Stone Circle Meal time
Mother Overlord
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#1

Valette was missing Stark. He had not been well lately and it worried the female. It looked like the flu but it didn't seem to get any better. Valette tried all she could but she was not a medic. The best she could do was bring him meals and make sure he would get enough water in his system. While her mate was ill she also had to look after three children. She was glad for the pack that was helping her watch her. Still, the alpha female wanted to spend as much time with her children as she could. They were two months by now, she didn't know the exact date after all.

The female trotted into the clearing and woofed for her children. She was also carrying a raccoon with her as a meal for her children. Valette placed it on the ground. They were probably hungry, she did not have time to hunt for them yesterday. Valette thought it was good that they at least would know what being hungry meant. It would hopefully trigger their instinct to hunt and stalk things. Which Valette wanted to give them a lesson about today.
Swiftcurrent Creek
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#2
Arlette had been playing around the log when she heard her mother approach. The female could hear her mother everywhere. The female grinned excitedly and instantly rushed up to her mother to greet her. Arlette was really doing much better 2 months after birth. She would always stay a bit smaller than her other siblings but she was just as active and alert. She loved to be social and try to learn as much every day, typical pup stuff. "Mama!!!," she squeaked.

She eagerly pounced on the raccoon when seeing that her mother had brought them a meal. She started to bite in the fur and tug on it but the skin wouldn't really give way. She knew it was a meal but her mother hadn't opened it up yet. "Hunwrrieeee," she protested and then looked at her mother, confused as to why she hadn't revealed the meat under fur like she would usually do. 
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#3
Merrit watched his sister play from his perch upon the clearing's log, until his mother's scent drew close and he lifted his gaze to catch her approach. Arlette made quick work to cover the ground between them, but the boy simply stared with a curious blink at what their mother carried in her jaws.
The creature's limp body rivalled his size, and wrapped with a pattern he didn't recognize as anything wolf - or anything he'd seen before. It was this that drew his ears forward, and after a moment of distant calculation, he hopped from the log and approached with senses outstretched.

While his sister gnawed and chewed at every inch of the still creature's body, Merrit circled her frenzied dance until he reached a point where he could see its face more clearly. Its eyes remained open and strangely glossed, and when he reached out to touch the bloodied fur around its neck, the body radiated with a cool and fading warmth. Strange. He pressed his ear against the body and waited. He couldn't feel the rhythm, that gentle churn of the heart he felt in his mother, his father, his sisters, and in his own chest.

"Whasswrong?"  He turned to face his mother, for though he had been fed many times before, and had seen the carcass of many kills, he had never thought to question this before - the body of a creature still so intact that it looked like it could be sleeping, but wasn't. And though he had seen his mother tear up carcasses before, he hadn't questioned how the creatures had grown so still, or why they didn't beat with the lifeblood he and his family held. But his childlike mind was growing, and the breadth of his questions with him.
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#4
She'd been napping near her siblings when their mother approached, but quickly discarded that when Arlette's response roused her. For a few moments all she did was stretch and yawn as her littermates went towards the raccoon. Her own approach was delayed and cautious. She sniffed carefully around the face, glancing up at her siblings and mother warily.
After a few more beats, she decided the eyes looked odd. Clearly, they were worthy of being chewed on. So, opening her tiny jaws as wide as she could manage, she immediately set to work doing exactly that. Eyes didn't really have the most ideal positioning for being gnawed on, but that didn't stop her.
Mother Overlord
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#5
Valette smiled as she was met with all three of her youngsters. She watched how each of them reacted. Arlette was excited as usual and tried to bite the raccoon. Same for Keen who decided that chewing on the eyes was the best way to tackle the prey. Valette smiled at her daughters' eagerness. Merrit was the only one that seemed skeptical of the raccoon. He was listening to it and wondering what was wrong with it. It was adorable to see him care about wildlife. "It's food when you don't hear anything anymore," she spoke to Merrit. She wasn't going into detail yet how it came that the raccoon stopped breathing or his heart stopped beating.

The female then opened the belly for her children and revealed the meat under the fur. She opened it enough so they could all have a taste and put their noses in there. Most of the time she had fed them regurgitated meat, hence why the mother also made sure to mix it a bit. She easily puked up some of the meal she had before her hunt to have her pups associate this kill with food. She was doing this less and less as they needed to start to eat straight from the kill. She plopped back on her haunches to watch her pups explore the kill themselves.
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#6
Arlette was trotting into place eagerly when she saw that her mother was starting to bite into the animal so eagerly. Her red eyes focus on the mother with excitement. Her tail was wagging a mile a minute. She wanted to attack the food as she was super duper hungry. She might pass out if she didn't have food soon. Of course, that was far from true. She was well fed, but to the young female, it felt like she was starving. 

