Gwen peered out of the den entrance that morning with more than her usual care to peruse the weather. This was, after all, a day she had intended to be a special one. The five pups, though they had had the run of the extended den system to this point, were ready to take their first steps outside. She didn't want the day to be interrupted by an unexpected rainstorm or bear.

The mud that had been so prevalent this season had all but dried up, and even the ever-present mists of this land had burned off enough on this little knoll that it gave good visibility. A sniff at the air, a few experienced observations, told her that although they could expect rain, it wouldn't be until late that evening. By then the pups would be worn out from the adventure and ready to return to the den anyway.

It had been a bit of time since the meeting, and time had solidified her choice of names for each of the pups though she had not yet formally introduced them to the rest of the pack. There would be time for that in a couple days, once the pups adjusted to being outside. No need to overwhelm them on their first forays.

Gwenevere turned and slipped back down the tunnel to the inner room that she'd left the pups sleeping in. She doubted they were still sleeping, though without her eyes adjusted to the dark - and it was dark, this far and around a corner from the entrance that was the only source of light - she couldn't see yet to count if they were all there. She heard stirring though, from at least one pup. "Good morning, my darlings," she called out softly. "Are you ready for a bit of an adventure today?"

OOC: Vi's mention approved by Tea

Geoffrey, awake but sleepy, sat propped up against a wall with a well chewed stick clutched between his paws. His teeth were working over one end of it and there was a pile of shavings on the ground that attested to his progress. The going was slow, though, as sleep's sneaky fingers still had a good grip on the boy. Every once in a while his eyelids would droop and the chewing would stop as he dozed off. Seconds later he'd  awake with a start and begin to chew vigorously again.

His head heavy with sleep, Geoffrey fell forward onto his stick. With a gag he sat up straight and spit the stick out. He retched again then stared sourly down at the stick. Well, that was enough of that.

Grumpily he flopped over and mashed himself against Viviane who was curled up against his back. He was considering worming his way under her for extra warmth when his mother's voice echoed down the passageway. An adventure? Hmm...Geoffrey didn't know how he felt about it.

Peeking over his sister, he said warily, ”What kind of adventure?”

Cuddling against her larger sibling, the comparatively tiny and kitten-like golden Viviane was dead asleep. Not even her brother's twitchy half-asleep motions or his sudden gagging woke her - no, she just burrowed deeper against her fuzzy brother's side when he rolled over on her and gave a contented sigh at her warm blanket. Bliss.

Her mother's voice and her brother's wary question dragged her reluctantly from sleep. Without much light filtering in from the outside the pups tended to keep their own schedule rather than one dictated by day/night cycles, so despite the sunny day outside it was very much Power Nap Time for Vi. She obliged her mother, though, and blinked her eyes open with a delicate yawn. "What's a 'venture, Merry?" she mumbled sleepily to her older brother, who she knew was awake. She had full confidence in Geoffrey - Merry, she called him, since Meriadoc was easier for a pup to manage than Geoffrey and Merry easiest of all - and his intelligence, so obviously he'd know the answer. The other, older pups would know too, but she didn't know if they were awake and besides, Merry was just as smart as Artur was, he just wasn't as mean about it.

Artur had spent the morning off in one of the various side dens. The excitement of exploring the rest of the dens had long since worn off, after two weeks of being able to toddle around and having nowhere to go. Sometimes one or two of his siblings would go with him, or they'd run around en masse, but for the most part he slipped off alone more and more often. He had started by working obsessively on just walking until he stopped toddling and gained some measure of control of his oversized paws, paws that his mother had assured him meant he would be a very large wolf one day. That pleased him - what didn't make him so happy was that they were very clumsy, and tripped him up in humiliating ways when he played with his siblings. Now he'd moved on to running from one den to the next in the dark. He hit walls sometimes, not being able to see, and he tripped over his paws on the uneven ground more often than not, but he was getting better and his little puppy body was already surprisingly sturdy for a pup still in the den. It was starting to get pretty boring though, since at this point he had pretty much memorized every inch of the dark world they had inhabited since birth.

He heard his mother's voice, quiet and muffled by the earthen walls but still distinct enough, and hurried through the dark - and briefly, through the patch of light illuminated by that fascinating bright portal that his mother entered and left the den through - and back into the sleeping den. He ignored his sister's inane question (he had missed Geoffrey's question) to make a wary comment of his own. "I hope you don't mean another scavenger hunt." She'd had them go on a scavenger hunt through the den system a week ago, which had been a lot of fun for a bunch of babies who were barely toddling around but they were much too old for a boring old scavenger hunt in the dens now.