Redhawk Caldera it's a sign of the times.

*sets out a plate of cookies for newbies* :D

Two weeks... Or just about. Two weeks, two weeks... How long had it been last time before she knew? When had the first signs appear? It was amazing, Fin had done this whole pregnancy thing twice now herself and seen it thrice in her best friend and still she was clueless about the patterns she would go through as she incubated herself some cute little buddies. Had she been more cognizant, she would have recognized that the lethargy she was feeling at that very moment was actually one of said signs. She was feeling way too lazy and sleepy for that level of self-awareness, though.

Thunder rumbled overhead and Fin rolled her eyes in response. It was always raining lately and she was so very sick of it. She rolled onto her side, curling her spine until she was laying in a half circle where she settled with a huff. Things seemed to be going smoothly with the induction of the Fen wolves into their ranks. The kids were playing somewhere nearby, the adults were working on being useful a little further away. All seemed well with the world, except for this endlessly bothersome mystery. Was she pregnant or not?

*snatches the cookies*

They were playing a rousing game of tag, which Towhee was enjoying immensely, when @Phox and @Orca decided to invite @Benjamin, @Nova and @Ivy to join them. Without even waiting to see if the outsiders would take her siblings up on the offer, the Xi left in disgust. She padded over to a gray lump in the distance, in her anger and distraction mistaking it for a rock she could kick. It turned out to be her Aunt Finley, however, and Towhee came to a halt about three feet away, a thundercloud on her brow.

"Aunt Finley?" she said, voice quivering against her knowledge. She was about to say something when she blinked and her face suddenly screwed up in confusion. She moved closer, dropping her nose to her godmother's shoulder and inhaling deeply. "You smell... different," Towhee observed. "Not like when you smelled funny a few weeks ago," she continued, "but not like you usually do, either." She glanced at the Alpha female's face curiously.

*slaps hands!* I bought you lemon bars omfg

Fin was in her own little world when Towhee approached. She didn't notice the girl until she spoke, prompting her to lift her head and start slightly when she discovered her "suddenly" right there. She twitched her tail and offered a smile, relaxing back into the ground in hopes her little moment would go unnoticed. Finley listened to the commentary her daughter vocalized in that deadpan tone of voice she had, quirking a brow dramatically before finally realizing with a plummeting drop in her stomach what exactly Towhee was asking about.

Ah. That. Right.

In spite of having had her own daughters at one point in time, Finley came to realize quite suddenly that she had never before had the talk with one of her kids. She'd come close the prior week with her boys, but Elwood had managed to save her the agony of having to speak out loud any of those awkward words. She gave a quick glance around to see if he just happened to be around now so she could tag him in, but promptly realized that he was not. This was all on her.

"It's nothing."

Unless she did that, I guess.

Finley answered dismissively, which earned a quirked brow from Towhee. Perhaps her aunt had simply passed gas or something and didn't want to own up to it. Although she was a precocious child, the Xi didn't intuit any particularly groundbreaking knowledge originating with her godmother's scent. So she let it go and flopped down beside the she-wolf with a very, very dramatic sigh.

The momentary distraction had fizzled out some of her frustration, plus she was pretty sure Finley wouldn't be particularly sympathetic about her plight, so Towhee said nothing for a long moment. She traced shapes in the grass with a grumpy look on her face for a few moments before finally lifting her orange eyes to Finley again.

Apropos of nothing, she asked, "Aunt Finley, how do you become mates with someone?"

Yeah, that was not well handled.

Finley was hyper aware of this as Towhee settled in beside her, effectively dropping the topic. She glanced down at her own paws and bit her lip thoughtfully. Guilt stirred in her stomach (or was it babies???), but her feeble little brain could come up with no comfortable segue back into explaining the reproductive cycle to her kid. She needed to know eventually... And wouldn't it make more sense to share it now so she could scare her into never wanting to mate ever when she was still young and impressionable?

