-Summer Sun-

Laying on her back as she was, Firelight watched as Astrae came bounding her way with all the energy and confidence of the months-old pup she was. Fire herself was already panting from the ongoing wrestling match that the youngster had initiated a few minutes ago, but dutifully obliged the other's antics with a friendly, inviting wave of the tail and a 'bite' to Astrae's forearm that wouldn't have hurt a fly.

The youngster herself dove maw-first against her adversary, gnawing at Firelight's leg in return while pinning her upper body against the babysitter's chest. "G've up y't?" She growled between a mouthful of Firelight's fur.

Nearby, Nanshe watched her sister continue to maul the smaller of their two very tolerant pup-sitters this evening. Laying flat out on her belly with her forepaws stretched before her and her muzzle resting between them, she heaved a loud, drawn out sigh.

"Why don't you join them, Nan?" Only a stone's throw from the youngster, Waterlily had heard the pup's exasperated breath.

Nanshe's ears planed to the side, not even gracing a look in the direction of their other nanny, "I'm hungry."

Waterlily smiled sympathetically. She was hungry too, but the pack was struggling to find adequate food for the growing pups and disabled elders, even if Iopa's recent passing had meant there was one less mouth to feed in the pack. "I know darling. Why don't you check the creek, and see if you can't find any mudbugs? I'm sure Fire and Astrae would love to join you."

The immediate scowl that darkened Nanshe's face summed up how she felt about that, even before she could grumble a reply back, "I don't want mudbugs. I want real meat."

Much further from the others, out of sight and half curled beneath the cover of a currant bush, Lakona listened idly to the voices that drifted her way. And when her cloudy-gray ear twitched vaguely in the direction of Nanshe's lamenting, it wasn't out of interest in what the pup was saying, it was to dislodge a fly that had settled on her sensitive aud. She could sympathize with the youngster though, if only because her own belly was woefully empty after back-to-back failed hunts. But between the driving hunger and the heat of the waning day, Lakona did not have the energy to entertain any of the pups, and would have been happy to remain hidden away from them if not for the sudden, soft crunch of pawsteps that sounded nearby.

The young she-wolf raised her head and peered through the thorns and leaves of her resting spot. She blinked, then narrowed her brown eyes until the other's white-furred form came into focus through the dense foliage.

'Agarian.'. It was just her brother.

Lakona might have tucked her head back down and continued her nap at that point, if not for the bit of meat she saw dangling from her sibling's jaws. It looked old, whatever it was, but it brought an immediate grumble to her belly and grabbed her full attention. Quietly, the wolfess retracted herself from her shrubby nest. After Agarian had moved past the currants, she stepped out and began to follow after.

None-the-wiser, Agarian plodded along, his lanky alabaster tail hanging loose behind him, whil his steps were heavy and exhausted. Like the others, the brute's already leggy frame was looking a little gaunt, but he didn't stop to eat the bit of meat he'd found. Instead, he carried it to the hillside where the two nannies were looking over the pack's youngsters, and dropped the near-rancid meat to the ground. "It's not much, but it's a bite or two each if you guys share. No fighting, now."

Some distance from them, a howl from Stormrunner carried through the forest. He was assembling the pack again, preparing for another hunt as dusk approached.

Before Waterlily had the chance to distract Nanshe's hanger or offer a new suggestion, the nearby crunch of leaves whipped the nanny's attention in a different direction. She was just getting to her paws to investigate when Agarian emerged into the clearing, carrying what looked like a week-old scrap of road kill. The wolfess visibly relaxed and offered the other a brief, welcoming wag of the tail. "It looks like you've had some success at least. Where'd you find that?"

Firelight had briefly paused in her wrestling match with Astrae to watch the upside-down arrival of her brother and the scrap of old meat that hung so tantalizingly from his maw. But though she licked her lips and acknowledged the pang of hunger that gnawed at her belly, Fire didn't scramble forward. The little wolfess rolled over and nudged Astrae instead, "We'll pick up where we left off later. I think we were tied..?"

Astrae grinned at the other, her lanky tail whipping back and forth as much for the thought of continuing their playdate as it was for the upcoming meal, "Nope, I was winning!" Without another word, she bounced forward, running up to Agarian with appeasingly flattened ears and a lowered tail.

