Redhawk Caldera Remember me as a time of day

I'm hoping for one of the newer members, like @Crow or @Tiger. Anyone's welcome, though! :)

He simply couldn't spend all his time looking for Somnia, though it would be a lie to say he didn't keep an eye (a nostril?) out for her scent whenever he went hunting or patrolling. He never came across so much as a trace. It was like she'd vanished into thin air. The circumstances were upsetting and Peregrine found he badly missed his former Gamma's presence around the caldera. He had been looking forward to her having a hand in helping rear the pups, more than anyone else save for the parents and godparents. He was bumming over the loss, hard.

The pups helped cheer him up and keep his mind off matters, though. After returning from a mid-morning hunt and coughing up a little meat for them (which they washed down with a hearty helping of mother's milk), Peregrine stretched out just beyond the den's mouth, curling slightly to face the interior. He then invited the three pups to come to him. His body would be a barrier, preventing escape, but they could get some sunlight and fresh air. And any passerby would be able to get a good glimpse of the pack's youngest, smallest members.

I'll just be thuper vague

All accepted and a shiny new pack-member, Tiger thought it might be best to seek out the two other pairs of leadership. Or, well, at least one. The other one was indisposed (though, that was the wrong word, given she wasn't unwell... but she was out of action), but hey. Tiger darted near the rendezvous den, and there he was. Her new leader.

So she pushed from out of the outcrop she had been behind in a nonthreatening manner, tail and head both low. Hey, I'm your newest member. I'm Tiger. Your betas let me in, she grinned winningly, and then thought for a moment, Wait, I messed up. I didn't bring you anything. Fuck. Ahhhh shite, your kids, I just cursed... in front of them... oh... It'd been a while since she was around little ones or leadership. She shrunk closer to the earth, averting her eyes. Damnit.

When an unfamiliar but submissive wolf approached, Peregrine unceremoniously shoved his gaggle of children into the den and sat up straight, eyeballing her. She quickly introduced herself, explained the circumstances of her acceptance, then began blathering about a gift before sinking to the ground. The Alpha male's head tipped and his lips twitched. He glanced at the puppies eagerly waiting in the wings, then motioned for them to come sit beside him. They obeyed, more or less; one pressed against him, another tried climbing up his leg and the third began ogling their guest.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a shrug. "They can barely hear, much less understand words. Isn't that right, you little shit for brains?" he cooed, reaching the nearest pup (Nightjar) and petting his head. "Nice to meet you, Tiger. I'm Perry and these are Nightjar, Wildfire and Raven." He pointed a toe at each as he introduced them. "We are a bit disappointed you didn't come bearing gifts, though. Aren't we, kids? Sic 'er!" he yelled jokingly, which of course they didn't do anyway, seeing as they were far too young to understand verbal instructions. 

Tiger had to gawk at the parent who accepted her words swiftly, all of them, and then called his own cubs shit for brains. Very cool. Tiger liked him all the more for it, and the once-sheepish Tiger blossomed back to true form. Her eyes fell onto the kids that now ambled back to his side, and all up on him, staring at them for a long moment as she debated whether or not she liked them. Now, did she hate kids altogether? Or just kids for herself? ...She wasn't sure. These fur babies didn't look half-bad, but one could never be sure. All she knew for certain was she did not want to pop any of those out any time soon.

She thought of greeting them, but... he had just told her they couldn't hear/understand. What was the point? At his last words, Tiger promised in earnest, Next time, for sure. Then she waited a beat and said, So you know my sister, Finley. Looks like she's done well here, she cocked her head, her thick plume waving lowly behind her.

The pups continued to mill around him, though they didn't stray for now, so Peregrine let them be as he spoke to Tiger. The news that this was Finley's sister caused his eyes to fly wide for a second. It only occurred to him right then that Tiger was a very peculiar name for a white wolf with nary a stripe in sight... unless you counted that one down her back, which did in fact match Finley's. Was it a family characteristic, he wondered, like the fact that Fox's parents magically popped out the entire animal kingdom in wolf form?

"Finley's a cornerstone of this pack," Peregrine agreed, batting at Wildfire's little black tail and causing her to whirl around and bite his foot, just like a belligerent kitten. "How'd you find her?" he wondered. "Do you plan to stick around or are you just visiting?" he added, bending down to nibble at Raven's ear as she bumbled around his hip.

She watched while he combated a fiery looking cub of his, her expression relatively blank. Most might think, awww... but Tiger mostly thought Perry was a good, playful dad. His response intrigued her, and as he asked his question, Tiger was quick to respond. I plan on staying for as long as I live, and here she drew her paw to her chest and make an x over her chest, cross my heart.

So, a cornerstone, huh? It was clear she was curious about her sister and Perry; obviously, he thought well of her that he would call her that. So she's been here a long time. Likely as long as the Winter she was not around for, making base with another pack before striking out in the Spring. Tiger was connecting the dots; her sister had been close and far to her, but somehow she managed to find her again.

Her level of commitment took him by surprise and he quirked a brow at her. He'd become so used to the idea that most members ended up leaving that having a newcomer pledge their loyalty so fiercely was no longer the norm to him. He shook his head, then smiled. Peregrine wouldn't necessarily hold her to it, though he was happy to have someone with that kind of attitude in his ranks.

Tiger seemed very preoccupied with Finley, though he saw no problem with that. "Yeah, she lived at the plateau when we ruled there, then came with us when we decided to move. She's been by our side ever since, hence why she's the Beta female. Are you on good terms with her?" he wondered, thinking of Fox and her recently arrived siblings. He already liked Tiger better than both Magpie and Dove. He snorted when he realized that popup sisters were becoming really trendy around here. 

