Redhawk Caldera and a happy new year [birth]

I'll be posting with Phox on January 1st (the day this post is forward-dated to). Other Firebirbs and whoever else wants to stop by is welcome!

This was not her first (or even her second) rodeo. The sensations were the same she had felt two years ago, and again last year. She had no way of knowing if they were Peregrine's or Kaizer's children, but she would do whatever she had to in order to keep them alive and well. In the cramped den, in the wee hours of the morning, she panted and moaned, pushing out one after another after another until she was exhausted and thought she couldn't go on. Then she pushed out a sixth babe, and felt herself slipping into a sleep that she would not wake from. They had taken their toll on her small body, and Fox lay lifeless, growing colder with each passing minute. The last of her body heat would keep them alive long enough for somebody to discover them.

Raven still hadn't fully processed the events of the recent pack meeting. As a medic (in training), it wounded her to stand by and watch someone die. She couldn't have rendered aid regardless, she knew, but as she walked around the edge of the rendezvous site on this frosty morning, she worried at her lower lip.

She wandered in the direction of the Alpha female's den but gave it a wide berth—an action she would later regret. Still, it was with Fox in mind that she hunted just outside the borders, capturing a rabbit after an hour's worth of tracking and chasing. She carried it back uphill and approached the den quietly, her posture submissive.

Dropping the kill, she cleared her throat and called, "Mom? Uh." She paused awkwardly, waiting for a response. Raven felt like she was walking on eggshells around her mother. When no reply came, she began to slowly back away, seeing no reason to disturb Fox and risk rocking the boat.

But then she heard a very telltale whimper and, heart suddenly fluttering, she neared the den's doorway again. "Mom?" she whispered a little breathlessly, excited despite herself. Then her yellow eyes made out the still shape on the floor, six squirming bundles beside it. "Mom? Mom?" Raven's heart jumped into her throat as she crouched beside her dam, her nose touching against Fox's cool temple.

It was much too late to render aid. Raven sank to the floor, paralyzed for several long minutes. Then the snuffling and crying nearby captured her attention. Without really thinking about what she was doing, the Delta shifted to curl opposite her mother's dead body and began tugging each newborn to her own breast.

Life had resumed some sense of normalcy in the days since the pack meeting. Elwood had done what he needed to do in order to protect his family -- what he should have done, he realized, when the "monster" came for Lucy. He felt no guilt over the death of Kaizer, but instead transposed that feeling onto something that he couldn't change. He knew it was worthless to think that way, but couldn't stop himself; if only he had been there to tear the black wolf's throat out and save his daughter. If only.

But time continued to march on, closer and closer to Fox's impending due date. Soon enough, she would be bringing new life into the world, so Elwood -- as her singular Beta and second-in-command -- checked on her discreetly and frequently, while being careful to give the mother-to-be a wide berth. He was padding past the densite, his paws moving through the snow a few yards away, when he heard soft whimpering, and then a voice. Normally, he would have kept going; if Fox had given birth, he knew she wouldn't permit him to get too close just yet. But something told him to take a closer look, and he did.

Pausing a wolf's length from the entrance, he chuffed softly, nostrils flaring. Something didn't smell right, but Raven's scent was strong alongside her mother's, so he called out softly, "Raven?"

Towhee slept through it. She was asleep when the labor began; snoozin' as she tumbled down the birth canal; slumbering peacefully even as her mother died. Without being aware of it, she jammed a tiny forepaw into her toothless mouth and sucked. She slept right through it when other wolves began to gather in the den.

She was still catching zees when her rear end exploded, tarry black meconium spurting all over the place. Towhee sighed and squeaked through the bowel movement and guess what: she kept on dozin', a little smile on her sleepy face.

Unlike Towhee, the next babe to drop like a turd out of the still living Fox did so with a great squall. As soon as his little head poked out and felt the air, he sucked in a moist breath and began to scream. He screamed as he came loose, he screamed as he hit the ground, and he screamed as the warm body of his birth mother came crashing to earth around him. Titmouse would keep on screaming and crying even as she began to cool. He only stopped when his potato mouth clamped down upon a muddy toe, and even then he seemed to murmur a great dislike about the entire thing around the digit. Happy birthday, you little shit.

There was so much death around here lately; first Peregrine, then Kaizer and now Fox. Raven felt grief so deep, she went a little numb. With the puppies sorted closer to her belly, where they could suckle, she looked up a little blankly when Elwood entered the den. For a full minute or two, she made no reply.

