Bearclaw Valley not a bit crazy

Five infants nursed at her side. 

She moved them often, guiding their hungry mouths and occasionally pulling one from their latch to place them at another teat, one that was either less sore, or more full. She had nursed four pups before- but now she had four pups and a cub, and she'd begun to wonder if she would be able to maintain them all throughout these first few weeks, until they were able to begin eating meat. 

They might have to start early, if they were all to thrive. She gave them each a fighting chance, though she began to dread the budding worry that she might have to abandon the rescued bearcub if her own children began to suffer. 

She's just like me, she thought, as she looked down at the starveling bearcub that slept at her side. An orphan. The Redtails could have let her starve, but they hadn't. They'd taken the risk of bringing her in, feeding her, nursing her back to health- she felt obliged to do the same, now that she had taken the cub in. 

Her thoughts were punctuated and her brooding dissipated when she tuned in to the sound of her little sugar-coated girl, whose gull-cries never failed to bring a smile to her mother's face. Little paws pushed into Ameline's thinned fur, kneading the tender skin as she wailed. Ameline moved Auberon to the side, and replaced the cub's warmth with her muzzle, so she might console the restless girl with the caress of her tongue.