Redhawk Caldera and a happy new year [birth]

A shriek startled Raven into silence, cheeks still wet. She peered down at the litter of puppies. Her mother had brought six beautiful babies into the world. It was horrible that she'd died doing so and that she would never see them. But now it was time for Raven to preserve her parents' legacy by making sure these newborns didn't share their parents' fate. If she had anything to do with it, they would not only survive but thrive.

The slight commotion of Finley's arrival and subsequent breakdown caused the Delta's teary attention to flick upward momentarily but then she returned her attention to the pups. Fox had managed to clean them prior to passing away, an observation which pierced Raven with sorrow. She nosed each of their little heads in turn, checking to make sure they were all breathing and moving. Some were a little stiller and quieter than others but the cries from the livelier few, jarring as they were, reassured her.

Her yellow eyes flicked upward when Elwood shot a question at her. "I can feed them, I think." Although the pregnancy wasn't real, the milk flowing from her teats was, thank goodness. But how far would her supply go with such a large litter? And was Raven ready to step into the role of mothering the pups? Although she did feel an attachment and wanted the best for them, the idea of finding herself a single mother of six so suddenly made her insides twist.

"I'll nurse them," she more or less repeated, struggling to parse her thoughts as well as her words, "but I'll need all the help I can get. You've done this before," Raven said, glancing past him to include the sobbing Finley. "This is going to have to be a team effort." Even as she said it, she realized that said team had just lost its captain. A wrenching pain passed through her and she just barely stifled the sob that clawed up her throat as she glanced fleetingly at her dead mother.

"We should bury her," Raven said when she could find her voice again a moment later, "and name them..." she added, looking down at the squirming pups. She knew of her parents' tradition to wait until they were older but Raven felt a sudden and fierce desire to skip right to it and name the newest Redhawks' in the former monarchs' honor, using their favorite convention: birds and other animals.