Listening to his words, Tiger was surprised to hear she had lived at a plateau before migrating here. Well, who cared. She was here, now. And so was Tiger. So Finley was a founder of this pack, too, which was also Very cool. And, at her new leaders question, Tiger nodded. Yeah we are, she's great. She's my younger sister so even though she's your beta, I should warn you that I know about things at least five minutes before she does. Tiger and Finley were littermates, and Finley was flat out great. Frog and Colt had always been the dynamic duo but, what ever. Her younger sibs had idolized her, anyway.

Steph is drunk.

Anyway, Tiger loved Finley, and had finally found her. Tiger really did intend to stick around here for as long as she lived; particularly now that Fin had a boo. That meant it was a matter of time before she was an aunt... if Perry and his mate accepted that. How're the kids? They look good, she commented, eyes moving to him.

Golly, I can always hear Tyler coming from a mile away now that he's riding the motorcycle again. /random

He fought the urge to playfully roll his eyes. If Tiger was anything like Finley, Peregrine knew they would get along well enough. There was no room for another Beta female (nor could any compete with Fin's friendship or loyalty) but, well, they were hurting for more cool people in the wake of Somnia's absence. That thought made his heart frown.

Tiger's question earned a briefly puzzled look from the Alpha male. He looked down at the three infants. Wildfire was squatting, taking a piss by the look of it, and Raven was craning forward as if attempting to sniff her sister's bum. Peregrine used a paw to gently shove her away from Wildfire's stream. He then checked on Nightjar, who was sitting nearby, chewing on his own hind foot.

"All here, all retarded," he reported confidently. "You a fan of kids?" If she wasn't, then there might be a problem. This pack had literally been founded for the sake of pups, these pups' sake, as a matter of fact. Even if Tiger wasn't particularly fond of children, she had better not be an out-and-out hater if she wanted to commit for life.

His question caught her off-guard, and she looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not not a fan of them. I just have no desire for my own," Tiger admitted. At the very least, the admittance would give to Peregrine that she was a non-threat. "I've actually never hung around young ones before..." Tiger had left before even the idea of having more siblings was mentioned to her, and she had been the lead males candidate of choice for the future generation of the last pack she had been at. Her inexperience, she personally felt, was a detriment.

Her eyes went to the cubs toddling at her leaders feet. They looked so... so fragile. Tiger was mostly afraid of hurting them with her clumsiness, or else destroying their innocence by introducing them to choice words... Then again, at the minute Peregrine hadn't seemed to mind. 

Most wolves lived and died for the future. Tiger would surely do the same, she simply had no intentions of creating her own legacy via cubs. She'd destroy her own cubs with bad parenting, no doubt...

"Ah," he commented, then shifted his weight slightly and said, "Well, you'll get plenty of exposure to them here." His jade eyes were warm as he looked upon his children. As goofy as they were (especially at this age), they were the heart, soul and future of this pack. After staring at them a moment, Peregrine then lifted his eyes to Tiger's face and said, "My mom and dad had, like, fifty kids. I think Fox and I plan on giving them a run for their money." Yes, they would fill up the caldera with their offspring, so folks like Tiger had better prepare.

The Alpha male stood suddenly, grabbing the nearest pup—Wildfire—by her scruff, then spinning to drop her at Tiger's feet. "They can be loud and smelly but you'll find they're not so bad," he promised, motioning for his newest recruit to play with the fiery little cub, who was already attempting to chew on Tiger's paws.

Tiger smirked at his grand idea of having millions of cubs. Cute. Tiger would have 0. She would let Finley continue their family line, having no interest in expelling baby potatoes. No matter how cute they were. It was then Wildfire was placed between her paws, and as the little thing glomped on her paw, Tiger glanced to Peregrine and then back to the puppy. She was not a natural. What she was supposed to do next, she had no idea.

So Tiger slowly withdrew the paw Wifi chewed on, dragging it slowly so that the fiery cub would be tempted to chase it. Of course, there was no guarantee there... in which case Tiger would try and figure something out. As it was, dragging her paw at this slow rate took a lot of concentration, and she observed the red girl the entire time. Should the girl pounce for it, Tiger would pull it out of reach while keeping it grounded, to give her the opportunity to prowl for it again.

When Wildfire didn't rise to the bait and instead began to keen, Peregrine immediately knew that his fiery daughter wasn't chewing on Tiger's paw because she was interested in playing a game. She was hungry. Before she could get too loud, he scooped her nearer to him, grasped her scruff again and trotted into the den. He deposited her beside a snoozing Fox, then turned and hurriedly returned to his other pups. He suspected Tiger would prevent them from going anywhere, though she was still mostly a stranger and he didn't want to leave them alone with her very long just yet.

"I don't know how, because it feels like they ate ten minutes ago, but it seems they're hungry," Peregrine said to Tiger as Raven began to whimper next. "I'm going to take the others inside. We'll catch you later, Tiger," he said, flashing her a brief smile before collecting the remaining two pups and taking them inside for feeding time.

Nope. Nothing there. Am I bad at this? I must be bad at -- Peregrine interrupted her train of thought. Oh. They were hungry. If it looked like a ton of bricks fell off her shoulders, it was because proverbially, they had. That Wifi didn't hate her and want to just eat her was sweet, sweet music to her ears. Tiger minded them for all of .9 seconds as Perry brought them to mom, and then explained, and then was gone.

Tiger understood. She turned on her heel to go off and find Finley, thinking her day remarkable and groundbreaking.