Moonspear you make it seem you're sacred

Relatively rapid growth of her unborn puppies in the last span of two weeks had finally arrived her at her most troublesome symptom of all: feeling this crowded out in her own body. While only the beginning of it, for her guesses based on the turn of the moon left her at least several more days of this, she came to recognize it almost immediately and with great dismay. An appetite from hell and a moodiness that came and went with less predictability than the weather were all one thing, yet this, she hated it so much more.

She sat all sprawled out in the softest, nearest spot of grass she could find with her ears pulled back and eyes fixed on some di point on the faraway horizon--desperate to reach beyond this body and not have to concern herself with it for, oh, about the next moon or so--all while fighting the urge to just go nap again. Gladly, she would do just that if not for how uncomfortable she was. Not only were the puppies growing, but they were active this afternoon too; she knew there was no hope in trying until later.

She tried to will them into a state of likewise zen, although based on the hard lines of her expression and quiver to her lips, hers was a struggling grasp too.

When that failed, she got up, paced a circle then returned to right where she'd been. Before laying back down, she scratched softly at the earth, annoyed, and plunking down with a sharp huff. She tried stretching out a different way, and maybe just marginally, it helped.. until her hunger decided just then was the best time to remind her that her last meal had been awfully small, and not-so-recent now that the afternoon was almost through... 

Her ears couldn't pin down any further.

hello !

terance hadn't needed a reason to impress charon-- not really. he was guaranteed a home thanks to his mother, and just needed to keep working hard to keep his favor. but amekaze was another story. the only thing he did know about the dark alphess was that she was a mother, and pregnant, and probably hungry. he set out at midnight, tracking down a nearby herd. he'd hunted plenty with his family, he knew how to do it. it was harder on his own, but he learned that it was better to go for the young ones when you're alone-- they go down easier and are much easier to carry. he'd gone to firefly glen (again) and found a herd of sheep, a small though though. he didn't, however, find lyra again, and was a bit disappointed at that. but, regardless, he managed to take down one of the lambs. it was small but fat, and easy for terance to drag back to the mountain.

harder, however, to drag up the mountain.

he found amekaze looking rather down, so it was with caution that he approached her. his own ears and head lowered, and his tail waved low by his hocks. he gave a gentle chuff of greeting, dropping the lamb before him and nosing at it in gentle suggestion.

fat was a word that had recently been added to the girl's rapidly growing vocabulary. birds were fat. squirrels were sometimes fat. and so too, apparently, was this woman before her. she had been staring for a few minutes, brow furrowed and mind curious, for she did not know that wolves could be fat. but this one was, for some reason or another, and she had seen the same one the other day. but it had not been fat then, had it? she was still confused over the fact that there seemed to be a large number of black, blue-eyed wolves here, yet they were hardly nice. she couldn't see this one's face, but she assumed it to be one of them, merely turned fat. 

"HI" volume control was another lesson the girl would do well to learn, and the shrieked word of greeting she had picked up shortly after "no" echoed. she picked herself up and wandered closer to the woman, stating shortly after, "fah".  her word was a matter of fact, very sure of herself in her conclusion. she did not know why the woman was fat, however, and asked shortly after, half-way right in her wording, "wha?". it was, at least, a question word, yet not the "why" her mind had not yet added to her vocabulary. 

another entered her line of sight, and she halted, gaze fixed on him for a moment, chirping her now customary "HI". she peered at him a moment, yet did not find him quite as interesting as the fat lady, and thus returned her gaze to her. 

Torn between which problem to address, and which one to surely irritate in exchange, she just stayed put with an ugly scowl on and did nothing as aggressively as she possibly could. Eventually, her nose quivered to the scent of.. others. Something smelling most like food interested her best. She started to move to get up, but the unfamiliar male (+meal) came into view so she eased her elbows back down to the grass to observe.

Sight of such an unknown yearling raised a halfhearted prickle--although she did know of him, secondhand through Charon and Hydra. The presence of food did draw her focus more than anything, too, even if she made sure to not tunnel-vision at it. She tried to wipe the worst of her disgruntled mood off the forefront of things, for now. "Hi. Terance, yes?" And most notably to her, Dante's son.. not necessarily something she expected to have here, considering how badly Dante and Charon had clashed once, but lo and behold here they were now. She was hopeful, though, as she liked the longstanding Blacktail alpha well enough herself. He had been a good neighbor to her, and kind of in a roundabout abstract way, brought Charon into her keeping, too.. 

