The Sentinels You gave me nothing, now it's all I got

He wouldn't have to wait long, though he wouldn't have noticed nor minded.  The instant Osprey appeared his head picked up from where it had been resting on the ground, though his eyes had continued to track the trees vigilantly, and he beamed to see her standing there fine.  There had been a horrified instant when he had first smelt the traces of birth that he'd wondered if maybe this had gone even worse than the first... it was a fear he had held as the time got closer, but one that luckily had been just as silly as he'd dismissed it to be.

She rested her head on his shoulder and he gave a soft kiss to her cheek, stomach doing flips at her invitation in.  He'd seen pups before, but this was different.  These were theirs.  He followed tentatively, giddy at the sound of the healthy cries Osprey's departure had elicited.  When he stepped in, he could make out their shapes next to her.  Four. 

He came to look closer, marveling.  Three were darker, the fourth a pale white... and unmoving.  He hadn't noticed initially, but only three wriggled closer to their mother.  One had not quite made the journey, choosing instead to stay with the gods.  There was not a lot of sorrow in losing a life that hadn't ever truly lived, but it echoed closely to the previous year, and he nuzzled her throat, again overjoyed that she and the other three had come through sound and strong.

"They are beautiful," he said softly, gazing down adoringly.  Two daughters and a son.  Three lives that, for the forseeable future, would depend entirely upon the two that had created them.  And four that would depend on him providing as much as he could in hard times.  It would not be an easy task, but he could not care less.