Bearclaw Valley the spectacles

sight. this is new.

it happens without warning. one moment she is drifting off into slumber; the next, she wakes and her lids lift, revealing puppy-blue eyes for the first time. she blinks slowly, sleepily. it's not so different at first, as @Astara's pelt is black as her former world.

but she turns her gaze up, and finds the ceiling of the den. a murky color, lighter than anything she's seen thus far. then she twists her head and squints, whining. the glow spilling into their little home is almost unbearable. it is too much for now.

she looks away, fixing her attention on her mother's belly instead. shifts her eyes over and finds @Aventus. is this what she looks like, too? he is like their mother but in miniature. she crawls toward him, staring intently all the while. she bumps her snout into his cheek and licks his floppy ears, overwhelmed with curiosity at the sight of him and of everything.

life for astara had always been challenging, but motherhood... motherhood presented new difficulties.

she was tired of being den-ridden, and yet, she was too tired to even venture out of tumbleview's hearth. she was tired of nursing, and yet, in a span of a few short days, her world had been entirely transformed.

those little tiny blobs - had they really come from her?

one was wriggling along her flank as she thought. astara absently nosed the girl's body, snuffing as the small thing made its trek towards its sibling.

so far, astara had not named them. what language did she possess, to give them names? she knew them only as one and two, boy and girl.  but one... one was getting gradually lighter, resembling a color astara found most ominous.

she started to see the girl schlepping towards her brother had eyes open; milky blue, nebulous eyes. the eyes of distant galaxies, or the unforgettable deep -- eyes which would see much strife in their time before they closed.

she wondered what color they would mature to. fiery like her bear, or something elseworld -- like the silvery bone-white of her sister? astara's thoughts carried her away from the den while avicus nosed her brother.

oh. . .oh.

a pop of color greets her in the form of her mother's eyes. they are. . .well, nothing she could describe in words. but they are a hue that have been in her dreams, in her heart, and she is transfixed. baby blue into indigo, indigo into baby blue.

something stirs within her, and her tiny mouth bursts into a wide smile, tongue lolling. she keeps nudging Aventus, trying to turn her brother toward Astara. look, LOOK! it is far more interesting than the droll, dark fare they have been fed before.

the world is so much bigger and brighter, and the fear begins to subside as a yearning for exploration overcomes her. where are they? what is their place?

feel free if you want to jump in whenever, @Aventus! <3

He was dreaming a wonderful dream, the kind of dream that slips away the moment your eyes open. The sort that left you feeling grumpy when you couldn't recall it seconds later. Which was precisely what happened when Avicus nudged Aventus, jostling him out of that lovely dream and returning him to the mundane present. Ugh.

He didn't even notice his eyes fluttering open when he woke up. A scowl overtook his babyish features and he grunted out a grumble whose meaning was clear: noooo, go away! His chin drifted back toward the den floor, his eyelids drooped again, and then Avicus nudged him again. This happened on repeat about three or four times before the pup had enough of it. He swung gaping jaws toward her, aiming to club his annoying sister with the full force of his gums. Not a kind thing, considering the milk teeth that had erupted.

He was stilled by the realization that he could see Avicus, a discovery that rushed into the forefront of his mind so quickly it made him feel dizzy to behold the rusting brown of her downy coat. Even moreso when his searching gaze found Astara's eyes, so deep and fathomless a colour that he felt like he was being pulled headlong into it. Unlike Avicus, who reacted with excitement and joy, Aventus shrunk back on himself and whistled a tiny, timorous whine.

astara did not recall the first day she held sight; it, like aventus' dreams, had slipped long ago from her consciousness.

she watched bemused as avicus nudged and nudged and nudged, prodding in the way only sisters could -- when at last her brother stirred he stirred with crocodilian intent. indeed, these children were every bit borne of her flesh.

young as they were, she could already see merrick in them. herself in them. sometimes, even averna. it was the way they moved, how they reacted -- how their personalities acclimated to new and exciting things. thus far, her daughter reminded her most of averna -- who from day one had been bold.

lowering her head to aventus' level, astara gave him a gentle nudge of her nose to encourage him after his whine. there was much to explore in their den, and very little to be afraid of.

she answers her brother's growl with a playful grunt of her own, prodding and poking until—THWACK!—and she reels away, set stumbling back by a set of growing jaws and new teeth. baffled, she falls back on her posterior, shaking her head in a daze. seeing stars. that hurt.

completely piqued (she had just wanted him to share the moment, ugh!) Avicus lurches to her paws and barrels toward Aventus, who by now is shrinking and fearful, whining. it's not fun if he is no longer a grouch, and so her answering blow comes much softer, more of a push than anything else.

the girl richochets awkwardly off his shoulder and then clambers over him, straining to reach her mother's muzzle as well. her eyes are wide, murky blue orbs, fixed inextricably on Astara's face. she slides away from her brother and begins to climb the young woman's shoulder like a novice mountaineer, looking to take one of those large pointy shapes on the top of Astara's head into her mouth.

they look fun to chew on, after all.

