Hideaway Strath now kindly behave like a gangster again

Most days Hemlock spends either teaching Sirius or one of the other puppies about the world around them, or making her rounds of the Strath for plants and things that might need her attention. Today she is feeling surprisingly lazy and while it isn't her standard, she's decided to embrace it. Her birthday is fast approaching and while she longs for the nostalgia of her littermates and the carefree life she lived as a child Hemlock knows her place and is happy for the life she's made with Teaghlaigh. Her thoughts are distant, Sirius off with the other puppies playing games or sleeping or harassing some poor soul; he is given a freedom with his age and she wants him happy and safe and knows that in their borders there are none to seek to do him harm. 

When Arturo chuffs Hemlock's tail wags pleasantly, turning her attention to the embers of his gaze with a fond smile. "I see you have chased off the ankle-biters for the time being," She teased as she moved to sit up, knowing that the children had all found their teeth. Thankfully they were past the point of relying on milk or else Lotte no doubt would have been ready to send them into the wilds. Still, Hemlock is proud of them and their growth, each with their own personalities and preferences. 

The conversation they last had when truly alone still floats distantly in her mind; Hemlock doesn't feel any different, even at the start of a possible heat, but she doesn't think it is coming yet. She has suspicions about winter and how famished she had been, imagining she would have gone into her season if her body had been capable. It doesn't feel like a missed opportunity given that Palisander had passed so recently and that she had been alone. Now, she doesn't know still what she would feel - if it were anticipation or anxiety or some sort of fear wrapped in it together. Still, she doubts this is a social call about the status of their would-be-children, so Hemlock is more curious than anything about Arturo's visit.