Hideaway Strath the teeth of the eye of a storm

Post 200 for you, my lovely friends. ♥

Lotte snorted inelegantly as she awoke abruptly, jerking her head up and blinking blearily. With a moue of distaste, she swiped her cheek and jaw briskly against her wrist and licked her lips to clear away the last vestiges of drool. “Dag,” she said softly, with a hearty thump of her tail. Her voice and eyes were full of affection and warmth as she slowly rearranged herself into some semblance of order, smoothing her tongue soothingly over feisty little @Mallaidh’s crown and down her spine. It pleased her to watch the unlikely tableau: Dagfinn, cradling a tiny white snowball, giving his nephew an impromptu bath. “I wonder,” she mused, “whether he and his kaksonen will take after the Ansbjørns or the Fearghals.” She didn’t know at this point whether the twins would carry the muodonmuuttaja trait or whether they would remain white-furred and blue-eyed all their lives like Arturo’s daughter Devin. Speaking of which — Eirlys, the Quiet One, lay so still and limp at Lotte’s side that the rogue feared the worst. She licked the snowdrop a bit roughly to stimulate her and was rewarded with a soft mewl of protest. @Ceallach, too, was sleeping — and Lotte paid the same tribute to Arturo’s lookalike as she had his siblings, drawing her tongue lovingly from tip to tail. “They are so small,” she fretted. “They were born too soon, but Hemlock says they are healthy.” She lapsed into the language of comfort, of childhood, looking to Dagfinn with a wry smile.

“Maybe they are just impatient, as I am,” she quipped, turning the subject to her own kaksonen. “How are you, pörröinen takapuoli?” she asked. She worried about her twin — without Lotte, who was keeping him in line and making sure he ate enough? She glanced coyly down at one of his forepaws, a mischievous glint in her argent eyes. They didn’t look nearly chewed upon enough — but the benevolent Banríon would fix that for him. She snaked out her muzzle to try to catch Dagfinn’s broad, leathery appendage gently between her teeth, mostly mindful of @Roarke but also banking on the idea that a little roughhousing around her newborn children wouldn’t hurt…right? Puppies were 50% rubber anyway.