Falling Petal. Sweet Flower.

So long passed with the development of Fiora. Her paws grew beyond ability to handle. Head felt heavier than it should have been. Though, it was all part of the nectar provided for such a thing to take place. She slept less. More curious of the world as the need to fulfill a mental feeding for knowledge.

Petal would find herself wandering away from the safety of the den. Stretching free into the world she knew so little about. Each day showed promise of something new, however. The first time the young flower left she happened upon a beautiful butterfly. Its wings a soft orange and deep black. For hours she played with it. Nearly traveling too far from home. Before, realizing such a thing and going back.

Today was different. There were a variety of plants growing just off in the distance. Various colors calling out to the young pup. Each one holding a secret of their own. It didn’t take much for her to wobble off on enlarged paws. Movement a bit uneven due to the lack of use. Yet, that didn’t stop her at all.

Nose scented at the air. Ground. And, soon buried into the bed of flowers. Engulfed inside their overwhelming smells.
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He wasn't asleep though it could appear he was such from a stranger's point of view, laying amongst wildflowers and thick, lush grass which waved above him with the cool breeze, Nikolai remained alert and attentive of his surroundings—they were his temporary confines, after all, taking refuge where he could access water without much of a travel and pluck up the fat little creatures which scurried around the foliage. He planned on moving soon enough, perhaps back to where he'd been coughed up, the bluffs, but this would be a thought process he tucked away when the light footfalls ofsomeone quirked his head upright, attention honed and his eyes quick to find the disturbed flowers where something out of sight lay.

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^^Harper awoke with a groan as she stretched and immediately curled around her brood to realize that one — the most important one — was not curled by her side like she ought to have been.

Ah, right; the children couldn’t stay as perfect little potatoes forever, and would eventually come to be curious about the Outside. The Outside, which had dangerous birbs to gobble up children, and other horrors that would make do with a smol child.

Emerging from the den, the first thing that came upon her was the scent of a strange male of mixed blood. It was not hard to spot him, and Harper quickly moved to hover over her daughter with an affectionate nuzzle as she eyed him with the rising of her hackles.

“Фиора, дорогая, тебе нравится Снаружи?” — Fiora, dear, are you enjoying the Outside?

^^
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She picked a few. Flowers now clutched between puppy teeth. Fangs not once piercing the stems themselves. She desperately wanted to show mother. The beauty of them brought a warm smile to her face. Padding slightly along to find more. Occasionally losing grip of momentum and stumbling forward.

It didn’t matter, however. She was too preoccupied. Fiora smiled. Butterfly fluttering ahead and away from the curious pup. That was, until her mother appeared. Nuzzling lovingly into the smallness of her body. Nearly knocking Petal over.

What was going….

A scent brought her to realize that @Harper had spoken to someone. Another she hadn’t noticed. Until now.

Words gone and vanished. Tongue held by the mix of curiosity and fear. She chose best to hide beneath her mother. Peaking every so often to ensure she would get a good look at the weirdly built animal.
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His ears, reactive things, twitched to the noise of incoming footfalls before he more noticeably reacted; lifting up from the flowers, eyes finding that of the source of what stirred him. A dark wolf, none unlike soot, stood protectively of a... pup, reminiscent of who hovered above. Nikolai had assisted in rearing youngsters on the ranch, typically the ones left with his band to teach the ropes, which made him curious; this pup was so small compared to the ones he knew. "Howdy there," he said, voice thunderous but his expression as soft as it could be on a mug as unfit for it as his. It didn't take the wisest creature to know by scent that the stranger and the pup were kin, and it took only a shred of understanding to grasp that he was but a stranger to them, too, plenty reason to remain on the defensive. He sought to soothe nerves if any were frayed, opting to lay still with the flowers swaying around him, as gentle as he could be as he looked to the wolf and said, "Didn't know any other folks were 'round 'ere, hope I didn't intrude on nothin', darlin'."

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^^Harper had spoken to her daughter, in their native tongue, as she had since the moment of their birth. Being that she was still young, however, she hadn’t expected a reply, though one would come anyway and not from the likes of her daughter.

Instead, the stranger spoke. He was lucky that Harper had actually known the common tongue, as she was sure that he’d heard her speak to her daughter moments before.

In a period of brief silence, Harper pondered over how her sister might react, if she’d been her in paws. Harper, who was known to be too abrasive and too distrusting of strangers… whereas her sister was always so gentle and so welcoming, would she still had been welcoming still, in this instance?

