Sun Mote Copse The father that taught me

For the children. Too many of you to tag. Also can’t remember if Meerk is eating solid food, so she gets throw up meat.

They all grew so quickly! Before he had a chance to catch his breath, all three of his biological children were seeing things and doing things. Meerkat was, of course, about a month ahead of them. Phox could not even dream of keeping up with any of them, even though he wasn’t old by any means. Between spending time with them, Figment, and Fennec, the Redhawk didn’t have much time for anything else. When he wasn’t occupied by his many children, he was hunting.

He had just come back from one such venture, having already ingested half of the kill to be given up to Meerkat and her siblings upon his return. He barreled into the den, tossing half the rabbit for Towhee and Niamh to scrabble over before coughing up the second half for the four hungry children at his feet. Come and get it, little ones!

Alyx would give sight a rating of 2/10. Even though it'd been a day or two since her eyes opened, she still could only focus on things if she practically pressed her nose to them. Anything further than that was naught but a blur of colour. Sometimes the colours moved, allowing her to recognize wolves from their surroundings, but mostly it was just one gigantic psychedelic swirl.

Luckily, she had her other senses to rely on until her eyes decided to cooperate. Now that her legs were strong enough to support her weight and she was even managing to toddle a few steps forward here and there, Alyx was beginning to really work her nose and her taste buds exploring her little world. Everything was approached with an eagerly wriggling nose, and if it smelled interesting enough, then her tongue was always soon to follow.

She couldn't see Phox in the dim light of the den, but she could certainly smell the delicious slurry he'd just spewed from his mouth. Alyx practically scrambled for the liquefied meat, pedalling her paws as fast as she could, which only resulted in her losing control and face planting directly into her meal. Completely heedless of how disgusting this was, she began slurping it up as quickly as she could, wriggling in place and gradually creating a meat slurry angel.

Someday, her family recollecting this inelegant display would prove mortifying.

Tagging other babies since in case they missed it!

Alyx was first to begin mopping up what Phox had doled out, and he put on a wide grin as he watched her. @Quetzal and @Primrose Redhawk weren't far behind, and Phox made sure they could eat first before Meerkat joined in. The littlest ones couldn't fight her off... at least not for now. Phox was sure the dynamic between all four of them would change in the coming months. Unlike Figment and Fennec, who had been glued to the hip most of their lives, he couldn't imagine that this lot would be the same. The numbers were odd, and they would have more than one other sibling to hang out with.

Alyx was as ravenous as any young pup, but already there was a bit of a grazing quality to how she ate. She never gorged herself, but often returned two or three times to the same meal in a relatively short period of time, provided it stuck around that long. She was a cluster feeder as an infant and even now, approaching toddler-hood, she preferred smaller but more frequent meals. So almost as soon as she began eating, she finished and waded out of the muck, leaving the remainder for everyone else. For now.

Her interest was set now on Phox—specifically, on his wide grin, which shone pearly even in the murk of the den. She was covered from chin to unmentionables in meat-vomit, but she didn't seem to notice, and she didn't seem to care much when she reared unsteadily on her hind legs and slapped her meaty torso against Phox's leg in a shaky effort to sniff his faraway teeth.

Waddle

Waddle

Waddle

Plop

Waddle


Stumbling on paws that have yet to be grown into, the wildfire of a lad slowly but surely made his way over to where his siblings were; Head bowed and tail tucked as it always was, submissive in nature to everything around him except for the wide eyed brown gaze he constantly wore. Like his siblings, he had yet to see much in his current age 'cept for splashes of colors and shadows that swarmed his mind, giving him curious thoughts to the world around him.

Luckily, Primrose had learned scents of his kin. His mother often smelled of warmth and comfort, his father of heavy dirt, and something cold like rain. However, he had yet to learn the scent of food, and as his father came waltzing by to deliver a meal to his son, Primrose became uninterested. He didn't like the smell of this so-called 'food,' but much preferred the richness that came from his mum.

Where was she?

He lifted his head to sniff about, but with a whine in his throat he quickly couldn't find her and turned to his pops to shed fat globs in fear. Food? Food? He quickly stumbled his way over to the man, nosing and mouthing at any surface he could find, be it his leg or the fur of his stomach.

Maybe he should have been grossed-out by Alyx and her partially-digested meat body slapping against him, but he just couldn't bring himself to feel any emotion but glee. She sniffed at his teeth, which he presented to her with pulled back lips, egging her on to explore. As all this was going on, he also watched Primrose amble toward them, though he didn't seem as keen on eating the semi-solids Phox had brought home. In time, he'd come around.

Phox knew that some parents might have been worried about how different Primrose was in personality, but the Redhawk was unperturbed. From what he had seen bringing up Fig and Fennec, every kid was a whole lot different. Even Meerkat was a totally different beast from his first two kids.

