Word Count :: 000 — Probably somewhere near Treetop Terrace; she's just playing in the grass. Yay for mother-daughter time! <3
The grass around the treehouse wiggled as runt-of-the-litter Titania inched her way through, nose to the ground and ears open for the faint voices of her fae friends on the wind. It didn't matter that the place her mother had brought her was unfamiliar — daddy and mommy and Jules were all there, and it had flowers and grass and trees enough to keep the fairy-Queen happy enough. Her tail waggled behind her in the air. Golden eyes watched ants wander past her. Life was good in her treetop castle with her small, once-broken family. It was certainly better than it had been. Always moving had left the little girl tired of the outside world, and hearing that they would stay in this tree-filled, flower-filled, grassy place improved the once-sour mood of the quiet daydreamer.
She pounced on a butterfly as it landed on the petals of some blossom or other. "Caught you!" The cry startled other insects that scampered away from the floral guardian. Disappointment wracked her features as she noticed the yellow-winged critter flapping away from her; she'd been so certain that she'd caught the mean, buggy thing! She'd have to be faster next time. A pout on her face, she flopped down amongst the green blades, staring aimlessly into the air. The fun was over. The butterfly had ruined it. "Stupid buggy."
Orin gazed down at her silvery-white daughter from within the trees. The thick webbing of leaves only proffered a quick glimpse of the girl as the branches swayed in the gentle summer breeze, but it was all Orin needed to know she was safe; a shimmer of silver here, a shock of red scruff there, and the sounds of the child’s voice as she talked to herself and her miniature foes. Orin leaned back against the sturdy tree and enjoyed the sound of her daughter playing… safely… on the ground.
Moving to a place called Treetop Terrace may not have been the best idea for a mother with two rambunctious daughters, but she and Shawchert worked diligently over the last few days to make it a safe home for the hyper girls. Still, there was something to be said for how relaxing it was on her nerves for her children to be down on solid ground, with no potentially deadly drops for them to wander into. Ahh…
Orin’s ears twitched as she heard more murmurs. She looked down again and fixated on Titania in time to see the critter flying away. A half smile pressed onto her muzzle, and she realized that she finally had the time to do something she never had before. Performing one of her favorite feats, she grabbed one of the nearby vine tethers and used it to slide down to the forest floor. On her descent, she reached out and snatched the winged bug in her palm, careful not to crush it. Her footpaws touched down on the loamy forest floor, and she knelt down in front of her daughter and opened her hand.
The wings started flapping immediately, and the bug started to take off, but this time Orin didn’t snag it again. “Get it, Titania!” she encouraged her small daughter to pounce. The thing was quickly getting away.
Idk why she sounds like she has a somewhat Cockney way of talking. That'll...fade eventually.
Her disappointment was a brief, fickle thing, as her mother slid down a viney creation from the top of the trees to the forest floor. Titania didn't know how her mother and sister could appreciate the world off the ground — there was so much to do in the grass and amongst the leaves and flowers and her little invisible friends that living in the trees seemed silly. They were birds. They weren't...cats. Or squirrels. Or something else that liked to live in trees that escaped the mind of the young girl as she looked up to see her white-furred mother. Everything was made better by the presence of the Takekuro woman who, in a display of determination to keep her offspring safe, had masked her identity for months. Titania was familiar with Desdemona, brown-marked Desdemona rather than this clean-coloured Orin who was her real mother. It wasn't strange for Titania to think of her mother in two forms — the fae-creatures she spoke to often took more than one, and so her mother was just another one of them to the golden eyes of her runty little girl.
With an eagerness to prove herself, she watched her mother's hand open to reveal the butterfly she'd so carefully caught, and at her mother's urging, she pounced once more. The Swallowtail fluttered away, but the little girl didn't give up and attempted to catch it once more. Again, she failed, but this time there was no drop in self-esteem — she had done well, she determined, and smiled as she turned back to the older female with face alight with pride. "Didja see that, momma, didja? Almost got it, I did!" She pounced her mother's foot, ears wiggling along with her tail as she waited for praise from the woman who'd raised her.