Harper took a deep breath and closed her eyes in order to push back her protectiveness of her daughter, and to summon out her inner Valeska. This canine was not a threat, as it stood; he was making idle, awkward conversation, and Elysium had always been welcome to strangers.

Always.

It was annoying, really, especially when there were children afoot. Her children and the children of the alpha pair.

She opened her eyes and offered the wag of her tail. A single wag. Look, she was trying here. Valeska would be proud of her, or so Harper would hope.

“How-day,” Harper said softly, opening her eyes and turning her attention, fully, to the dog that seemed to understand the situation. He laid back down, in the flowers that were not his, with claims of a broken nose.

She would try her best to be the best Valeska possible in this instance; how she reacted to strangers would be taught to her daughter, and how her daughter would take towards strangers from this moment forward.

“These are pack lands, darlin’,” Harper called in a sing-song voice, offering the same term of endearment (darlin’) that he had given her, as she kept an ear out for the chest of her children, while keeping an eye on the stranger, as well as her daughter. Her little perfect angel.

“We are called Elysium, and we are a welcoming sort; aggression only being shown when provoked.” Harper would explain, and also offer a warning as she took the time to look down at her daughter, and then back towards him with a playful wink that held a message of it’s own.

“Who might you be, darlin’? You may call me Harper.”

^^
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He had been curled up, warmed among the bodies of his family. Only when the chill of absence crept upon him did he open his purple eyes. A pup, a youth, not much was conveyed and or contemplated in his mind. The spark of awareness dim but ever-growing. He realized first and foremost that his mother was gone, followed by the lack of his sister. A frown would encompass his maw. Odd, unusual, he did not like the disturbance of repetition. Standing up on chubby puppy legs, he waddled his way outside, pausing due to the overwhelming stimulation that assaulted his senses.

He would shake his furry head before catching the scent of his mother and bounding for her, abandoning his brother alone inside the den. It was intimidating, most of the growth that decorated the outer-world was as big, if not bigger, than himself. He felt vulnerable, but as the seconds went by he became more and more fascinated with everything around him. The hollow echos of questions and wonder would begin to crowd his skull.

He soon found his mother and sister, alongside someone he did not know. Scared, but curious and trusting of adults, he began to waddle over to the unknown being, his smell so odd. Why did he smell so different? If not prevented, he would walked to the other and when trying to stop next to his leg he would be carried by momentum, the front half of his body teetering onto the leg of the stranger, motor-skills still not perfected. Faced squished into the stranger's leg, he would sniff it and be awed at the feeling of his fur and warmth. He wanted to greet the other, but his face being smooshed into his leg would prevent that.
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”Мама, я не хотел заходить так далеко.”

Petal flicked an ear as her mother spoke. Coming around to better look at the foreign beast which smelled of something unknown to her senses. It made her nose scrunch up. The scent of flowers no longer casting out such a stench.

For awhile, she chose not to acknowledge it. Her brother soon catching all of her attention in the way he so easily approached the stranger. Face planting on one of the many legs. ”Get back here! Mama.” She watched as Rigby continued in his ways. A frown adoring her features.
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---

If Nikolai noticed how stiff the wolf was when it came to the niceities he'd honed over the months, he didn't let it show, meeting her with a softness one could call awkward only due to how it'd appear a creature so hardened would be anything but. Her misuse of his greeting brought a faint tug to his lips, head tilted. "My bad, darlin', but I ain't got no idea what... pack lands are? These yer's I'm reckonin'?" He reckoned right, letting out a low hum. Nikolai heard stories of wolf packs but nothing stuck to heart. "Well, I ain't plannin' on no provokin', just passin' through s'all." He reassured, he traveled the lands constantly, with no task to claim he kept moving to stay satiated. "Nikolai, folks all call me Nick though... Pleasure meetin' ya' and ya' too, kid—"

The ruckus of another pup cut him off clean, a gangly one still managing to lose track of which limbs had to be working when to walk successfully, taking a tumble with a squeak, landing face-first against Nikolai's foreleg, unabashed where the other remained hesitant. He laughed, a deep, rumbling sound that the pup would surely feel as he lowered his heavy head to help guide the pup back onto his paws, severely gentle. Nikolai met the pup's eyes, saying, "Howdy, ya' all good, fella?" His ears twitched, at last, to the exclaim of the other pup, his curiosity confirmed. He looked around the pup to look back at the wolf, "Think I found somethin' of yer's."

