Redsand Canyon basium

can be for everyone or one of u :D, puppies welcome ofc

@Towhee and @Maxim had been made parents a handful of days before germanicus and the guardians had arrived back in the canyon.

he chose today to visit the two and offer his congratulations. having not yet heard about reyson's upset, the imperator nevertheless stood back from the denmouth before clearing his throat.

at his paws rested a large trout.

The good news: the changes to her diet seemed to have successfully treated Towhee’s eclampsia.

The bad news: the changes to her diet were now wreaking havoc on her insides, leading to some very dramatic diarrhea.

The good news: she managed to detach the pups and race out of the den before she exploded in a nearby shrub.

The bad news: when she appeared behind Germanicus standing outside her den, Towhee smelled rather dank.

Imperator.

he had been warned about horrible, horrible farts from towhee. it had been before her diet had become full of them seemingly for the nutrients and he decided that he simply had to be okay with the constant smell of gas. anything was better than her prior convulsing states.

so he had stayed alongside the children while she went to relieve herself.

only to hear something outside the den that was undeniable not towhee. except her voice chimed in not long after.

he remained still, protective and silent.

the stench that reached him did not change his face. he was thankful in this moment for the long years of training.

"towhee." maxim must be inside. "i have come to extend my congratulations and see if there was anything either of you needed." he gave a subtle gesture downward to the fish.

Thank you. Come inside and meet them. I’ll grab that, Towhee replied, moving to pick up the trout.

She waited for Germanicus to step inside first, mostly so he wouldn’t have to walk right behind her. Towhee slipped in after him, dropping the fish next to the doorway and then making a beeline to the skins where Maxim curled around the two pups. Worried that her unceremonious exit had disturbed them, she let out a sigh of relief when they appeared to be asleep.

Rather than make introductions, Towhee looked to her partner’s face and nodded, a silent invitation for him to do it.

germanicus returned — and it took only moments for maxim to correct the look upon his face at the sight of the man. this was not another stranger attempting to barge in without knowing either one of them.

towhee looked to him and he smiled, tired and tense in a way different than her own.

imperator, he rumbled warmly, still hushed over the slumbering children. if towhee wished to resume her position, he would not stop her. two children. jacksnipe, a son, and leona our daughter.

germanicus had not expected to be invited into their den.

he came all the same, settling himself carefully in the corner. many smells melded together. he nodded crisply at maxim and looked down at the two little bundles lying at the soldier's side.

"mereo is stronger for them here," he said quietly by way of blessing. "i look forward to the time that they will meet my own."

Maxim said their names and Towhee smiled, turning to catch Germanicus’s reaction to Mereo’s two newest members. He said something about their litters meeting and she felt a little skip in her chest. It was nice, getting to focus on the exciting bits of parenthood, after all the drama and trauma of the past week.

Bring them by anytime. This is a party den now, Towhee quipped, explaining, I had a fit shortly after the birth. Aquene has been treating me and helping with feeding the pups. I think we’re out of the woods now, and that lady deserved a raise.

Although Phox had already been by, Towhee wanted to hear about the recent mission from the Imperator’s lips and asked, How did everything go with Akashingo?

he smiled, brief but warm. then fell into some sort of comfortable silence as towhee took back over the socializing part. his own ears pressed forward with interest on the trip.

as much as he had wished to prove himself, it had made a world more of sense for him to be here. and he was so grateful he had.

a party den. germanicus was bemused by the notion. perhaps when towhee's children were older he might. the imperator felt that the overzealous play of his older cubs might endanger her own. but he knew nothing and these were only assumptions.

"lady aquene has been imperative to the continued success of mereo. i am glad she was here for you also."

the man straightened. "the palace will mourn for seventy days. i interviewed a good many of its citizens and have put together a ranked list of suspects or those i believe might have been involved." he paused, not offering to share unless towhee inquired.

