"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
Life is already pretty strange, and little does the ginger pup know that it is only going to get even stranger.
One day he won’t remember this, will only know because of the stories he’ll likely hear that he and his brother were born as wolves while his sisters were show-offs that had to come out of the womb as the right species.
For now, though this is now his world, the young pup doesn’t comprehend anything that is happening. He’s cleaned, and he feels safe – the gentle touch and presence of mom and the near-constant presence of brother beside him. His eyes are small but wide, moving around to take everything in, though there’s no attention-span to speak of at the moment. So he sleepily watches the ones he’ll come to know as mother and brother until something new enters his vision, until he feels the soft touch of someone else against his fir.
He looks up at the creature who had nuzzled him, instinct telling him that this was dad. Bright, honey-brown eyes blink slowly and the wolf pup’s mouth opens, and a long tongue lolls out of it’s own accord. He’s dazzled by this behemoth of a grey creature, by the sound of that voice. A small, bright yip escapes the puppy – he wants to make some noises too! Even though none of what is being said at that moment makes any sense to him.
Tamlin’s world is soft and safe and though he shifts indignantly when his mom moves, when she starts to bring another sibling into the world, he does not think anything of it. His belly is full and he’s content, so while his parents focus on that – he focuses on trying to bite lightly at his brother’s ear and his sister’s tail, if only because they are close by and he’s curious, all while making soft yipping noises because - damn it - he wants to be in on the conversation too.
Later, once that final sibling has arrived, Tamlin’s ears twitch with the voices of his parents again and one word stands out to him. He gathers his fuzzy legs beneath him and wobbles away a few cautious steps from the comfortable spot he had been in. This time, when he joins in with a short series of high-pitched barks, it sounds an awful lot like “Bea! Bea! Bea!”
