Redhawk Caldera blackhawk/redthorn

Now that the five pups were growing, thriving and nearly four weeks old, Raven couldn't stop thinking about proper names for them. She wondered if @Elwood and @Finley also had some ideas in mind, aside from the silly nicknames they'd given the pups so far. There was only one way to find out: ask.

"Uncle El? Aunt Flea?" she called out softly from where she lay like a proper dinner spread, all five puppies nursing (and occasionally chomping) away. "Do you think it's safe to name them by now...? I have some ideas."

Waiting for the Alpha pair to shuffle closer, Raven's electric yellow eyes lifted to their faces. "I was thinking Oriole and Towhee for the 'twins,'" she said, "and maybe Fennec Fox for him?" She touched her nose to the top of the palest pup's head. "Because of his coloration? And to honor mom? And then maybe Peregrine Jr for this little guy, after dad?" she finished, blinking down at "Fidget" before peering up at her godparents again to see what they thought.

Elwood had only just returned from the icy tundra that was their territory and was tending to his frozen toes when Raven requested his attention. He looked up from his damp, cold paws, gaze lingering on the five puppies tucked against her stomach as she spoke. Although he had gotten used to calling the firebirds by their nicknames, Raven had a point; it was high time they christen them with their given names.

He nodded as he moved closer to his niece, glancing at Finley as Raven gave her suggestions. He looked at the potential Oriole, Towhee, Fennec Fox and Peregrine Jr, appraising each of them quietly. She seemed to have captured the essence of her parents' traditions and had also given a nod to the founders of Redhawk Caldera. But there was one pup that Raven had forgotten -- the black and white female. "What about that one?" he asked, angling his nose in her direction.

SHADOWPOSTED BLAST lol *edits*

Finley shivered as she stepped back inside in her mate's wake. It really was a complete shit show out there. First cold, then storms, and now ice. She had thought her pack safe now that they were sheltering in the cave that had seen them through so many other disasters, and perhaps they were, so long as they stayed indoors. After what had happened to Charlotte, Fin was very close to demanding that all wolves stay inside at all times until the weather had passed. But there was only so much food they could haul into the shelter with them. They would need to leave to bring more in when it became necessary, and so Finley periodically went out just to gaze up at the slopes of the Caldera that stretched up from the cave's entrance, eyeing the snow and ice that steadily collected upon the terrain.

The alpha was taking stock of those currently inside when she heard Raven call to her. Glancing at Elwood, she trotted towards the back of the den to look at her goddaughter, canting her head lightly as she listened to her commentary. Fin slid down onto her belly and laid sphinx-like before the firebirds, gazing thoughtfully at them. "I suppose they are old enough now," Fin said, feeling oddly reluctant to go ahead and give them their proper names. Had it been long enough? What if Fox's insane beliefs were right and it truly was bad luck to name them too early? Not that their luck could be called good by any stretch of the imagination at this point, but still...

Fin smirked lightly when Raven suggested calling one of the twins Towhee. "You want to name Teehee Towhee? I'm all for that," she said, offering her opinion with a slightly wag of her tail, "Oriole's good too, I think. Not a whole lot of orange and black animals we can choose from, anyway." Her eyes slipped up to Elwood, wondering what he thought of the first two. She looked back at Raven then as she went on with Fennec Fox and then.. Oh hells no.

"No," Fin said shortly, shaking her head, "No Juniors." Her ears fell back then as she realized how harsh she sounded, and also how odd it probably seemed for her to say when she had a junior herself, "I don't think your dad would want another Junior, I mean. Not after the first..." She bit her lip, searching Raven's face. She remembered how her niece had reacted after Peregrine had.. ah, dispatched the first Junior.

But um. Moving on.

"Maybe we can call Fidget Phox instead," she offered, attempting to distract from the awkwardness that was bad reactions and horrible memories, "I've seen black foxes before, and Screech looks more gray than tan like a fennec fox." She peered thoughtfully at him before giving a shrug and looking at the black and white girl instead as Elwood gestured towards her. "What do you think of Tapir for Widget?" she mused aloud, ignorant of the fact that there's no way she should know wtf a tapir is, "Or Lemur." Cause the Wilds are crawling with those, for sure, "Orrr..... Cow..." She shook her head. This was hard.

A little smile twitched her lips when Elwood caught her apparent oversight. For some unknown reason, she was fondest of her idea for the little two-toned pup and had saved it for last. It was an adorable name for an equally adorable little girl. "Panda," Raven replied with understated excitement, though her godmother's feedback quickly captured her attention.

