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greetingsfromrivain · 6 years

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Witching Hour, part 1/3

It’s 9:27 Dragon, and Carver Hawke is sneaking off in the middle of the night. And his older sister is very curious as to where he’s going...

Content Warnings: rated T (canon typical violence, occasional sexual innuendo*)

The first night it happened, Hawke merely thought Carver was going to the privy and didn’t make much of his extended time there. Perhaps he was ill, or well....he was a young man now. It wasn’t important. Probably.

The second night (or maybe, just the second time she noticed), was when floor on the stairs creaked in that loud way it did whenever you needed it to be quiet, but when she looked outside of the door and down the steps after being roused out of her sleep, there was no sneaking younger brother to be found. When she went to his room to check, it was likewise empty.

But when she went back to sleep and woke at sunrise, as she always did to start farm chores, Carver was already awake, albeit cranky, and ready to start the day. So it was nothing again. Most likely.

The third time he was clearly getting sloppy. A strong autumn wind blew through Lothering, making the tree branches scratch against the windows. It also helped slam usually quiet doors. She scrambled to the window to catch him and saw him going in the exact opposite direction of the privy. He looked more like he was going toward town. Curious.

Hawke put on her nearest pants, shirt, and socks, threw her patched up cloak over her shoulders and snuck down the stairs without making them creak ( “Amateur.” she whispered to herself, thinking of her brother). At the door, where all the boots were lined up, there was one pair missing next to hers. She quickly put her boots on, and looked over to the largest pair, still crusted with farm dirt and each boot holding a dying assortment of wildflowers. She’d need to replace the flowers again soon. “Always something to do.” she muttered, shaking her head fondly.

She laced up her boots and smiled at the largest pair, “Don’t worry, father. I’ll sort it all out.”

Hawke tried her best to keep to the shadows, but Lothering wasn’t known for it’s cover. As she got closer to town it was easier to hide behind barrels and around corners, but also became more difficult to track him. He only looked over his shoulder twice before getting to the imperial highway (“Father taught him better than that.” she tsked). He climbed up the ramp to the old crumbling roads, and she waited. For a moment she could see part of him on the highway, but he moved toward the other side of the highway, as if to climb over the other side.

“What are you doing, Carver?” she muttered to herself. After counting to 30 in her head, she thought it safe to climb up the ramp and onto the highway on here knees. When she peaked over the railing on the other side, she saw him running toward the old abandoned farmhouse, still charred black with wooden planks in its windows from all those years ago. “Three silvers he’s meeting a girl,” she muttered, not thinking about how little sense it made to bet against herself.

She looked to see if there was a part of the highway with a little more shadow to it, and eventually (as in, approximately two moments) decided it was better to just climb down quickly. She climbed about halfway down, until she became bored and jumped, landing in a way that pained her knees. She dropped to the ground; the farmhouse was still a ways off, but she didn’t want to take any chances. To her surprise, Carver didn’t go to the house proper. Instead, there was a cellar door just next to it, with another, very tall and very broad man standing there. They seemed to speak a few words, and Carver was let in.

Hawke stood up and, no longer needing to worry about hiding, ran through the tall grass toward the cellar. The man stood at the door with a crate at his feet. He glared down at her.

“From the Fade I crafted you...” He said, giving her a skeptical once over.

She blinked, “Uhh.....and...to the fade you shall return?”

He nodded. Then he gave her another once over. “A twice over,” she thought. “Weapons?” he asked.

She patted at her weaponless hip and her hiltless back, and remembered her dagger in her boot. He motioned to the crate, and she placed the dagger in. The man opened the cellar door for her. “Don’t get many women,” he muttered, though she wasn’t sure if he was actually talking to her.

She made her way down the dark stairway, the door closing behind her, making it darker. But there were too many voices, many yelling out in excitement, to make her afraid. When she got to the bottom of the steps, there were torches lit all around the room, with a few casks opened in a corner. Most of the people in the room were men, for the most part younger men but a few older, and the vast majority of them men she recognized. A small group of young women not much older than Carver stood together in a group, giggling and drinking. The room was not round, but most of the people stood in a circle of sorts, with a couple of people in the middle of the circle...