Phox was very obliging, giving Alyx easy access to the inside of his mouth, which she sniffed with such vigour that you'd swear there was a line of cocaine hiding out on his tongue. His dental topography was fascinating, from the skim of who-knows-what on his undulating tongue to the plaque and bits of meat trapped between the teeth themselves. Rank carnivore breath interested Alyx for longer than anything as she practically tried to show her face into his throat to sniff, but then she got bored, as all pups do, and turned back to the meat slurry on the floor with a hmph.

Only this time, Primrose was in the way. Alyx first toddled past him, much more focused on eating more than on her brother, but once she'd swallowed down some more meat, she thought of him and sought him out. Thanks to how bright his fur was, he wasn't hard to find. With a mouthful of chewed up food, she scampered toward her brother and drooled meat out all over his flank, which she then smeared with her face, because obviously he was hungry and needed her help, right?

Q had, for once, actually been sleeping. It was the one time there was peace on earth for all the family; she was not trying to escape, she was not trying to harass anyone (read: her parents, or whoever else made themselves known in the den), and she was not yelling. When she did sleep it was a deep sleep, too; no amount of noise, nudges, or anything else could rouse her. There could be an earthquake and Q would likely sleep through it. 

Except, as today revealed, the scent of food. A tendril of it came to her at first, and that wasn't enough. But her dream shifted its scheme entirely. It wasn't long before the scent soon became stronger the longer it lingered, and Q roused at last. Bleary-eyed, she surveyed the den and watched as Alyx smeared her brother with something... 

And her eyes soon enough found the source. Lazily Q stumbled toward the pile, looking to her dad then this nasty-looking-goop on the floor. It might have looked nasty, but it smelled like a new sort of five star meal. Q, who would try anything once, began to chow down. It was really good, which resulted in her eating faster with a wagging tail. If she ate any faster, she'd probably get sick herself. This was different than the taste of milk, but not so bad... 

still, it would be nice to have to wet her mouth with, she thought, and looked to her dad with a vomitty grin as she smacked her lips in the process.

Skipping Prim since he's inactive at the moment.

With Primrose attempting to find a nursing spot (not gonna have much luck there, buddy), Phox continued to hold his mouth ajar as Alyx investigated where the food came from.

Quetzal has entered the chat.

And boy did she ever. She'd just woken up from a nap, which was obvious in the way she moved, swaying a bit and blinking more slowly than her siblings. Quetzal went straight for the semi-solid food, and Phox watched with curious delight as she too downed the latest meal.

Prim wasn't the least bit interested in Alyx's gracious offering. He pulled away and disappeared around the backside of some adult or another, leaving his sister there to sulk. Oh well, more for her. She turned back to the meat slurry only to find Quetzal already there, gorging herself.

A sort of indignation rose up in Alyx at the sight of this, as if the food was hers and only she could decide who got to eat it. She hadn't offered Quetzal any yet! Puffing herself up like an offended kitten, she stalked unsteadily toward her twin and aimed to bowl right into her, snappy teeth already grasping for an ear as if to say, no, bad!

Q looked up at Alyx who was approaching her with a vomit laden smile. It was not difficult at all for Alyx to bowl her over, because Q neither moved away from her or was steady on her own four legs. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhHHh, she squealed happily, up until she felt her sisters milk teeth land on the precise target they sought. AHHHWWOW!!! She hollered, no longer happy; she answered with a weak lash of her limbs to (attempt to) push Alyx off of her, in the general vicinity of their vomit happy meal. 

Quetzal had not signed up for that; just the delicious thing she had just been enjoying before Alyx rudely intervened. For now, though, Q suffered and sought to get Alyx off of her. And then, she could get back to enjoying herself like this all never happened.

Thank you for your patience, daughters. <3

Alyx suddenly seemed more protective of the food, and Phox watched as she defended it from Quetzal. Phox made no move to intervene, allowing them to fight it out however they wished. He'd only step in if it looked like one of them was being vastly underfed over multiple days. Even kids had to learn how to stick up for themselves, and this was the perfect age to start learning that.

Gonna wrap this since it's getting old and the others are inactive! Sorry for the delay, I missed that it was my turn.

Today, Alyx was the victor. Quetzal tumbled over pretty easily, granting her twin the ability to stand over her in the first of many dominance displays as the cubs all vied for their places in the coming months. But Alyx wasn't a particularly domineering little girl, nor an arrogant one; as soon as Quetzal submitted, she relented, backed away and let her twin feed. She flopped down nearby and bellowed until someone cleaned the muck off her fur, and when she was pristine once more, she fell into a deep slumber.