He sat next to the pools of glistening water, their surfaces reflecting in his stormy eyes as he gazed into their depths. The place was lit with torches that other pack members kept burning, but the flickering flames cast the pools in even more mystery. Every once in a while he could see a flash of scales as one of the creatures would near the surface, but then they would disappear out of his sight. The little boy stamped his feet impatiently, making the visible fish dart down to deeper parts of the water. He really wanted to play with one of them...

Severus put one paw into the water, batting it around, rump high in the air behind him as he leaned in. How deep were these pools, anyway? He reached down as far as he could, his muzzle nearly touching the water. Imma getchoo... He whispered, eyes narrowing in concentration. He felt certain that if he could reach far enough into the pool, he could catch one of the fish and force it to play with him. His brothers were off doing other things...and boredom didn't suit the pup well.

A flash of silver just in front of him made him reach even farther, but this was more than his body could take; he flopped down face first into the pool and came up coughing. He-help! He called, floundering about along the surface of the water. Why weren't the fish helping him? Could they not understand him? Severus had seen his mother speaking to some creatures before, like the crows that hung around their cave system...why wouldn't the fish help him now?

He was trying to stay afloat, but couldn't quite keep his head above the water. At least, not for any extended period of time. The little boy coughed and sputtered as his head went beneath it, eyes keeping tightly shut. The world felt like it was spinning around him as he struggled, eyes closed and legs kicking at odd rhythms. Severus was learning how to swim the hard way. He finally opened his eyes when he heard a voice nearby, one that commanded him to hold still. He was a disobedient boy normally, but when faced with an uncertain future he had become rather docile. He accepted the female's command despite his better judgement, allowing his limbs to go limp.

Something happened then that he hadn't been expecting. He floated! The pup didn't understand buoyancy or what was involved with making a puppy float, but it seemed that holding still was the answer. His nose was kept just above water as he craned his head upwards, kicking his legs lightly every few moments. Then, just as soon as he had figured out that he could float, he was up out of the water. Severus was confounded, unsure of how exactly he had been able to float and of how he had ended up in the water to begin with, the events a whirl in his small mind.

I wanted......to play wiff.... da fish He said between coughs and gasps for air, sprawling his legs out around him. "I din' know.... being in da water...It not like da land" He continued. He felt alright, other than the scratch in his throat, throbbing pain in his sinuses from the bit of water he had breathed in, and the urge to cough that he continually felt. "I ok. Who you?" He hacked.

I'm a little prince. My mom said so. I was in the water once...the big water...but I didn't like it and she said I shouldn't go in it, then! He said all at once. I didna' mean to fall, just saw'd the fishes and wanted to make one play wiff me Severus felt a little silly for having fallen in to begin with, but his mind quickly turned to other subjects. His mother had taught him that he should always be polite to others, especially adults in the pack, and he cleared his throat after the tight coughing feeling went away. Thank you for helpin' me. I saw you before? Or no? He couldn't remember if he had ever seen or met Gemma in the past. Maybe when I was real little?

The little boy tried to get closer to her now that she was taller, trying to put his paws up on her leg. He had seen other canines shift before and knew how the process went, but his mother had told him that he was too young to start shifting yet. He wanted to badly, to stand up on two legs and be more like his mother...he hoped that he was the first one of the three to shift. He'd prove to her what a big boy he was! I'm Severus. What you doing out here, Gemma?

I really like to catch fwogs and squash them He shared with her, his little tail whipping back and forth excitedly. That was one thing that he most definitely loved to do! He knew how much Octavius loved frogs...and he could be quite the mean spirited little boy sometimes. Severus didn't care that his brother loved them - he only cared about his own fun. Anywhere he went, if there were frogs...then they were getting squashed whether Oct was there or not.

He didn't quite understand the bit that she said about him smelling like his mother; he didn't know what she smelled like, really, just that whenever he was near her he felt safe and taken care of. He'd had scents and smells explained to him when Naniko had taken the three boys outside for the first time, but hadn't actively tried using his nose much yet. And he spent so much time with his mother that they smelled nearly the same, to his untrained nose. He just smelled himself around all the time.

The pretty white wolf asked him if he wanted to go outside, and he nodded quickly. Yeah! Let's go! Where should we go, Gemma? He asked in an excited manner. He ran around her in a wide circle for a bit, jumping up and down every few seconds. He'd gone outside a time or two by himself, but never very far. The outside world was quite scary! But with Gemma there to watch over him, he could explore!