....beating the Void out of each other.

The two men fought with knuckles wrapped in bandages, and she realized she recognized them: Gregory, the McCall’s son, and one of the Russell boys (whose name she could never remember). The crowd seemed split in half when it came to cheering, though maybe slightly more in favor of McCall, who was bigger but not quite so fast. Hawke took in the whole scene and grinned, until she felt a hand grab her upper arm.

“Kiera!” Carver said sharply. “What are you doing here? Can’t a man have one thing to himself?”

“Well, maybe a man can” she drawled, “But a boy should let his mother know where he’s going off to at night.”

“I’m not a boy.” He rubbed his temples, “I knew you were following me, but I was hoping you’d turn back after a while-”

“You knew?”

He raised an exasperated eyebrow, “Kiera, you’re the worst at being stealthy.”

There was a loud symphony of gasps, and both Hawke and Carver looked to see Gregory McCall on the floor in the middle of the circle. “Winner!” A young man with an impressive beard yelled out, holding up the Russell boy’s arm and handing him some silvers.

“Who knew Harrold was such an entertainer?” She said, looking to the bearded man and then to Gregory as he was ushered to the side by Harrold’s sister Poppy, with healing supplies of in an empty corner. “Alas, poor Gregory.” Hawke muttered, taking off an imaginary hat and holding to her chest.

“Alright, you’ve had your fun,” Carver said, crossing his arms, “Will you go now? It’s almost-”

“Caaaarver Haaaawke!” Harrold yelled, and the people in the crowd cheered. Carver winced at the sound of his name. “Just don’t be too embarrassing.” Carver muttered.

Hawke grinned. “I wouldn’t dream of it!”

Carver groaned, and with a shake of his head, made his way to the center of the circle. The Russell’s boy gave Carver a cocky grin. Carver didn’t return the smile.

“Threeeeeee, Twoooooo, Ooooooone!” Harrold yelled, and the two boys began.

The Russell boy made a show of his movement by using quick feet to circle around Carver. Carver, however, only followed to make sure his back was never to his opponent. He kept his fists up near his face, expression full of grim determination. Hawke smiled at the form. He really had learned a lot from father.

The Russell boy’s feet kept moving, but his arms did not move as quickly. “Honestly, boy, keep your fists up!” Hawke yelled. Carver, to her relief, didn’t look over to her, like the Russell boy thought he might as he went in for a punch. Carver dodged with what seemed like little effort, and took his moment to throw a punch to the side of the Russell boy’s head. The young man staggered, but got back into his rhythm.

Hawke looked around at her fellow members of the audience, many of them calling out her brother’s name. She couldn’t help but grin. “Keep it up Carver!” she shouted, holding up her own arms in an offensive stance. Carver didn’t look her way, but she saw him smile.

He took more steps forward, toward the Russell boy, as if to throw a punch, but the boy dodged, his cocky expression faltering. “Good!” she said, as she knew what was coming next.

Carver kept the young man on the run, despite his slower footwork, faking the throwing of punches and making the Russell boy wince defensively until he finally tried to throw another, weak-armed punch. Carver ducked his head under, came back up as quickly as he’d gone down, and gave a one-two punch to his opponent’s stomach. The room erupted in shouts, Carver taking just the slightest moment the grin as the Russell boy swayed but didn’t fall. His cockiness was all but gone, instead replaced with frustration.

The Russell boy ran at Carver, and then seemed ready to kick him in the crotch. But Carver moved faster as the formerly quick-footed boy moved slower, and he stepped from the kick’s path, grabbed the boy’s leg, and gave it a wrench that made the young man flip over and land face-first on the floor.

“What!” Hawke shouted, unable to contain both excitement and pride, but she could barely hear herself over the others cheering for him too. Harrold began to count as the Russell boy mumbled and attempted to stand up.