Nanshe was already there, snatching one end of the meat between hungry teeth. It wasn't long before the two were tugging and thrashing at the scrap, clearly ignoring their elder cousin's warning.

"Lucked upon a coyote's cache." Agarian answered, with an almost apologetic look to his eyes. He knew his sister's friendly stance towards their smaller cousins, but food for the pups was too high a priority to overlook such an opportunistic find. To Astrae, one of the five little reasons he'd pilfered the coyote's stash, he offered the youngster a brief kiss of the tongue to her forehead. He then stepped back as the two sisters immediately ignored his rules to engage in a tug-o-war match.

"Easy, now." He chided, without making any attempt to step in and break up the scuffle just yet. As long as the tussle didn't get too violent, Agarian wasn't keen on spending the extra energy he didn't have to discipline two starving pups. There was an upcoming hunt to worry about after all, one which he answered his father back by turning his pale maw to the sky and sending up a howl of his own.

The moment Agarian's dial went up and his focus turned, Lakona swept in. The copper-splashed wolfess darted past her larger brother. With movements that would impress a fleet-footed jackrabbit, she snagged a hold of the meat and shook her head violently to try and dislodge the two youngsters. A fierce growl that was definitely not like the friendly rumbles Firelight had been given earlier, was issued for fair measure, warning her two little cousins that she meant business...

Agarian's gentle reprimand went in and right back out the collective ears of the two pups. The pair tugged and thrashed at the scrap of old meat, offering impressive growls and baring their pearly white fangs, with neither willing to back down. Waterlily was just about to stand up and offer advice when a flash of movement caught her eye.

Like a swallow in pursuit, Lakona had zipped past her brother, snatched the meat, and tore it from the mouths of the adolescents without missing a step in her stride. Astrae had immediately recoiled from the unexpected assault, while Nanshe had clung determinedly to the food for a second or two before losing her grip and tumbling across the ground.

Firefly was on her paws in a heartbeat. "Kona!" A rare, if quieted growl of surprise was issued, "That was for the pups!"

Waterlily was a little slower in rising to her paws, "The children need that more than us right now." Instead of moving to intercept Lakona though, Lily stepped towards the pups, checking to see if both were okay.

Agarian stood shocked for a moment. Maybe it was a lack of energy, or possibly just surprise at what his sister had pulled, but either way the wolf had stalled for a few wide-eyed moments as Lakona sprinted out of the clearing and across a nearby stream, ignoring condemning words of the females. And then anger hit him, and his hackles rose. "Lakona!" He called out, but Lakona didn't answer.

The wolfess beat feet, splashing across the stream and vaulting up the opposite bank with the prize clutched tight between her jaws. The words of her fellow packmates meant little compared to the bit of food she'd just earned, and why shouldn't she have it? She was part of the pack, and she needed her strength to help defend and hunt for food, too. At Agarian's harsh bark, Lakona ran further, putting the creek far behind her as she sought to make the chase not worth their effort for what little scrap of food she'd stolen.

Agarian had given brief chase. Leaving Waterlily to console his little cousins, the brute charged across the creek after Lakona with his tail held stiff and his muzzle wrinkled in fury. But by the time he'd climbed the bank, the she-wolf was already bounding down a distant slope, and heading into thicker brush. Agarian was left panting, his legs already tired from endless miles of hunting and scavenging. That little scrap had been the culmination of an en entire night of searching. He hesitated, muscles tense and ready, but ultimately didn't follow.

By the time Agarian sauntered back to the clearing, his tail was hanging loose and listless, but the anger had faded from his pale maw. "Nanshe, Astrae - you guys okay?"

Astrae had her tail tucked with confusion between her legs, watching as Lakona sprinted away across the stream, and up over the ridge until she was out of sight. The black and white checkered youngster shuffled towards the approaching Waterlily, seeking the sitter's assurance with a quieted whine, "Why did she take it?" She looked back to Nanshe, then up at Lily, "Is it because we were fighting?"