The grin of joy never left her as she watched Titania take another attempt at trapping the bug… another failed attempt. Orin didn’t care that Titania didn’t get it, she was just proud of her daughter for trying again. When Titania didn’t berate herself after the second miss Orin felt even more thrilled. Through all their hardships, she had managed to raise her daughters positive and happy. Still, she hadn’t invested nearly as much time into their hunting skills as a good wolf mother should have. Perhaps it was time to start?
“Oh, almost!” She chimed as the thing fluttered away. Her daughter pounced her foot, and she wiggled her toes in a show of sportsmanship. “I saw, I saw. Very good!” She patted Titania on the head, then proceeded with a really good shoulder-scratch. She knew that, before the days of hands, this area was one of the worst to reach. And then that thought made her realize her daughters would probably go through their first change in less than a month.
How exciting would that be? She could teach her daughters all the wonderful things you could do in Optime form then! All of the wonderful crafts that could only be performed when you had hands. Wait… But I don’t really know many crafts. Except for writing. I think Titania would like that but… For some reason, the thought of sitting down and writing churned her stomach. It was because it was a tie to the Orin of old, before… well, just before. Still, she didn’t want her daughters to be illiterate. What to do?
Banishing these thoughts for now, she cocked and eyebrow. “Come with me, I’ve got something important for us to do.” She told her daughter, and then turned and began to walk away. She assumed her daughter would follow her, they were very good girls and always had before. “I think it’s nearing time for lunch, and I don’t feel like hunting. I think it’s time you did it for me.”
The praise she received for attempting to catch the butterfly boosted a down-to-earth ego that had been growing since her birth -- Titania had never felt a lack of support from the fae-creature she called momma. Her white toes wiggled under her daughter's paws, eliciting a laugh of excitement as the little girl tried to step on each toe individually. Spending time with her mother was always the most fun, even more than time with just her sister. Titania always felt closer to her mother, who wore two faces like a changeling and taught her to joys of fantasy.
All of her excitement reached a crescendo as Orin told her that they had something important to do, and Titania couldn't contain her eagerness to please the woman who'd cared for them. As the arctic wolf made her way away, her smallest daughter followed as she always had before. Orin'd promised they'd do something important together -- not following was the silliest idea, as she wanted to know just what this important task she wanted her daughter to do. She remained attentive as the woman spoke, and as their task came to light, she let out a shriek of excitement. They were going hunting, something she had never really been taught to do but tried all the same. "Really, momma, we're really gonna go hunt?" Her excitement nearly bursting out of the small child, her body started to shake. She was going to be a huntress -- what a novel idea!
Feel free to PP Orin a little bit if you need to. I would have moved into the first moments of the hunt but I wanted to give you a chance to respond. You're welcome to have Orin do whatever she'd normally do to start off the hunt/chase prey depending on how far you want to go with your post.
The familiar rustle of paws amongst fallen leaves and brush told her that her daughter followed, and Orin smiled to herself. Titania was such a good girl with such a vibrancy for life. It suddenly dawned on Orin how truly amazing her daughter was. She peered down at the silver furred girl, eyes molten with love. Her daughters so easily could have become wrecks. Paranoid, like she was. Frightened, fidgety. But instead they were both perfect, healthy little girls. Orin never once thought to accredit this to herself; it was her girls who had done the work. It was them who stayed so young in the face of such strife. Maybe later their shortcomings might show, but they would always be perfect.
“Yes, baby. If you want to,” but it was clear that Titania was up for it. She led her daughter through the north-eastern woods, taking her to a specific place she knew about. It seemed like the two walked and walked, making small talk about the forest or whatever came to the little girl's mind as they went. Finally, and well into the time were a pup might start complaining about walking for so long, the treeline ended and they emerged in a large, grassy field.
“This is Flanders Field.” One eye-sweep of the field proffered many dappled brown backs among the grasses and flowers. “There are plenty of hare here. We'll hunt them. You stay here by these violets and be my look-out. I'm going to change.” But Orin didn't leave her daughter alone while she shifted forms. Instead, she moved just a few feet away and shifted within Titania's sight. Shifting was one of the most natural acts for a Luperci, and Orin was not about to make her daughter think it was shameful by hiding from her while she transformed. Titania and Juliet had been around in the past when she changed, too.