Just as Harrold got to “two,” one of the bigger Russell boys got into the circle, grabbing the younger by the back of his vest and throwing him back up. “Come on!” he snapped, causing outraged yells from the crowd, and a very nervous Harrold watching from just a short distance.

“He’s supposed to get up on his own.” Carver said with a glower, and the elder Russell boy rounded on him. Hawke tore off her cloak and threw it behind her, “Hold this!” she yelled to whoever might have caught it and made her way in between the two men.

“Now now, I don’t think this is fighting fair, do you?” She said, grinning up at the older Russell boy (whose name she did remember, only because his first name was also Russell and who does that to a child?). “Come now, we’re all here to watch people beat the maker’s love out of each other, and isn’t that an honorable way to spend time?”

Russell gave her a shove, “You want to involve yourself, Kiera?” He looked her up and down coldly, “You dress like a man, let’s see if you can fight like one.”

“Oh, I fight much better than a man.” She grinned, getting into form. She looked over at her brother, who was still glaring at Russell. “Are you ready?” She said to him, adrenaline rushing through her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. His smile was very small, but determined. He got into form too, fists in protective stance, the two of the side by side, their forms mirror imaged.

The Russell boys waited for no counting, which seemed for the best, as Harrold had shuffled off nervously to the side. All form and finesse was gone from the younger brother, who seemed content with simply tearing Carver limb from limb, and the eldest brother moved in a way that implied that his only experience with fighting was “be bigger than others.”

Hawke and Carver dodged their opponents, ducking under limbs and in between, switching opponents to confuse the Russell boys, getting in jabs where they least expected it. Russell tried to grab for Hawke, but she dipped under his grasp, ended up behind him, and gave him a forceful kick to his rear. She cackled as the group young women cheered her name.

Meanwhile Carver kept his more grim, more controlled style. He looked over to Hawke, and she nodded. They began to circle the two, using quick jabs to keep them in a small place, the young men standing back to back. Russell practically growled, and lashed out at Hawke, just as she thought he might. With a loud crack, her fist hit his nose. He stumbled, his nose bleeding profusely, unable to notice that his younger brother was on the ground, having been laid low by Carver. He tripped over the small body, and like a felled tree, hit the ground with majestic thud.

Hawke casually walked over to the older brother, sat on his back as he held his nose, and dug in her feet to the dirt floor of the room’s center. “Do you yield?” she said with a jolly grin. He groaned and muttered something unintelligible, but the younger brother piped up “We yield! We yield!”

The crowd erupted in a cheer that Hawke would have sworn could be heard from the town proper. Carver walked over to her and offered his hand. She jumped up, grabbing him in a hug that practically lifted her much taller brother off the ground. Harrold seemed to reclaim his nerve, and grabbed the wrists of each sibling.

“Winner!” he yelled, and the crowd cheered again. In the back Russell got up, shrugging of Poppy as she tried to look at his nose. He picked his brother up by the vest once again. “Let’s go, Collin.” he muttered, holding his nose and cutting through the crowd like he was made of stone. His younger brother ran after him, albeit with a small limp.

“Collin! That was his name.” Hawke said as she began to walk out of the circle, putting her five silvers in the pocket of her pants.

“You’ll forget it again by the time we get home.” Carver said dryly, but he was smiling.

“I can’t believe it’s already over, it seems like we just got here!”

“It’s not over.” He shook his head, “but they only allow two wins per fighter. Guess they figured the fight with the two of us counted as a second one.” He held up his small punch, jingling with 10 silver pieces with satisfaction.

“Well, we can get you another ten next time!” Hawke said, “Now where did my cloak go....”

Carver stopped in his tracks. “Next time?”

“Yes!” She put her hands on her hips, exhilarated, “Can’t you see it? The Hawkes, back to back! Birds of Prey!” She heard him groan.

“Kiera, like I said, I’d rather do it alon-”

“Kiera?” the group of young girls pushed through as another fight started behind them, but the four girls were focused only on Hawke and Carver. “The two of you were amazing!” The young girl with reddish hair and freckles held out a cloak. “I saw it on the ground, I wanted to make sure you got it back!”

