Moonspear I'm clumsy, made friends with the floor

Beside her three bundles slept contentedly. Mira awoke with a start in the night, sniffling her nose and blinking her wide eyes. She was curled at mother's stomach- and there she arose on stubby legs, finding her balance. She did not know of the moon that hung beyond the den in the night. But something tugged at her chest, and she scooted away from mother, neck stretching out as she attempted a little howl. Her song was broken, high-pitched, quiet- but it filled her with a wonderful feeling, and so she kept singing, unbothered as to whether it awoke her family.

Hydra oft slept with one eye open. Her children had found their legs, and although she had her sisters for backup the Ostrega was never too careful. So in tune with her children was she that when the cadence of their sleeping breaths no longer matched, her eyelids sprang open to survey them. Just as she did, Mira's tiny neck seemed to stretch out and she loosed the most precious of sounds. 

Her ears cupped forward and leaned toward her daughter. She wondered if @Dirge was near; she knew that if he was, he would sing right back. Hydra felt it was soon time for them to meet their father... in a matter of days, they would. But they could hear him, and the rest of the pack too by now she imagined. For her own part, Hydra joined her to inspire more of the sound. Howling was important, and the compulsion to join in was one that was important to heed within the pack. It foretold of unity and strength both, each of which Moonspear had in spades now. For all the times her cubs had woken her, she felt no guilt at all for it should she disturb them.

Mother awoke, and with her a song. Mira was initially shocked to hear a voice join her own, and turned, wide-eyed, to stare quietly at the dark woman, voice falling with her surprise. But if ever she knew encouragement, this must be it- so she crept close to Hydra again, listening to her much stronger howl for a moment before joining in again- feeling more confident now. Her song was still high-pitched, and occasionally cracked, but was no longer so quiet as her heart beat with the new feeling of unity.

Mira quieted for a moment, but soon found her voice again. Their song carried no message, but it need not always be so; sometimes, the call was simply a rally and symbolized unity as it did now. Hydra paused for a moment to let Mira's voice carry before she again joined in, voice mingling with that of her own daughters. Soon enough her daughter would learn all of the purposes behind their calls, but she felt even still her daughter, inherently, understood why they sang together now. Hydra's ears pricked as she quieted a moment, ears cupping to hear if any of the Spear had elected to join in.

Perhaps one day, Vega would look at this moment as one of unity. Maybe she’d bleed some poignancy from it.

But for today:

*howls*

Boy, there sure were some weird noises going on. Mintaka blinked bleary blue eyes at the sound of her sister and mother singing together. The little silver wolf's muzzle wrinkled just a bit and she yawned, stretching and rolling onto her side to look up at Hydra and Mira. And the songs were good and sweet - Mintaka found herself wanting to make noise, too. 

Tiny tail thumping against the ground, Mintaka opened her mouth, but instead of howling, a soft "Ooooo," cooed out. Still, the girl seemed proud of herself - a soft giggle escaping afterward.

Ruckus woke him—hearing was a relatively new thing too. That too had come gradually and like sight, he was adapting to it relatively quickly. Despite his own crowing and chattering, Altair was finding that his siblings were kind of noisy even if he was perhaps the noisiest one of them all.

He had been in the middle of glowering at Mira when MOTHER had joined her in a much more sonorous, in tune fashion. Being closer to her than he would have liked for such a thing, it gave him a start but even that swiftly faded as Mintaka joined in and also another, distantly and almost crawling through the earth above them as much as it had come from below them.

It was swaying, pulling at something deeply instinctual and primal—he could not help but join in too from where he rested. It was a yowl perfect for a yowler, not quite a proper howl but one he tried to make rival Mira’s… until it was cut off by a waking yawn.

Dirge was in fact near. The commotion caught him off guard, but he knew the sound of little voices raising hell to be a familiar one. There had been a time that now seemed long ago when he had been the first one to encourage such a raucous feat—to know this year’s litter were already finding their voices and putting them to good use no doubt driving their mother and aunts insane warmed his heart. A smile tugged at his features as he gave it pause from a nearby copse; he listened as they sprang to life and faded away, only to start again.

But what warmed him more was hearing Vega join them from somewhere nearby.

So he too felt the pull to communicate from afar and joined them.

it's a dad cameo. a... dameo? daddio?

Song rose up from more distant places, and Mira looked to her mother, wide-eyed. With an expression that seemed to say are you hearing this too? To Mintaka, and then Altair, she shot cold looks that told something much more negative- you're not doing this right. But she continued in her own little song which she believed to be perfect, summoning a great courage and letting her voice rise. Once the girl felt she could howl no longer, she quieted, making her way back towards her mother with the intention of curling up beside her once again.

Hydra listened to her cubs, and beyond, ears pricked; her family joined tonights soliloquy, and that she did not mind at all. Moonspear and her family were one and the same, after all. The look Mira served to Altair was ultimately missed as Hydra sang on, and only when the calls of her children quieted did Hydra. Content to bolster them as needed, and to get a good nights sleeep when she saw it coming, the mother nosed her children each over the head with a gentle touch, proud as ever to hear their voices... ones that would, soon enough, ring in the ears of the Wilderness with their strength as they continued to learn their song and find their voices.