As soon as her transformation was complete Orin sprang up onto her four dainty paws, a shock of choppy hair on the nape of her neck was the only trace of the hairstyle she wore in Optime. She moved over to her daughter and lowered her head to give her a few loving lick on the forehead and muzzle. She loved being in the same shape as her daughters; she only utilized Optime as much as she did right now because it was convenient.
“Okay, now, they're really fast, so if you can't catch one don't worry, okay? You will. And we'll still eat.” She gave her daughter a wolfish smile. “You already know how to do this, even if you don't know it yet. You can do it because I can do it, and your father can do it, and your granparents could do it, and their grandparents could do it. We know it because we are wolves. You've already been practicing, I caught you just today.”
Orin winked. “We'll hunt like we're a pack all our own,” she said as though she was confiding a great secret in her daughter. “Here's what we do. We'll pick a target, and first we'll try me as the distraction and you as the trapper. I'll come at it from the other side and chase it to you. When it's close, you pounce it and grab onto it by the neck if you can – but be careful of the hind feet – they might be prey but they are to be respected. Because they bounce all day, their back legs are very strong and they have sharp claws.”
She eyed her daughter, looking for any hint of nervousness or worry. Was her little girl ready for this? Even if Orin didn't think Titania would catch one today this was still a life lesson in more ways than one. Most pups by now would be hunting small game, whether or not they were successful at it. Still, Titania was such a sweet girl, so innocent and caring, and was used to seeing her food only after it had been killed. Would attacking a bunny rabbit bother her? Orin was worried, but there was only one way to find out.
Obedient daughter that she was, Titania didn't complain as her small feet carried her after her mother as the bipedal woman set the path toward the northeastern part of the pack land. Titania was smart enough to recognize borders, but still unfamiliar with the territory of the pack itself, and so wide golden eyes took in all that was passing past them on their journey. The field they wound up in left the girl floored — it was beautiful, a perfect place for her to wander and talk to the fae creatures that she believed to live in the foliage. She looked to her mother as she ordered the small pup to remain by the violets, a favorite flower of the little fae Princess, while she changed from two legs to four. Titania saw no shame in the transformation, and though she was incapable of it at her young age, she was excited to be capable of the same thing. It didn't register as intimate, for she'd witnessed it from her mother on more than one occasion.
Growing bored of the spectacle as children often did, she put her nose to the violets and begun to sniff. Oh, the smell of violets cheered up the already exuberant little girl and her tail wiggled in the air as the excitement of learning built further. Her mother returned on four legs, a form Titania was wholly in approval of as she enjoyed being the same as Orin Desdemona. The licks to her forehead were reciprocated with licks to the white woman's chin before Orin started back on the topic of hunting the hares that lived in Flander's Field. All smiles as she often was with her mother about, she was ready to prove she could do something useful. She could hunt for her mother and sister.
As Orin moved off to distract the rabbit, Titania settled down and prepared to pounce. She could do this. She could make Orin proud and catch her a rabbit. She would.
Her daughter accepted her instructions with quiet acknowledgment, but the look in the eyes that mirrored her own was of extraordinary splendor. She knew the pup was excited to go on her first hunt, and thus far the thought of trapping a bunny didn't bother her any. Orin made note of the pup's location before slipping away. First, she took to the edges of the field so she could make a wide arc around their hunting grounds, so as not to startle their prey. Once across from Titania, she sprang from the brush getting the surprise on the local burrow. Animals scattered every which way. A younger hunter might have been confused and tried to follow all at once, only to end up chasing their own tail. But Orin knew she had to choose one and stick with it.
One particular hare caught her eye and she chased after it. The thing was quick and zig zagged here and there. It veered to the left and Orin bounded even farther to the left to steer the animal back towards Titania. Soon enough they were heading straight towards the pup that lay in wait.
The mother kept her eyes trained on her prey, but knew they came close to Titania. She wanted to call out, to tell her daughter when to spring, but it was important for her to try on her own. If she made a mistake, she could only learn from it if it had been her own error, not her mother's.
