2 Ooh, teeth!

I found out that I was a wolf cub. Wow.

A wolf cub!

It had been three days since I could see and properly think.

I raised my head and counted my new litter mates cuddling together with me. I have five other siblings who shared the womb with me.

I was an only child in my last life.I had always dearly wished for a little sister or brother to pamper and play with. Suddenly gaining five siblings gave me a lot to think about.

They were slowly beginning to open their eyes. As I watched them, I noticed that they had blue eyes. I was the first amongst them to gain sight.

Ha. I win. Wait, was this feeling the legendary, sibling rivalry I have always heard about? It begins at birth?

I practiced flexing my muscles for a while for the next few days and managed to stand shakily. It was hard because my muscles were never used that way before but experience helped with the process. Now the problem was to walk.

Bipedal animals just needed to alternately put either of their legs forward to walk. The key was balance. Now, the thing that stumped me was that I had two pairs of legs. And I didn't really remember how an animal walked. My memories still weren'tclear enough.

Did quadripedal animals put both the right-side legs forward at once and then the left ones? Or did they use the front paws first and then the back ones next? I do remember seeing a cheetah running that way in a documentary.

In the end, I saw an older member of the pack some distance away from the den entrance. He walked with both pairs of limbs working alternately. I tried to copy him. Right forelimb, left hind limb. Left forelimb, right hind limb. Good.

I celebrated my first baby steps with a cheer and continued to unstably move forwards. It all went well until my tail tripped me.

"Huff."

Was that my mother laughing at me?

I felt a gentle force around my waist and was lifted a few inches off the ground. She put me back with my siblings.

It was time for our meal again. Umma kept licking us with her big, rough tongue. My siblings were already suckling her while I strove to get up and join them.

While we had our meal, I realized Umma was using her tongue to massage our stomachs to help us pee. Then she cleaned us up.

A few more days passed this way as we lay about nipping and biting at anything that came near our mouths. I think we had begun teething. I could feel my gums itch and hurt so bad that I chewed on my paws, intent on resolving that itch. Running my tiny tongue along my cheek, I felt a little row of bumps protruding out of my gums. Ooh, yeah! Canines.

I couldn't wait to get a full set of nice, sharp, gleaming teeth. I wonder how strong they'll be. Do wolves have dental care?

A few more days passed like this. I could make that out because of a thin strip of light that entered the den through a hole. It was a very tiny hole, no bigger than a coin.

Leaving behind my litter mates, I explored the hollow. There were many faint smells. I saw a bug scuttling about and I tried to catch it. It was slow and smelled of metallic earth.

The den was very big and echoed. Even the dried leaves I found inside were big. The smallest of them were as big as my paw.

One of my siblings started to learn how to walk. The rest of them just lay about sleeping. Lazy bums.

I had very little sense of how the time passed. I would wake up and sleep irregularly.

Today, I found a very special thing. It was a stick. A very special stick. Chewing on it gave my painful gums relief. It was just the right size to hold too.

Umma would constantly pick me up and dump me back with my siblings whenever she noticed me away from the leafy nest. Then, as if to keep me occupied, she would lick me more than the others. Umma,I know I do move about more but you don't have to be so partial to me.Please do me a favour and go lick that brother of mine who is tottering about over there. I really want to go explore!