Walk | Talk | Think The kids seemed to be settling in nicely to their new home. Rune was glad; they might not have spent a whole lot of time on Nephilim Island but it had been where they were born and was in essence everything they knew. It would have made sense for them to express some sort of homesickness, and in a way Rune had anticipated it. But they were adjusting well, exploring and giving their parents a challenge as they tried to keep up with all three of them. It surprised him just how strong they were, how adaptable they could be to the changes imposed on them by their parents. It made him proud and eager to see how they might be when they were older, what sort of wolves they would grow into. But with the move had come about a new trait that, while in itself was good, was a sore point of worry for Rune: independence. Already the tenuous safety that he had been working hard to ensure had been tested, severely so, and it was only by sheer luck Eirik had managed to get away from the large snow leopard, a story his son was a little too keen on bragging about. There was no way to prevent others from wandering upon their family completely as things were - Mount Volkan was unclaimed territory after all - and the only way he could see that might clearly remedy the situation was to move yet again into some other pack lands. They had only just made it to his old home, however. It was too soon for him to consider rehoming them a second time so quickly after the first. Not to mention there was no pack, at least to his knowledge, that appealed to both what he and Alamea wanted and desired for their family. As a means to try and settle the children's need to explore and his own need to guard them the young father had decided to take them on a much needed tour of the mountain so that they could learn where the safe boundaries were within and around the one he had set up for them. It was still relatively early in the morning, well before midday, and all the better. He wanted to be sure they had enough time for their wandering and still accommodate whatever crazy shenanigans the kids would get into along the way. "Are we about ready?" he asked of the group at large, sitting within the open space just outside their den. Boy were they getting big. Before long he would need to expand the den, or consider carving them out their own. A smile began to grow across his face as he watched them expectantly, adding after a moment, "Let's not keep the mountain waiting."

Her father's concerns were far from unfounded. Warja had taken up exploring the mountainside by herself, even going so far as to venture into other territories. It was unlikely that he was going to show her anything new today, but she relished the adventure anyway. The young wolf was sure her parents were aware of her travels, but she doubted they knew the extent and wasn't going to give up that information voluntarily. It would only worry them. Yawning, Warja banished sleep with a deep breath and slowly got to her paws. She stretched her paws out in front of her, bending down in a cat-like pose before reversing the action and stretching out her back legs. Once she was thoroughly stretched out the young wolf padded towards her father and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek. "I'm ready." Something had been weighing on her mind a lot lately. Reuniting with Kismet had been wonderful, but learning of his captivity had not. That, combined with her natural inclination to protect, had sparked a desire to better herself. She'd "fought" plenty with her siblings, but it was now time to learn about the real thing. At the very least she wanted to be able to defend herself, but if it were within her ability, Warja wanted to master the art and extend its protective benefits to others. Already she was unsatisfied with sitting by and doing nothing; Kismet's refusal of her help bothered her to no end. "Daddy?" Even though she was perhaps too old for it now, the term of endearment was still heavily preferred by Warja. "Do you think, maybe, I'm old enough to learn how to fight?" She believed herself to be more than ready, but that was another matter entirely. "Speech"

Keiki had not gone wandering quite the way her sister had, but she had explored quite a bit of the volcano by now, even discovered some of what lay beyond its base. Still she wanted to see more and meet more wolves, especially now as her speech was getting better, she and her mommy had been working on it. The girl of course was not aware of her father?s call but she was aware of the jostling going on around her, both from her siblings and her mother. Giving a little whine in protest she finally gave up holding onto sleep and stretched, limbs shaking some as they hyper extended for a moment. Then rolling to her paws she blinked the sleep from her eyes. Already showing signs that she would end up being taller than her mother she was bigger than her sister. Padding groggily from the den she approached her father and nosed at his shoulder, and then moved around to her sister with a big grin, pressing up against the smaller girl she seated herself unspeaking. Her tail beating the ground in anticipation, they were going to do something all together today, which meant it was going to be a good day. "Speech"

