Bearclaw Valley don't drag me to a sea of flame

this can be a single posts welcome thread! <33 just some father development

they were all very tiny.
ancelin, who had been compelled to overcome his fear of entering the den for long by ameline's need to be away, now crept sheepish and shaggy among them. hung with his usual necklaces of dew, tousled with foliage, stained with sap, and tracking mud from one recalcitrant hind-paw, ancelin lay down among his daughters.
a pine needle fell onto @Athella's head, and he hastily blew it away. his breath gusted over @Andrelia, his shocked inhale at waking them up disturbed @Avalita, and his sound of annoyance at himself roused @Adalynn.
good job! he thought angrily at himself, nosing over each babe in turn and hoping they would go back to sleep, because he was already panicking a little.

i haven't checked for sure if enough time has passed for eyes to open i did simple mind math which usually leads to disaster so lmk!!! ill edit the post

her dreams were strange; abstract. her sleeping moments' interpretation of the world was not to dissimilar to those of her waking. black, only able to feel something hard beneath her, and something soft and warm surrounding her from all sides, little bodies like her own and then something much larger that fed her when she got close and the sounds everything makes.
a grunt reels her in from her sleep, and it tears what she realizes are her eyes open.

moving blobs of various different shades. they all move, and mix with eachother like paint, but adalynn couldn't quite understand yet what she was looking at. so she retreats to her dreams once again, finally able to see in color.

Something had changed. Her world had changed.

The prickly flutter of a pine needle landed atop her tiny head. The texture was new. Interesting enough to jolt her from her sleep. As the days passed, her senses sharpened, little by little. She was more aware of the comings and goings in the den. Of soft, wiggly shapes beside her. Of a much larger one, from where warmth and milk came.

Intrigued but not entirely happy about being roused from her nap, Athella let out a puppy little squeal. Even with the offender removed from her head and out of the way, it's memory still clung. Grunting, she determinedly gathered her stubby little legs under herself. She froze in place, awed at the newness of her limbs, lost on how they would work.

The blackness that had been behind her eyes cleared. Replaced with blurred shapes of color and great distortion. Through her new baby blue eyes, she did not yet realize she was looking upon the patchy coat of her sire for the very first time.

Away from the den, she stretched. 

Her joints ached from being cooped up, too long had she been sedentary. She felt like a bird, whose endless patience had them sit for long hours on a nest- and found herself wishing for this phase to be over soon. She wanted to run with her children, to tumble and tussle with them, to see them move so she too, at last, could be busy again. 

She snuffled through the grass, noting that both Annorak and Athens seemed to be sticking around. They’d need an introduction to the children soon- and between them she hoped one might rise, and reach for a loftier position in their ranks. 

She found some dead leaves that smelled of autumn- with a groan of pleasure she bent one leg, tucked her chin in and rolled over onto her shoulders, finally able to give her back a good scratch against the ground. When she rose, she was adorned with bits of dead leaves and grass. She returned to the den, still unkempt, to enter and lie down beside her husband.

She opened her mouth to speak only to be distracted by the glint of a barely opened eye. ”Huh,” She grinned, to see the new development. ”There you are,” She said, over Ancelin’s shoulder.

thank god for the natural impulses that connected the red-string crimeboard of “ family” and “YES” and stuck a sharp “NO” over patricide, dad. recoiling from the gust like a tipping cow, andrelia could do all but whine being woken up! what was worse, her eyes had opened. all the multivalent shimmerings that blew up her pupils elected paratactic squeaks that could be crudely translated to baby expletives.

but soon her spidey senses told her food was here, so she discontentedly wiggled her rotund form in the dirt indicating she would like to be fed teat de suite, s’il vous plaît.

all things considered, avalita was a pretty heavy sleeper. she spent so much of her waking time being a restless lump of coal that, by the end of the day, she was always exhausted! rowdy siblings be damned, she was filled with the evolutionary need to get her sleep no matter the circumstances.
such as now. she'd felt an awfully warm puff of air in her face before having heard a sharp sound. andrelia wailed in frustration, and athella began to wobble around; and little lita, ever the charmer, shot open one eye for a split second before attempting to go right back to sleep, curling herself close to adalynn who did the same.

last to fade! <3

adalynn's eyes opened first, and ancelin stared into them with rapt fascination. athella was next, father and daughter holding a blurry line of communication open with their eyes.
ameline was there, and ancelin stirred happily, but he could not look away. little andrelia glanced up at her parents in some distress, wishing food. and lastly little avalita found his eye, but only for a moment.
as pups were rearranged, sleeping littles placed by one another and hunger sated, ancelin's heart filled with love once more. and perhaps some nerves! the opening of their eyes was only the beginning of their lives.