The rest of my siblings went to chase after Trumpet. I however was interested what Mom was doing. I ran after her but I lost her tracks once I got between the trees.
"Guess I'll have to search for her." I grunted to myself and started walking further between the trees.
***
I was walking for a while and spotted a weird animal with really long tail standing on its rear legs.
"Hey! Have you seen my Mom?" I asked it, but instead of replying it disappeared into a hole between the roots.
"Hey, wait!" I grunted and ran after it into the hole.
I got in up to my chest and then I couldn't continue. I tried to get back out but I couldn't. I tried to use the magic Mom taught us but it didn't help either.
"Harukaze! Where are you?" Trumpet's howl reached me, muffled by the ground around.
"I'm here!" I howled back, and ate a mouthful of dirt.
***
"Harukaze! Where are you?" This was already the third time Trumpet howled, he didn't hear me reply, and I was still stuck, starting to get scared. I was already getting hungry.
Suddenly I felt myself sliding backwards out of the hole. Above me was a floating sphere of green light.
"You're Anaji's pup, right?" a voice asked from all sides.
"Y-Yes." I whined, shaking.
"Don't worry, I'm just a forest spirit. Looks like your brother is looking for you. Follow me, I'll show you the way back."
"Where-where are you?" I asked.
The light shifted into the shape of my mom. "I'm the light right now, normally I'm the forest. Come."
***
"Thanks for bringing her back, Fertam." Trumpet said. "Where did she run off to? She didn't reply to me."
"She was stuck in rat hole."
"Can you not tell Mom?" He whined.
"No, she needs to know one of her pups outdid her. Just keep better watch next time." Fertam said and disappeared.
"Why did you run off like that?" Trumpet asked me, the rest of my siblings were standing behind him, curious.
"I wanted to see what Mom was doing..." I whined.
"Mmm. You still have time for that, once you get bigger they will start taking you along. You all look tired, time for a nap." He said and lay down so we could snuggle up in his thick coat.
***
"Trumpet brother, I'm hungry." We all whined with Dariaz leading the charge. I was even more so than the rest due to getting lost and stuck.
"Mom should be back soon, just endure it for a bit."
"What is soon?" I asked.
"By the evening. Don't worry, she wouldn't leave you for long while you are this little."
"Let's beat him this time." Cyante howled as he charged against Trumpet, determined to win the wrestling match. The rest of us agreed and charged in as well.
"Bring it on." Trumpet grunted with amusement.
In the end we just lost again.
***
"Can you explain how you lost Harukaze the moment we left?" Mom's growl woke me up together with Trumpet no longer lying under my head.
"Sorry Mom, I thought she followed the rest of them, I went looking for her the moment I realized she wasn't there." Trumpet apologized, lying on his back with his tail between his legs as he licked at Mom's muzzle.
"You're lucky eagles don't dare go near our densite." Mom growled again. There was water dripping from her. "Go join the rest of them, they are northwest we didn't get lucky at all yet. Or you can go hunt fish, up to you."
"Yes Mom." Trumpet whined and ran away.
"You lot must be hungry already." Mom said and lay down so we could drink.
***
I was almost month and a half old already and I grew a lot, I could run for longer, and I no longer fall down randomly. Mom and Dad finally started letting us eat meat as well, no longer was it just milk, but that was still great too.
"Mom look what I found." I grunted through the stick I was carrying, it was long and very straight.
"Very nice." She said.
"Do you want it?"
"No you can play with it. I have a bone here." She said and returned to chewing it. She said before that there's a thing called marrow in the bones that tastes good.
"Can I go play with Fertam?" I asked. The rest of my littermates were trying to wake up Dad so he would play with them, the rest of my siblings were sleeping too.
"Only as long as you can always see the densite. And you have to come once I call you back."
"Thanks Mom."
***
"Fertam! Fertam! Come play with me!" I exclaimed once I was outside the densite, she never went there. Mom said it's because Dad doesn't like to deal with her.
It took a moment but Fertam soon appeared, the same green sphere of light. "What do you want to play?" her voice asked, coming from all sides as always.
"I don't know." I replied.
Fertam flickered. "How about this, you have to catch the moving roots." She said after a moment and several roots arched up from the ground around me, some started wiggling, then stopped, other roots started waving around in a circle. There was no method to it.
"No fair, you can just stop moving them when I get close."
"No, I can only start or stop the whole thing, I don't control each root." She said. "Got your tail." She added as something pulled on my tail. She managed to sneak up on me with a branch and twist it around my tail.
"Fine, I will play this, but if you cheat I will not forgive you." I grunted as I got my tail out of the twisted branch, she always managed to catch me.
"Why would I cheat? That's no fun, I will be making them switch between moving and staying still quicker as the game goes on so be prepared." Fertam said and started the game.
When Mom called me back, Fertam was making them switch so fast I only caught one out of every five roots.
***
"You're the first one Fertam has taken liking to in quite some time." Mom said when I got back. "I hope you are being good when you are with her."
"I'm always good, Mom."
"Running away on your own and getting stuck in a hole somewhere is being good?"
"Mom... it happened only twice."
"In month and a half. That's two more than all of your littermates combined, and double compared all my pups combined. Stay in the densite for today."
"Yes Mom." I said and trotted off to join the game of chase with my siblings.
"Someone really learned that pups can do no wrong." I heard Dad's amused grunt behind me.