Orin saw a burrow nearby, and knew that was where the animal was headed. If it dove into the hole, they would never be able to get it out, and might have to wait for the other's she scared off to decide it was okay to come back out before they could try for another.
She hunkered down in the grass as her mother ventured off, staring at the green blades while waiting for whatever commotion was about to start. Hunting wasn't something she'd ever considered doing, but it was something that adults did and she longed to prove she could be an adult like her mother was. Red-tipped tail waved in the air as her mind drifted, brought back only by the sounds of movement in the distance. She waited, patiently, as the hare was driven towards her.
The attack didn't go as smoothly as planned. When she sprang from the ground, aiming for the quick animal, she found herself toppling head over heels over head again as she managed to grab only one large, floppy ear. In its panic at being capture, one strong rabbity leg kicked out and made contact with the runt's small face. She yelped in pain, releasing her catch to hold her bleeding cheek, and looking all too disappointed when it dashed away. Her tail tucked low between her legs, ears falling flat as she looked for her mother. "I...lost it, momma." Oh, how sorry she was.
“Yes!” She cried out with joy when, unexpectedly, her daughter actually caught hold of the animal! Her face was bright, eyes alight as she saw Titania’s teeth catch firm hold of the animal’s long ear, but almost as fast as Titania could grab hold, one vicious foot kicked the girl in the face. The action had taken only an instant, but Orin thought she could see as each sharp, dirty little claw raked against Titania’s cheek.
Anger flashed across Orin’s face as her daughter cried out, and the wolfess jerked toward the rabbit, hot for revenge. But it was too late; as Orin’s paws were just getting off the ground for a pounce, the creature disappeared down into the burrow, every last inch of it’s furry butt gone.
“Arrgh!” she grumbled in anger as she shoved her muzzle into the hole, nose sending plumes of dirt everywhere. She wanted that thing more than ever now; it had hurt her little girl. Pulling her nose out of the hole, she began digging furiously, making it rain soil. After a moment she realized her efforts were futile and stopped, her muzzle and paws now caked with dirt as she turned back to Titania.
All anger melted from her face as she turned to Titania. Only concern showed in her eyes now. “Are you okay?!” She asked as she focused on the girl. She was upon her at once, showering her with nuzzles and soft licks and searching to see if the animal had drawn blood. She wagged her tail to show Titania that it was okay, she wasn’t upset with her.
“You did good my little fae,” she tried to soothe her daughter. “I didn’t even think you’d grab ahold of it. Not on your first try! How is your cheek? Does it hurt? Did it get you anywhere else? Maybe we shouldn’t try again.” She was all worry now, handling the episode almost worse than her daughter. She knew the possibility of the animal attacking her daughter, and really Titania had come out of it with less wounds than she could have received, but still the overprotective mother fretted.
The sting of the hare's foot was unpleasant, but didn't bother the small grey girl for much longer than the initial contact, and she turned to watch her mother as she flew into a rage after the small animal that disappeared into its burrow without problem. It was faintly entertaining, to see her so angry at a tiny creature. Of course, it was gone as the white woman turned on her smallest daughter, replaced with concern while questions were asked about her condition, if she was okay. The soft warmth of her mother's tongue made Titania grimace even though it was a kind gesture. "Fine, momma. Geeze." Her muzzle was rubbed against her shoulder as if to wipe away all the kisses left by Orin, though not out of malice.
Praise was lavished on her and caused the child to beam with pride, glad she could make her mother proud of her attempt despite losing the catch she'd worked so hard to single out. Small, red-tipped tail beat against the ground in her excitement -- oh, how magnificent it was to make her Changling mother proud of her! "No, I don't hurt much else, momma; we don't have to do it again if you don't wanna." She didn't want the woman to worry any more than she already was, and in truth, she preferred to stare at the flowers than chase the little rabbits around. "We could sit 'n we could stay and play in the flowers, yeah?" She studied the flowers under her feet and then flopped so eager into them to sniff and roll and giggle.
