Wheeling Gull Isle sea spiderlings

The small boy's wails pierced her ears, and she winced, eyes screwing half-shut against the noise. Had she cried like that, as a pup? Certainly not; she didn't think she'd ever been that loud in her life, not even as a newborn. She finally dared to open her eyes again when the cry faded into whimpers, and the boy began to crawl toward her.

Oh. This was. . .oh. She'd better catch him. "Hey, you can't go anywhere," Maegi said sternly, reaching out a slender foreleg to pull the boy into the curve of her belly, emaciated as it was. "Stay by me, okay?"

Before she could say anything further, she felt the oddest sensation on one of her other toes, and she swung her head around to find the other pup latched on for dear life, sucking intensely. Ouch! That sort of hurt, and she felt some semblance of pity towards the brown woman, and Relmyna, and all others who had to deal with this suckling.

"Um, sorry, but that's just my paw," she muttered, trying and failing to detach Fern from her toe. "You're not gonna--there's not--oh, never mind." With a huff, she gave up, instead looking down upon the two bundles, one at her foot, the other against her belly. Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered the third, lifeless bundle, and she swallowed, wrapping her tail around Mur's body.