Everybody loved a good murder mystery, though as Germanicus spoke about the purpose of the trip, Towhee once again wondered why the hell they needed Mereo’s leader to oversee this investigation. She understood the history between the packs but what would he really be able to offer them, as a practical outsider? Perhaps he felt some sort of obligation to them,  though the amount of manpower Mereo dedicated to it still struck her as strange.

Towhee decided against saying any of that, saying instead, Well, I’m glad you guys are back. Thank you for the food. I don’t think there’s anything else we need right now, though I wasn’t kidding when I said you and yours can come by anytime you like. I’m going to be cooped up with these little incubuses for the foreseeable future and I’ll need the mental stimulation, if nothing else.

truthfully, maxim would have wished to hear such a list, but he merely figured a place of family (their den, specifically) was not such a place to have that conversation. he would only offer a lingering, thoughtful look before he dared to move on like towhee.

it will be nice when they meet their cousins, he offered encouraging as well, tail tapping softly as he dared to run a nose over the heads of the children. they may mourn down there but we have plenty to enjoy here. mereo thrives with future!

"i will do that, towhee. thank you." he regarded her quietly. "by the time that yours and mine are ready to join us in the arena, i hope you will be prepared for the same."

he wished her back in her rank, though he understood they must wait.

his expression shifted in knowingness upon maxim. "mereo thrives indeed. i believe that soon arsenio and tamar will join us in parenthood."

She privately enjoyed that Maxim casually referred to the kids as cousins. When Germanicus mentioned that Arsenio and Tamar might become parents soon too, she immediately wondered if the young woman had gone into season or even fallen pregnant yet. It was tempting to ask outright, though Towhee knew by now that such questions would make the Imperator deeply uncomfortable.

Sometimes it was fun to toy with his sense of propriety, though Towhee wasn’t really in the mood today. And she was much keener on responding to his remark about returning to the arena. She would enjoy rearing her pups, of course, but Towhee already looked forward to the days when she wasn’t quite so bound to them and this den. And Tierra was right: she was a little bit keen to shed the whole Plebian thing.

Can’t wait to be the prefect again, Towhee joked gamely before wondering, How’s the outpost coming along, do you know? I talked to Kallik about it a little bit but there’s been so much going on… And speaking of him, two—no, make that four—of its founding members were still parked here in Mereo.

it seemed the soring-turned-summer proved fruitful for many. he remembered once he had looked upon tamar with a...questioning gaze. it was good to hear her happiness elsewhere with her husband.

gently, he settled his head down near the children, ears cupped forward to listen keenly to both the children at his side and the words of their leader.

"i have not yet been to visit," he admitted wryly. "arsenio will surely be along soon with a report. building an outpost requires a good deal of trust and far less communication than previously enjoyed."

it was a necessary truth. that was why you must choose your soldiers for such a task very well. they would not be in contact with you for a long while. a good centurion was assured they would return.

domesticity had kept him grounded, it seemed. what an odd feeling. he suddenly felt rather enclosed.

Towhee made an -oh, duh- gesture when Germanicus reported being too busy to provide a full report. The soldiers were stretched pretty thin, though she didn’t doubt they would see it through in time. Especially when the pups grew a bit more and they and their parents were more mobile, then both bases would surely thrive.

He probably had a lot on his plate so she shouldn’t keep him, though Towhee was still thirsty for adult conversation and the latest news and gossip. Her intestinal tract would like a word, however. Even as her mouth opened to pose another question, her insides rumbled tellingly.

You’d better clear out. I’m sure you have better things to do and I feel the poocopalypse coming on again, she warned, moving to rise in case she needed to make another hasty exit.

towhee was somehow both a well of knowledge and a well of humor. maxim did not know how she balanced such respectable positions when she uttered words like poocopalypse to their leader. his face curled with humor.

i would like to visit them sometime perhaps, when things are settled. he commented idly towards the other man. prepared for him to dismiss himself with the grand announcement of towhee's bowel movements.

last for me! <3

"visit whenever you like," germanicus said as he beat a hasty retreat.

both amused and disgusted, he turned away from their denmouth and padded off on one errand or another.