Redhawk Caldera dance to the beat of your heart

for any who are allowed in the den. eyes opening! @Caracal @Marten @Tierra @Towhee @Reyes

For these first 1,5 week of her life, the world had been pretty clear cut. Eat, sleep, explore, repeat. She was often noisy and it was clear that she had a personality of her own even as a little potato-shaped troublemaker. She liked to look for new things to discover. She liked wrestling with her co-babies, whether it was for the VIP spot at the milkbar or just because some instinct drove her to prove that she was the strongest and best of them all.

Her senses were limited, but as clear cut as her rhythm. She could touch stuff and she could taste stuff, and those were her main pointers for anything. Smell was a sense that she had ignored mostly so far, because it wasn't very good yet, and as it improved so steadily she didn't really notice it very much.

Now, there was another sense added; suddenly, the world was visible, and it was a blurry mess. Who programmed this shit? They were clearly an amateur. This new sense only annoyed Sphyrapicus, who was fine just tasting and touching things, and now suddenly she had to deal with this new thing which wasn't very good at all. And she couldn't even change the channel. Sphyra looked through watery slits of eyes into the world, her expression as confused as she felt, and loudly mewled in complaint to whoever would care.

She didn't have a lot of bandwidth to spare but Towhee couldn't help but feel stressed about her brother's prolonged absence. Had he found Niamh? Had she given birth? Were they coming back? When she could spare a moment to think, her mind always went to them. There wasn't any room for anger anymore, simply concern.

The careworn mother reached her breaking point this afternoon and reluctantly tasked Meerkat with going out to find any trace of Phox and Niamh. She could tell her daughter really didn't want to go, though she did as her Sovereign bade her. That left them down another adult, though Towhee thought they would be okay. She could count on Reyes, @Ruenna and @Fennec.

She sighed through her nose as she flopped down beside the pups. Their eyes were starting to open. A small part of Towhee celebrated this milestone. Unfortunately, she mostly just dreaded what else was to come. Soon they would grow their sea legs and—oh, fuck—their milk teeth. She could just barely handle them as twitchy potatoes. Towhee's belly tied in knots even as several small, gummy mouths attacked it.

It would seem, then, that nobody should care about her predicament. An outrage! This caused Sphyra to start crying louder and louder, unaware that her deaf mother would not see — or rather, hear — the distress call as loudly and clearly as any of the other adults would have.

The whambulance went completely ignored as it seemed that Mother was — what, just lounging?! — and with another yowl of contempt she flung herself in the direction of Mother, gummy mouth ready to attack the first thing she could find: a front paw.

Well, three of those merciless little maws went for her nips. The fourth came for her paw. "Calm your tits," Towhee groused ironically, flicking her paw out of the pup's reach. "The milk bar's that way," she added, suppressing an insane urge to fling the little girl and instead gently closing her teeth around her midriff to lift and set her beside her nursing siblings.

Sphyra's problems weren't solved by Mother, for some reason or other. Wasn't she the one who took care of things around here? Wasn't she supposed to fix things that were wrong? Why would Mother not provide?! Sphyra continued to attack the paw until it was suddenly gone! Sphyra didn't use her blurry eyesight but instead just continued crawling to try and find something to attack again so she could get the roomservice fixed around here.

She was picked up and placed by the milkbar instead. Sphyra grumbled and instead of settling quietly by the milkbar she attacked the nearest of her siblings, closing her gums around their ear in a violent tantrum that showed her incapability to deal with this new confusing sense. She wasn't very strong yet so she wouldn't do any real damage, but that didn't stop her from trying to get someone to fix things for her by throwing a tantrum. (@Caracal @Marten @Tierra whoever wants could jump in to presume it's them being nommed on? but no pressure <3)

summoned!

Ohhhh ohhh this was wet. She did not like wet, not this early.

She let out as big a shriek as a puppy could (which wasn't super considerable) and directed her newfound attention at her sister. Ever since her yells had become something she could hear she enjoyed them more. But the whole sight thing was new.

Sapsucker retaliated by returning the favor and grasping for her twin's paw. She began to chow down on it, puppy jaws incapable of much but a whole lot of drool.

The child was struck by a wave of dizziness, a kind of yawning sensation that hazed the world away, and for a moment all that he could see was shadows of varying consistency. It passed and, with the crowing of one shape that split to expose blurry white needle-teeth, the boy's interest in this newfound ability waned.

He shoved against the dirt floor to sit himself up. His belly rounded like a bloated sausage, gurgling, empty. A few blinks of those watery eyes and Caracal was flinching away from the noises in search of something warm to drink.

The twins gave up on feeding from her and chose instead to begin eating one another. Towhee rolled her eyes. She should've intervened, she knew, but if they kept each other occupied for a few minutes, it would give her and her poor, chapped nipples a break.

The boys remained relatively tame in comparison, though Caracal began to bumble rather haplessly. Towhee continued ignoring the girls as she gently steered him toward one of her least sore teats in the hope he would simply latch, feed and be still.

Her paw being grabbed was met with a growl of utter indignation that sounded more like a cute little mewl in her current potato state. The world was pretty blurry right now which made her feel a little dizzy as she engaged in an epic battle with her twin. She pounced and chewed on her sibling while the world fuzzily spun on by, eager not to let this challenge go unwasted. Who needed food when you could hone your skills in the arena?

Her twin was able to roll her aside rather easily, even in their current size. She did not have a whole lot of drive to stay on her paws despite being absolutely aghast whenever she happened to be knocked off of them. (Not that she had far to go). Her whine turned into a tiny growl as her sister engaged in her play, and she retalitated by just kinda... clumsily shoving her entire body into her twin like some kind of confused roomba.

Skipping Caracal as he's an NPC atm! I think this'll be my last, feel free to continue without me.

Nursing could be quite agonizing at times, though there were other times where it was oddly pleasant, even relaxing. That was the effect Caracal's latching took on her. The twins were still having a go at one another, yet she sincerely doubted they could do any real harm. So Towhee indulged herself by relaxing along with her sons—Marten had dozed off with his head pressed into the soft skin of her belly—and closing her eyes for a few.

Sphyra rolled around with more squeaking when she was bulldozered into by her roomba of a sister. It made her dizzy to see the world spin around, and she was growing tired at last. She let out a long yawn once her sister stopped pestering her and then started heading for the milk bar, content to take a break from her rambunctious play.

my last too!