Redhawk Caldera There are foxes on my sockses

TRUE STORY! Any combination of the following folks are welcome: @Fox, @Derp, @Nightjar and/or @Raven. :)

Peregrine anticipated that he would not sleep much with the pups here. For one thing, he was unwilling to miss anything. And the Firebirds would be demanding 'round the clock, he knew. Somehow, though, he nabbed himself a solid four-hour nap in the early afternoon on the pups' second day. When he woke, he spent a few minutes just staring at the four of them, then a full bladder forced him outdoors. He came back as soon as he relieved himself, stopping by a cache to grab some of the dead rodents Jaws had brought them yesterday: one for him and one for Fox.

He ducked back inside, hovering in the den's mouth just as he had during the birthing. He gently placed a squirrel near his mate, then set his aside and settled down to stare at the puppies some more. It was always fun when they moved around and made noise but Peregrine was happy to watch them sleep too. He feasted his eyes upon the children he'd made with Fox. Right now, he felt like he could never get enough of them.

He did steal a few glances at his drowsy partner in crime. He knew Fox would be in no rush to name them, yet he wanted to ask her about Nightjar. And he was pretty sure he wanted to name the little black girl Attica, unless Fox had something else in mind for her. There were a lot of black critters in the world, including several birds, and maybe the Alpha female would want to name her for one of them. The same went for their runty firstborn. It would be easy to draw a comparison between his pale, creamy coat and some form of wildlife. He would be happy to give Fox the naming rights for their monochromatic sprogs.

Then maybe I get to name you, the father thought as his eyes fixed on Fox's miniature. Are you an Attica? he thought toward her, his lips twitching slightly downward. He didn't think it quite fit. As if to agree with him that she didn't want that name, the svelte little lady jerked and gave a shriek that set Peregrine's ears on fire. He winced. Or maybe you're a Banshee, he mused, smiling at her affectionately despite his ringing ears.

Blind and deaf, the derp wriggled closer to his father. He didn't know where he was going, nor what he was getting himself into, but he went anyway, wriggling and squirming and worming his way toward the wolf he would someday call "Dud." He didn't hear the shrieks of his red sister, nor did he even understand that she was related or that she was red. To him, everything was either a warm entity or a cold entity. The warm ones were good and gave him fuzzy feelings. Some of the warm entities even gave him food.

When he bumped into one of the larger warm entities, his little nose booping Dud's side.

His sandy firstborn stole his attention then. He was wriggling in this direction. Peregrine wanted to reach out and encourage the boy, yet instead he just held still and let him come. Watching the little meatball's movements brought a smile to his face. Although he very much considered Pura his child, this squeaky little runt was his first biological son. And he was Fox's first child altogether. That thought made him realize he wanted her to name this one.

"Howdy," the Alpha male rumbled when the puppy booped his side. At last, he bent down to nuzzle that tiny head and gently lick that wrinkly face. He didn't say much else. Peregrine couldn't remember whether he'd spoken much to his first batch of babies but he just didn't feel compelled to babble at these guys. He loved them with every fiber of his being but they were as deaf as turds, so he would save his breath for when they could hear. Then, Peregrine would probably never shut up, as he intended to be the most doting and involved father there ever was. He would make no mistakes this time around... well, as few as he could manage, anyway.

Nightjar's instincts were already sharp; he recognized immediately that the entity had exposed his left side to the cold air, where before it was pressed warmly against the smallest limb. He was content to remain sleeping that way forever, but the chill breeze coming from outside the whelping den found him too easily, and he woke with a start.

And then he whined. His mouth opened into a little "o" and out poured a constant stream of whining and yipping, his way of telling the entity that he was unhappy with the change in his environment without really comprehending it enough to fix it himself.

*flails* I'll try to keep this moving along as quickly as possible. I know puppy threads get stale quickly!

