Swiftcurrent Creek I have met him times before; he adores us like the rest

Gonna try out a tentative 1 post/day goal with Mae and see where it goes <3 this will be set to read only if no one snags it! No pressure, newborns are boring lmfao

To outside observation, Mae's first days were quite uneventful. Her eyes and ears were as firmly sealed as her brothers', and she did little but eat and sleep. It was likely for the best that these things came in stages. She was, for her part, completely overwhelmed by it all. What she did experience, the heat and the cold and all the different touches and textures, was for now the difference between nothing and everything.

There were scents too, faintly, but she didn't have the bandwidth to process those just yet. There was a far more pressing problem in Mae's world. Two, actually. They existed at her flanks, and they shifted and breathed and existed far too close to her. Mae was sick of it, frankly. Sleep was a far more welcome companion than the onslaught of so many new senses, but there was no sleeping through this madness. The obvious solution? Bury herself in mom's armpit. They would never find her there.

The world was a quartet: Jakoul the sun (or perhaps some great planet) and the three of them satellites inexorably drawn to her gravity.

Any visitors to the den were just cosmic passersby—a nuzzle here, a lick there. He could only feel fleeting glimpses of their presence, just as comets and asteroids and the myriad detritus of space float on past the more consequential celestial bodies.

Within this system, he was content. He was the smallest; he sensed it, having felt around and observed the various shapes of his world. For every group, there was a minimum. 

Except. . .today, something was off. Their quartet was only threefold; someone was missing from the usual lineup at the milk bar.

Jakub toddled along the lines of Jakoul's belly, like a timid child learning to rollerblade and clinging to the wall at the edge of the rink. He could not see, he could not smell. For all he knew, the world had diminished by one.

Thanks for joining <3

Ha! Success! Mae managed to tuck herself away quite well, at least for a few moments. Then something started to shift, and she was forced to edge her way back toward the chaos she'd been trying to escape. That wasn't so bad at first. Until something bumped her hind end.

Rude. She kicked out with her back feet to identify the source, although part of her already knew. If she made contact, Mae would attempt to use it as leverage to propel herself back into her hiding spot.

of course, sis!

His forward progress was stalled by a pair of small but powerful hind paws, shoved right into his pug-nosed face. It sent him sprawling backward, rolling on his coccyx like a weeble-wobble—

You know, they don't fall down?

And neither did Jakub, who rolled painfully on his tailbone before coming to a stop. Most pups would wail. He remained silent, mouth agape. Discomfort prickled at every sense, but he was steadfast through it, and instead—yes—fell down.

Fell sideways, and scooched into his mother's belly once more. Perhaps whatever had interrupted his voyage was indeed the fourth body, and he'd been mistaken that something was missing.

Jakub, snuffling the dust from his nostrils, wasn't keen to find out either way.

Figured we could keep it short since they're so young <3

It did not work. Mae was left in the same position while her brother rolled in the dirt. At first she was only frustrated, but some part of her must have sensed Jakub's discomfort, because her attention soon shifted. She hit reverse and scooted backwards further, butt wiggling the whole way.

Eventually she backed all the way into his flank. Whatever concern she'd briefly felt for her brother was forgotten as she realized that he made an excellent buttwarmer. Five stars. Mae promptly fell asleep.