Blacktail Deer Plateau A sailor went to sea, sea, sea

@Kisu and @Peregrine (if you want this one)

"Maybe she's sick," the adults might have murmured quietly to one another, looking down on the smallest of the pups with lips pursed in thought. "Maybe she was too early," another might remark, but a sidelong glance to Pura would reveal a success story. "Maybe in the womb she was weaker," they might suggest, a conclusion which might shed light on why Pura was thriving while Saēna remained smaller and sluggish.

None of these conclusions were correct. The truth was that Saēna, being the smallest of the puppies, was not targeted so easily. Being the smallest had its perks, after all, and one of those was being largely unnoticed by her competitors. She was able to remain close to Hawkeye's teats at all times, a tiny body orbiting around her surrogate mother with little concern for the jostling and fighting of the larger bodies. This reality meant that Saēna barely had to move at all. She could lift her head to her favourite teat, the one she almost always suckled from, with only a mild kick of her legs to shuffle her forward.

In a word, she was lazy.

But being premature still had disadvantages, and one of those was that Saēna's appetite wasn't as large as it should have been. Unless she was cuddled into Hawkeye's belly close enough to knead her paws in the fur, chills stole over her and sapped her energy, and subsequently her desire to feed. She fed once less per day than all the other pups in the den, and spent the rest of the time being still and silent, conserving her energy for the next inevitable chill. She wasn't conscious of these efforts. They were instinctual.

Next to her true sibling and her cousin-siblings, Saēna was tiny. Next to herself from five days prior, when she'd been first born, she was positively gargantuan. None could claim that she wasn't growing at a similar rapid rate, but she was always one step behind the other children in size, and so that, coupled with her lethargy and her silence, perpetuated the illusion that she was doing worse than the rest of them. Her head at times bobbled in the direction of scents that seemed familiar, but as she had days prior, Saēna encountered smells, forgot them, re-encountered them with a vague sense of deja vu, and re-forgot them in an endless cycle. Today, she was situated away from the three other cubs, still as could be, but snuffling noisily at the dirt beneath her snout with a feebly wriggling tail.

I'm gonna grab this'un because I'd love a Kisu/Perry talk!

Everyone in the den was drowsing, including Peregrine. He stirred awake and noticed that Saēna had managed to move away from the group. She appeared to be awake, judging by the movements of noise and tail, and he smiled indulgently. She was the smallest and weakest pup in the blended litter and sometimes he worried for her. This was about as energetic as he'd ever seen her, truthfully.

"Sniffing for worms, tiny?" the swarthy Alpha male wondered aloud, standing. He towered over the puny, patchy puppy. "Good god, you're adorable. I could swallow you whole by complete accident." He slowly reclined next to her, stretching out a black paw and holding it up to her nose to see what Saēna would make of it.

Kisu entered the den quietly, as not to disturb the others. He sat next to Peregrine and watched the dark male hold his paw up near his tiny daughter's nose. His son had grown almost to the size of the Alphas' daughters, yet the white ball of fluff with his rusty markings stayed ever so tiny.

"I've only ever had sons before, you know. Having a daughter worries me. Especially since..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish the though. These were the first words Kisu had spoke in days. He wondered if Peregrine had felt the same way about having girls, though it seemed that they would be large like their mother.

Her rooting through the soft soil of the den's floor was bound to unearth something, and in fact, if Saēna's eyes had been open, she would have caught the pointed end of an earthworm wriggling just beneath her nose. She wasn't perceptive, being only a baby, and therefore hadn't noticed it touching her left nostril. A pity, for it would have elicited one of the first happy noises she would produce if she had noticed it.

Instead, she noticed something else. The air currents whirled around her as Peregrine disturbed them, first with his voice and then with the churning of his paw in her direction. The voices that echoed in the den from time to time made Saēna's hair all prickle up, since they resonated deep within her core, not unlike overwhelming bass at a rock concert. His was the deepest, though she could not recognize him from that alone. Like every other time, Saēna encountered Peregrine's foot like it was the first time ever.

