The Sunspire You had other plans to hang your hopes on

For fam specifically but all welcome! @Seabreeze @Terance @Wraen @Ibis @Okeanos

With everything going on, followed by the mom's apparent sickness (her new sister? She had no clue and tbh she wouldn't be surprised if Terance never clarified) Maia had yet to see her nieces and nephews. Niece and nephew? How many were there again?

She was gonna be the best aunt ever seriously.

She was empty handed when she approached, not having thought to bring something in her excitement, but her impatience was written all over her face. Please be home please be home please be home!

the chunky shapes of light and dark around him no longer hurt his eyes -- he can take in their details. there's sister, ibis (not that he really processes what "sister" means abstractly, but instinctively, he gets it), there's mama, there's other mama (olive, assuming, as i am, that they still share a den), loud other babies (siblings, too, maybe??)

he is curious about the world -- who wouldn't be! -- but he is not a great adventurer, having only just mastered the use of his chubby, wobbling legs. he teeters around the den, a round dark shape, not straying far from mama. there is outside, he knows. but he is not quite ready to try to escape mama's side. at least, until he spies the stranger, his still-blue eyes widening comically. "ma," okeanos yips, startled, and wedges himself against her side, attempting to dig himself a spot of solace underneat one leg.

She reached the entry and was tempted to just barge in, but something stopped her.  Manners weren't something she had in spades, but her parents had taught her a thing or two at least.  Instead of crowding the new family, she lay down, her tail thumping.  They looked.... small?  

One seemed afraid of her, but she wasn't bothered.  Instead she just continued to stare between them and Seabreeze, curious.  Did they do anything? Or was this kinda it?

no one seems perturbed by the new appearance -- he lingers under the safety of mama's thigh for a beat, until his curiosity overrides any remaining nervousness. he peers out from under creamy-pale fur, baby blue eyes cartoonishly round against his smudged charcoal face. baby-soft senses still aren't developed far enough for him to make out much about the new figure -- her smell isn't any he knows but it is close, the scent of sunspire itself a comfort as it's surrounded him since birth.

cautiously he wriggles closer, his crawling shy. okeanos whine-talks, "oo?" his tiny head pressed against his paws, still far enough from the mouth of the den to beat a hasty retreat if needed -- but close enough to "talk" to her.

Maia wanted to get closer, but she didn't want to ask and risk bothering his brother's... mate? Girlfriend? Whatever.  She seemed super nice but also pups were weird and tiny and what if she stepped on one? Or one accidentally fell and she was there and it was somehow impossibly her fault?

Mhm she was stayin right here thank you.

One of them ventured forth, though, and Maia's silver eyes lit up as it slowly came forward.  "Ohmgosh if you aren't the cutest....." she gushed, inching forward. "Hiiiiiii."

her words are garbled nonsense to him, but the vibrations are soothing, reminiscent of mama and other-mama's conversation and the way it lulls him to sleep sometimes. she doesn't move closer which helps him feel safe, safe enough to wiggle forward a little bit more, peeping shyly. "iiiii," he chirps, trying to echo her extended hi (though in his puppy-mouth it sounds more like a strange sort of whine, bless him).

"That's right, iiiiiiii," Maia confirmed, charmed.  She looked over at Seabreeze, next to whom Ibis was a little sleeping lump.  "What are their names?"

The mother gave them, and Maia's tail thumped a couple times behind.  "Ibis and O-okeanos?"  She questioned on the second, and Seabreeze nodded amusedly to confirm.  "Oh jeeze those are so pretty.  They're so tiny how do you even not lose them?"  She didn't wait for a response and set her head down, nose on the ground, so she could eye the little boy from his level.

"Can you say 'Maia'?  Coolest auntie Maia?" She asked, beaming.  "My-uh".

more soothing vibrations issue from the woman that okeanos doesn't understand --  he hears his name (the actual word lost on him, but the sound familiar) and chirps, scooting an inch or two closer but making sure to be touching some part of mama at all times. her prompting earns an attempt: "muh," he repeats happily, "muh!"

"No, myyyy-uhhhhh". She drew out the syllables, then laughed.  "But I guess it's close enough.  Do you talk yet at all?"  She didn't know enough about pups to know when they did or didn't start finding words, but she was starting to guess most of what this pup would have to say would be nonsense.  That was cool.  She didn't mind nonsense.