To the right!  To the left!  The great and mighty snow-shark was training.  He had found new grounds to do this on, where the snow was even deeper.  The little boy could fully cover himself in snow.  Learning to measure the distance of others by scent and hearing, and to dig a little further ahead so he could breathe without giving away his position, he was armed and ready.  He thought he was pretty darn sneaky.  Earlier, he had done some scouting, spotting a little family of bunnies.  There was a mama, a daddy, and three youngsters.  'Mama's gonna be so proud!  In your face, Tibby!'  The child wanted to be the prince of the pack, he wanted to be the best!  He wanted to learn how to hunt on his own. Wriggling beneath a blanket of fresh snow, he burrowed closer to the bunnies.  The daddy of the bunch pricked his ears, and the snow-shark froze in place.  Not even a movement was made.  The boy's breath hitched, afraid that if he even blinked, his meal would escape.  As soon as the boy was sure the bunnies were back to scavenging again, he pressed onward, wiggling.  But this time, he drifted off somewhere else, and the bunnies disappeared in a flurry of kicks and squeaks.  Popping up from the snow, the pup's head peeked out from it, huffing furiously.  "I gut yoo smomday!"  For just a moment, a tiny little salmon tongue peeked out from his lips, before he reeled it back in, resting his chin on the snow.  Someone could say a little raincloud floated above his head. "Speech" 'Thoughts'

Bacchus was growing at an impeccable rate, the only other pup to hold a candle to his growth was Tiburtius. He had yet to fill in yet and so the five month old was practically all leg. This would make for some difficulty getting around in tall snow were it not for the absolutely gigantic feet he wore at the end of them. His paws would act as snowshoes, and almost as gracefully as the sly fox Bac would walk elegantly along in the snow. The young Armada boy had no destination in mind while strolling about the forest, he could have been doing lessons or honing his tracking skills, but today just seemed like a day to relax. Even he had to rest sometimes, but even as he flitted about with no goals the sight of rabbits spilling from their den would excite him. Eagerly the young wolf would make chase. The first two were now out of sight, a smaller and large rabbit. Three remained however, two smaller and one quite a bit bigger. Of course that was the rabbit that Bacchus wanted. With a look of ferocity on his features the boy would explode with a burst of speed after the creature, his bright eyes wild as his feet tore through the deep snow. The rabbit would fly ahead of him, but would run into a bout of bad luck as he hit a patch of ice and lost control of his movements. Bacchus would easily leap over the frozen water, his paws landing inches from the rabbit's scrambling backside before the silver wolf's jaws would close around his body. With a triumphant cry Bacchus would raise his head in the air, waving the still squirming hare in the air like the trophy it was. Very much oblivious to his brother who had made the catch possible. ""

Out of the corner of his mismatched eyes, he could see a familiar leggy figure dash across the snow.  In moments, his brother had stolen his catch!  No fair!  Little Aeschylus would not have any of this!  Puffing out his chest, the snow-shark crawled out from his hiding place and began to tromp over to his brother.  "Wooh do yoo thinf yoo are, Baccy?"  In his mind, he looked pretty darn mean looking, teeth bared, ears pinned, chest puffed, tail sticking up...  but in reality, it was pretty underwhelming.  The boy didn't know.  Mismatched orbs watched in awe as the rabbit struggled, and he pawed at it meekly.  "Why yoo make it suffer mowre than it hass too?"  What good came from suffering?  If the boy could even come close to catching anything, he'd at least spare it the pain!  This wasn't fair for anything. The strong always preyed on the weak -- why couldn't the weak ever stand up to it?!  "Baccy, that was my wittle hawnt.  The bunnies run off when I make too much noiwse.  Then yoo come and cawtch one!"  To add dramatic effect, he added a bit of pizazz to the beginning and ending words of each sentence, and acted it out. Bounding in place for the bunnies, giving little growls for noise, and bounding for Bacchus.  The little boy made a 'hmph!' noise and plopped down, puckering his bottom lip in disgust. "Speech" 'Thoughts'

Suddenly his brother was there, obviously quite upset with the catch he'd made. Hey if you snooze you lose, gotta always be on your game. However, he saw no reason for Aes to be upset, he was only taking an opportunity that was presented him. He'd lower his head back down, the rabbit still twitching, as his littermate drew more near. Bacchus wouldn't take much notice of his puffed up appearance, already being so much bigger than his brother. He would tilt his head in curiosity at the next words though, he was making the thing suffer? It was just a piece of food.. it didn't feel anything.. did it? He would try and speak to defend himself and in doing so would bite down much harder on teh creature in its mouth, succeeding in ridding it of its life. The boy would place the carcass at his feet, ridding his mouth of its presence so he could speak. "I wasn't sure how to kill it," He'd say innocently, already long rid of his puppy speech. He would watch as Aes made a crazy show of his actions, ending in a pout. "You'll just have to be quieter next time, huh?" He would comment, his heart not hurt at all by the statement or protruding lip. If he wanted to catch the rabbits he was just going to have to make himself better, that's what Bacchus did. ""

Tightening his hold on the bunny, the teeth seemed to end the bunny's suffering, and Aes let some relief wash over him.  "Tooby honest, Baccy.  I don't know either."  A nervous chuckle escaped inky lips as the pup leaned down low to sniff the bunny, just to make sure it was dead.  The boy's brother was so far ahead of him, sometimes it made him jealous... and sometimes it made him happy to know that his brother was someone who looked out for him.  Truth be told, the prince wasn't quite sure if it was because he was the big brother or not...  sometimes it was hard to tell.  Hopefully it wasn't the latter. The boy shrunk into the snow, slowly burying himself in it.  "I try to make myself better at things.  It juwst never comes.  I don't know what I'm meant to do.  How do I be a wolf, Baccy?"  What did being a wolf mean?  What was it supposed to look like?  Feel like?  Mama always seemed so busy lately...  being the heir of whatever pack they were in.    She never was around much, and Amalia wasn't the same as her.  Little Aeschylus needed someone to guide him and help him out a bit.  What would he do as an adult?  There were so many paths, of good and evil...  Did he want pack duties? Many questions would swim through the young lad's mind, a look of pure confusion crossed his features, ears flicking as if that would help find an answer in the wind.  "I'm just trying to figure out what I'm meant for, that's all, Baccy." "Speech" 'Thoughts'

Aes would confess his lack of knowledge as he leaned down to sniff at the rabbit Bacchus had amazingly caught. Really it shouldn't have been possible for him, but there it was laying at his feet all so dead. It really wasn't much of a wonder why Bacchus was so far ahead developmentally from his brother, he'd wander off for those few weeks and had barely made it home. He'd grown up a lot during that time. Even still, Bacchus was still a very young pup and lacked much of the knowledge it would take to make it in this world. It seemed his words had more of a detrimental effect than Bacchus had anticipated. Aes would sink to the ground, obviously disheartened by the words. Bacchus would tilt his head in confusion, he hadn't learned or progressed at any skill? Surely that wasn't right, and his brother was only being hard on himself. "You worry too much." He would say, rather bluntly. "Just try your best, and do what you like." The white marked boy would shrug the conversation off easily. Aes was just thinking way too hard about life and things.. Though Bacchus didn't really understand not getting things. He usually didn't have to try very hard to accomplish his tasks. Though he did tend to avoid subjects he was not so talented at... ""