Then she blinked her yellow eyes and seemed to come back to herself. "She's dead," Raven croaked, staring at Fox's lifelessly body. "She was dead when I got here," she added mournfully. "I should've stopped by earlier." Regret pierced her heart. Maybe she could have done something for her mother if she hadn't been so skittish about approaching her lately.

But the reason for that—the false pregnancy—was the very reason the pups would now survive... hopefully. "I told you it was a blessing," the Delta whispered right before she started to cry.

Fox's time was close, and like the good friend she was, Finley was aggitated and anxious as hell for the arrival of the newest batch of Firebirds. With Peregrine gone, she knew that it would be up to her and Elwood to care for Fox as he would have. Not in the icky dirty ways, but in keeping her fed and protected and her pups looked after when she needed to be away from them. Finley was ready. The altercation with Kaizer had been awful for the pack, but it had somehow invigorated the Blackthorn. Her mate was capable as hell of taking care of them all in Peregrine's absence, and so too would she be. They were gonna own this shit for Fox, as Fox had always owned shit for them.

And so it was that Finley's path brought her towards the alpha female's den so soon after the delta and beta found her. In typical Finley fashion, she strode forward without a clue that anything was amiss. Raven was there, as was Elwood. They were talking. They were talking about how she was dead. She was dead when Raven had gotten there. Raven should have stopped by earlier.

She was dead.

She.

What?

Finley felt a shock of cold flood her veins as though a glacier had just swallowed her whole. She moved forward, ignoring decorum as she shoved her way into the den to stare with wide eyes down at Fox's lifeless body. The puppies squirming between her and Raven wriggled with life, making it all the more horribly apparent to Finley that her friend.. her best friend. She was dead.

They were all dead.

This time, grief did not wait to strike. Her face twisted in anguish as she reeled under it. She shook terribly as she stood, eyes glued upon Fox's lifeless frame. "You... You stupid bitch... What the fuck..." she said, her voice catching with emotion after nearly every word. Finley backed away, shaking her head as tears slid down her cheeks. Her paws told her to flee, but she crumpled just outside instead, sliding into the snow as she sobbed against the shattering of her heart.

When there was no immediate response from Raven -- or Fox, for that matter -- Elwood stepped forward, until he could see into the den. What he saw was all wrong: the puppies were not at Fox's side, but Raven's, and the Alpha female was still. As the reality of the situation began to sink in, Raven spoke. "She's dead."

Elwood blinked. Dead? How could it be? Only days before, the spitfire of an Alpha female had been full of life. His mouth opened, then closed; he was unable to make sense of what had happened. A few seconds passed as he stared, his gaze shifting from Raven to Fox to the babies and back, and then he heard Finley swearing behind him.

He hadn't even noticed his mate's arrival until her outburst, and when he turned to her, she was sobbing on the ground. Elwood's brain was having a hard time comprehending everything, but the gears did eventually start to turn. Logical Elwood shouldered Emotional Elwood to the side and he took a deep breath. Fox's death meant that the newest firebirds didn't have a mother or father. It also left the pack without an Alpha. Raven was already busily nursing the pups, so as Elwood backpedaled to comfort Finley, he directed a question at his niece. "What can I do to help?" he asked.

A shriek startled Raven into silence, cheeks still wet. She peered down at the litter of puppies. Her mother had brought six beautiful babies into the world. It was horrible that she'd died doing so and that she would never see them. But now it was time for Raven to preserve her parents' legacy by making sure these newborns didn't share their parents' fate. If she had anything to do with it, they would not only survive but thrive.

The slight commotion of Finley's arrival and subsequent breakdown caused the Delta's teary attention to flick upward momentarily but then she returned her attention to the pups. Fox had managed to clean them prior to passing away, an observation which pierced Raven with sorrow. She nosed each of their little heads in turn, checking to make sure they were all breathing and moving. Some were a little stiller and quieter than others but the cries from the livelier few, jarring as they were, reassured her.

Her yellow eyes flicked upward when Elwood shot a question at her. "I can feed them, I think." Although the pregnancy wasn't real, the milk flowing from her teats was, thank goodness. But how far would her supply go with such a large litter? And was Raven ready to step into the role of mothering the pups? Although she did feel an attachment and wanted the best for them, the idea of finding herself a single mother of six so suddenly made her insides twist.

"I'll nurse them," she more or less repeated, struggling to parse her thoughts as well as her words, "but I'll need all the help I can get. You've done this before," Raven said, glancing past him to include the sobbing Finley. "This is going to have to be a team effort." Even as she said it, she realized that said team had just lost its captain. A wrenching pain passed through her and she just barely stifled the sob that clawed up her throat as she glanced fleetingly at her dead mother.

