Moonspear snakehips

Njord moved closer and gingerly reached for their baby. Meerkat leaned out of the way to give him room to try rousing their son, hoping that her husband’s touch might succeed where her own had failed. But the futility of it all was slowly dawning on her.

She didn’t try to stop her mate, letting him draw his own devastating conclusion. But as he tried to stroke some semblance of life into their child, she slipped a paw off the ground and touched gently at her husband’s cheek. Tears began streaming down her own.

She didn’t realize that they were wetting the still newborn right away. When she did, Meerkat made a small noise in her throat and hastened to dry him. Her snout bumped against Njord as she licked the saltwater from their baby boy’s speckled coat, fluffing and warming it. She didn’t want him to be cold, even in death.

Whenever you like, we can fade this to segue into the followup thread, since I know this one is pretty heavy.