Her nose brushed against the coarse fur, wriggled curiously, and then her head reared back and a mighty sneeze erupted from her yawning mouth. Behaving as though nothing had happened at all, despite the rather conspicuous booger that had found its way onto her foster father's toe, she happily set about gumming the Alpha's blunt nail with no regard for how disrespectful she was being of his lofty position. So content was she with this new toy that she scarcely noticed the thudding footfalls that pounded through her chest to announce a newcomer, nor the slightly-less-deep rumbling that she would come to associate with her real father.

Beyond a nod of acknowledgement, Peregrine didn't react when Kisu entered the den. He welcomed the male, not only because his children lived here (as they could live nowhere else) but also because he'd just lost what he only assumed was the love of his life.

Only, it appeared that Kisu had had another love—or at least another baby mama. "Wait, you have other kids?" he questioned, nothing judgmental about his question or his tone. He was curious—and currently oblivious to Robur Aqua's paternity and that whole story. "She'll be fine," he added in the next beat, grinning fondly down at Saēna as she administered a pedicure.

After putting up with this for a few minutes—not that he didn't enjoy it—Peregrine leaned down and grasped the tiny pup around her midriff, lifted her and placed her gently at Kisu's paws. The Alpha male then reclined facing the two of them, watching little Saēna squirm, perhaps in confusion over the random and magical airlifting action.

"I know this is a stupid question, really, but... how are you? Is there anything you need? Anything we can do?" Peregrine asked Kisu softly, his dusky eyes trained on the other male's face.

Kisu nodded. "Robur Aqua, who calls himself 'Rob', is my son." He looked away "My other two sons, and my first mate, were slaughtered by my brother. Now, yet another mate has been taken from me." The older male returned his gaze to Peregrine with a weak smile.

After staying quiet a long moment, and watching his daughter, Kisu spoke once more — quietly. "I will be all right. My pups are healthy. My life is for them." Kisu never spoke anything but the truth, but this did not mean that his heart did not ache. He had to be strong, though, for he had others to care about and put ahead of himself. Fragile, innocent lives that knew nothing of the pain of loss. Nothing of the touch of their mother.

The grey male wanted to bring himself to thank Peregrine, but it seemed like such a great effort to do so. Another male was caring for Kisu's children, on top of his own. He was grateful, but somewhat bitter and resentful that his Alpha still had his mate; in a way, he was like the children. He knew not of losing a mate.

Sorry for the wait, I'm like one of the few people ever who has massive writer's block when it comes to writing newborn pups. >_>

Their conversation was for their ears alone, both because Saēna's were completely plugged and because she would be unable to comprehend or recall what they had said. Her focus was entirely on the present moment. In this present moment, the girl was gumming her foster father's nail gaily, and in the next present moment, she was being hoisted by her sides into the air.

An unpleasant squeak and squirm unleashed a pop of gas from the babe's rear end as she was settled in front of her biological father. The smell of it, like the smells of all the various wastes produced by babies, was noxious. Her nose wriggled when it surrounded her in a cloud, her head lifting and waggling with interest before settling back down on the den floor.

At any other time, Peregrine would've laughed at tiny Saēna's comical contribution to the conversation. Right now, he could barely muster a smile in response to the littlest pup's toot, though his nose did twitch vaguely as the repulsive smell of it filled the den.

"Oh, I didn't know about... any of that," Peregrine said in reply, frowning. He'd already given his condolences so many times, it seemed lame to repeat them now. "I'm glad you have Rob and the pups. Hawkeye, myself and our girls... you have us too. We're your family now."

Spotting Pura wriggling nearby, the Alpha male craned forward, stretched out a foreleg and gently dragged the small boy toward himself. "They're small but mighty. I'm not usually a sentimental dude but... well, Pied gave her life for theirs, so we'll make sure the kids make the most of that gift." He'd almost said sacrifice instead but it sounded brighter this way, less bloody and tragic. "They're going to live long, happy, healthy lives. Aren't you?" he said softly, reaching down to lick the top of Pura's freckled head.