"We should bury her," Raven said when she could find her voice again a moment later, "and name them..." she added, looking down at the squirming pups. She knew of her parents' tradition to wait until they were older but Raven felt a sudden and fierce desire to skip right to it and name the newest Redhawks' in the former monarchs' honor, using their favorite convention: birds and other animals.

No one seemed to notice the mess she'd made, or at least nobody made an effort to clean it up. Although still fast asleep, Towhee began to squirm uncomfortably as she marinated in her own feces. The puddle of excrement quickly cooled and this finally roused her. She wailed, though the tiny foot in her mouth went a long way to muffle the sound.

Now that she was as awake as it was possible for a newborn wolf cub to be, the poop-slathered Towhee began to wriggle a little wildly. She not only wanted the cold, sticky goop off her, she also wanted the ache in her belly to go away. As she writhed on the floor, bumping into other warm bodies, her paw dropped from her wrinkly face and the next cry that burst from her was so loud that even the deaf (such as herself) might hear it.

Whatever was going on outside his little bubble, he was not privy to it. Or maybe Finley's outburst somehow permeated the full dark, the soundless, because the little bean filled his tiny lungs over and over and the screaming only seemed to get worse. Raven did her best - there was so much going on, she was a superstar - but Tit refused to calm. He failed and kicked and screeched until his throat was raw.

He knew he was late as he made his way through the Caldera, willing for it not to be too late. Eljay wasn't sure if aunt Fox would even let him close in this moment. He'd wanted to talk to her about it but a lot of his time had gone into his depression and then physical recovery after mommy's return. It'd just never seemed to be the right time, and now he could not really ask her anymore.

But she had Raven and as he drew closer, Eljay just hoped he'd be allowed to watch and learn from her, at least. He followed the scent but as he drew nearer and found there were other scents mingled the feeling of terror started to get through to him. Ears flattened in fear as he drew nearer and he didn't even need to look at mommy's face to see her grief, so plainly did it drift in the air.

He was late... He was too late. Eljay bit his lip as he just watched, feeling like an idiot but not knowing how to help. Not aunt Fox, too...

For several moments, all Finley could do was cry completely realistic wolf tears into the snow beneath her trembling frame. It was too much. She'd lost too much too quickly. Obviously she didn't give a crap about Kaizer, but Peter, Lucy, Peregrine, and now Fox? She felt exhausted as she lifted her head to stare out across the terrain. Her eyes were unfocused as she gazed while her mind struggled beneath the heartbreak. She missed the fact that Eljay had joined them, but somehow, she still heard Raven's words. Somehow, she found something within herself that was more than just misery.

"No," she barked sharply as she whipped her head back towards the den. She stood then, her tail and head lifting in a stance of power she had not taken since her days as beta of the Caldera. Finley walked back towards the den to look down at her goddaughter, some fierce, unamed emotion in her eyes. Her voice was oddly steady as she continued considering the dramatic show she'd just put on. Apparently it was all that she'd needed - a few minutes of being out of control before she could regain herself. "They don't get named until they're older. It's bad luck," she declared with a finality in her tone that she'd intended to leave no room for argument, "We've had enough of that."

Finley gazed at her niece for a moment before looking down at the puppies, her features softening. "We'll raise them," she said then, pain lancing each word, "We're their godparents. We're supposed to." The Blackthorn slid down to her stomach to lie with them, watching as they squirmed. Only then did it occur to her how loud they were being, and quickly she identified why that might be. Gingerly, she reached and pulled one of the screeching creatures over to her - the one covered in its own filth. She cleaned the little thing with her tongue, unaware that her totally realistic tears had begun to fall again.

Elwood nodded, still feeling a bit numb as Raven gathered her thoughts and laid them out neatly. Despite the tremor in her voice and the tears brimming in her eyes, she had a plan. First and foremost, they needed to care for the puppies. Luckily, her false pregnancy apparently meant that she could feed them. Elwood felt a rush of relief that was coupled with Eljay's quiet arrival and Finley's sudden protest at Raven's suggestion that they name the babies.

He turned his head quickly to look at his mate, surprised to see that her grief, while still palpable, had been replaced by an expression of determination. There was something commanding about her as she reentered the den, head and tail lifted. It was a side of Finley that Elwood hadn't seen in a long time, and his heart swelled as she decided, then and there, that they would raise their dearest friends' children.

