Redhawk Caldera santa clarita diet

Raven fed off an old, ripe deer carcass in the forest just south of the caldera, then loped back to the cave. When she'd left earlier, the pups had been playing in the cave's mouth under the watchful eye of @Finley and @Eljay. Upon her return, she found the whole lot of them piled just inside, snoozing away. The Gamma grinned fondly at them, then chuffed to announce her arrival.

"Snack time," she quipped when @Orca, @Titmouse and @Phox immediately woke and bounded up to her, licking at the corners of her mouth. Raven arched her neck and brought up a goodly sized portion of her lunch, spilling the meat slurry on the ground just outside the cave. The puppies immediately began to eat—all but one.

"Towhee!" Raven called out to the slumbering girl. The Alpha and Delta had also roused and were milling nearby, leaving the single sleepy puppy curled up all alone. "Towhee, you're missing out! Wake up!" the Gamma tried again. But Towhee didn't even twitch.

Thinking the little girl must be deeply asleep, Raven began walking toward her. She made to reach out and nudge her but something compelled her to stand still and say loudly, "Towhee?" She didn't react. The Gamma blinked, then shot a puzzled glance toward the other two adults before experimentally shouting, "Towhee!"

Still nothing and suddenly something clicked in the caretaker's head. "Oh." Raven felt the knowledge sink into her bones. She felt a strange sort of relief—this explained a lot—but she also felt a deep worry for her little sister. If Towhee really was deaf as she suspected, what did that mean for her future?

Eljay was still asleep by the time Raven returned. He had a puppy or two wrapped in his paw like they were teddy bears, pulling them close with a satisfied smile on his face as he snoozed. When the pups woke up and started to trickle down to Raven, he didn't notice, though the now-empty paw grabbed in the air longingly and a frown broke the smile because he was getting colder. When he heard Raven call someone's name he smacked his lips and twisted his head with a sleepy murmur.

It wasn't until she shouted that he awoke with a start and jumped to his feet with a startled "I'm awake! Where's the puppies!" Then, as he looked at Raven and the attentive pups, "Oh." He looked sheepish, feeling kind of dumb, and then looked at the thoughtful look on Raven's face. "What's wrong?" he asked, worried something was wrong with her, the pups, or that another someone'd died.

Orca hadn't had much to say about the whole cave-in thing. She hadn't protested when she was carried to the cavern, and then she had adapted quickly to her new surroundings. Arguably, it was something to do with her short-term memory; nothing seemed to bother the little girl, perhaps because she forgot about things almost as soon as they happened. She had spent the time in the cave happily bumbling about with her family, chewing on her siblings and being chewed on in return.

When Raven presented her and the other firebirds with a meat treat, Orca dug in quickly. She had gagged on her first taste of regurgitated food, but no longer found the texture difficult to process. She took a large bite in her mouth, her cheeks bulging, and grinned up at Eljay and Raven. Her short little tail wiggled eagerly, until she realized they weren't paying attention to her, but to Towhee -- who wasn't even eating. She blinked and swallowed, burping unceremoniously as she eyed her sisters.

Just as oblivious to Raven's concerned realization as she was to the caretaker's shouts and her own deafness altogether, Towhee slept soundly. But she must have sensed that she was the object of speculation because her blue eyes cracked open to find her older sister standing over her. Towhee blinked, yawned, stretched and then sat upright. Her head cocked as she returned Raven's worried gaze, a frown touching her own mouth. Was Raven displeased with her again? Towhee's shoulders hunched together as she sort of shrank into herself, wondering what it was she was doing wrong.

Raven didn't look up when Eljay spoke to her, staring down at Towhee with a thoughtful frown carved into her dark features. She did answer him, though. "Nothing's wrong, per se," she said slowly, finally glancing upward at him, "but I think... Towhee may be deaf." Right as the last word left her mouth, Orca burped and the Gamma looked at her with an amused, fond smile before turning that worried look back on the pup in question.

Towhee began stirring, perhaps feeling the weight of her elder sister's gaze. She blinked up at the Gamma and Raven gazed back. When the little Sigma began to wilt, Raven realized how her face must look—and just how important her facial expressions must be for Towhee's interpretation of the world. "Oh, baby girl..." she breathed, immediately bending down to lick at the pup's face. "It's okay. It'll be okay. We still love you and you're going to..." She trailed off when she realized, really realized, that Towhee couldn't hear a word she was saying.