Fin was attempting to formulate a response to the already answered question when a new one was posed - this one causing her drop everything from her mind entirely except for one single question - "Why?"

She was a great conversationalist today. I should probably wait to reply until I'm off work.

Her aunt answered her question with one of her own, which stumped the pup momentarily. -Just wondering,- she said, slipping naturally into signing. There really was no particular reason she was asking, it was just one of those questions that had cropped up in her inquisitive young brain lately, along with why do I pee out of my bits and poop out of my butt and not the other way around? and what are shm-reduplications?

Finley stared at Towhee as the girl signed hre a simple just wondering in response to her query. She should've felt settled after the answer, but she didn't. Maybe a little. Mostly not.

If anything, the question had shown Fin that there was no avoiding this conversation. I mean, it really didn't suggest that fact at all. Except that the alpha's head was completely stuck on it and she had to do something lest her brain fall into that particular  gap in their communication. She sucked in a breath before letting it out in a defeated but determined huff. "Teehee," she said in a comical but formal introduction to the next conversation, "I wasn't entirely honest with you just now... That scent. It wasn't nothing."

Fin paused to look at her goddaughter, wondering how she would take the news of her heinous lies. "At least once a year - sometimes more, female wolves will go into heat. It's a time when we become capable of getting pregnant. With puppies."

She paused again. It was incredibly important that Towhee understand that female wolves get pregnant with puppies. Or so her commentary had mistakenly alluded.

She canted her head when her godmother said her nickname, then blinked rapidly a few times when instead of answering Towhee's question, the Alpha female confessed. The Xi said nothing, waiting for an explanation that came in Finley's next breath. By the time she finished, there was a knowing look on Towhee's face.

-Raven told me all about mating and pregnancy,- she informed her aunt nonchalantly. -Wait, are you saying you're pregnant?- she added, brows lifting wonderingly.

Raven told me all about mating and pregnancy.

What the fuck, Raven???

Fin was astounded, and affronted, by this news. What was Raven doing, running around telling babies about how to make babies? The fact that she'd been about to explain it all to Towhee was completely lost on her in this moment of great offense. Just as it would be completely lost on her to reprimand Raven for this the next time she actually saw her.

"No, I'm not saying I am," Fin replied, "I mean, I could be. I'm just saying, that's what the change in my scent meant. And I mean, Elwood and I were trying, but..." The alpha closed her eyes and sucked in a breath, realizing that she was getting way too flustered over this. She paused for a beat, then opened just one eye to look at Towhee through. "I don't know if I am. But I do hope I am," she commented.

-Oh,- came the youngster's reply when a flustered Finley finally finished. Towhee mulled over this latest information, licking her lips thoughtfully. -Well, if you are pregnant, how soon will you have puppies? And how many will you have? Will I be their big sister, like Raven?- The questions just flooded out of her, with many more behind that handful. But she paused, allowing the Alpha female a moment to respond.

And as she waited, Towhee felt a growing excitement. She would have little ones to help look after, like Raven looked after her and her siblings. What was more, they were automatically insiders by simple merit of their parentage—homegrown insiders! Truly, Towhee couldn't have been happier about the whole idea, and it showed in her steadily thumping tail.

In spite of her flustered state, Fin did notice that Towhee took the news surprisingly well. She had thought that this might be difficult for the newest generation - the idea that new little creatures would soon be arriving to steal the spotlight away from them. Perhaps kids never really thought that way, though. At least, not until the new ones arrived. Fin thought of Liffey only briefly before pressing on with a smile at her goddaughter's questions.

"Takes about two months to grow these things," Fin replied, attempting to sign along as she spoke aloud. Not verbalizing still felt wrong to her, even when it was a private conversation between the two of them. Probably because she so shamelessly loved the sound of her own voice. "You will definitely be their big sister - that's a necessity. I'm going to need you to help me show them how to be bad ass." And she really would.