Orin looked hurt when her daughter reeled away from her comforting and rubbed her muzzle on her shoulder. She tried not to show it, but a flash of disappointment still made it to her eyes before she tossed the emotion aside. It was just that her daughters seemed to suddenly be growing up so quickly. There was a time when Titania would have been so shaken at being kicked by a hare - not to say that she was totally unaffected now - but she didn't huddle into Orin's embrace and whimper like the younger Titania would have. Orin longed to comfort her daughter, but Titania didn't need it as much as Orin did anymore.
She tried to shake it off. It wasn't Titania's fault that she was growing up, and she didn't want the child to know about the flash of pain that jostled her heart. It wasn't all bad, either, for intermingled with the strife was pride. Her daughter would become such a beautiful young woman... as terrifying as that sounded.
The good, parental thing to do now would probably be to insist on another hunt. To sniff out another hairy piece of food and make Titania try again. This would start teaching her daughter some follow-through, show her that she needed to be tenacious in order to achieve her goals... But this was beyond the worrisome mother. Instead of pushing Titania to try again, she was all too happy to end the lesson. “Okay little fairy.”
She laughed as her daughter plopped into the flowers, petals and pollen dusting the air around them. Sunlight glistened off of the dander that spackled the air. Orin flopped over too, going limp and falling to the right, a dusting of flower bits flying out from around her just as they had from Titania. When she sat up, there was a smear of pink and yellow on her fur; a pattern that she couldn't see on her shoulder.
“Which one's your favorite?” she asked Titania as she plucked one flower from its stem with her teeth. She stretched her neck, dropping the flower onto Titania, propping it between her ears. “I like the big sunflowers that grow in the sunny place near our home, but they get a lot of bees. Still, at least that means there's always honey nearby.”
She couldn't know that her attempt to grow up and be a strong little girl hurt her mother, her mind so wrapped up in being happy all the time that the idea of it was preposterous. No, Titania focused instead on the flowers that stretched across the world and the fairies that so few else believed in. Had she known Orin suffered for the silver girl's independance, she might have been more considerate to her mother's feelings.
As it was, she wasn't, and she focused on the purple flowers and reached her nose out to sniff at them excitedly. Which one was her favorite? "That's easy! These ones!" She poked at the violets around her with her little black nose, sniffing the purple petals with an excitement that showed in the wag of her tail. She tried to look at the flower that was placed behind her ear, but fell short of the opportunity, eyes shifting as far as they could to the side without any real display of the soft petals.
“Then as soon as you can change, I'll teach you how to make a crown out of them.” She promised, snickering gently as Titania strained to see the flower, but to no avail. As she looked down at her daughter, she noticed the smear of color on her own white down. She made a little noise of surprise, then looked at Titania, mischief in her eyes. After all, she was Orin, queen of dye jobs, and this was her little color-loving fairy girl.
“Watch this,” she said before flopping onto the flowers again. If she was with Juliet it might have been an insensitive thing because the child adored the flowers so much. In fact, it still might be, because Titania had an affinity for flowers all her own, and knowing this Orin did her best not to smash too many of the pretty petals. She rolled onto her back, legs splaying in the air as she wriggled. A moment or two later, she rolled back over and sat up, turning her back to Titania.
She craned her neck to see over her shoulder, grinning like an imp. There, all mixed into her fur, was a rainbow of color smeared on from the flowers. Green was the most prominent, mixed with dots and smudges of other colors. “Now you try!” She said, beaming with pride and hoping she could goad her daughter into coloring up her pelt. Maybe Titania would like it, and then Orin could pass on her knack for creating and using dyes. As it were, she began looking at the flowers, hoping for one that was just right... just right for an idea she suddenly had...
There's a good color! It was right in the middle of where she had rolled, a few freshly crushed flowers that were now giving off a mixed scent; regular perfume, pollen, and the “green” smell that came with cut grass. She pressed her small paw into the middle of it and twisted it back and forth before limping over to Titania (so she didn't put her paw on the ground) and reaching out to her. “Hold still a moment,” she said as she held her paw out to her daughter, hoping to press it against her shoulder and leave a perfect, violet paw imprint in her fur.
