Stone Circle Children of the Standing Stones

Unfortunately, Nanook won't be much help in that! I'll post with Clary in a bit (: edit// which likely means tomorrow, since my brain is more dead from travelling than I thought...

Another month. Those had been her sister's words a month ago, when Desna had first told her of the pups, and when Nanook had agreed to the mantle of aunt and everything that title incurred. What those things were, Nanook still didn't know. A month ago, she had wondered at the strangeness of it all, and, during her tenure of mapping both the land and sky, Nanook had paused in her study with those words in mind. Another month. That night, a month ago, the moon had shone through the peek of a crescent, hardly anything of a marvel. But to the young Apaata, the return of that little cresent meant everything tonight, and a thrill ran through her paws as the sun set and the moon took hold of the sky.

On normal nights, Nanook started and finished her travels with a sweep past her sister's den, to greet the mother and check in briefly before turning to hunting, or studying, or tracking the skies. Tonight, Nanook adjusted her regular circuit to carry her past Desna's den more than usual. A lot more. She made her first pass just before sunset - on schedule with her usual routine, but made a second pass shortly after. She'd made a third sweep when excitement couldn't keep her away, but by her fourth pass, just before midnight, she began to wonder, when nothing seemed to change but the position of the moon, if she was maybe she was being a little too eager.

So after some internal debate, Nanook decided to slip away, on the reasoning that the pups wouldn't go anywhere even if she missed their birthing. So instead of slinking back to the den in the hour past midnight, the woman stayed away and preoccupied herself with other things - the skies were clear, again, which meant no rain; the track of the rabbit ran thick with the fury of fox partway into the glade, which meant she should probably follow the fox and put an end to him, too - but her mind tarried on one catching clause: what if like ma, Desna didn't come up from the ground? The pressure of the worry built inside and squirmed beneath her fur, until she snapped. Her teeth clicked with a bite to the air, aimed no where in particular, and, with fur raised, she spun around and made her limber legs carry her to the den a little time before the sun rose.

Nanook stopped a fair distance away, when the scent of blood reached her nose and her stomach lurched. No. No, no, no - and she crawled forward, in time to see Ezekiel, and - to her own relief - the flash of Desna's teeth in the shadow of the den.