Author's Note: Some stuff happens \(0_o)/

Jack walks with Daisy for what feels like a mile through the deep snow. They had been talking to each other quietly to not wake the sleeping kit in Jacks arms. Jack learns that Daisy has a lot of siblings which seems to be the norm in Pooka's compared to humans. Daisy's younger siblings are Dexter, a pare of infant twins named Chloe and Greta who drive their mom ragged, and older sister named Lily who's "too serious" according to Daisy. The eldest siblings are boys, which are fully grown as 'bucks' named Leo and Artin.

"What's with all this titles like bulls and bucks? What's the difference?" Jack asks, trying to fish for more information on this new culture he is now supposed to be aware of. Daisy puffs up in a cute 'big sister wisdom' way. "Bucks are the young guys who mostly don't got a partner and stuff. They're still growing into their magic. The Bulls are super strong and are grown grown-ups. They normally stick to a warren to protect the burrows." She looks up at Jack, "Didn't your parents teach all this stuff to you? Or do Ice Dwellers not have burrows?" Jack tries to shrug nonchalantly while his heart squeezes painfully in memory of Nick, "I don't have any parents. To be honest, I just kind of woke up on top of the mountain about two weeks ago. It's all I remember." 'Didn't that sound familiar', Jack thought, 'waking up in the middle of no where with no memories of how you got there. At least I already have plenty of experience with a situation like that, so it won't be too hard to convince others.' Jack reasoned that he would keep his past a secret, it's not like he would have any proof that what he said was true. Daisy pauses with a small, "oh."

She's quiet for a moment, "That's really sad. You don't remember your family at all?" Her ears flopped down onto her back and was held there with a tension Jack didn't know how to ease.

"No."

"oh," Daisy looks at him again, this time with a considering expression. "You're really nice, you can just come live with us in our burrow for a while. I'm sure mom won't mind."

Jack gives her a Look, "um, I'm pretty sure she will."

"nuh uh. You haven't even met mom. You don't know."

" I don't need to meet her to know her answer already."

Daisy huffs, "That's stupid. Don't be dumb, mommy is super nice. And if mom don't wanna let you stay I can just sneak you in and you can live in my closet." Jack smiled a little, "Momma got babies to worry about, a strange person in her home would be scary." He uses one arm to carefully boop her on the nose with a padded finger as he shifts Dexter's weight. "And living in your closet probably won't work." She blinks in befuddlement before she latches on to one point, "You're not scary. There's no way mom would think you're too scary to let into the burrow." Jack inwardly appreciated that, but he had a point to prove to Daisy that 'stranger danger' was a real thing. 'Who even invites random people they find in the wilderness to come live with them? On the same day, within hours even.'

"I could be," Jack said with a serious expression. Daisy pauses in the snow to look at him.

They stare at each other.

"Bet you can't scare me."

With some teasing banter that rapidly wakes Dexter up, Jack and Daisy quickly end up playing a vigorous round of tag. Dexter proceeds to cheer them both on while still being carried in Jack's arms; sometimes reaching up to cover Jack's eyes with his paws if he got too close to Daisy. "That's cheating! No favoritism from the referee!" Jack laughs while Daisy prances away in skipping hops, "Scary people can find anyone anywhere!" She sing-songs. Jack calls out another threat as he reaches out to brush a paw over her fur causing Daisy to scream in excitement, "When I catch you I'm going to nibble on all your toes and shove snow-"

It happened so fast Jack barely saw it. A shadow flew through the tree trunks and with a tight curling flip, kicked Jack so hard he accidentally let Dexter go. Jack tumbled hard into the ground once before catching himself in a crouched slide, creating a trench in the snow. "Dexter!" Jack had to pause when he saw the assailant holding Dex with one arm.

This guy had some silver streaked into his gray fur, and had a white fur goatee on his chin. Standing tall with a harsh glare, ears turned back behind the huge deer antlers on his head and with buck teeth bared, a low growl rolled across the small clearing. "Hands off my grankits!"

"Grandpapa!"

Daisy rushed between them, "Be nice Grandpapa Jojo! He's my new friend!" The hostile grandpa never took his glare off Jack, "He didn't look like he was being very nice Daisy."

"That's because we were playing tag!" she says a little desperately. Everything was quiet for a moment, until Jojo sighed at the truth in Daisy's words. "Sorry Daisy," Jojo gruffly said as he eyed the remarkable white fur on the startled young buck that was gradually inching his way up to standing. With the huge alarmed blue eyes and the big feet and paws, this kid looked remarkably like a kit himself. Jojo sighed again, as Daisy first slumped with relief, then swiftly regained her previous excitement. "Look Grandpapa! Look!" Daisy darted over to Jack, clumsily stood on her hind legs and attached paws with him, and began to lead a reluctant Jack over to Jojo and Dexter. "I told you I wasn't just making it up! I really did find a snow pooka! He was eating some Vicu berries so I thought I could grab some from the garden and-"

"Daisy, you can't just raid a garden whenever you feel like it," Jojo chided. Daisy huffed in frustration at the interruption of her story of genius. "I needed him to like me and Grandma always says food is a great way to get new friends."

Jojo mumbled something under his breath that sounded exasperated before saying, "You still need to ask before barrowing. Vicu berries are extremely hard to grow in gardens so taking them will make people upset. Which garden did you take them from?"

"Grandma's of course." She said with a implied 'duh' in her voice. Her Grandpapa grimaced with a sad, "Dang, sounds like no pie anytime soon." Jojo glanced at the quiet buck still holding Daisy's hand who looked progressively more guilty as the conversation went on. Jojo decided to table the lecture for another time. "Papa?" Dexter piped up in his Grandpa's arms. "Can we go home now?"

Jojo looked around at the tired group before tapping the snow with his foot, opening a tunnel to the Warren, "Sure kit, let's go home."

Author's Note: It took a lot of filler Chapters but we're going to hit the heavy world building soon.