Mara sat in the throne room by one of the big tables. Her many siblings were doing much the same, some lying down, others trotting around in circles. A pair of them were even wrestling in a corner. One of the wrestling visvargs lunged for the other, grabbed them by the neck, and threw them across the room. Some of the other pups cheered at the spectacle.

"Copycat."

Viskr, one of the wolves that had cheered pouted and turned to the one who'd spoken. Kellan crossed his arms and spoke again.

"He just did what Mother did earlier."

Rella gave Kellan an unimpressed look.

"And Mother is the strongest visvarg there is. What's wrong with imitating her?"

Viskr agreed with Rella. Kellan huffed and shook himself, a movement that looked rather out of place when done by his human form. Habits like that were what gave them away most of the time. During their first days of life, they'd all been colorless more or less. Their bodies had been limited to black, white, and grey but now signs of color had broken out among the pups. Mara had been the first to gain color. The stripes in her fur had turned golden and her skin had gone pinker in some places. Now she looked almost human. She was the only one who had only 2 eyes and her hair was completely black, lacking spots and patches of other colors and hues as so many of the other visvarg's hairs had.

Kellan's hair was black as well but the tips of it stayed white. Viskr had seen him cutting it once but the tips had turned white just some hours later.

Kellan caught Viskr staring and gave him an intimidating glare in return. Viskr quickly turned his gaze away. Rella scoffed and played with her hair. It was turning red. It had started as a red spot on her chest when she was in her visvarg form. It contrasted strongly with her dark fur and the almost black on her back. In her human form, her hair stayed a pale red, but the hue grew deeper for each day that went by.

"Got nothing to say, Kellan? Realized that I'm right hm? Mother is strong so we should imitate her to grow strong as well. Perhaps you didn't figure that out yet?"

"Shut up Rella."

Rella chuckled as Kellan glared at her. Mara grinned at him as well. The striped visvarg opened her maw and commented,

"You might be all smooth and clever around the humans but Rella still beats you in every word-fight."

"Pitiful..." Rella agreed.

Kellan squinted at them, opening his second pair of eyes, hidden just below the normal pair. Rella smirked and accepted the challenge by opening the one extra eye under her right one. The visvargs stared at each other for awhile while the rest held their breath in anticipation.

Viskr's eyes went dry from staring at them. He was just about to blink when Kellan blurred. The sound of snapping bones rang loud for a second as the visvargs shifted to their animal forms and lunged at each other. Jaws snapped and claws found purchase as the beasts collided. Angry snarls echoed in the great cave.

Rella made a lunge for Kellan's legs but yelped when Kellan's front claws dug into her exposed neck. She retracted her head like a snake and hissed at him. Kellan answered in kind with a vibrating hiss of his own. The pair broke out of their stares and their claws clashed in another lunge for the other's vulnerable spots. Viskr yelped and moved out of the way as the wrestling pile of angry visvarg stumbled towards him. He felt his back hit something soft and furred behind him and froze.

Ronr raised his large head and stared down at Viskr, eyes still half closed from having been woken up. Viskr gulped and scooted away from him, placing himself next to Mara instead.

Mara smirked and was about to say something when Fanv entered the room with a sulking Randan at her side. Rella let go of Kellan's leg immediately and Kellan removed his long claws from her back. They both sat down facing Fanv as fast as they could and tried to look innocent. Fanv did not look impressed.

"You're fighting again."

"Kellan started it-"

"Rella started it-"

The bleeding pups glared at each other. Fanv sighed. She eyed the pups in the cave and noticed that a bunch of them were missing.

"Where are the others? Didn't the dryads and rodents tell you all to meet here?"

It seemed the floor and walls of the room suddenly got very interesting to the pups. No one looked at Fanv.

Randan looked unsure by her side, weighing from one foot to the other. Fanv glanced at him then sat down, lowering her head to look him in the eyes. Randan scratched his head and looked at his clawed hand. He muttered something so quietly that not even the visvargs strong hearing could pick it up. Fanv pushed him with her snout and huffed.

"They left..."

"They what?"

"T-they left... not all at once... but they did..."

