#galraweek2018

This left Ulaz watching Keith alone. Normally, there were enough hunters in the pod that this wouldn’t have been a problem—Ulaz could have sat out from hunts until Thace got better and they could return to swapping pupsitting duty during the morning hunts. However, with so many hunters falling ill, Ulaz couldn’t continue to sit out of hunts. There were too many mouths to feed, including several elders and pups. Since he had gone hunting the previous day, Kolivan had volunteered to take pupsitting duty for the day. He had only watched Keith once before, when Keith had left his fathers’ cave for the first time. However, that had been back in the Old Territory, and Keith had only been about five moons old at the time. While Kolivan hadn’t pupsat since, on account of being too busy keeping track of the goings on of the pod, he did speak with Keith whenever he ran into Keith and Thace during his morning rounds. Keith was normally excited to see him and asked him questions.

Given Keith didn’t have a problem with him, Kolivan didn’t think keeping an eye on the pup was going to be too much trouble.

Early in the morning, Kolivan carefully ducked inside of Ulaz and Thace’s cave, after the sun had just barely begun rising over the horizon and casting light over the water. Ulaz’s back was to the cave’s entrance, one arm tucked beneath his head. Keith was out of sight, but Kolivan could assume that the pup was curled up against his father. Before Kolivan could announce his presence, one of Ulaz’s ears flicked, and he half-turned, looking over his shoulder to check who had just entered the cave. Keith must have still been asleep—Kolivan knew the pup was normally very quick to greet visitors.

“There you are,” Ulaz said quietly, before he began trying to extract himself the nest without disturbing his pup. The plant matter that made up the nest looked newly changed since Kolivan had been in here a couple of sunrises ago. Ulaz must have done that after returning from the medical cave.

Keith didn’t stir beyond a soft squeak, but he shifted and curled up, tucking his tail fin in close to his body as it twitched in his sleep. He seemed to be resting easily, but Kolivan knew that Ulaz had likely been watching out for signs of coughing and fluttering gills. Those were the first symptoms that Thace had displayed before the sickness had gotten bad.

“Did you tell him that I would be watching him today?” Kolivan asked, indicating the pup with a flick of his ears.

Ulaz nodded. “When he wakes up, he’ll probably be hungry,” he said, and his brow furrowed in worry as he looked back over to his pup. “He didn’t eat much yesterday…”

Kolivan’s ears pinned back. “You don’t think he has gillflutters, do you?” he asked. Several other hunters in the medical cave had lost their appetites now that they were sick. If Keith had lost his appetite as well…

“No,” Ulaz said quickly, shaking his head. “He misses Thace.” Judging by his tone and down set ears, Ulaz missed his mate terribly as well. He leaned down to give the pup one last nuzzle—earning a soft, sleepy sounding chirp in return—before moving towards the mouth of the cave. “I’ll be back later, a little after sunhigh. He shouldn’t give you too much trouble.”

Kolivan hadn’t been expecting Keith to give him much trouble considering how well behaved the pup normally was, but he nodded nonetheless. “Good hunting…”

While waiting for Keith to wake up, Kolivan looked around at the many pockets in the cave’s walls. He had always been astounded by the amount of trinkets Ulaz managed to find—they had only been in the new territory for around four seasons, and yet Ulaz had already managed to amass a collection that rivaled the one he had had in the Old Territory. However, Kolivan also found the idea of collecting human things baffling. He thought that perhaps it was a Wanderer thing—he hadn’t met one until Ulaz had joined their pod all those seasons ago.

As he drifted through the cave, he noticed a flash of red in his peripheral vision. When he turned his head, he found a nook hidden lower on one of the cave walls that was filled with shells. Tilting his head to the side, he moved closer to get a better look. He knew that Ulaz frequently brought back shells for Thace, but they were always intact—and purple. These shells, however, seemed to be an assortment of many different kinds, some of them broken, some still whole…

“I got those for Dad…” Keith’s soft, sleepy voice came from behind him, and Kolivan turned to see the pup sitting in the nest, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes.

“Oh?” Kolivan asked as Keith swam over to his side. “Where did you find them?” he asked, lightly trying to smooth down Keith’s headfur with his hand, being mindful of his claws. The pup’s headfur was an absolute mess, sticking up at odd angles, and Thace wasn’t around to make it lie at least somewhat flat even underwater. Kolivan didn’t think he had ever seen a birthparent groom their pup as much as Thace groomed Keith.

“The pools,” Keith said, smiling brightly. “Papa took me…” And then, the pup’s expression fell a little bit, ears pinning back against the sides of his head. “Cause when Dad gets back I want to give him presents…”

“Are you hungry?” Kolivan asked—perhaps getting Keith out of the cave for a bit would help. It would certainly provide a nice distraction for him until Ulaz got back. “We can go and get some fish, if you’d like…”

The mere mention of food seemed to lift Keith’s spirits, and he nodded quickly. “I can catch my own,” he said insistently. “Dad taught me! He says I’m going to be the best hunter in the pod!”

Kolivan let out a soft purr of amusement. “Is that so?” he asked, trailing along after the pup as Keith made for the mouth of the cave. “Where should we go hunting, then?”