Astara's eyes were black holes that could swallow his entire soul, he was certain of it. Those eyes narrowed to slits when his mother lowered his snout to nudge him, and finally he was able to tear his eyes away from hers, only to find Avicus lurching toward him. She was a dark brown streak in his vision, but intimidating nonetheless. The boy drew back on himself, bracing for impact, but there was no bone-rattling crash of body on body. Naught but a sort of gentle ruffle.

Ha! Emboldened by Avicus' lack of follow-through, and granted easy access to her hind legs as she tried to scramble over him and up Astara's side, Aventus twisted in an almost reptilian roll and latched his little jaws around Avicus' left hind ankle. Maybe she would reach their mother's ear after all, but she would have to drag her inkjet sibling along with her.

it would come as a surprise that in motherhood, astara was patently patient.

perhaps it was her years on the run that had softened her reactivity, or maybe, it was the constant needling of jealousy surrounding merrick that tempered her soul (and the babes served as reminder that merrick was hers' alone); all the same, the antics of her bearcubs were typically met with a quiet brand of interest. for now, her daughter clambered along her angular shoulder like a billy goat; while her brother scurried lizardlike after her.

astara was not without a little mischief: she waited until her daughter was close to her neck, and then dropped her shoulders and head downwards in a gentle attempt to upend avi's expedition and send her towards her brother's waiting jaws.

like a plant some may know as "devil's snare" (Avicus would certainly never be familiar with it, as it exists in a universe far separate from hers) new teeth and gums latch onto her ankle and begin to drag her down. she twists her neck, trying to see—her brother, of course! the little imp.

and then Astara shifts and tumbles her into his waiting jaws—oh, it is the utmost betrayal! she gives her mother a baleful look before rounding on Aventus, springing into a kittenish pounce in the hopes of bowling him over. they are mostly evenly matched in size for now; whatever they may grow into later, the playing field is level in the current moment.

snarling, she shows no mercy, snapping at her brother's cheeks and floppy ears and pudgy belly. she's a fuzzy red menace, her fur bristled out to full floof.

For just a moment, it seemed like Avicus was going to tow him up the mountain that was Astara's neck, but then their mother jolted, sending Avicus tumbling down onto Aventus. He unlatched his jaws just in time to avoid proper damage, but not without a painful wrench for his deception. He was buried momentarily under his sister's girth and thrashed to get free.

Avicus wasn't going to let him off easy for his trick, but Aventus could match her blow for blow, for now. In almost no time, she'd righted herself and turned to assault him, but he was ready for her. He buckled with the weight of her, but was quick to invade her personal space with grabbing bites of his own, one leg lifting in an effort to cuff her around the ears and pull her head down. A tiny, purling growl was his response.

astara had played her trick, and now, she watched as infant one tumbled down into infant two; chaos ensued.

despite her role in unseating avicus, it appeared aventus earned the brunt of the little red girl's rage. astara watched her in silence a moment, troubled by the dangerous familiarity of avicus' delicate pelt. someone else had been that color once -- she wondered, if merrick cared at all that his dead mother lived on in his children.

her attention focused on aventus now, who despite the bludgeonings of his sister, answered tit for tat with a thick growl. perhaps it was not only indra who lived on in her daughter -- astara smiled to herself as she watched aventus retaliate. perhaps, a little of her mother lived on in the boy as well.

wanna wrap this since beebs are a month older now?

it will not be a one-sided fight—good. she likes it when her brother fights back, and she likes it even more now, watching his shadowy form snap at her. it's a novelty, and she's almost too distracted by the sight of him. almost lets her guard down.

almost, but not quite; as he snags her head, boxing her ears, she rears up clumsily onto hind legs. his paw bounces off her nose with a small, painful thunk, and then she loses balance, toppling onto her side.

no. . .no! this will give him the victory!

Avicus scrambles in the dirt, trying to lift herself to her paws. she is already growing tired, and she casts a pleading look to her mother. a little back-up, here? her still-milky gaze reads, while her ears flatten in desperation.

An ill-won victory, the result of luck alone, but Aventus felt no remorse in seizing it. He followed Avicus' tumble, chasing her to the floor with eager snapping jaws, only to snort triumphantly at the sight of her small ears flattening even further. Whether he knew it or not, his instincts responded to that, declared that he was the winner and there was nothing more to be gained from pushing it.

He stepped clumsily back from his sister on unsteady legs and slowly turned himself until he could bury his dark face into Astara's equally dark stomach, interested only in sleeping now.

Last post for me.

avicus would find no succor from her dam -- but only because, by the time astara sought to intervene, the little rough and tumble play time was over. aventus was burying himself into her dark coat, and avicus would follow soon after.

it was not all bad being a mother: you saw your children grow, you slept (as they allowed), and you got to see the thing you created become a little more human (wolven?) every day. it was a fascinating process; astara wondered how long it would be before the tables were turned.

such thoughts were too deep for daytime thinking; as soon as her children fell asleep, astara lowered her head and curled around them, ready to drift herself into slumber.

<3