Bearclaw Valley 'Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while

Only open for those tagged at the moment! Will likely tag others in later :)

Dawn broke, and as the light spilled into the valley, Ameline awakened and began walking. 

Walking,
walking,
walking.

It hadn't been enough to trigger her labour any other day- and she'd begun to wonder if it was possible for a wolf to go on like this for days, weeks, months...Surely not. Surely, Arlette would know another trick for hastening childbirth along, but when she felt the muscles in her sides quiver, she knew she would not need it. The time had come- and still, she walked, emitting a brief but urgent call for her family.

Now, though, she paced- in front of the den's mouth, knowing that the bedding had been prepared for her for days now. She paced, fur prickling with every contraction of her muscles. Both @Ancelin and @Athalia would be met with a curled lip if they pressed too close to her now, or went into her birthing den. She wanted them near, but not right in her bubble, not when it was so ready to burst. 

Something changed; and she pivoted without warning just as the sun reached its peak to tuck herself inside the den. She circled, circled, circled- until she couldn't be sure if she was dizzy or sick. She felt pressure build up, and she called out- finally allowing her husband and her daughter to enter if they wished- just in time for the first child to be born. 

The pup was wet and dark, but unmistakably vantablack in colour; velveteen. She moved, she breathed, she lived. @Avalita, the firstborn child- cleansed, and offered food, so that she could thrive and enjoy the limelight in the brief period of time where she would be the only one. 

Ameline would not have long with her firstborn before she felt contractions again, and gritted her teeth through them. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a relatively easy birth for her second child- @Adalynn, whose stony greys triggered a childhood memory; a sibling of hers, perhaps, long since forgotten. She bathed the girl proudly, and moved her alongside her sister. 

They would have some time together, before their third sibling, @Andrelia arrived. Ameline's features lit up to see one of her children resembled their father, with white fur and mottled patches. She glanced to catch Ancelin's expression as she bathed their third daughter, and moved her close to eat her first meal. 

She would have time to wonder, and time to begin to worry before the fourth began to come. She'd felt finished, but couldn't quite tell; she'd begun to worry if there was one more, if it would be born alive at this point. But when she came, @Athella came into the world and brought her mother a rush of pride to see her own, golden ruff on one of the children. 

Now, she could breathe- and revel in the exhausted but profound glow of motherhood.