called out to her. A second later she could see his form emerging from behind the log, leaping over it in slow motion. There was absolutely nothing that Dusk could do to stop the wire from flying towards its target which, now that he was jumping over the log, was directly behind Thorn. The dark child felt her stomach clench and she thought that she called out his name in warning, but she couldn't be sure if it was her mouth or her voice within her own head that screamed.

After what seemed like days, the wire finally made contact with Dusk's brother. She could feel the reverberation in her tail that meant she'd struck something. Had he not been there, she certainly would have hit her target; the rock still sitting on the log. Instead, the sharp thorns on the wire bit into her brother instead. With the 'shnnnk' that she'd come to enjoy, the tip of the razor wire sliced right through Thorn's left ear. Dusk instantly felt nauseous as she saw the tip of Thorn's ear fly through the air and land in the grass not too far away. It took everything within the girl to stop from vomiting.

Dusk ran forward, the wire clinging to her tail and dragging in the grass. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" It hadn't been intentional at all. Thorn had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She still felt absolutely horrid. Blood gushed from the wounded ear and Dusk panicked. Tears began falling from the girl's fire opal eyes and she sobbed along with her brother, trying to stop the bleeding with her paws. It was futile. Dusk, through her sobbing, howled out for their mom. Mom would surely be able to fix this. "Let's go," she managed to speak through her tears. They could meet their mom, or anyone, on their way back to the castle.

"Dusk Carpathius"

It was a good day.  Hunting down Dusk was really a good bit of fun both because of the challenge of finding her and roaming an area he wasn’t overly familiar with.  Finding Dusk had seemed the achievement to wrap it all together for a good time but that changed fast.  Who knew a good day could turn so dark so fast?

The sound of his ear being torn off and the look of horror on Dusk’s face seemed to click in Thorn’s mind even before the pain hit a heartbeat after.  He had seen the wire coming with no notion what it was.  It reminded him of a spider web that flew along with the breeze only going faster and thicker obviously than a web. Even if he’d wanted to dodge it Thorn didn’t have a chance.  It all just happened too fast.  

Shock had time seemingly leaping in frames.  One moment he’d landed from his hop over the log.  Dusk's shock, the wire, and the pain that followed.  Then suddenly Dusk was next to him though Thorn didn’t remember her moving to get to him.  As she started to apologize Thorn realized he was listening to her around the sound of his own high-pitched keening.  Had he shrieked just moments ago?  Thorn shivered as much from fear as pain.

Dusk’s paws touched his ear and he howled louder, dropping his head and thrashing it, “don’t touch, don’t, don’t touch." the boy felt another shiver as he spotted part of his ear on the ground, "that's mine,” whispered in soft horror.  Thorn shook his head with blood flying from his ear to land all over the place and on the two kids. Some scattered part of Thorn’s mind informed him that wouldn’t help but his mind wasn’t giving him much insight on what would help and being still seemed impossible.

Dusk called for mom and the two kids were in agreeance about getting home.  Thorn planned to rush but he kept pausing, head shaking and sending blood flying.  It hurt!! The blue kid couldn’t just ignore the pain.  “Dusk,” his voice was choked as he pointed out, “It’s still stuck in your tail, you should untangle yourself before you get hurt too.”  Thorn twisted his head as if about to rub his head up against a tree but stopped himself.  It was like an extreme version of wanting to touch a sore spot on the body.  Only he wanted to rub a spot of intense pain but thankfully he was stopping himself a second before it was too late. He felt shaky and cold with no concept of what was from fear versus the injury.   Tears were spilling down his face, mixing with some of the blood also smeared it.  

"Thorn Carpathius"

Briar chuckled softly as she chatted with Marigold while they made their way out toward the God's Garden. Willow had caught her while she was on a patrol to tell her that she had spotted Dusk out in the garden and had seen Thorn leaving the territory in the same direction which had prompted Briar to go follow after her pups. While there was sure to be scolding involved and a reminder of the rules, she did intend to let them finish exploring–with the proper supervision this time of course. She never wanted to discourage her pups adventurous nature or desire to learn and explore as long as they were being safe. Plus, it gave her a chance to get for a bit herself and Marigold would get to collect some herbs and plants while they were out this way as well.

However, the gentle smile on her lips suddenly dropped and her head popped up with a panic when she heard Dusk howling for her. Without a moment of hesitation she took off at a full run to answer her daughter's call. She couldn't remember ever hearing that kind of fear or worry in her bold, headstrong daughter's voice so she already knew that something had gone very wrong. Bounding over low walls and shrubs, she followed the sound of their voices and crying, the scent of blood hitting her and making her run even faster. It was very lucky that she had already been coming this way and had nearly made it to the gardens before Dusk called so it wasn't long at all before she found Dusk attempting to stop the bleeding coming from Thorn's ear and her son shaking and trying to rub his wound.

"Thorn! Dusk!" she gasped as she skidded to a stop by them, immediately putting her paw on Thorn's shoulder to keep him still and pulled a rag out of a small pack she was wearing, using that to pressure over the sliced off part of his ear to slow the bleeding. "What happened?!" she questioned, turquoise gaze glancing between her children and spotting the piece of his ear that had been cut off with something and then soon saw the wire that had been tangled up in Dusk's tail. It wasn't terribly difficult to piece together a series of events here, but she still let Dusk speak for herself to explain. Marigold managed to catch up a moment later, breathing heavily as she hurried over to help. The antlered fox immediately began to search around the area near by, finding some herbs she could use along with the supplies she and Briar kept on hand to patch him up enough to get home.