"The naming can wait," he agreed as Finley settled herself down near Raven and pulled one of the pups towards her, dutifully and tenderly beginning to clean it. "We'll all raise them," he added quietly, though it didn't really need to be said. His gaze strayed past the two living females to Fox's prone form and he bit his lower lip. Raven was right; she needed to be buried, and while he couldn't physically help to nurse the puppies, he could certainly dig a grave for the former Alpha female...even if the thought made his stomach turn unhappily. "I'll start digging," he said, turning and giving Eljay a meaningful look. It wouldn't be fun work, but he hoped his son would help. They needed to get the dead body out of the den as soon as possible, so that Finley and Raven could take advantage of the space as they cared for the babies.

The quiet ferocity in Finley's reaction crumbled Raven's resolve into dust. She had no intention of arguing, especially when Elwood echoed his mate's sentiments. She felt a little tug of disappointment but she only shook her head. Names could wait, especially with many more important and pressing decisions to make about rearing these pups. Not to mention the sudden gap at the top of the hierarchy.

She felt a rush of relief and gratitude when her godparents seemed eager to embrace their roles. Although Raven definitely wanted to help with her siblings—and Elwood's words made it clear he agreed that it would take a village—she wasn't necessarily prepared to parent anyone, much less six someones. She would be their wet nurse and their older sister, while Elwood and Finley assumed the more formal parental roles.

Just as she hadn't noticed some of the pups' mess, she hadn't realized Eljay was there. Her eyes drifted absently over the father and son pair, then drifted back to Finley. She watched in silence as her aunt began to bathe one of the pups, a black girl with smudges of red and white on her tiny, chubby flanks. Her attention was then stolen when a paler babe, a boy, screeched loud enough for her ears to fall flat against her skull.

"C'mere," she murmured, reaching out and gently mouthing him closer to her underside. She licked his face in a tentative effort to comfort him, then nudged him toward one of her swollen teats.

Before she could emit a third bleat of displeasure, something large, warm and soft touched her. It pushed her, to be more precise. Towhee gurgled in mild protest, though she quickly quieted when she was pressed against something even larger, warmer and softer. Then there was a strange but pleasurable pressure as a tongue groomed her, wicking away the disgusting moisture from her small body.

Now she cooed and burbled happily, enjoying the bath. She almost fell back asleep, though a rumbling in her belly caused Towhee's face to scrunch. Her tiny lips framed into an 'O' shape and she grunted her discomfort. She didn't know how to ask in any other way, so her gummy mouth opened in another wail, less piercing and more pitiful this time.

He squealed and murmured even as Raven grabbed at him, kicking his tiny bean paws against her lips and nose. As she tucked him against her swollen sides, he rooted around a little and then bit down — hard — only to release and try again, and again, but never did he try to drink. Apparently it was too difficult for the newly pooped-out nubbin. He settled for gnawing on Raven's sensitive teats for a while instead.

Mommy took control of the situation as always, and Eljay was left feeling less than adequate. It was like he was watching a reel of his entire life. He wished that he could take control for once, be the strong one... But all he got was another confirmation that he wasn't in control at all. Would mommy and daddy have to fend for him like a small child his whole life? Eljay felt sad, and he felt guilty that he was feeling so selfish in this moment of sadness and need.

"I'm sorry that I'm late. I should've —" he said, voice croaking as he stifled a sob. "Should've been there to make everything go well, I..." He ended up just sniffling, and leaned down to look at the small pups squirming, feeling much like when his siblings were born, except from faraway. Eljay knew that aunt Fox would've likely not even let the aspiring pupdeliverer near her at birth, but he felt like it was all he could've done in this situation, and he felt so useless...

Oriole slid from the birth canal with a wet plop, the soft impact of which was enough to stir him into rancor. What began first as mewls of discomfort grew into cries and then screeches of instinctive gluttony as his stomach grew tight and he got cold, cold, colder. Though soon the den began to fill with warm bodies, he wailed on all the same, for even when his was warm he was still hungry. Sausage shouts lots.

The screeching pup in her arms seemeed to quiet almost the moment Finley began her ministrations. A part of her wanted to smile at this for as awful as a mother as she'd proven to be so far, she still adored these little puppy things. But her heartache was still too much to allow even the faintest twitch of a grin, and so the feeling was fleeting as she finished her cleaning and shifted the pup back towards Raven so that she could feast. For a moment, she felt the pang of jealousy that she wasn't able to provide them food herself. Eventually she would get over that though, for being trapped in the den with the little tit suckers had actually always been her least favorite part of motherhood.

As the pups settled against Raven, Finley found herself tempted to turn her head just slightly towards the back of the den where Fox's body laid. Even as she thought it, she felt her limbs begin to tremble against the heartbreak. She was glad when the movements of her mate just outside distracted her and she turned her head to see him. It was then that she spotted Eljay just past him.

