Stone Circle your children need leashes

@Valette (though pups are welcome as well!)

For just a few seconds of her life, it seemed like life had finally turned... peaceful. She had found her sister, a home. She had found forgiveness and love, and the kick to wake her up to all that she'd been missing, and to everything she wouldn't run from again. And she had found her father. Her heart still throbbed at the memory of him, of sinking against him, and knowing the love she still had for him - and he had for her.

Yeah, for a few minutes, life had been good.

And then
BABIES.

Babies. Everywhere. They'd been easy enough to control when they'd been little more than lumps of fur and flesh, who didn't understand the four wiggly tubes beneath them could be used to crawl and walk and run. And good thing she spent the first year of her life running because that felt like the only thing she did these days.

Nanook returned to the densite with Clary dangling from her mouth, no less tired, it seemed, than when she'd decided to tear off from the lesson Nanook had been trying to give her about the Standing Stones. Apparently, she wanted to find a pretty rock to give her mother. Nanook managed to find her pesky little trail just in time to haul her back from the riverbank and deliver her someplace far away from water where she couldn't drown herself. Namely, the densite, where she'd requested the girl from her mother's watch probably only minutes earlier.

Nanook chuffed around the girl's furry body to announce her return to Desna, who she hoped still rested at the site with the other two pups. Next time she'd take one of the others out - and pray they weren't all filled with such reckless abandon, though hearing of what Steph had managed to get herself into with that wolverine didn't give her much hope at all.

So maybe today she and Desna could just watch the pups together. She much preferred that.

Valette lifted her head when she heard familiar footsteps. The mother had to chuckle when her sister already returned with Clary between her lips. Valette's tail wagged. "Clary! Nanook," she greeted excitedly. The female pushed herself to her feet. A humorous smile appeared on her maw seeing her sister being quite tired already.

"Back so soon?," she chuckled and nosed over Clary. She licked her daughter briefly in greeting and then looked at her sister. It wasn't so easy to watch them these days. Valette found rest in the idea that they would always return to her. Plus they were getting big enough now that they were allowed to explore and run further. She didn't want to be hovering over the three of them all the time.

She grunted around the mouthful of Clary, who took her mother's kisses with many giggles, squirms, and licks in return. Like carrying the growing child hadn't been enough. Her muscles strained under the movement, and at the first opportunity - namely, the retreat of Desna's affection - Nanook let the girl down. A slobbery kiss across her nose marked Clary's departure, and Nanook sneezed. Her niece wove a path through her mother's legs before she made a dashing dance to join her siblings nearer the den.

With the child somewhere safe and under both their eyes, Nanook let the entire exhaustion of her nervous adrenaline unwind in a full-bodied sigh, and let the heavy huff collapse her to the ground. "Yeah, well," she puffed a shorter breath, and gave a dramatic tilt of her head toward her sister, "I'll trust them once they're bigger than half the prey we eat." But then again, probably not.

Valette had to chuckle again seeing Nanook so exhausted. She could relate to her sister. Often having three children was quite the paws full. If one wasn't exploring and running off the other wanted to go somewhere else. She couldn't split herself in two. She laughed softly. "Are you sure about that? I am pretty certain that they will always stay little in my eyes. Then I would never be able to let them go," she spoke with a soft sigh.

'It is tough now with that wolverine attack, you know? I want them to explore and not be scared but I also don't want that wolverine to come back and hurt them more severely." It was tough to be a mother sometimes. "I'm glad you offer a set of extra eyes and ears," she spoke gratefully.

Her mouth contorted in the grimace of a smile, in part amused, and in part pained, by the weight of truth in her sister's words. Nanook hoped the kids' growth, both physically and mentally, would quiet her fears but still... troublemakers as they were, she wasn't so sure she would ever be able to let them go, not fully.

She listened quietly to her sister's concern, copper eyes switching from pup to pup as they wrestled in the calm of the day. With the gentle breeze and the lazy rays of the late fall sun, she found it strange to think that somewhere out there, an enemy lurked, in wait, perhaps, for a time unsuspected. Nanook reached out toward her sister and gently touched her nose to her leg. Fleeting, but more telling than words.

"I'd say you've got more than my eyes watching out for them," she mused. The densite swam with the scent of many wolves - sweet Nikai, quiet Keoni, that guy Murdock - she lapsed quiet. "I saw Ezekiel came by."

Valette offered a happy smile when the other comforted her. That wolverine wouldn't be quickly forgotten. Still, Valette was glad for the support of her family. She saw most of the members as part of her family now. The female glanced at her pups still so innocent and cute. She loved them dearly. Nanook grabbed her attention when she mentioned Ezekiel. Valette's ears flopped with some guilt to the side.

"Yeah. I told them he was their dad. Turns out Steph thought Murdock was her dad and Ezra was being... Ezra. Only Clary seemed pleased. I think I messed up in that department but they never really asked about their dad, you know?," she spoke with a soft shrug. "I did try and help Ezekiel though, to be supportive of him. I hope it will rub off on the kids. If I don't think he is bad they might think he isn't so bad either," she stated and then sighed.

Valette sometimes wished that Steady was here, but then, she wouldn't have Steph, Clary, and Ezra. She would never trade them for the world. So in a way, she was very grateful for what Zeke did. What he gave her. Hence why she had decided to be supportive of him. She didn't want him to be scared away even more.