"Briar Carpathius"

Tears. There were actual tears streaming down Dusk's dark cheeks as her mom burst onto the scene. Tears of ultimate relief. Mom would make everything okay. She would fix this. There was no doubt in the girl's mind that her mother had the power to make everything better. There was a saying, 'Mother is god in the eyes of a child' and it was very true for the soot sprite of a pup.

Ears bled a lot. Like a lot lot. Thorn was covered. Dusk was covered. The ground was covered. The girl's small paws were coated and sticky and she left prints on the unmarred grass as she stepped towards her mother. Briar asked what happened and the child whined, swallowing hard before she began to explain. "I got this thing stuck in my tail and Thorn jumped over the log and I was swinging it around and I didn't know that he was there and I hit him and his ear fell oooooff..." The child sat and sobbed loudly, guilt and regret clearly written on her tear stained face. "I killed him! It's all my fault!" Yeah, she was still young. Don't hold it against her.

As Marigold moved about, grabbing herbs and things to help, Dusk sank into a little puddle on the ground, pressing her face into the grass between her looped forelegs. She didn't want to watch her brother die. The guilt ate at her like coyotes snapping at her tail. She didn't know what to do. Thorn was going to die and it was her fault. The girl barely remembered that he'd told her to get the thing out of her tail or else she'd get hurt too, but she surely remembered as she curled her tail around herself protectively. The little razors pricked her side and she gasped, instinctively moving her tail away, but she didn't raise her face from the grass. For once, the little terror was defeated.

"Carpathius Family"

Relief flooded Thorn as mom appeared.  Mom would know what to do and fix everything.  Despite faith in his mom when she put pressure on his ear Thorn’s first reaction was his head jerking back as the sensitive torn ear demanded he avoid the pain.  After a breath, though he shoved his head against mom’s leg, staring ahead and trying to not make the tears obvious.  Tilting his head he used moms leg to try and wipe away some tears so they couldn’t be seen, then realized that would again be moving his ear when mom was trying to make it better.

Dusk’s explanation wasn’t exactly the sort to calm the worried pup.  His ear?  Thorn could feel the ear still there so knew it wasn’t his entire ear that was gone but for a moment his mind tried to imagine what he would look like without an ear.  It was followed up with a less pleasant thought as Dusk said she had killed him.

There was an awful lot of blood.  Thorn’s heart pumped fast and hard as he tried to decide if he felt like he was dying.  It hurt a lot and his blood was everywhere.  How much blood did he have anyway?  More than he had realized!  His eyes flicked back at Dusk and where she lay, the wire in her tail and head down.  He’d never seen his stubborn and annoying sister look like that and for a moment his fear turned from him to concern for his sister.  

Family protects family, always.  Even family that hurts you or is an annoyance.  “I’m not gonna die,” Thorn spoke with a stubborn voice in response to Dusk’s words.  Fearful eyes looked up at mom to make sure she agreed, swallowing and stubbornly saying it again for both of them.  “I’m not weak.  That little thing can’t kill me and I got two ears so, it's ok if ones a bit shorter.” The stubborn voice was to hide his own fears, mixed with determination.  How likely was he to die?  Damn it, not like this.  Mom wouldn’t let him die anyway.

"Carpathius Family"

Briar held pressure against Thorn's bleeding ear with the cloth despite her son's squirming and movement to get the bleeding to slow while Marigold gathered a few supplies, looking between her children as Dusk began to frantically explain how the wire that was caught up in her tail had been the weapon that had accidentally sliced through part of Thorn's ear. It was pretty much as she suspected, but of course in the eyes of little pups the event felt far bigger and more dramatic than it was. Yes, it was certainly a lot of blood and it was a more serious injury than a cut or scrape, but it wasn't life threatening by any means. Now that she was more confident in the source of all of this blood and that there wasn't any other threats other than irresponsible pups, Briar was able to relax a bit, a hint of a smile on her lips at her pups dramatics while Dusk sobbed and Thorn reassured her sister that he wasn't going to die.

"No one is dying and his whole ear isn't gone," she assured them both. Marigold reappeared then so she gently lifted away the cloth that she had held to the side of Thorn's head. The blood was starting to slow and clot a bit now so the wound was easier to see now and the antlered fox got to work cleaning up around his ear and applying some herbs to keep the wound sealed up until they could get home to stitch it together properly. Briar held Thorn still in the mean time and reached over to start untangling the wire from her daughter's tail. "This was a bad accident and it was very irresponsible, but now you know better, right?" she questioned Dusk as she pulled the wire free and tossed it aside, giving her a gentle smile she she slipped a paw under her and lifted her up to put her at her side, leaning her head down to press a kiss to Dusk's cheek and then to Thorn's. "Everyone is okay. Thorn's ear is just going to be missing a bit off the top, but it'll heal. And it'll look handsome, won't it, Thorn?"

Once Marigold was content, Briar got to her paws and started ushering both of the pups out of the garden and back toward the castle. "Alright, time to get you both back home and get you cleaned up. We'll get Aunt Gwyn to look at that ear and then I think you both need a bath before you do anything else." She had no doubt that their father would want to speak with Dusk about this too, but there were certainly things she wanted to make sure got done first–and perhaps a chance to talk to him and calm him down a bit. In the end it was just a mistake and a lesson to be learned, but that didn't mean that their little soot cloud wasn't in for at least a little bit of a punishment for it.

"Carpathius Family"