“Thank you, Peaches!” Hawke said, brushing the dirt and dust from the cloak, “the nerve of some people!”

“That’s what happens when you treat them like coat racks,” Carver deadpanned, and Peaches giggled at him. In the low torchlight of the cellar Hawke could have sworn he blushed.

“Well, thank you again ladies!” Hawke said with a sweeping bow, “But the Hawkes must be going. Until next time!” She elbowed her brother gently, and he gave an awkward bow, making the girls giggle again.

As Hawke and Carver made their way up the steps, Carver looked behind him. “Maybe....maybe we could do this together. If you really meant it.”

She threw her arm around his neck to bring his head to her level, and ruffled his hair. “Now that’s the spirit!”

“Careful!” he snapped, pulling away from her, “You’re going to make us fall down the steps, and then where will we be?”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, opening the cellar door and allowing him out first, “You’d be closer to Peaches.”

He made an awkward choking sound, and though they were out in the still darkness of night, she knew he was blushing again.

The broad man gestured toward the crate, and Hawke grabbed her dagger. “See you soon!” she said over her shoulder as she walked side by side with Carver through the tall grass, knowing that the sun would be up in only a few hours, but feeling more awake than she had in months.

DA100 #7, Siblings

Notes:

1) *”Occassional Sexual Innuendo” would be a great name for a punk band

2) I realized I was six in the da100 and hadn’t written about my Hawke, which is a tragedy. Picture that “I abandoned my boy” McElroy gif, but with “boy” crossed out and replaced with “girl.”

3) Also, there are, let’s say, conflicting accounts to Malcolm’s death (in the banter, Beth says he dies during the blight, but in world of thedas they say he died 3 years before the blight). Even though, technically, info in canon should probably take precedent over anything else, I liked the idea of Hawke having had a little time to adjust to being “head of the household,” so to speak, rather than being just thrown into it right before everything goes to shit

Also, this is fanfic and I can do what I want *hair toss*

4) I’ve never written a fight scene before! So that’s fun

#da100 #fanfic #da2 #carver hawke #hawke #f!hawke #kiera hawke #custom hawke #my writing #a place by the fire #the kids are alright tag #lol this was originally gonna be a one shot but well #to be continued............

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azworkingdogs · 5 years

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Littermate Syndrome

I love puppies! I absolutely LOVE puppies. In some ways, I LIVE for puppies. I have made a career out of puppy and dog training for the past 25 years.

I even love being smothered at the bottom of a litter of delightful, lovable puppy pile.

When my breeder friends breed a litter of literally any kind of puppy, I am one of the first to beg to come and play with them at all life stages.

I love everything from bottle feeding, to building obstacle courses, and taking puppies out to socialize.

I have even worked with a couple of Assistance Dog organizations that raised numerous litters of puppies. Teaching puppies new and exciting things is thrilling and rewarding.

What I don’t love is the idea of inexperienced humans and pet owners adopting or buying littermates or two or more puppies.

Why?

Why on earth would I not want two puppies to be adopted or sold together?

Because it compounds the difficulty and investment of raising a good canine companion exponentially! A good breeder also would not want you to take littermates, they have seen the carnage. A good dog trainer will also dissuade you… it may give us extra work but it isn’t worth it to our clients.

When I was a child, I wanted two dogs. My mom allowed us to have one Chow Chow but as a human that loved animals I wanted two dogs. My mother’s excuse was always that if we had two dogs, that they would bond to one another and not to us as a family.

At the time, I was angry and I thought my mother was making excuses. And, in some ways I think that she was , but interestingly after 25 years of experience of watching the dynamics of (littermates specifically) she was partially right.

As an adult, I have almost always had two to three dogs in my home as pets. Most often they have been spaced a few months apart and therefore we (my human family and I) have had an opportunity to spend time with and bond with those puppies.

Littermates, however, spend 90% of their time or more spending time bonding with each other.

