Huh? What is this? It hurts. "Mom! Pain!" I whined. I could smell my mom's scent nearby. I felt a tug on my back as I spun. Mom moved me like always and the hurting stopped.
"That's just light sweetie." Mom's voice reached me.
"Ight?"
"Light. You'll get used to it. Your eyes barely opened."
It took me a couple of moments to realize that it was no longer just smell, sound, and touch I could sense, there was one more now. My Mom, I could see her. The three small things next to her were my siblings? The thing above me. What was that?
"You're all always so confused when you first open your eyes," Mom said with an amused grunt.
I looked around, learning what the thing I knew looked like. The rest of my siblings hadn't opened their eyes yet? What's taking them so long?
I quickly got hungry again and went to Mom to drink as she gently groomed my coat.
***
It was many days later and I felt powerful. I could already run, though I still fell often. My siblings were no better than me though, that made me not worry about it too much, and Mom never commented on it either. We were able to play longer, but even when we teamed up we couldn't beat Mom. All of us could already talk normally with her and she seemed happy with us.
"Want to go see what's outside?" Mom asked us when she woke up from her sleep.
"Outside?" We all asked.
"Outside the den. Come the rest of the family wants to meet you already."
"Rest of family?"
"Yes." Mom said, pushing us with her nose. "Come."
***
When we got out of the den there were big stones, much bigger than Mom, in front of us and behind us. A lot of new sounds reached my ears but I couldn't see what made them, they were fast, slow, loud, quiet, high, low, everything. My siblings heard them too. Some of them we knew as they reached into the den and Mom told us what they were when she could. Mom turned to the side and started walking. We all ran to keep up with her, but she wouldn't leave us behind. She kept looking back and howled with amusement.
The stones were finally left behind and there was a lot of space, way more than in the den or between the stones. there were some smaller stones scattered about and a lot of grass, but this looked different that the one in the den. My fur suddenly stood up and tried to move to the side. I fell again... At least I wasn't alone as the same happened to my siblings. This must be the wind Mom told us about?
"Come here, everyone. And be careful." Mom howled.
The stones scattered about moved. They weren't stones. They looked almost the same as Mom did and they all ran to us, tails wagging between their legs as they slowed down and crouched down when they reached us, carefully sniffing us, poking us with their noses, and rambling too quickly to understand under Mom's watchful eyes. I tried to sniff them back but they were moving too fast between me and my siblings.
Mom saw our confusion. "Slow down, they can't get familiar with you like this." She said, clearly amused by the reaction of the others.
They whined their apologies and slowed down so we could remember their scents. Five older siblings: Lyara, Sveryx, Trumpet, Iala, and Tielter. They watched us, ran around us, and played with us for a while until Mom sent them off with a growl. "That's enough for now, go do some other stuff."
"But Mom..." Iala and Lyara whined.
"Scram." Mom didn't let them finish and both of them ran off with tails between their legs.
"Mom? Who is that?" I asked as I noticed a sixth person sitting nearby, one who didn't introduce himself yet.
"That's your Dad. Asher, come greet them too. Don't pretend you weren't hiding outside the den all this time." Mom called him over.
"Hi Dad!" We all greeted him and ran to him. He lay down in the grass and after learning each of our scents he started playing with us. Pushing us with his nose and paws, cleaning the debris off of my siblings as they rolled around. I sneaked around though and jumped. Buried in Dad's thick coat I climbed up on his back, I wanted to go help my siblings from there originally, but it was so comfortable that I just lay down.
"Don't let her fall Asher."
"I know." were Dad's last words I heard before I fell asleep.
***
Mom let us be outside with the others the next day and started explaining a lot of stuff to us. The first thing she explained to us was magic-that weird energy I've been feeling inside. She took a whole day to teach us how to prepare it and how to use it to strengthen our bodies.
"It's safer this way then letting you figure it out on your own." Mom said while we drank, "But be very careful, it takes a lot of time and practice to get used to it. Everyone can use magic so if you are bad at it you won't last long."
"Don't go scaring them now, Anaji." Dad grunted as he sat down next to her. "They are still too young to go anywhere outside the densite."
"The sooner I tell them the less likely it will be that they get themselves in trouble." Mom grunted with amusement.
"They are pups."
"That's true..." Mom whined.
"Mom! Do you want to play chase?" Trumpet howled from across the densite.
"I'm nursing, Asher will go play with you." Mom howled back. "Go play with them. I still need to explain the rules of the hunt to them."
"That can wait, it's better they see it first."
"Why?" I asked, I was already full and walked up to Mom's face.
"Because..." Dad hesitated and didn't say the answer and licked my face instead. "Because you are still tiny so it doesn't concern you. And it is easier to understand once you see it. You still have time. I think Anaji should have waited few more days with the magic too."
"Why?" I tilted my head in confusion.
"Because you are only few days old, you have too little energy still. But if Anaji thinks it's fine then it's fine. Don't try anything new with it until you get stronger though."
"I am strong!" I squealed. The rest of my siblings raised their voice too.
"Really?" Dad asked, tilting his head. "Catch me then." He howled and jumped over us.
"Wait!" All four of us started chasing him.
He managed to only barely evade us several times. Soon our older siblings came to our help, but to that Mom responded by helping Dad by pushing them down whenever they got close to catching Dad.
My paws were hurting when Dad finally fell to his side. "I give up." He said as we jumped on him. The rest of our siblings licked Dad's muzzle before running off to catch Mom as well. Dad wanted to say something to us, but I was asleep before I could understand him.
***
In the morning after we drank Mom got up and called Trumpet over. The rest of the family was getting up too and it wasn't playful as the day before.
"Here, Mom." Trumpet said when he stopped in front of Mom.
"You'll watch them here. Make sure they are alright."
Trumpet grunted in agreement and walked over to where we were while the rest of the family started running off.
"Mom? Where are you going?" Cyante asked.
"I need to go hunt, don't worry, we'll be back soon, you won't even notice." Mom said as she poked him with her nose. "Be good here and listen to Trumpet."
"Yes Mom..." we all whined as she left.
"Why so defeated?" Trumpet asked. "Let's play." He added as he found a branch on the ground and started waving it around.