Redtail Rise third,

Tuesday’s Twilight slid into the world unremarkable for a cub. Small, for now, wet silvers muddled to greys. She stirred at the tongue over her small, stubby body, flinging out her legs in all directions in response.

Then, once her mouth was free of primordial goo, when her nostrils sucked down their first breath of air, her little maw opened. First a whimper, then a whine, then a squall rose from her tiny lungs, perhaps a protest, or perhaps a reaction to the world around her as she touched and tasted for the first time. All of her nerves on fire, her lungs adjusting to the art of breathing.

A nose nudged her forward, and Twilight went with no small amount of complaint. She was swift to settle when she actually got milk into her mouth, and slipped into sleep with a teat still held possessively in her small mouth.