A swash of warmth and dampness covered the derp's face, and his little baby brain liked it for some reason or another. He was slimmer than his siblings, and noticeably smaller, though he had no less of a personality (if it could even be called that at this point). With the warm wetness gone, the derp began to wriggle about, probably looking like he was swimming more than anything. Teeny tiny claws dug into the earth, attempting to move his whole body somewhere else.

This time, he managed to bump into his brother. He snorted, then opened his mouth to suck on his brother's baby-soft hairs.

The older boy came awake with a sudden yowl. Not two seconds later, his older but smaller brother bumped right into him. Peregrine smiled at this, then leaned over and closed his jaws around the larger pup, lifting him and placing the would-be Nightjar between his forelegs. Before his derpy smaller brother could get upset about this, the Alpha did the same with him, placing them side by side and then crooking his forelegs to (lovingly) trap them against his chest.

My boys, he thought fondly as he licked their heads in tandem, then thrust his large snout in between them. He wondered what they would make of it. Would his big, weird snout upset them? Would they think of it as a plaything? Would they bite him or beat him? Any of the above would likely delight the happy father.

Something touched his flank, and then the sensation of his fine hairs being pulled made him buzz with upset. The precursor of a growl bubbled up in his throat but died almost instantly, just in time for Peregrine to transport him elsewhere. To Nightjar, these random trips were inexplicable and sometimes unnoticed. He was at the point in his young life where certain stimuli were becoming less intense; he could now be moved in his sleep without waking, so this was all normal to him.

Soon, the entity was squishing his left leg slightly, but before he could vocalize his distress, he was being soothed with a wide, wet tongue. Like most times before this, Nightjar was coaxed into relaxation by the rhythmic motion across his back. Only when Peregrine's snout dove between the two bodies, freeing his leg, did Nightjar's awareness truly filter back.

Wasting no time in mistaking what was happening, the boy opened his mouth wide and planted his gums against his father's whiskered snout, sucking hard and finding nothing.

The body disappeared, and the little potato whimpered. He didn't have to wait long before his father was transporting him through space and plopping him down next to his brother. This time, however, big ol' daddy-o stuck his muzzle between them, and the sandy boy. As was his usual reaction to such stimuli, the potato whacked his father with a paw, teeny tiny claws outstretched as he did so.

Each of his sons had a different response to Peregrine's muzzle being thrust between them. The larger pup (would-be Nightjar) opened his little mouth and began to gum his father's snout, clearly searching for something to suckle. It tickled and he bit back a laugh, not wanting to disturb either pup. His little brother, meanwhile, had begun to bat at Peregrine's proboscis like it was his own personal punching bag. This tickled even more than the gumming and the father couldn't help but begin to laugh quietly, causing his muzzle to twitch and vibrate.

The sudden puffs of air and twitching of the structure he was latched to made Nightjar shrink back. His limbs pulled in close to his body and he made himself as small as possible, a classic fear response to an unknown "new thing'. Soon, he would enter a socialization period where nothing frightened him, and then new things past that point would make him uneasy; for now, though, he was uneasy with every change.

He remained curled up like this, only whimpering softly when it became apparent that the structure wasn't hurting him at all. His tail began to wriggle slowly, appealing to the entity's second most important nature: dominance.

The tiny derp continued to squirm, batting at his father's muzzle with tiny paws. When it began to move, however, the sandy pup froze. Something between curiosity and fear overthrew his body's movements, and he remained completely still until the vibrations stopped, at which point he sneezed, yawned, and promptly began to nod off. Unless he was forced awake, the eldest son would be fast asleep in no time.

You two are welcome to post again or just have this archived. :)

Both pups shrank from him, obviously fearful, and Peregrine felt a bolt of guilt even as he held very still. Sorry, guys... he thought, unwilling to move his mouth to speak. It would only scare them further and it wasn't like they would hear anyway. Daddy's just massively ticklish! Very slowly, he moved to lick each of them in turn, comforting them. His elder son's yawn told him it was working and that they would both be fast asleep in his arms in no time.