Redtail Rise the promise of youth

all welcome!  but attn @Augur and @Saturdays Sunrise

A new day. New Snow awoke, feeling the warmth of the morning stretch inside. New Snow stretched with the suns rays, yawning none too quietly. Her man brought meat to her regularly; now was the time that their cubs would try, for the first time, a strip of the stuff. Their teeth were coming in, and her teats bore the brunt of it.

They were still sequestered to the whelping den. New Snow did not permit her cubs outside then, beyond peeking—and only Mountain Boulder was permitted inside with them. New Snow loosed a note for him, thinking he might perhaps want to see this moment and share it with her! He was as good a father as he was a mate. New Snow would show to him the delightful moments of life, when she could.

bobcat appeared to have dispersed.

augur was not disconsolate, though he did look for the young wolf.

but he was present for new snow's summons, and came to lick her jaw and bathe her face in wolfish kisses, rumbling all the while.

and then he glanced to their new pair, nosing carefully toward them but not yet touching.

New Snow worried not for their wayward son. He had been reared to near adulthood, and knew the ways of the hunt. He was older, now, and prone to the ways of boys becoming men. She remembered her ranging brothers, and supposed he took after her more than perhaps he even knew. With two younger sisters, too, there was plenty for him to do.

Laving her man in a dozen kisses, New Snow paused long enough to sniff at his furs. She learned news from him in this way, and through rumbling conversation; she thought she smelled Wolverine upon him, and crooned a question. How is she? And noted the lack of Bobcat: no sign of him? with the tilt of her head.

When Mountain Boulder looked within, she lifted a leg so that he could better see them. New Snow nosed the object for them to try, and the two teething girls showed their proclivity for the hunt with their sure grips!

wolverine protects. bobcat wanders.

no sign of the latter. augur conveyed this in the silent voice of his natal family, small whines and licks and the gesture of pelt pressed to pelt. 

he looked toward the horizon now, then back to new snow. bobcat would return. he would expect it.

augur settled close, chuffing a dragonic breath of air over both the tiny heads. he saw new snow meant to give them meat, and his heart thumped in excitement to observe their impossible smallness and this new milestone.

Daughter the wilderness had brought her, when it had taken one away; son by blood, taken by said wilderness. He, at least, was old enough to survive it. He had been taught well by both, and by pack; New Snow did not worry. New Snow demonstrated this in the soft licks to his brow. He is strong, she knew. He knew it as well, she had no doubt of that.

And then she took the furs and dangled them before their daughters. One took to it, and tugged willfully with new teeth. The other, for now, watched, though waddled closer. New Snows eyes were bright with her amusement, and her pride. Play, for now; they still enjoyed their mothers milk, and had not yet prompted her for meat. But should one poke at the side of her muzzle, this is what would be provided.

augur watched as well.

meat was lifeblood.

meat was energy.

but mother's milk must sustain a child until meat could be had.

his tail thumped on the ground gently in happiness.