"I'll help them," Fin said, turning back to her goddaughter, "Just keep them against your stomach. They'll need to eat and they'll keep screeching until they do. If that doesn't quiet them, grooming should do the trick. Just call me back if you need me." She stood then, reaching to nudge Raven's temple encouragingly. How strange it was that she was giving parenting advice. Finley felt her grief threaten to rear up again when she considered what Fox would have had to say about that.

Free of the den, Finley strode to Eljay. Without a word, she pulled him into a wolfish embrace, tucking her muzzle softly against his ruff. She held him for only a moment before standing back and gazing at his face. "This isn't your fault," she said, her eyes searching for his, "Don't even think it."

With that she turned to Elwood, allowing her hold on her demeanor slip ever so slightly as she breathed in and said to him, "We should bury her by Peregrine. They should be together." The tears swelled in her eyes again, but she held them back from falling. She'd had her moment, and now she recognized that Elwood was right in all the things he hadn't actually said aloud. They needed to move their alpha's body out of the den and put her to rest. There were things to take care of now, and it was more important than falling apart.

Only post for me in this one. ^_^

Unaware of much of anything about this world (having been born into it only a short while ago), Phox thrashed this way and that. He wasn't particularly loud or quiet, but he was certainly active. His tiny black and silver potato body squirmed this way and that, fussing at anything and everything. Only when he was placed directly in front of a food source did he slow his roll and latch on, kneading with ferocity. This little one was not about to stop moving anytime soon. Even when he eventually drifted into sleep, Phox twitched and rolled over countless times.

Probably my only puppy post, as well!

Amidst all the commotion, Orca lifted her voice to join the cacophony. It shouldn't have been surprising to any of the adults present that the newest batch of firebirds were feisty already, and they had a lot to say. The black and white pup wriggled and twisted her limbs, aware of the presence of other small, warm bodies around her. For the most part, she liked that they were so near; at least, until a stray paw thunked her in the nose or jabbed her in the ribs.

Totally ignorant of her parental situation (or lack thereof), Orca obeyed her instincts and settled in to nurse, growing quiet for the time being.

Elwood paused, stopped in his tracks by the heartbreak written plainly across Eljay's face and the sadness in his voice. The boy blamed himself, and Elwood shook his head. "It's not your fault," he said, echoing Finley's sentiments. Even if Eljay had been there for the entirety of Fox's labor, the situation likely would have been out of his control.

He stood quietly for a moment, ears turned back towards the sounds of Raven and the puppies within the den. He dropped his gaze to the ground as Finley suggested that Fox be buried with Peregrine; he nodded mutely. He couldn't imagine laying her body to rest anywhere else. Looking back at his son, he said, "Eljay, do you want to help me with...Aunt Fox, or do you want to stay here with the babies?" Eljay was a caregiver, after all; and the children could use all the help they could get from the adults of the pack.

He clamped down on one of her teats, which was a strange enough sensation, but he didn't latch. Raven frowned thoughtfully, though before she could attempt to remedy the situation, Finley made to depart and the yearling's attention shifted upward. "Okay," she murmured, already feeling slightly overwhelmed at the notion of being left alone to tend the six puppies. They won't be far, she reminded herself as Finley turned and padded outside.

She tucked the recently-bathed pup under the crook of her foreleg, smiling ever so faintly when she managed to find a teat and begin sucking. Raven returned her attention to the beige boy, the screamer. He was still fussing against her belly. She tried to gently guide him, though it was almost literally a case of the blind leading the blind. Hoping he would figure it out for himself, the Gamma began to arrange the other four puppies against her breast, feeling a grim satisfaction when most of them managed to start nursing.

Soon, the Blackthorns—the new Alphas of the caldera, she dimly realized—would come for Fox's body. With the puppies more or less settled for the moment, Raven found her yellow eyes trailing over the former queen's still body. It didn't really look like her, having sunken into the cold grip of rigor mortis. Without Fox's fiery spirit, the corpse was just a shell. The caregiver's lips pursed, eyes shimmering a little. She took one last, long look, said her silent goodbyes, then let her gaze drift back down to the new life tucked beside her.

The world went topsy-turvy so rapidly that Towhee didn't have the time to react. Before she knew it, her face was mashed gently against something velveteen with warmth. Instinctively, the small puppy began to root, her nose bumping into a tiny nub. With a greedy whimper, she opened her mouth and grabbed onto it. A happy noise rumbled through her as warm, rich milk flooded into her mouth. Without being aware of it, she drank herself into a stupor, unlatching long after falling asleep. Her lips kept making a sucking motion for a few minutes, though soon she fell motionless as she slept.