Lonely from their years of humidity and quiet as the trees they came from ;;

Like any young rebel, Arc chose not to believe his mother. In his eyes, everything she said was not to be believed. She wasn’t to be trusted and anything she said was hogwash. But sure, in time, Arc would grow up to believe every little thing his mother told him. That was all part of the learning process. But right now, Arc was too interested in defying the rules and testing his mother’s patience. He wanted to see how far he could push her until she would no longer give in. Unfortunately for Arc, sleep overtook his will to fight back.

When the morning sun peaked over the horizon, Moose was the first one of the pair to wake. Normally Arc was first up and begging to be fed, but he was extra tired last night. It seemed that his near death experience really knocked him off his feet, pun intended. When Moose encouraged him to get up, he complained for a few minutes before he sprawled out his small legs and hoisted himself up on all fours.

As soon as he was standing, he headed straight for his mother’s teat where he latched on and began to suckle quickly, drinking his breakfast as if his mother never fed him (which was not the case at all. Arc was well fed). But when he heard his mother say that they were going to go exploring, he left his breakfast station and slowly turned to look at his mother with a big, bright grin. “You mean it?! We are going to explore?” Arc was acting like a child on Christmas morning. It was like he was looking at a large package just begging to be opened.

Apparently, Moose wasn’t up and moving fast enough because before Moose could start them in the right direction, Arc was circling her at a quick canter. It was like all the energy he had lost the night before had be rejuvenated and he was finally ready to go again. He nipped at her heals, encouraging her to get started. Anything to do with exploring got him interested and excited. Deciding to try and teach Arc a little about the forest by incorporating his likes and dislikes was smart on her part. The more Arc was interested in the activity, the more likely he was to actually listen to her, and listening was just half of the battle. The other half was getting Arc to do as she said. That would take a little more work.

Arc was beginning to get rather frustrated with his mother when she just stood there, watching him circle her. “Come on mom! Let’s go!” He finally slowed his pace until he was staring at his mother, standing directly in front of her. He glared at her with a look that dared her to start moving. He was never one to be very patient.