Redtail Rise poetry

The instant her mother said the word, Masque swept upright. Much as she wanted to linger here and admire her new siblings, they needed her in another way. By providing for Avicus, she would be sustaining them too. Although they no longer lived inside the Wealda’s body, they would still feed from it.

Before she could fully turn around inside the doorway, her mother’s grunts of pain caused Masquerade to turn back in concern. No sooner had she let out a questioning whine when Avicus birthed… something. This was no puppy. Masque stared at it, at least until her mother promptly devoured it.

Avicus reneged on her earlier request for food before settling. Masque stayed frozen in the doorway, utterly nonplussed by what she’d just witnessed. When the unconcerned Wealda settled, her eyes sought Ashlar’s again. He didn’t seem particularly perturbed either.

“Just be here,” was Avicus’s final word on the matter, which Masque would respect. Pushing aside her uneasiness, the yearling resumed a crouch near the threshold. She folded her forelegs underneath her chest and angled her ruddy snout toward the four suckling babes, savoring this opportunity to simply marvel at them.