Fanv blinked then snapped her jaws, causing everyone in the room to flinch.

"Where did they go? Are they coming back? Why did no one tell me?!"

Ronr yawned and faced Fanv. He was the only visvarg that was even close to her size. He was easily twice the size of the smaller pups.

"They were bored and wanted to explore. Some wanted to form a traveling pack. Others just wanted to try hunting humans but didn't dare touch the ones in the village."

Ronr yawned again and blinked his one big eye and the many small ones around it. Fanv noded slowly.

"Is this... they moved out then? But you all are barely a year old? Half a year? How long did you stay in the forest again?"

Mara was the next one to speak up. Ronr laid his head back down on the ground and closed his eyes as she chirped,

"We feel like adults now! We can hunt and stuff on our own. Kellan even started courting a female in the village!"

Kellan snorted but shut up when Fanv glared at him. Randan inched away from his mother to sit with the others.

"You are all still too young..."

"We look like adult humans when we're humans?"

"Young humans. Barely adult humans."

"Adult enough to start doing adult stuff? It would be fun to travel. It feels so stifling to stay within the dungeon territory."

Fanv looked surprised. The others just stared as Mara did her best to look convincing.

"Is it really that bad staying here? Isn't it scary to think about going out alone?"

"We would travel togheter! Not all of us in one pack though. We would just get into fights if the packs are too big... But like, 3, 4, visvargs in a pack? I'd bring Ronr."

"Hey!"

Rella suddenly found the courage to join the conversation. Fanv stared at her own feet and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Ronr is the biggest of us, you can't just hoard him to yourself!"

"I would bring you too, Rella?"

Rella puffed up her chest and went over to Mara with a grin.

"Good choice! I'm the best at acting human after all. Ronr won't even keep his extra eyes hidden!"

Mara nodded at Rella and Ronr grumbled something but didn't open his eyes. Viskr glanced at the few other pups in the room.

"C-could I-"

"Viskr, you're on my team."

Kellan cut him off before he could finish.

"Wha- No! I... I want to go with Rella and Mara..."

Kellan looked at him then shrugged, a movement that looked strange when done by a visvarg.

"I guess it can't be helped then. Mara. Me and Viskr will join your pack then."

Rella looked insulted.

"What? No way. Viskr, sure but you're too annoying, Kellan."

Randan looked at the still pondering Fanv and hurried to speak up.

"I'll go with Kellan."

Kellan glared at him.

"No, we'll be too many then."

"But you PROMISED that we'd be in the same pack! Do you really think you can survive with both Mara AND Rella? You need someone on your side!"

"I got Ronr and Viskr."

Kellan looked at Ronr who had still not opened his eyes, clearly intent on sleeping through the entire discussion. Viskr was among the tiniest of the visvargs and rarely spoke up for himself unless encouraged to do so. Kellan frowned.

"Ok, you're with us, Randan."

"Hey, don't decide who join. I and Mara are the bosses in this pack!"

Mara nodded, agreeing with Rella.

"Not a chance!" both Kelland and Randan yelled.

The newly formed pack started bickering about who would be the leader while the remaining pups decided to not join the troublemakers. Fanv watched as her children split and divided into groups, clearly intent on traveling to find their own territories. She felt a bit sad. The room went quiet once more when she spoke.

"I guess I can't really stop you. I'd rather you say goodbye to me and everyone so we can wish you good luck, than you all sneaking off alone one after the other..."

She felt her eyes go wet and wiped at them with a paw. Her pups looked at her then at each other. They all rose up and went over to hug Fanv. Some patted her and told her to not be sad. Fanv smiled and felt tears well up despite her pups' efforts to cheer her up, which in turn made them try all the harder. Many promises were made like "Keep out of trouble", "don't eat strange stuff", "don't fight each other, at least not seriously", "come visit when you can" and so forth. The pile of visvargs giggled and snuggled as they promised their mother that they would do their best to stay well and that she had to do the same.

As this unfolded a very confused Dessi entered the cave. She took one look at the wriggling pile of visvargs, some crying and others hugging each other, even if their animal forms weren't really suited to perform hugs.

"What the fuck."

She turned and went back into the tunnels.