He seemed wary and she supposed her countenance was doing little to help here. She carefully pulled herself up to sit upright, at least, soothing her ruffles and moving just enough to reach for the kill, per his offer. "So you have been staying busy already..?" she quirked a brow, gesturing her snout towards the lamb, all pleased to see the silvered yearling working well already but the voice of the youngster drew her attentions entirely away from him for a beat. She was a loud little thing (which for a half-second, made her remember Alya's loud phase), as Ame turned to regard the pup while she wandered closer, seeming curious. "Cassiopeia, hi," she greeted back with a far less  volume and kept her eyes glued on the youth. Her brother had left his first impressions, and seemed to be a stubborn little boy who would need to learn himself fast. How fared the sister of the duo?  "What is it..?" she asked, uncertain what she meant exactly, and not yet able to ascertain that it was an age old, simple question: why?

"amekaze," he replied with a confirming nod. he was indeed terance, and he also knew who she was. he gave a grateful bow of his head, as he truly was thankful to be part of a family again-- even if it wasn't through blood. he had never been a part of a true pack, and this was sort of exciting. it felt more comfortable, safer. traveling with his family he knew that they all had each other's backs, but being in a part of a pack... they had borders around them, more family members to keep one another safe-- terance truly enjoyed it.

when given the respond to relax, terance did so, keeping his tail low still. he gave her a small smile. "charon mentioned you were expecting, and my mother craved--" he was cut short by a loud, high-pitched HI before he could finish, and his ears pressed against his head. it was almost as obnoxious as his cousin from the caldera-- whatever her name was. he stared down at her, listening as amekaze called her caseiopeia. she sort of looked like aries, but actually used her voice to communicate what she wanted. "why," he said, glancing to amekaze, "she is asking why-- i don't know the context." he was almost a year old, but baby babble came as a bit of a talent. he probably got it from osprey, who always had a way of understanding them. had he stayed home, he probably would've made an excellent caretaker alongside wraen-- but here he was.

deciding that no yelling and no hackles meant that she ought to be well received, the girl plod up to the pair and seated herself beside the large woman with gusto. She offered a little wiggle as the woman said her name, knowing it to be her, and liking when people said the name she herself could not yet say. Her gaze zoomed in on the food, too; but she was hardly tempted by such flesh, for she still loved to nurse more than she loved the taste of blood.

they did not, however, offer an explanation as to why the woman was " Fah?"  prompting her to ask again, watching the woman curiously, then on a whim glancing at herself. Was she fat? She couldn't tell, all she knew was that she was black, and seemingly a little shorter than the rest

so sorry for the wait!

Whatever it was Terance was about to say about his mother fell to the wayside after the pup had come upon them. Although her mouth had started to water because of the food's scent, she studied the young Svartell carefully. She issued another single syllable and when she looked to her own sides, Amekaze began to understand it better. "Oh. I think what you are asking.." she said to the girl, gesturing swiftly to her flanks, obviously enough. "It is because my puppies will be born soon," she detailed with a level look down at her. She was tired of explaining things such as pregnancy and the like to the younger crowd by this point, after her own girls had done their share of verbally assaulting her over it; Still, she believed it was important for them to understand so she weathered as much of it as she could, usually. By now, she was just about done with it.

"Want some..?" she asked, to the small group as a whole, before she moved to rip into the skin of the meal for her own piece to eat. After a moment spent to quarter it off and then swallow it, she glanced back to the silvery yearling. "Anyway, I am not surprised Charon brought it up to you already. Osprey was important to him, so I think some of that is bound to rub off onto you," she mentioned thoughtfully. "Point is, it is good to meet you," she gestured gently to him, but kept a good eye on Cassiopeia, with who she had a certain wariness about--but she wanted to give the whelp a chance.

terance gave the child a look as amekaze began to explain. had she really just called her fat? the stone shot a glance to amekaze in shock before looking back to the child... who terance deemed as downright stupid. "that's rude," terance scolded her gently, unsure of what else to do in this situation. amekaze was looking pretty big, and terrance wasn't about to lie straight to her face about it-- and besides, who gave a crap? she had children growing inside of her, for gods sake. and this wasn't even his child, so he couldn't really punch her in the face for being so rude to her-- dear god-- alpha. he gritted his teeth.

she offered to share, and terance gave her a soft smile, his clenched teeth lightening up some. "sure-- thanks," he glanced to the lambs he'd delivered, waiting for her to tear off her own piece before taking his own share. could this child even eat solid food? he didn't know... and he didn't fully care, but he was interested enough. he glanced back to amekaze as she began speaking, and he smiled, almost embarrassed. "it's good to meet you too," he started, feeling that respect was always a good starting place. he then shifted, lowering himself to focus momentarily on his food before speaking again. "mom always talked about charon with really high regard," he returned, and as a side note added, "i'm kinda glad that peregrine guy ended up dead-- otherwise i wouldn't of been here." he hoped amekaze had already heard that story, 'cause he couldn't give her much detail... oh well.