These littermates then become dependent on one another for almost literally EVERYTHING. After a short period of time they literally think they can’t function without one another. This is called “littermate syndrome.”

Be sure to get them separate crates. I might even consider crating in different rooms to give them more independent. I like plastic crates because they are darker and more den like. Check them out here, these are even airline approved.

Dispelling the Myths

First off, before the hate mail piles in; no scenario is 100% full proof. There are people out there who mutt-led through the puppy stage and their puppies did alright. There are even people out there who think their puppies are better off together. However, I would argue that last point.

2 Puppies are Easier to Train

You may think that you will have to spend less time by adopting littermates, but nothing is further from the truth.

Many people think that it will only double their work load, but unfortunately, they are wrong it is probably ten times more work.

Following one puppy around and making sure that they get outside and potty appropriately, every 2 hours, after meals, after drinking, after playing, and after sleeping is maddening with one puppy. Now try keeping an eye on TWO puppies. You may think that they will just go potty at the same time, but they won’t.

They will gain bladder control at different times. Their bladders will fill at different times and they will consume different amounts of food and water, even if you try and control it. One puppy will wake before the other and begin playing with the other before you can catch them and get them outside.

And, when one has a potty training accident in the house, even if the other was doing really well, they are both likely to backslide. Plus, you will have two potty training accidents to clean up.

And, that is just “potty training”, imagine for a moment, trying to teach competing puppies to do “down stays”?

Puppies are like toddlers, they are sweet and kind, but they have short attention spans and they often compete with one another for everything that they get. And, if one gets something the other doesn’t there is likely to be a temper tantrum.

Just training two puppies efficiently requires separating them. And, most dog owners complain that whichever puppy is not being worked is SCREAMING in his or her crate, or outside or from another room.

All of these things are much easier if you have an adult dog, or even an older puppy that has already worked through them by themselves.

For instance I once had puppies that were about 6 months apart, but by the time I brought puppy number two home, puppy number one knew most of her obedience, was potty trained, and happily crate trained. She had also already bonded well with me because I had devoted this time to her.

Certainly, they got into a bit more trouble and required a little more time because they were both young together but it was nothing like having two puppies the same age, or littermates, or siblings without training.

Siblings are Easier to socialize?

The truth is often the opposite.

Think about it, they have each other, why would they need to let someone else into “their pack”? This is often seen as they grow and reach sexual maturity (around a year to 2 old) even if they are spayed or neutered.

You often also end up with one very dominant littermate and one more submissive littermate and neither is typically good for the psyche.

Studies have been done on lots of human twins (slightly different than “littermates” of course).

But when raised together there is often a very dominant twin, or the outgoing twin and the submissive twin. The dominant twin handles all life’s complex behaviors while the submissive twin follows. This certainly isn’t the greatest situation if the dominant twin or dominant puppy can’t have life the way he wants, or if the submissive puppy has to make decisions or spend anytime alone.

Twin Escalation Syndrome is an actual “syndrome” seen in human twins, that I believe can also be seen with sibling dogs or littermates.

This behavior is characterized by misbehavior tantrums that can exponentially escalate between the two siblings. In this case, both twins or littermates are trying to be the dominant and one puppy’s bad behavior escalates to the second puppy throwing an even bigger fit to get the attention. As with humans, I believe that this back and forth in bad behavior can degenerate quickly until the behaviors are unbearable.

Eventually, children can be reasoned with, however we can never communicate with our dogs in the exact same way because they don’t speak our language.

Like mentioned before, this makes for more than double the work in a normal situation, if you end up with two puppies or even two adult littermates who are constantly vying to out due one another with negative behavior, you will end up miserable.

It is recommended to separate twins or littermates with this problem, to employ distraction, and try to reduce competition (which is much more difficult in dogs because, of course they cannot be sat down and reasoned with). Dogs are often very competitive mammals.

As with any bad behavior, remain calm. Some of these dogs will feed off of your anger or the escalation in the situation.

