[Pawprint]

(Yes, I took the title mainly from the Lego Black Panther special.  Pups can also post--Beatrice is older, but as a runt's child she isn't much bigger.  She can't talk, as you'll soon see.  Please let Sekirei post first.)

Beatrice sniffed the ground furiously.  She studied the purple leaves that fell, daring to taste them and yuck!  Purple is yucky!  How did the wolves of Inaria live with yucky trees?  How were they not sick?  It was confusing.  This required questions.  But she still couldn’t wolf speak.  She could bark and whine, but not use, well, words.

A mouse popped out a hole under a root.  Beatrice beamed at the sight of the creature.  The mouse felt very differently.  But before it could run away, Beatrice began to speak.

*Ee!  E!  E!  E!  Squeak squeak*

The mouse paused.  Beatrice lowered to the ground.  It was thinking: did the meat eater say, Hi how are you?

Beatrice repeated her squeaks.  The mouse faced her.  It…squeaked back.  Beatrice tried keeping her excitement down.  She didn’t want to scare it.  It could understand her!  The mice could speak just like in Nardir!  So she worked to speak every word she learned back home.  And the mouse entertained her, though it was still nervous.  It was sure this could all be a trick.

To anyone viewing this, this scene looked most likely ridiculous.  To Beatrice, this is regular.

[Sekirei]

Byakko was resting near where Bea was chatting up a mouse. His gold eyes were closed but he wasn't asleep. The breeze carried the scents of Inaria to his nose. This was an ancient pack, just as ancient as Lindras had been before the end. The huge Fringe found peace under the lilac trees that made the pack famous. Despite all that, he couldn't help but feel like there were spirits walking around, too. He kept seeing things in his peripherals but every time he looked, there was nothing. More than once, he thought he saw the specter of a monstrous wolf. Was the Gatekeeper watching, waiting, for Byakko to give up the ghost? Sighing when no answers were forthcoming, Byakko opened his eyes and raised his head to look lovingly at his middle grandpup. Bea was a runt and she wasn't talking yet. It didn't bother him much. Her mother was the runt of her own litter.

He found Bea's interaction with the mouse to be odd but adorably endearing all the same. Every pup had their quirks. This just happened to be Bea's and Byakko was confident she would start talking when she was ready. Sarajevo was the same opinion and doted on her as much as she did Rapture and Aeneas. She never discouraged Bea from talking however she wished. It was ultimately harmless. Both, however, wondered how she managed to pull it off. Judging from what he was seeing, the mouse was understanding Bea with no difficulty. Stranger things had happened and this was one of those things.

Byakko looked over to see Akutan snoozing. Rapture, though a bit bigger, was sleeping on top of him. Much like she did with her siblings when they were very young. He felt blessed that he had seen at least one set of grandpups before the end. Akutan was only his nephew so any pups he had were Starfire's grandpups but still, he and his nephew had grown to have the father/son dynamic that Akutan had been wanting for a long time. He and Storm hadn't been particularly close, to Byakko's knowledge. His late brother-in-law had been standoffish with pups to begin with. He had had a son with Byakko's late beloved Silverstream, Jase, but he had kept the boy at a distance, like he did everyone else. Storm had been a bit warmer with Akutan because he was the only son of his own love, Starfire. Byakko knew he wasn't going to live to see Akutan's children but he was at peace with that. He just wanted to be with those he loved who had gone before. His heart twisted at the thought of Silverstream and it showed on his face. After all this time and after giving his heart to Raka, Byakko knew without a single doubt that he was still very much in love with the young, beautiful timber wolf who had stolen his heart when he first saw her.

"You have a gentle soul, Bea, just like your mother. Never change." he said, aloud. Whether she looked at him or not, it didn't matter. He just wanted Bea to know he loved her just as she was.