Withdrawing a few inches and crouching to put their faces on the same level, Raven started over, smiling, speaking slowly and using gestures to get her point across. "It's gonna be okay. I," the Gamma said, patting herself on the chest with a forepaw, "love you," she continued, now poking Towhee gently in her little chest. "We all do. And we'll figure this out, as a family..." She scooted forward to lick and nuzzle Towhee's face with perhaps over-the-top affection.

"Oh," Eljay said and he joined in the thoughtful frowning. He wasn't really sure what this entailed, unable to comprehend the grandness of it and all of the things that Towhee wouldn't be able to do now that she was deaf. He wasn't able to wrap his mind around it entirely, but was distracted by the burp.

It was only momentarily though, before Towhee started to look terribly sad. He didn't realise that it was because of he and Raven looking sad. Though he possessed great empathic qualities, analytic ones, not so much. But he knew that she needed tending to and he moved in closer. "Don't be sad because you're deaf, you'll be fine," said Eljay, not realising how dumb this might sound to someone who'd already deduced that she wasn't sad because of being deaf but rather because of their expressions.

He nosed Towhee's face lovingly before pulling back and looking at Raven as she spoke. "Yes, we love you very much," he said, although he wasn't sure if Towhee understood at all because she couldn't hear, and then, belated, pressed a paw to his chest too because that must be how Raven was trying to make her understand.

Little Elfin didn't understand what was going on; she didn't know why Eljay and Raven were suddenly paying so much attention to Towhee. The girl hadn't even come over to eat! And the grown ups hadn't noticed the way Orca expertly downed her portion without any reflux. She frowned, watching as the two older wolves spoke quietly to Towhee, gesturing at her with their noses and paws.

She didn't realize that her sister was deaf, and wouldn't know what that meant for some time. So she waddled towards the trio and thrust herself up against Eljay's foreleg, clearly jealous of the consideration they were giving to Towhee.

Before Towhee knew it, both Raven and Eljay were crowded into her space, mouthing at her so emphatically that the pup was momentarily overwhelmed. She blinked, then squinted back and forth between their faces, watching the way their lips moved. They were speaking so quickly and saying so much that Towhee could hardly pick up any patterns, though she thought she noticed a very familiar word mentioned at least once by each of them: love.

Quickly turning her frown upside down, the puppy wagged her tail against the ground and mouthed, I love you! right back at them. Not realizing what impact this might have on either adult, Towhee then bounced to her feet and head-butted Orca, who had just arrived and begun rubbing against Eljay's leg like an overgrown kitten. Her sister smelled like food, which made Towhee's mouth water. She sniffed the air and looked around for the source, though the other pups had already gobbled up every last morsel.

When it seemed Towhee was trying to read her face, Raven ceased and desisted with the licking, reeling back somewhat to afford the pup a good view. The little girl seemed to say something back, though there was no real sound associated with the movements of her mouth. The Gamma's brow furrowed and her lips pursed, though she quickly remembered to control her expression and schooled it back into a smile. Meanwhile, she ever so briefly glanced sideways at Eljay, wondering if he had somehow understood what Towhee had mouthed at them.

"Did she... was that... 'I love you'?" she guessed dubiously. It really hadn't been very clear to her but the more she reflected on the way Towhee's lips had moved, the more it clicked into place. It warmed the cockles of Raven's heart and she made to grin down at the deaf puppy, only to see that Towhee had lost interest in the adults and engaged Orca instead. Although now she appeared to be sniffing the air hungrily.

"Oh, there's—" the caregiver began to say before catching herself. She spun to motion toward the food in lieu of words, only to notice the pups had finished off the slurry. "Oh, crud." She had given everything she had to give, at least as far as stomach contents went. "Come here, Towhee," Raven said in the next instant, again forgetting the child's deafness, though she immediately reached out to tap the girl's shoulder before the Gamma abruptly flopped to the ground and proffered her teats to the hungry whelp.

Raven thought that Towhee was saying something to them, but Eljay didn't hear anything and he didn't really understand where Raven was coming from. "Uhh..." was his only response and he blinked in confusion while he tried to grasp it all, still not knowing what'd happened and how Raven had heard an 'I love you' that he had missed somehow.

He was distracted when he received a display of affection, he guessed, from Orca. "Oh, uhm," he mumbled when he realised that Orca must've been feeling left out. "Don't worry, we love you, too," he said lamely, and he grinned sheepishly while he watched Towhee pounce at Orca with a smile.

He didn't immediately get that Towhee was hungry at all, but Raven seemed to think she was and offered her some milk. Eljay looked at Towhee, hoping she wouldn't mind that she had missed the meaty meal. He wondered idly, a thought spoken out loud, "Does the milk taste like meat too because you eat meat?"