Dogs often don’t understand “human anger” but they do realize that their human doesn’t look or act the same so they feed off this energy with more often than not negative or excited energy. As hard as it is to remain calm it is essential for your sanity, eventually.

I am a big believer that dogs mirror our behavior, when we are calm they tend to be more calm, when we are upset, angry or sad they don’t recognize our pheromones and can act out in an attempt to make us feel better. Try not to put your dog in that situation.

Recently I was in a car accident, and my dog recognized that something was just “wrong”. She wanted to nest on top of me and pounce my kidneys for a week (not exactly conducive to healing). However, in this situation, as with some mourning and loss situations our out of our control. I felt horrible, but I still felt bad that my behavior was causing my dog distress. Remember that trying to control our behaviors and mental states is best for them and us!

Littermates will Learn From Each Other

This one is a double edged sword, because it is both true and false at the same time.

Yes, littermates will learn from each other, but often they are imparting negative behaviors and sharing shenanigans together.

They will eat your carpets or walls together, they will dig up your flower bed, or they will dig under your fence together; but rarely will they learn what we consider good behavior from one another.

Dogs are dogs, and dogs have a different guideline of rules and ethics and codes that they follow that has simply nothing to do with humans.

Dogs do things that are fun and feel good.

Lying still for hours, avoiding chewing naughty objects, and not playing too hard don’t even enter into their thought process.

They are going to do things that feel good to them as dogs, like stealing food and shredding your underwear, or chasing the cat together.

Littermates will Entertain Each Other

This one is probably true most of the time, but it isn’t always healthy.

Dogs need to learn to be independent to be successful in life.

Imagine NEVER leaving your mother or your husband, or wife?

Having some alone time is crucial to any animal or human’s psyche.

Yes, they can play together and they should play together but they should learn that they can also play alone or play with just you.

We recently had one of two littermates in our veterinary clinic to be tested for a very specific disease.

Financially two Siblings Isn’t Much More than One

Siblings Always Love Each Other

Often times the worst dog fights and aggression I have ever seen is from littermates. Sibling rivalry is a very real and very deadly condition.

Once dogs reach sexual maturity (even if you spay or neuter them), they can often retaliate about who can be in charge. Of course staying sexually intact makes this much worse, but I have also seen littermates that go from being best friends to wanting to kill one another at the sight of each other.

Think about it… twins can also suffer from a form of this; the difference is that most twins only work through some resentment issues and few if any become homicidal. How would you like to have to share EVERYTHING??

There were times I didn’t want to share with my older sister and vice versa, but thankfully we had a few years between us so the resentment was a bit less. I didn’t have to share all my clothes, all my toys, all my food, and all of my attention.

Littermates are expected to do all of that, and sometimes their beds. Some people even make the mistake of kenneling their sibling dogs together. This means, they literally never get a break from each other.

Can you imagine getting frustrated or even angry at a person or even your significant other that you literally never got a break from? Either you would form an unhealthy dependent relationship, or you would likely form unhealthy anger and aggression. Neither are healthy, of course! Healthy Pet also published an article on littermate syndrome.

But, often these cases need the assistance of a boarded veterinary behaviorist after one or the other has incurred numerous fights and stitches.

I had a potential client who heard me talking about being a trainer at a restaurant last week, he followed his story about sibling German Shepherd Dogs with photos of the bloody mayhem and that one dog had lost an ear. This had been the latest of half a dozen dog fights. Both were 2 years old and of course got along fabulously occasionally.

The truth is, few dogs fight 100% of the time. There are a few dogs that will do anything they can to get to one another, with the desire to kill the other. But most dogs will get along the majority of the time, until they don’t. It is still not healthy and can still end with the death of one of the dogs.

Because he was in denial about needing to separate these dogs until they were evaluated, put on a behavior modification program, under go basic obedience through advanced obedience, and consider medications to help ease the process; I referred him to a boarded veterinary behaviorist at the closest veterinary medical school.

Sure, there are success stories out there. I know of people who have littermates who have been able to handle some of these problems as they arise, but most people do not have the time or inclination to deal with the carnage of two pups at one time.

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