Redhawk Caldera changes

@Finley if you have time? :D

Eljay had decided that he wanted to learn about delivering puppies, and since his mother was going to be pregnant and have more puppies, what better way to start than there? The bug invasion had really startled Eljay, but now they were gone it brought another, bigger problem with him. Eljay was worried what would happen now — how were they going to eat with the herds departing? To add to that was the internal problem that he was still afraid to leave Redhawk Caldera. How would he hunt and provide for his pregnant mom if there wasn't much food left on the territory and he was too scared to leave it?

Pushing the thoughts from his mind for the moment, Eljay walked on towards his parents' den, hoping to find mommy there so that he could talk about his upcoming siblings.

Always for you :)

The concerns that plagued her eldest weighed heavily on Finley's mind as well. At the moment, the beta was meandering quietly through the wreckage, surveying the damage the little beasts had caused. There was a feeling of foreboding weighing down her heart that grew heavier with each step. She knew lack of foliage would be quick to mean lack of prey. Lack of prey meant lack of food for their pack, and for her. But most of all, it would mean lack of sustenance for the cubs she was quite certain were growing within her.

That thought brought on an onslaught of others, but Fin shoved them forcefully away. She would not dwell on this and what it would mean to her family. There was nothing she could do to change what had befallen them and thus worry would do her nothing. There were far better outlets for the feelings of dread that stirred within her - Taking care of herself and her family. Work harder at locating what food did still exist to them. Spend time with her pack devising plans for how they would get through this disaster.

Finley snarled deeply and savagely thrashed a paw at a pile of dead locusts near her feet. Because lashing out irrationally at the world was also a perfectly good outlet, and a far better one than fear in her eyes.

She was about to launch another attack at her already defeated enemies when she looked up and spotted Eljay approaching. Another pang of concern struck her at the sight of him. He had been terrified by the swarm, giving her even more reason to be pissed off at the bastards. Her son was fearful of perfectly normal, natural things. The world didn't need to fling thousands of insects at his already fragile being. Fin sighed and went to meet him, leaning out to plant a kiss upon his crown when he was near enough for her to do so.

Luckily mommy was around when Eljay went looking for her, and he sighed a breath of relief as she came into view. The dead locusts were a weird sight, but at least they were no longer crowding up on him and trying to enter every single crevice he had some way or another. Eljay's tail wagged a couple of beats as he approached mommy and he licked the bottom of her chin respectfully. He was ashamed of how he'd behaved during the initial swarm, allowing panic to take over him, but he'd decided to just sort of try to gloss over it instead of bringing it up, and hopefully everyone would forget sooner rather than later.

"Hi mommy," said Eljay. "How are you..?" He allowed a pregnant pause in which she could share her answers and anything else she wanted before getting down to the core of why he had come to visit: "I was thinking that if you and daddy were going to have pups again, maybe you would need someone who can help with uhm, to make sure they're healthy even before they're born and that they get there good." Eljay wasn't very experienced, maybe, but he wanted to help and he hoped that mommy thought it was a good idea, too. Besides, with the experience he would gain here he could help others with their pregnancies in the future, too.

Eljay's behavior during the swarm was all but forgotten by the beta. It really didn't matter at this point, and in any case there were far more pressing matters to put her mental energies toward. The world had become a very dangerous and unpredictable thing almost overnight. And it had done so just in time for the entire length of her pregnancy. Good job, life.

Elwood had forewarned her of Eljay's interest in helping her through her pregnancy (I'm assuming..), so when the boy expressed his thoughts, she was not surprised to hear it. "Doin' okay," was her short response to his first query, after which she fell silent as she listened to him speak. She couldn't help the tender smile that slipped across her muzzle at his words. It was touching that he wanted to help her and take care of her, so much that she felt the tiniest of tears pricking the very corners of her eyes. It was just so damn sweet. And she was so very, very made of emotions right now.

