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At times, it takes that one moment - that one glance - and everything becomes clear.
Pups were incredibly worrisome creatures.
Kōga knew Yawaragi had to be somewhere laughing at him as he chased down a toddler who recently discovered she could have her version of playtime if she wandered off. The valley wasn’t particularly dangerous in itself but with so many ledges, outcroppings, natural stone bridges and people— she could get into all manners of danger or worse. His nerves had never been so frayed before, but his reflexes were quicker. Always keeping an eye on her little ponytail, all tufted up and fuzzy just as she was when she came into the world in her true form.
Eyes closed while she squirmed around in Ayame’s arms letting out tiny, distressed whines with lungs he eventually found were very strong. It would take weeks before she could transform into the size of a human infant a few months older than what she actually was. And all the sleepless nights proved to be worth it when she opened her eyes— green as the dew-glittering fields he once roamed with Ginta and Hakkaku, forests they curled in together as they slept peacefully beneath thick canopies blotting out the skies with verdant green, a shimmering green ocean with a foamy white surf lapping at white sand. It stretched out as far as his eye could see. He always dreamt of what was beyond that horizon.
Now, it hardly mattered. He saw his whole life in those eyes, then felt the creeping chest-caving feeling of something coming. That he was bearing witness to the end of an era and the start of a new one. A wall he’d built crumbling without him even knowing it was there.
“Nijizuki, get back here!”
Kōga blinked out of his thoughts then looked down at the thin furs laid out in front of him where his child had been laying. Now, she was gone and as he turned to the den’s opening, Ginta ran past with Hakkaku tripping after him chasing a freshly changed wolf pup circling them on all fours.
“Kōga! A little help would be nice,” Ginta yelled at him. Hakkaku collided in his back as he dove down to catch Nijizuki, but she was quicker than them both and darted between their legs, giggling all the while as they fell over. Her reign of terror brought to a swift end when two hands swept her up then brushed gravel from thin scratches on her reddened knees. Ayame poked her head past the den’s entrance, nonplussed at the tangle Ginta and Hakkaku were in.
“How were you two bested by a pup barely able to stand on her own two feet?”
Kōga folded the fur sheet end to end while the pair tried to explain their tale of woe to his mate. He could hear Nijizuki’s squirming in her mother’s grasp and Ayame’s gentle cooing whispered into her hair between soft, musical chuckles at Ginta and Hakkaku’s theatrics. Once everything was cleaned up, Kōga strode over. Nijizuki’s squirming came to a halt as he fixed the tie on her loincloth. She stared up at him, seeming torn between beginning her struggles anew or watching Ginta and Hakkaku.
“Are you okay?” Ayame whispered to him, concern for him softening her eyes. They flicked minutely, searching his own and Koga wondered if she was on the brink of understanding when a hiccuping, squeaky laugh came from Nijizuki. They both looked down at her then Ginta and Hakkaku who were busy grinning at each other like fools, seemingly proud in making her laugh.
Koga huffed, hooking his hand at the left side of Ayame’s waist to pull her in close to his chest. She moved with little question outside of a curious hm, glancing up at him as he set his chin atop her head. Listening to Nijizuki’s giggling, Ayame’s quiet breaths, and his friends’ babbling eased all the troublesome thoughts aside.
“Yeah, I’m just fine.”