She was happy when she was afforded the attention she rightfully deserved: Towhee bumped her with her head, then Eljay reassured her of his love. Orca almost lost her balance after Towhee's playful nudge, but she righted herself quickly and turned a big grin towards Eljay.

But when Raven changed positions, offering a different meal to Towhee, Orca decided to take advantage. Her own belly was full of regurgitated meat, but she saw no reason to turn down milk. She squealed and then raced towards Raven, despite the fact that the older girl had purposely invited Towhee to eat.

She was just about to turn a questioning look upon Raven when she felt a tap. Seconds later, her elder sister had flopped to the ground and offered up the proverbial milk bar. Towhee paused—she had been expecting meat, going by the smell—but then eagerly bottomed out beside the prostrate Gamma and began to feed. When Orca jostled against her, she threw her sister some shade but then promptly ignored her, focusing on the warm nub of flesh in her mouth and, more importantly, the thick, delicious sustenance that flowed from it.

After ten minutes or so, Towhee released the well-used nip with a pop!, smacking her lips and offering an unceremonious burp that she, of course, couldn't hear. She wanted to play, though the instant she stood, she became hyper-aware of her uncomfortably full belly. She plopped right back onto her haunches. Despite having just woken up not long ago, she flopped onto her side and closed her eyes. Seeing as she could find peace and quiet literally anywhere, it was no time at all before she was dead asleep and snoring off her meal.

Although she didn't really mind nursing Orca too and the girl wasn't disrupting her sister, Raven bared her teeth a little in warning and said, "You already ate, Orca," and made a shooing motion. If the toddler put up a fight, the Gamma wouldn't be forceful with her yet. That would come later, when she was really trying to wean them. For now, she did nothing else aside from offer a disapproving look.

While Towhee (and possibly Orca) fed, Raven tilted an ear toward Eljay. His question caused a little laugh to burst from her. "Um, I'm not sure. I don't think so?" She might have jokingly offered him a try, yet it was just a little too weird for her, even for a joke. "But it must taste good, huh?" she pondered aloud, considering how eagerly the pups responded to the milk she provided them. Weaning wasn't going to be a picnic, though at least they seemed to be responding fairly well to the pre-chewed meat.

That made her think of Oriole. She hadn't been there, obviously, but she'd been told that he hadn't reacted well to regurgitated food and that's why he'd passed away. Her stomach turned. Would Oriole have survived proper weaning, she wondered? But then Raven pressed thoughts of him aside, refocusing her attention on the living, breathing loved ones around her rather than dwelling on the dead and all the what-ifs.

It surprised her when Towhee unlatched and promptly went back to sleep, though a glance at her distended tummy explained it. Rising and stretching, the Gamma peered around at the other pups and then announced, "A nap doesn't sound like a bad idea. But I'm going to head inside for mine." Raven blinked down fondly at Towhee, then glanced up at Eljay and Finley, just to make sure they were okay being left to continue attending their young charges.

"See you all in a bit," Raven said around a yawn before slipping inside the cave and flopping down in a dark corner with a sigh. She didn't fall asleep right away—she was too busy considering all the ramifications of Towhee's hearing impairment—but eventually she did slip into a peaceful doze.

Eljay joined in on the disappointed frowns towards Orca, hoping that it would weigh in at least somewhat, even if just a little.

"Uhh, yeah," Eljay said, staring at the pups as they drank. He considered what it must taste like and found that he thought it must be really good. He was not just curious, but eager to try, too, but that just seemed really weird so he didn't ask for it, feeling kind of weirded out by his own desire to try it. He didn't remember of any of his own weaning issues and how he'd been forcefully removed from his mommy's teat by her disappearance, or he might've linked the events.

"Oh, of course," Eljay said with a soft smile when Raven announced that she was headed inside. He nosed Towhee and Orca and said, "You guys want to play for a bit?" hoping to keep them away from joining Raven, who might want to sleep without disturbance.

When Raven reprimanded her, Orca backed off swiftly. Had she actually been hungry, she might have made a bid for a teat; but she recognized that it was her sister's turn, so she pivoted and toddled back towards Eljay. By the time she reached him, Towhee had finished eating and fallen asleep, and Raven announced that she was ready for a nap, too. Orca turned and looked just in time to see her big sister disappearing back into the shelter.

She gazed expectantly up at Eljay, and his invitation was met with eagerness. "Pay, pay!" she cried, even as she dropped her shoulders into a play-bow, little tail whipping back and forth.