Keith didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he grabbed hold of Kolivan’s hand and hurriedly led him out of the cave. Kolivan followed without argument as Keith led him to some nearby plant life, and he watched as Keith got into position, floating just in front of the plants. Upon noticing a flash of silver, he darted forward, startling the fish out of cover. Then, he managed to stun one of the smaller of the fish that emerged with a firm tail slap before giving it over to Kolivan and going to try finding another fish.

Even if the fish wasn’t large enough to be much of a meal to Kolivan, he thanked Keith anyway, because the pup seemed so enthusiastic about his catch.

—

After Keith was fed, Kolivan decided to take him on a small tour of the territory surrounding his fathers’ cave. Just far enough that Keith could feel like he was on an adventure. From what Thace had mentioned, Kolivan gathered Keith almost always slept through most of the journey back to the cave when they came back from the shore. The swim there wore him out more often than not, as it was to the far side of the territory, closer to the docks.

Kolivan did enjoy being able to point out new things to the pup, since Keith always seemed to ask what things were even if he had already seen them fifty times.

“And that is where the pod meetings are held,” he said as he motioned to a large grouping of rocks with his tail. Seaweed obscured most of the clearing from view, hiding the meeting place from prying eyes. While most of their meetings were held at dusk, it didn’t hurt to be careful, especially where humans were concerned. Kolivan had nearly had several run ins with them since the pod had settled in this territory.

He was almost ready to continue the tour—perhaps the next stop could be the drop off—but he noticed how Keith had begun trailing behind and didn’t seem to be as interested as he had been at the beginning.

“Keith?” Kolivan asked as he swam back over to the pup’s side.

“Dad’s going to be okay, right?” Keith asked. His voice was soft and barely audible over the shift of the current, and his ears had pinned back, nearly disappearing into his headfur.

Kolivan paused, unsure of what to say. Kellun had already assured him that it wasn’t anything serious, that Thace would make a full recovery, that the only reason Thace had moved in the first place was because of Keith. But he realized that he had been hesitating too long when Keith’s eyes widened and his lip began quivering.

“He’ll be fine,” Kolivan said hastily. Ulaz would be distraught if anything happened to his mate. Not to mention what it would do to Keith if his father died—he had always been Thace’s pup, and it was rare to see Thace without Keith trailing along after him or riding on his back because he had gotten tired of swimming. The two of them had been close since Keith was too small to swim on his own, before he had opened his eyes, even.

But nothing was going to happen to Thace.

“He’ll be fine, pup,” Kolivan asserted, and the firmness of his voice seemed to calm Keith a little, although Kolivan reaching out to lightly scratch the pup behind his ears did more. Keith managed a laugh and squirmed as his expression brightened just a little. Then, Kolivan noticed a small, red shell poking out of the sand nearby. He motioned to it with his ears and smiled. “How about you find some more shells for him?” he suggested. “To add to the pile back in your cave?”

Keith nodded quickly and darted off to start digging the shell free of the sand. Once he had the shell in hand, Keith moved to another spot to start searching, then, and Kolivan trailed a tail length behind, keeping watch for predators and other, smaller threats like stray crabs.

—

By the time they returned to Ulaz and Thace’s cave, the sun was nearing its peak in the sky and Keith had found three more shells to add the ever growing pile he had amassed for his father. Keith was trying to arrange them perfectly when Ulaz darted into the cave, carrying two fish in his jaws. He handed one—the larger of the two—over to Kolivan, before turning his attention to his pup.

“Papa!” Keith said excitedly, abandoning his organizing to dart into his father’s arms, rubbing their cheeks together. Ulaz purred deep in his chest, and Keith mimicked him, although his purr was much higher pitched. When Ulaz presented the second, smaller fish to Keith, the pup happily accepted it and settled on the cave’s floor to start eating.

“Did he behave alright?” Ulaz asked, ears twitching nervously.

“Yes, he did,” Kolivan assured him. “He even found some more shells for Thace while we were out…”

“He showed me the meeting place!” Keith said excitedly, looking up from his fish. “And I swam all the way by myself!” He seemed rather proud of that feat, even though it wasn’t actually that far from the cave.

“Oh, really?” Ulaz said, settling down beside his pup. “Well, I have some good news for you… Dad is going to be coming home soon.”

“He is?” Keith asked, ears going alert. “When? Did you talk to him?”

“In two sunrises,” Ulaz said, smiling at the pup’s excitement. “He was very excited to hear about what you’ve been up to…”

Keith frowned. “Did you tell him about the shells? It’s supposed to be a surprise…”

“Of course I didn’t,” Ulaz said, shaking his head. “Now, finish your lunch while I talk to Kolivan…”

Kolivan paused in dissecting the fish he had been given when Ulaz turned his attention back to him. “So, Thace is improving?” he asked, carefully extracting a lingering hook from the fish and setting it the side out of sight so Keith wouldn’t be tempted to try playing with it.

“Yes,” Ulaz said nodding. “He is very eager to get out of the medical cave. Apparently Kellun is smothering him.”

Kolivan snorted, ears twitching in amusement. “Well, I’m certain he’ll be glad to see his pup again.”

“Thanks again for watching him,” Ulaz said gratefully. “I know he can be a handful…”

“It was no trouble, Ulaz,” Kolivan said, shaking his head. “He’s a good pup.”

“So…” Ulaz began, ears flicking in interest—and perhaps just a touch hopefully. “You wouldn’t mind watching him tomorrow too?”