Her smile became wooden though as his commentary came to a close. He wanted to make sure they get there good? What did that mean? Finley's mind could come to only one conclusion, and it was an uncomfortable one. Fortunately, her mouth had a habit of acting even when her brain had stopped, and so she was able to reply in spite of the awkward black hole that had eaten her mind alive.

"Well. Jay," she started, still smiling, still insides exploding, "Your dad's taken care of that already. They're... there. They're in there. Now. Daddy got to that already. You don't.. You don't need to help mommy get them there." She shrugged and laughed, trying oh so very hard to not attempt to fathom the ways Eljay might have tried to help Elwood impregnate her.

Though the writers definitely were amused at the moment picturing Eljay putting on some Boyz II Men and dimming the lights with a wink and an encouraging nod to his papa.

There was something weird about mommy, Eljay noticed it right away. She looked uncomfortable, almost, but it was a weird sort of thing to witness because Eljay didn't really remember mommy ever being uncomfortable around him, as he was hardly intimidating and never really pushed anyone. He shuffled his weight, feeling uncomfortable himself all of a sudden, when mommy started to reply to his question.

Then he realised why she was uncomfortable — she misinterpreted his words, and Eljay quickly shook his head even as mommy was speaking. Waiting patiently until she fell silent again, Eljay was quick to intervene: "No! I didn't mean, uhm... I meant, I want to get them there, uhm, here safely. You know, kind of, make sure that nothing goes wrong with the pregnancy, make sure you are healthy and the pups are healthy..." It fit perfectly with his role of pupsitter already, Eljay thought, and he looked expectantly at mommy, hoping that this time his comments were understood in better light.

Eljay seemed to grow awkward, but he was quick to clarify what he'd meant. Clearly she had misinterpreted it - a fact for which she was very thankful. A real smile broke across her muzzle as he explained and she went ahead and let the sappy emotions back in to replace the awkward. Her little boy wanted to take care of her now that she was pregnant, and not help get her pregnant! What more could a mother ask for?

"Well I think that's a great idea!" Fin replied with a wag of her tail, "You can definitely help out with that. I know you wouldn't expect your sensible, well put-together moms here to be kind of a needy basketcase, but pregnancy does tend to have that effect on me." She offered a smile, thinking it only fair to warn him what he was getting into.

...He hadn't seemed overly awkward when she'd originally thought he wanted to help get her pregnant.... Shouldn't he have been more awkward? Fin let the thought stir in the back of her mind, but forced the front of it to remain in the moment. God she wanted pizza.

lmao at your last paragraph <3

Eljay was glad that the awkwardness seemed to shift away quickly now that he had clarified what he meant. He smiled, feeling less uncomfortable now that they'd cleared things up, and felt encouraged by mommy's enthusiasm. He wanted to help in whatever way he could, taking care of her while she was pregnant, but he was also curious about birth and how he could recognise if things didn't go as planned.

Yet in lieu of all the awkwardness that'd just passed, Eljay decided to focus on simpler things for now. He'd get to the more detailed, actually-pups-getting-there-stuff later on. "What can I do to help?" Eljay asked, "I mean, beside getting food and stuff." He wanted to know exactly what to do, 'cause he wasn't all that good at hunting and he wanted to help wherever and however he could, of course.

Finley considered her son's question for a few moments before answering. At the moment, getting her food was all she could think about. She was quite hungry, after all. But it seemed like there really was more, if she could just remember it. She'd gone through part of her last pregnancy not even being aware of it. Even the rest of it, she'd done with little assistance. She'd been lucky enough, despite the awful circumstances. It seemed like too much to hope for that she'd get through this one without any additional assistance. But what could he do?

"There are some things that help," she started, not really even sure how to explain or where she was going with this anyway, "Pregnancy is really hard on a wolf's body. I'm going to hurt, and sometimes I get really nauseous. There are different plants that can help with that sort of thing." And.. they had names.... Crap. "The puppies also needs lots of nourishment that I usually get from eating plenty of food, but there are plants I can eat to help with that too." It was then that she paused, shifting her gaze to focus on the bleak landscape around them. Why the hell was she talking about needing plants when there were none?