When her mother prepared the meal she was quite impatient and tried to get close to it. Only once her mother sat down she charged at the prey and eagerly started to eat without a moment hesitation what she was eating or how her mother got it. She was eager to have food in her body, nothing more. She liked to be first at things or explore things before her siblings. The same she thought about food. 
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#7
Merrit turned to study the racoon again, frowning slightly as Arlette's frenzied dance and Keen's rhythmic gnawing blurred in his periphery. The creature continued to stare blankly at the sky through half-chewed eyes, mouth the slightest bit a jar, as if it had turned to food mid-scream. Merrit didn't like it, he decided, and though his mother gave an answer, it didn't satisfy what he wanted to know. His questions weren't hard; he always knew exactly what he meant. So why didn't the grown-ups ever seem to understand him?

While his hunger cried out to indulge in the meat revealed, Merrit stepped away from the prey even as Arlette rushed forward. He turned to his mother with a pensive frown. "Why's it we don' hear a'thing?" he eventually tried. He would work out his question until his mother got the point, and would sit here all day until her answers satisfied. The least of his worries was if his sisters would leave him with something to eat in the end.
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#8
Eventually she pried one of the eyes from the raccoon's head, pulling at it until it was no longer tethered and promptly spitting it out on the ground. There was something unsettling about the sight of it. Normally the chocolate-furred pup might have abandoned the situation entirely, but she didn't think she could stand to look at it a second longer, so she did the logical thing.
She picked the eye up and stuffed it back into the socket, pushing a bit with her paw to make sure it stayed there. S-sorry, She mumbled quietly, though it wasn't clear whether she was speaking to her mother or to the raccoon. Suddenly she had very little desire to eat, so she pressed up against her brother and watched Arlette eat instead.
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#9
Valette watched how each of her children reacted so differently. Arlette was eager to attack the meal while the other two were more eager to know about their prey. Valette sat down and then turned her head to Merrit who asked another question. "His heart stopped beating that is why you don't hear anything," she responded. "The heart is everything, once you don't hear it anymore, any creature will not be moving again," she explained to Merrit. He was curious and she hoped that she gave an answer that satisfied him.

At that moment, Keen pulled out one of the eyes. She looked a bit startled and then mumbled a sorry. "That is okay, dear," her mother spoke calmly. "Do eat," she encouraged her oldest daughter as she saw that Keen was just watching Arlette. "You all need to eat if you want to become strong wolves," she spoke.
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Arlette lifted her head when Merrit asked something but wasn't bothered to listen and took another bite. Her white muzzle was stained with blood. It felt weird to rip off her food and bite into it. Normally she didn't really need to chew as much as she did now. She looked over her shoulder to her sister when she said sorry. Arlette frowned. What did she need to be sorry for? The pale youngster chirped to her sister. "Keeee! Eat!," she encouraged also, copying her mother.

The pale female then turned to her brother. "Merrrrrrrr. Eat!," she then spoke. She had some bites already. She wanted to do things first but it was less fun if she couldn't share with her siblings. "Mama. Eat!," she then yipped. "Eat. Eat. Eat!," she spoke as she bounced around, being joy itself. 
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#11
This time, his mother answered him with something real, something substantial, and through the din of the feast, he listened. He processed. At least, he tried.

The child found it difficult to think, with Keen pressed against his side, and with Arlette's bounding plea for their company at the feast. His frustration mounted, though the feeling only manifested in the subtle frown of his brow. The heart was everything, and this creature had none, not anymore. With its belly torn and eye bulging haphazard from its once secure socket, Merrit wondered if it even knew what was happening at all.

Regardless, it seemed by Mother's words that Arlette was the only one who was doing something right. Merrit had more questions than he had the want to eat. Greater still was his desire to see Keen comfortable, and with a careful turn of his head, he moved his snout close to Keen's ear. "T'ss okay." he tried to reassure over the noise, "Wan eat? Come," but he didn't pull away from his sister. He merely shuffled a foot forward and inclined himself toward the racoon and the dancing Arlette, seeking to encourage her with the motion, but waiting for what she wanted to do.