Walk | Talk | Think His girls were the first ones out of the den and watching them wake up to greet him was more than enough to get him smiling widely and proudly. It amazed him just how quickly they had grown, how they were growing. A whole season had passed since their birth and now they were on into their second, and it showed. They were no longer the cute, round little balls of energy and fluff that they once had been after their birth, trying out their new mobility and then testing their speech. They were getting taller, thinner, just beginning to take on that lankiness of youth, and they were starting to sound and act more mature. As much as he loved them this way he knew they would only continue to mature and grow, continue on even until they were his age and he much older. Had his own father been intimidated by how quickly he and his siblings had aged? It would have been nice to ask. The beautifully-colored Warja was quick to place a kiss against his cheek, and lowering his head enough to more readily accept the gesture Rune returned the sentiments with a soft and careful nuzzle behind her ear. They might have been bigger than they had been, but it was still hard for Rune to let go completely of the tenderness he had picked up when they had been much smaller. The gesture was repeated to Keiki as his drowsy, blue-eyed miniature wandered over to nose at his shoulder before offering her own silent greeting to her sister. That made both girls up and about. Frosty blue eyes shifting back to the den, Rune called out sternly to their lazy brother, "Eirik! Let's go." He really needed to get over his habit of sleeping in. An ear turned and the rest of the burly grey wolf's head followed as he heard his smallest daughter speak to him. Daddy. It still surprised him sometimes how quickly he had gotten used to his new name, and how quickly he answered to it. He had been expecting some sort of question to relate to their expedition today, maybe a question as to what they would see or how far they would go. Instead, his petite little girl surprised him. Fight? Of all of them he would have figured Eirik would be the one to jump on that first. Warja beat him to it. "Do you think you're old enough to start learning?" he queried, turning the question back around on her slightly. Was she ready to begin that sort of training? She must have been, Rune supposed, since she had brought it up. In fact, it probably would do them all some good to learn a little of it. "We can start today, if you want?" Being skewed toward fighting himself, he was impressed his daughter wanted to learn about it and was more than willing to share what knowledge he could. He only hoped that her mother would be okay with it.

Walk | Talk | Think

Movement jostled the stubborn boy where he lay but still he refused to budge. Keiki and Warja were waking and rising around him, stretching the sleep from their bodies, and all the while he continued to lay sprawled on his side, the only stretch he made being one to fill the empty space of the den that was now afforded to him. In no way was he an early bird or a morning person, and often times, as now, he was the last up and out of the den. Laziness his father called it. Eirik just loved the feeling of being able to sleep in which ever position he wanted without kicking or hitting or nudging someone else, and he took advantage of the empty den every chance he could get.

His rosy pink eyes were still closed as he breathed out in a sigh, absently listening to the shuffle of his sisters' paws as they left him to go answer their father, though after a moment, likely in which Rune must have figured out his boy had not reacted to his initial wake up call, he heard the large grey male speak up again, this time more sternly than before. Even in his pretend state of sleep Eirik wrinkled his nose and clenched shut his eyes. Darn mornings and them being so busy. At least that half a minute counted for something.

Grumbling quietly to himself - quiet enough, he made sure, for Dad not to hear - the grey pup with the black ears and paws grudgingly rolled onto his stomach and dragged himself to his feet, taking a moment to stretch and loosen up as both sisters had earlier. Ah, that felt better. With a shake of his growing frame, Eirik finally ventured out of the den and over where Rune, Keiki, and Warja stood. His jaws opened in a wide yawn and he closed them with an audible click as he managed a wag of his tail and a curious smile. "Start what?" he asked, only catching the tail end of the conversation that had been taking place outside without him. What was his dad going to start doing?

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Alamea would normally have been one of the first to answer her mate but it had come to attention that her only son wasn't always up at a decent hour. So as Rune woke and and the girls stirred she stayed where she was, chuckling as she waited for the boy to stir. She gently nudged him from time to time but seemed to yield no results. Finally he seemed to stir, and she slowly rose to her paws, shook herself out and followed her son out of the den. "Yes, start what?" she echoed brushing up against Rune and nosing at his cheek, before greeting each of her kids with a quick lick, on Eirik and Keiki who were quickly over taking her in height she kissed at their shoulders and licked her little Warns on her head before returning to her mate and pressing into him, looking at her three gorgeous children. Talk like this