"But I don't necessarily need any of that stuff," Fin backtracked honestly, "It just makes it more comfortable, and it can be a good precaution. But it's not necessary." She tried to smile comfortingly, worried now that he would get upset over knowing there were things he could do to help but that the circumstances wouldn't allow it.

Eljay nodded at all the things that mommy mentioned, but she mentioned 'plants' that weren't really specific. He hadn't a clue what sort of plants he needed to get. It seemed these plants were the cure to everything, yet he couldn't do much to get them now. Maybe he would ask Aunt Fox if she knew anything, so that he could help mommy by providing her with these plants. He didn't ask mommy, figuring she didn't know and he didn't want to further burden her with his own unknowingness.

"Uhm, okay," said Eljay with a nod. "I also wondered, uhm... Can I — Could I be there..? I mean, when the pups get here? Maybe I could help..." He sounded doubtful, because he was doubtful; he didn't know anything about giving birth yet, but he wanted to learn and being present at the birth and helping if he did see anything he could do seemed like the best start to learning.

Fin clearly had confused him, or such was the impression she got as he nodded along thoughtfully. She assumed it was the fact that she'd mentioned him fetching plants for her when there clearly were none, but it didn't occur to he that he'd be wondering how to know which ones she needed. She would have been touched and impressed to know it, but it would not have changed the guilt she now felt over having set him impossible goals that he would likely be upset over not reaching even though it was beyond his control.

Eljay asked a question then that had nothing to do with the plant collecting she'd mentioned. Her ears perked thoughtfully at his question. Her initial reaction was to deny him. Not even Elwood had been allowed in when she'd given birth to Eljay. It had always been a private moment for her mother and sisters, and so it had been for her. Having someone there seemed somehow wrong...

"Maybe," Fin said, surprising even herself, "Giving birth is a very difficult and painful experience. If you're there, you'd need to stay out of the way as best as you can, unless I ask for your help. Which I might not, you should know. But..." She paused again, thinking. Her own uncertainty aside, the fact of the matter was that it was not be detrimental for him to be with her when she gave birth, so there was no real reason to deny him.

"You can be there," she said finally, "We'll have to talk through what to expect because I don't want to... shock you... But. Yeah, you can be there."

This was gonna be weeeeeeeeird. But her son would be happy, so it was okay.

At first it appeared as though mommy would say no, because she said 'maybe'. Often when mommy said maybe it meant that she meant no, but she didn't want to be mean or dishearten Eljay. Yet then she seemed to mull it over in her head, as well as out loud, as though maybe it wasn't all set in stone yet.

And much against Eljay's expectations, eventually a yes rolled out. His tail wagged softly though eagerly as he was glad that he would be able to learn more about the process. Maybe right now he couldn't do much helping yet, but if he learned, then maybe he could in the future..? "Thanks, mommy," said Eljay, and he pressed his head against his mother's neck, rubbing the fur softly, in appreciation for the permission.

In spite of her misgivings, Finley was pleased to have made her son happy. She wondered then if she might begin the conversation now about what would happen in the birthing den. She certainly didn't want him to be blindsided by the whole painful, icky experience. Then again, there was plenty of time to go through that before the puppies came. Plus it would give her time to carefully consider exactly how she was going to describe everything. Should she be delicate about it? Or be blunt and scare the hell out of him since it was likely inevitable? Decisions, decisions.

"You wanna go tell Dad?" she asked, suddenly struck with curiosity over how her mate might react to this news. That might be a sight to see. She could use a little entertainment to diffuse the writhing bundle that had become her nerves.

Mommy asked if he wanted to tell daddy, and Eljay pondered for a moment, not sure if it would be important. Yet he had told daddy he wanted to become a wolf-who-helps-with-pup-delivery, so maybe it would be good to tell him that he had already taken steps in the right direction. And so he decided eventually, "Yeah, sure!" and he waited for mommy to lead the way to find daddy @Elwood .