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^^Her daughter spoke in a tongue that only the two of them knew, and it warmed Harper’s heart, but before she could even reply, the eldest of her children had woken and decided he wanted to join them — only, he hadn’t.

He had left the den and in the moments that followed, time stood still. Her chest tightened, and everything that the kind stranger had said was immediately tossed to the wind, forgotten as her little boy went straight towards the stranger.

He looked and smelled different, of course, so he had to be investigated, sure, but there was no telling if this stranger was a true threat. He could have reacted a million different ways, and when he bellowed out a laugh, of all things, Harper breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t known she was holding.

“Oh goodness me, I am so sorry.. Do, uh, do you have any of your own?” Friendliness, vamped up to 1000% percent now, if only to ensure that her darling son wouldn’t be harmed, Harper shook her head with an awkward, nervous laugh.

“My name’s Harper. It’s nice to meet you, what, uh, what did you say your name was again? ” Harper lowered her ears, though hopefully this kind stranger would understand why she’d already forgotten it.

“Rigby, dear, what do we say to the nice man?” Harper cooed, grabbing her daughter and placing her at the mouth of the den while she went to retrieve her son with an apologetic smile on her features.

“If you’s looking for a place to stay, you’re more than welcome to stay awhile, Nick.” She’d say in assumption that he would have given her his name (again).

^^
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Rigby felt his tiny ears twitch as he heard his sister's protest. He didn't understand what she was upset or saying no about, but the fact that she was mad made him slightly anxious. Because that's a bad thing! The young boy didn't have long to dwell on it as the stranger laughed, causing a non-land bound earthquake to invade the space around them. So intense it dazed the pup slightly until the giant head of the stranger was lowered to his own height. It was weird how small he was compared to the other. A sudden intrusive thought made its way into Rigby's head, wondering if his entire self could fit in the other's mouth. He was pretty sure the other could.

This could be the start in such a young being realizing what it meant to be powerless. No negativity would come from the discovery though. Instead the pup found himself giggling as the stranger helped him back onto all fours. "All good!" He would mimic back at the stranger with a big open smile that showed his tiny sharp puppy teeth.

He would examine the other and approach him again, this time to gnaw on his leg, exploring his texture, pups did not have thumbs after all, next best thing for the toddler to use to explore was his mouth. He tuned out the adults for the most part until he heard his name called. He listened and let go of the other's leg, a small trail of drool tagging along on them both. "Salutations and spaciba-I mean Ogromnoye spasibo, Ser. It has-i-bylo naslazhdeniyem!" — Salutations and thanks-I mean thank you very much, Sir. It has been a delight.He spoke the Russian and English combination with ease, a few of the words and structure he was using were quite advance for the youth. He would let out a sharp yelp of protest though as his mother came back to retrieve him, attempting to wiggle his little body free. He wasn't sleepy yet!
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Petal latched onto the anxiety and stress her mother showed as they both waited for the response from the stranger. It was instinctual for Petal to keep her distance, not trusting others until they gave a reason to trust them. For her brother to just lurch out without worry of consequences, it both upset her and made her mad.

Soon though, thank the heavens for that, it was shown that the stranger was not someone to be feared, but a kind soul simply passing through. Her head tilted slightly as her mother went out to retrieve her brother and greet the stranger. At first, Petal stayed within the safety of the den, peering out with perked ears and a body that leaned forward, threatening to topple over the weight of her own head. As Rigby started to gnaw on the strangers leg though, a soft gasp escaped Petal's lips, and she edged forward, stepping beyond the safety of their cozy den.

With a dash, she ran to hide between her mothers legs, her eyes flicking from the stranger to her brother. Her nose crinkled in distaste at the horrible mesh of Russian and Common tongue that spewed from his lips, cringing at the sound they made together. “Фу, Ригби! Не делай этого.” — Yuck, Rigby! Don't do that.

As the adults spoke, Petal's focus turned more toward her brother. With every passing word, she felt more comfortable, still practically clinging to her mother, but was brave enough to step forward and reach out to latch her teeth upon her brother's tail, aiming to pull him back toward the den. If he was caught by her, she'd tug, and through clamped teeth... “Ну давай же!” — Come... on!

@Rigby @Harper @"Nickolai"
(Wasn't sure if this was still going... ^^)
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