Sun Mote Copse Your body is a wonderland

The pups kicked regularly now, drumming a steady beat on Wildfire's internal organs. She swelled even further, though not so much as in past years, which led her to wonder if there were less pups this time around. She supposed she would find out in a week or two. For now, she ate a lot, slept even more and resigned herself to leading a pretty housebound life for the next month or two.

Speaking of which, she and @Eljay had toured the copse tirelessly in search of the perfect den. They'd found several suitable locations, though of course as her time drew near, Wildfire found herself embarking on her own, discarding all the burrows and dugouts they'd discovered and looking for something else. She wasn't sure what until she found it.

Wildfire chuckled under her breath and shook her head lightly as she stood beside a downed tree. It had fallen ages ago, snapping in half over a large boulder in its path. The tree's upper limbs had rolled away and begun to rot, practically part of the earth now. Its lower section rested against the huge stone, the tangled roots slithering every which way around a doorway that looked like it had been created via some sort of explosion.

She crawled past these tentacles of wood and sniffed the damp wooden floor. It smelled musty and it was dark, the rear blocked off by a wall of stone. The Sovereign stamped her feet, circled and curled into a ball, letting out a contented sigh. She had always preferred trees for whelping and should've known she'd end up in one again. Wildfire would have to find her mate and bring him here, let him know this was where she intended to give birth.

In the meantime, she slithered forward so her head dangled just outside the blasted entrance, tipping her snoot into the chilled air to see if she could detect any smells of spring as the unborn babes stirred in her womb.