Nanshe likewise had her tail tucked, but her ears were planed out at the sides in irritation, and a harsh frown muddled the otherwise confused look that graced her stormy-gray face. Still, even the spicy, heat-wearied and food-starved Nanshe slunk towards Waterlily for safety after the startling attack. She didn't press herself up against Lily's forelegs as Astrae did, but she did sit down near her, shoulders hunched and head low as she watched Agarian briefly give chase to his sister, "Lakona is just a bug, butt-headed meanie." When he'd stopped short and returned, a still-glowering Nanshe huffed back, "No, I'm still hungry!"

With both adolescent under her proverbial wing, Waterlily went about giving them each a few consoling licks, "Kona is hungry, like the rest of us. Sometimes being hungry can make us grumpy and make bad decisions." She answered patiently, "It was not nice of her to take your food, but we'll find you more."

The end of Firelight's tail curled slightly, reflecting her own quiet irritation with her sister's antics. She had half a mind to stalk her down and offer a lecture, but thought better of it and turned to the pups, "Why don't we go scavenging? There's a few places I haven't checked yet, we might be able to come across some grub for ourselves while the others hunt."

The sharp rustle of leaves and twigs sounded in the distance, marking Lakona's path of flight until it eventually faded from hearing. Agarian bottled his anger for the time being, but as Waterlily has so diplomatically pointed out, the heat and the stress of a prolonged empty belly made it more difficult than usual to temper his feelings. He wanted to growl, to howl out and demand Lakona return. He wanted to bite something.

Agarian stepped past Nanshe and Astrae, noting the former's complaint, and seeing that neither were worse for wear after their short brush with Lakona. Part of him wanted to snap back that he was hungry too, but the wolf had enough composure to stop himself. An ear swung back at Firelight's suggestion, while the other remained forward, listening for the approach of his father.

"I'll send Hawk with you." His comment was a little distracted as his thoughts were taken by hypothetical discussions with Lakona. "We'll clear it with dad, but a short excursion with the young isn't a bad idea, as long as you all get back before the hunt this evening." He turned back around, looking to his sister and Lily, though his gaze was not really focusing on either.

"I wish I were bigger." Nanshe rumbled back to Waterlily, "Then I would have fought Kona and made her submit." A scowl remained on her face, accented by the bright rings of white fur that encircled both eyes. "And I wouldn't give her even a bite of food!"

Firelight smiled sympathetically, understanding the youngster's ongoing ire, as well as seeing the pent up aggression her brother was carrying now. Of all the siblings, Agarian seemed to bear the weight of Kona's increasingly antisocial behavior. Tending to both their prickliness, she turned dark, amber eyes between Nanshe and Astrae while speaking aloud for her brother's benefit, "Lets forget about Lakona for now, I'm sure Storm will have a talk with her. We don't we head to the mountains, and see if we can find any grapes?"

Astrae was listening to her sister grumble about Nanshe, and had been about to chime in with her own opinions when Agarian and Firelight stole her attention. Her tail began to wag anew. "Can we really? Yeah!! I want to go find some grapes! What are they, and do they taste good?"

Waterlily tagged in now to expedite the outing, sensing as much as seeing the aggravation Agarian carried, and knowing Nanshe needed a fitting distraction, "I'll go check with the others, see if they want to join us. We'll be back before dusk." She nodded to Firelight before turning to lope towards the densite, "Fire, I'll meet you out there."

With the pupsitters engaging the little ones, Agarian was left to handle the tactical side of things. He made note of where his sister was going with the pups, then lifted his gaze to Waterlily when she offered to help with. He nodded, dipping a tan-splashed muzzle as he acknowledged her, "Thanks, that'd be helpful." He then carried onward, flicking an ear back briefly to Astrae's innocent comment about wild grapes. If he wasn't already so riled up by Lakona, he might have smiled at the youth's excitement. As it was, he did speak out once more, before heading out to rendezvous with Stormrunner, "Good luck on your berry hunt. And stay safe - don't stray too far from the territory."

-Summer Sun- (Aspen Grove)

~Riders of the Storm

~Riders of the Storm~

-Summer Sun-

~Riders of the Storm~

-Summer Sun-

~Riders of the Storm~

~Summer Sun~

~Riders of the Storm~