don't let life pass you by; (Croal Mountains)

In her head, Kiki was a dark, nimble hunting machine. She always imagined herself as black as night, like momma, and as swift and agile as a panther.

In reality, she was a shadow-grey hyperactive wrecking ball. Kiki had so much energy she couldn’t seem to expend it all in her waking hours, and her scrambling legs and little wiggly body testified to her (highly successful) dream-hunts. She spent most of her waking time climbing her den walls, running laps around wherever she had been told to stay put, and pouncing on anything that moved (mostly her brother and sisters).

When Firelight offered to take the pups out hunting, Kiki leapt (quite literally) at the opportunity. So far, she had spent the entire journey excitedly running out ahead, realising she didn’t know the way, and then running back to Firelight. On repeat. Her endless motion was only halted when she fairly frequently tripped on her own oversized paws and faceplanted into the soil, but each time only briefly.

On this occasion, she came hurtling back towards the group just as her sister Astrae was pointing out a grapevine up in a tree. Kiki automatically turned her nose up to look at it but didn’t adjust her speed. The natural consequence of this was that she barrelled straight into Nanshe, who undoubtedly would have something else to complain about now. Kiki tumbled head over heels and landed face-first into the earth for the fiftieth time in as many minutes, only this time with her sister on top of her.

“Uhh sorry,” she admitted cheerfully. “But also, get your butt off me.”