Something protective rose in Kisu when Peregrine licked Pura's head. A need to lunge forward and snatch him away edged forward in the male. He stayed where he was, though, watching another male be a father to his son. Kisu briefly thought of taking the pups and fleeing the pack once they were of age, but he was five and not getting any younger. What was best for them was to keep them with the pack, even if Kisu felt like a stallion being broken.

He let out a near-silent sigh, and lowered himself, quietly pulling his small daughter nearer him. He examined her once more, realizing that he never expected the pups to take after him in any way; the rust that swathed her ears and eye were undeniably from him. Kisu glanced over to his son named for his father, and wondered if his eyes would be golden like his own and like the greyish boy's older brother. Rob had yet to come to meet the two, but Kisu knew that he would come when he was ready. The male set his nose into the fur of his daughter and closed his eyes, wondering why Pied would leave him alone after all he'd been through already.

It had been a long time since Peregrine's question, but Kisu answered, honestly. "I do not know how long I will be around. This is my sixth spring, making me five years. My life has been a mixture between happiness and what I'm sure is a hatred from any god or goddess that may exist. I doubt that it will become any easier." Kisu wondered if every word he spoke from now on would carry a certain sense of bitterness toward everything that had happened to him up until this point. He was once a wolf that never looked back, but now that he did, he felt tense and unforgiving. He saw that it was unfair, and he saw that really no other wolf had gone through anywhere near as much as he. It was a simple question of why me? that now went through his head, and he wasn't sure that there was anything that could snap him out of that.

I'm gonna pull Saēna out, thanks guys!

The babe set her head back down on the den floor, huffing through her nose and promptly forgetting all about the wolves who surrounded her and the disgusting fart from earlier. Exhaustion quickly stole over her and she sunk into a deep sleep, one that wasn't even disturbed by her biological father's breath ruffling her fur.

That was a really sad but pretty post, Sammi.

Kisu said nothing for a while. Peregrine didn't blame him. Leaving him be, he stretched out beside Pura, intending to relax and perhaps return to drowsing. In fact, he'd begun to zone out when Kisu's voice stirred his ears. The Alpha male turned his head to focus on him again.

"My parents lived to be almost twice your age," he remarked, "and you appear to be in perfect physical health. I think you have a while to go, man," Peregrine opined, "and life is always going to have its ups and downs. Granted, most of us don't have to lose a mate twice. That is tough." He paused respectfully. "But we all lose somebody in the course of our life. Death is part of life... and life ain't easy."

He could've related his own tragedies—his brother's bitter betrayal, his exile, the loss of his parents—but Peregrine had no intention of entering a pissing contest. Kisu had drawn the short straw between the two of them, that was for sure. Peregrine gave him a solemn, uncharacteristically compassionate look and left it at that.

:p thanks. I went back an reread it and I have no idea how I wrote that

Kisu nodded to Peregrine's words as a response. Peregrine fit the role of Alpha. He was wary, but friendly if needed. He spoke the right words at the right time. Kisu had once been that figure. And then everything he knew was ripped from him.

The rusted grey male watched his small daughter doze. "She reminds me of her mother," he said, suddenly aware that his pups would never know their mother. Instead of appreciating the hand that Peregrine and Hawkeye would play in his childrens' lives, Kisu felt bitter and jealous. He wasn't very high-ranked, he had two motherless pups that would probably call Hawkeye their mother, and Peregrine their father.

Angry thoughts filled his head as he laid down next to his daughter. If he had never courted Pied, this would not have happened. She wouldn't have died; she would have continued living on the plateau, living a happy life. Soon, he would come to realize that it wasn't his fault, but not now.

"Yeah, her markings remind me of Pied too," Peregrine replied, "though she gets that color from you." Although the Alpha male couldn't know of the bitter thoughts circling around in Kisu's head like a flock of noisy birds, he intuited something else and added, "We'll make sure they hear all about Pied and how sweet and intelligent, et cetera, she was."

Kisu curled up beside his little girl and Peregrine took that cue and let his chin sink onto his big black forepaws. Although he kept his ears open—he would happily bend an ear, should Kisu still need it—his dusky eyes closed and he fell into a light doze.