~ The Fairies' Plan A - Part 6 - Briar Rose Plays With the Wolves
It was finally springtime and young Briar Rose could go out of the house without her heavy, uncomfortable boots. Merryweather tried so hard but she just couldn't make shoes that fit her comfortably at all. Snow got her feet cold too fast to have any fun outdoors in the wintertime. She staying inside most of the winter.
Rose and her aunts, well Aunt Merryweather, at least, had cleaned up around the cottage a little. Flora and Fauna had gone out to check on some things and would be back in the evening. So Rose had the afternoon to herself.
Rose had found a cave last summer and had remembered it this morning, so she skipped out to see how it had faired in the winter. She found a big she-wolf and a pair of cubs lounging in the sun.
Briar Rose quickly climbed into the trees.
"Hello, Mrs. Wolf. How are you and your pups today?" called Briar Rose from the high branch. It was important to be polite to your neighbors. She had already encountered wolves and after getting chased back to the cottage the alpha had said she was not prey, which was a great honor, but it was best to make sure, Aunt Flora said.
"Tired, these two nipple-nippers spent all night yowling and not sleeping, like they were supposed to." The she-wolf said with a great big yawn that made Briar Rose yawn too.
Aunt Fauna had taught Rose more about how humans work, now that her monthlies had come. How she would go into heat each cycle, how her body expelled the preparations for a baby in her period and how to deal with it. Aunt Fauna said there would be a mate for her when the time was right. Though they had not said when that time would be. Rose was gracious and patient, the time would come, like spring time.
"Aw, mom, but it was fun," the cubs said after yawning too. "Can she come down and play?"
"She may," said the fine she-wolf.
"I'm not prey, right?" Briar Rose double-checked.
"You are not prey," stated the she-wolf with a nod of her head.
"Where is the rest of the pack, if I may ask?" asked Briar Rose.
"They are attacking some goons that are in the forest. Disgusting hell-spawn." The mama-wolf said with contempt.
Young Briar Rose leapt lower in the tree, surfed gracefully down a branch to the ground and soon the girl and the pups were rolling around on the ground frolicking and mock biting or tickling each other, as their species worked best.
Briar Rose could get her legs around around a cub and flip them over so she was on top. It was a great move she could do, but they could not.
Yhen one of the cubs yelped, everyone leapt away from each other, trying to look nonchalant, and the mother-wolf's head snapped up.
"Ouch, that hurt! Mama, mama!" cried the pup rubbing her ear with a paw.
"What did I say about roughhousing?" said the she-wolf.
"To do lots of it, but stop if someone yelps," replied the cub.
"That's right. Come here and let me see," said the mama-wolf. The little puppy walked over to her mother holding her head to one side. The mama-wolf sniffed at her pup, licked the ear and said, "It's okay, you're not bleeding, or anything. You'll be fine." Giving her young another lick on the forehead, like a kiss.
"May I see?" asked Briar Rose, Aunt Fauna had been teaching her how to help their forest friends.
The she-wolf nodded and Briar Rose gently looked at the injured ear. She could feel some indentations, but the fur had protected the skin. "Yes, everything looks fine. Ready for more play."
"Oh yeah!" Said the puppy enthusiastically.