The question that fell in the middle was the one she decided to answer last, as it led to an anecdote she thought might be interesting to share. "As for how many, I have not ever had any idea what to expect," Fin informed her, "In fact, when I was pregnant for Eljay, I didn't even know it until halfway through my pregnancy."

It failed to occur to the alpha that she was about to tell a five month-old the compelling and completely inappropriate tale of her miscarriage and that might not be great. She just knew how her goddaughter liked knowing things, and this was a pretty interesting tale. Gruesome, heartbreaking, completely frightening considering Fin was likely pregnant at the time of the telling, but super interesting.

It was hard for Towhee to truly grasp how long two months would take, though she supposed she would just have to wait and find out. Meanwhile, her tail thumped all the harder when Finley not only affirmed that she would be the pups' big sister but that the Alpha female specifically needed her help. The youth tried to fight it but only for an instant before her mouth split into a pleased grin. Oh, she would be more than happy to guide the little ones, turn them into her very own army of minions...

She had so many other questions cramming up behind her teeth (so to speak) but Finley said something that tripped Towhee's intuition. -How do you tell, anyway? Raven mentioned that pregnant wolves get really big because they're carrying the pups in their, um...- She paused, trying to think of the term, but failing to come up with it. She gave Finley a helpless glance (surely she would understand what Towhee was talking about), then continued, -You look the same as always.-

Fortunately, Towhee pulled her usual question bombardment that steered the conversation away from Fin sharing her miscarriage with the not-at-all-ready-for-it audience. She considered the question for a few seconds, not sure what exactly was being asked. Had Fin missed a sign, or had the girl been vague? The alpha gave a mental shrug and answered.

"There are signs, things like your mood and appetite start changing," Fin explained, "Then there are the physical signs too - getting fat, the fur on my stomach thinning, that sort of thing. After a while, you can actually feel them moving inside of you, but that won't be for a while yet. It's actually too early still for me to start showing any of those signs. At least... I think it is."

Post #300 for (god)mama! ♥

Missteps in communication were nothing new to Towhee and something she usually brushed aside with nary a second thought. When Finley didn't supply the word she was looking for ("womb," for the record), she hardly dwelled on it. There was so much more here to capture her attention, like the symptoms of pregnancy her godmother described. As soon as she finished speaking, Towhee scanned her as if looking for any of the signs. Finley still looked the same as always.

-Are you hungrier than usual? And moodier?- she wondered, then had what she considered a stroke of brilliance as she smilingly added, -Can't Raven tell you if you're pregnant? Even if it's early? Come on!- she added, suddenly batting eagerly at her aunt's shoulder. -Let's go see her!- Forgotten entirely was her upset about her brother and sister playing with the new kids; she was much too excited about her potential new siblings now.

Finley considered her questions, but as much thought as she put into how she'd been behaving as of late, she couldn't spot anything that told her for certain that she was pregnant. She very much doubted that Raven would be able to tell either considering wolf gynecologists wouldn't be invented for another three to four years. "I feel normal, but it's still too early to tell," she said, watching her goddaughter leap eagerly  into action.

Pulling in a breath, the alpha pulled herself up onto all fours. The thunderclouds overhead were looking ready to burst and Fin was fancying a rainy day nap under the shelter of the evergreens. "Okay, but I get a nap after we see her," the Blackthorn agreed, reaching her arms out ahead of her and bowing into a stretch.

Oblivious to the weather or her aunt's slight reluctance, Towhee grinned and bumped her shoulder against Finley's. "I'll watch over you," the guardian-in-training reassured absently when the Alpha female insisted on a nap afterward. -C'mon!- she signed eagerly, then began tromping away across the territory in search of her older sister. It would have been handier to howl but, well, that wasn't really a tool at Towhee's disposal. Instead, she would use her eyes and nose to seek out the caregiver to this impromptu OB/GYN appointment with Raven Redhawk, M.D.

I figure that's a wrap, so I'll archive! :D