Dawnlark Plains me and julio down by the schoolyard

Who wants some Dad time?? @Timberlake @Padma @Radcliffe @Meadow and ofc @Pema can hop in too

It had been the best week of his life. He spent hours just simply staring at his children, studying their features until he could have rattled off every single minute detail in his sleep. Watching how they moved, how they interacted. Their personalities were coming out, even this early, while blind and deaf to the world around them. They were all perfect. Special. And his.

Of course, that meant it had been the most terrifying week of his life as well. Two boys, two girls. Just like his last litter. If he wasn't watching them like a hawk, he was hunting, giving Pema as much food as she could handle. This wouldn't end like last time. Come the fall, his mate and pups would be fat, happy, and perfectly healthy--alive and well. This wouldn't come to a tragic denouement--he would see to that if it killed him.

Shale lay half in, half out of the den, gazing lovingly at the homely scene before him. Wondering just how the gods had deemed him lucky enough to receive such a blessing.