Already, the memory of the day she had thrashed her impatient way into the world was fading. Along with it, time had tempered the lingering scent of blood on her pelt, and the extraordinarily distant recollection of a warm and sheltered hideaway seemed to belong to someone other than the bumbling little pup whose freshly opened eyes drank in the world around her. Every new blade of grass and wayward stone held an intense air of mystery about it that bid her pause, and she would stop and sniff gluttonously as though her hunger for knowledge would never be sated. Only a sharp nudge administered by the tall male behind her kept her trotting along grudgingly, tiny growls of protest spilling from her jaws as she did so. The little female did not really understand the purpose of the others who dogged her pawsteps, she knew only that they were always there and that, at least for the moment, without them she would not be able to survive. Her favourite among the group was by far the miniature ebony male, although he offered her neither protection nor milk as the taller ones did. She liked him for his spirit though, for his sense of adventure and his unfailingly handsome face. Of all her siblings, he was the only one who could rouse her from a nap to follow him into the unknown until those tireless jaws brought them back to their den.
However, the white fatale paid him little heed as the four youngsters were pushed towards an unfamiliar destination, so immersed was she in her surroundings. The world stroked her arousingly, calling her to shrug off the shadows that held her down and run into the yonder. She yelped, surprised at the heat in her tiny breast, and veered away from the flanks before her to disappear into the grass. Her plan was once more thwarted though, and she snarled as angrily as she could while she was lifted from the soil and dumped unceremoniously back onto the path. After that, she did not try to leave again, but her black and cerulean eyes smouldered with a rage rare for one of her tender years and she snapped sulkily at the silvery tail of the second eldest pup in the litter. When he did not react, she let him be and focused on keeping up with the group.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity had come and gone again, the dark female that led them slumped to her side on the earth. A soft and cloying scent filled the nostrils of the young Kairos, and she scrambled forward gleefully, pushing past her brothers in an effort to reach the teats first. After a lot of shoving and growling they settled to their meal, too preoccupied to notice that one of their ranks was unaccounted for. Even their dam failed to notice that her darkling was missing, for she was engaged in conversation with two strangers whose scents the youngsters noticed only when their mother rose and left them whining in the dust. Struggling to her chubby paws, Kairos made her way towards the closest of the two, a white male as tall as the one who protected the milk-giver, and yet somehow not half as imposing. She squared her stance, looked up into his eyes and lifted her tail challengingly, every inch Stella's daughter. She was perfectly aware that he could snap her up in a single bite, yet somehow she understood that he would not, for her sire and dam frightened him. She remained like that a moment, asserting herself, before she lost interest and began to stalk a grasshopper whose tiny brown wings clicked noisily as he preened, the boring world of the grown forgotten in a burst of childish exuberance.
(OOC: HTML and pic to come
note: KAIROS IS NOT THE WOLF IN THE PICTURE:p)
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