Blacktail Deer Plateau baby, can you focus on me?

The positive interactions he'd had with Easy, Dauntless, and Lav had covered over his memories of his own dead children, like a blanket of snow over dead grass, so the word 'kids' didn't have nearly the negative connotation it had held even a moon or two ago. Without a beat, he responded, "I like kids, too. I like being an uncle to Day's children."

And then he thought for a moment, trying to remember what he'd told Pema. He rarely knew how to talk about himself; he was a man of action, not of words. After flailing silently for a moment, he said, "I'm a hunter, a deerstalker. I like to think I'm good at sparring, too." As for stars? "Stars, I think are pretty, but I can't tell one from the other," Shale admitted. "I don't know how astronomers keep them all straight."

The word midwife had caught his ear, and he chased the sudden thought that had come to his mind. "Midwife, eh? Have you spoken to Day and Cat--er, Grayday and Catori--yet?" Shale surmised the alpha and his wife would have a litter this season; why would they not? And if so, this woman would be instrumental in bringing his new nieces and nephews into the world.