Finley seemed to like the suggestions for the "twins," though she quickly shot down some of Raven's other ideas. Although the Gamma felt a little jab of disappointment, she nodded obediently. Her ears slicked backward when her godmother reminded her of the Junior. Raven experienced a brief and horrific flashback of that terrible day—the event had put a wedge between Peregrine and herself for a while—and she shuddered, rejecting the name even more vehemently than Finley now.

The Alpha female suggested they call "Fidget" Fox instead (or that's what Raven heard, since they were phonetically identical), which meant Fennec Fox was out of the running. "I like that idea a lot!" the caregiver said quickly, glancing at Elwood for the first time in a few beats. What did he think? And which one was Widget again? Raven had to look down and follow Finley's line of sight. "Oh, that's Panda. Right?" For some reason, she looked beseechingly at her godfather.

LOL Elwood makes a random suggestion before I have to change the account name to Panda! :P

Finley's quick opposition to the name Peregrine Jr drew surprise from Elwood, but as he met his mate's gaze and she explained herself, the memory washed over him. He hadn't known Osprey Jr personally, but her massacre at the teeth of her own father was horrible enough to strike that naming convention from the realm of possibility. He shuddered and shook his head in agreement.

She continued to muse aloud about what to call the other pups, and he listened quietly. It wasn't that he didn't care, but, well, he just wasn't all that creative when it came to names. After all, half of his family was named Elwood. They all seemed to settle on Oriole and Towhee for the black and auburn pups, and Fox -- no Jr -- for the busy one. That left Screech and Widget without proper monikers; he chuckled and winced at the idea of calling the little girl Cow.

"Panda is good," he agreed, though he frowned slightly and studied the puppy in question. She paused in her drinking long enough to smack her lips and glance back at her godparents, white eyebrows luminous against her dark face. Suddenly, he added, "What about Orca? I think it's some kind of black and white sea animal...I've never seen one in person, though." He didn't know where the information had come from; it had magically appeared in his brain, almost like a writer had dropped it there helpfully.

Panda. Finley considered it quietly, pursing her lips in thought. Pandas were fat and cuddly, which was only partly true to little Widget's person. This pup was more.. sleek and (almost weirdly) graceful for a toddler. There was nothing fat and clumsy about her when she thought of Widget. She thought more of...

Elwood offered his suggestion and Finley's face brightened with a smile as she nodded. "Orca," she agreed, looking at Raven, "What do you think? Orca feels right." Her eyes moved across the pups, not waiting for her goddaughter's response. It wasn't a conscious move, but... yeah there it was. Her eyes landed eventually on Screech and she gave him a puzzled frown. "I really don't know about that guy," she said then, "What sort of animal makes a shit ton of noise? Babboon? Pissed-off-Eagle? Bear-that-Stubbed-its-Toe?" She couldn't think of any animals that looked like Screech , so going for his personality seemed like a better bet. Except it was highly unlikely that her mate and niece would go for Pissed-off-Eagle.

He initially seemed to take to the name. Raven grinned broadly, shooting a fond glance at Panda herself. Her eyes then shot back to Elwood's face when her uncle went in a different direction. Her mouth opened to protest when Finley agreed with her mate. And that was that. The Gamma felt a little crestfallen—she really loved the name Panda—but she couldn't even argue that Orca was actually much more fitting.

"I saw one once," she shared. "An orca, I mean. When I spent some time near the coast, I saw these... leviathans jumping out of the water. The resemblance is actually uncanny, now that I think about it," Raven said, suddenly staring at the puppy in question. How on earth had that happened? How was it that most of Peregrine's and Fox's children had magically ended up resembling other wildlife?

While Raven's mind was exploding, Finley mused about names for the fifth pup. The medic came back into focus right as the Alpha female said pissed off eagle. She snorted, shaking her head lightly and thrusting her tongue into her cheek as she pondered the possibilities. "We already have a Tow," she thought out loud, pointing a digit at the newly dubbed Towhee. "Maybe... Chickadee? No, that's too feminine. Um, Finch? Wren? Titmouse? Sparrow?" Raven spouted off every bird name she could think of that might follow his coat pattern.

After some brief conversation, both Finley and Raven agreed to call the two-toned girl Orca. Elwood nodded decisively, his lips twitching into a smile at Raven's brief anecdote about seeing an orca with her own two eyes. Had he been a more adventurous wolf, he might have considered going to the coast to see one himself -- but in reality, he was content with the second-hand experience from Raven. The only bodies of water he planned to visit were Lake Rodney and the caldera itself.

The girls rattled off a series of suggestions for the loudest of the babes, each one seeming to get slightly more ridiculous and yet somehow more appropriate. In an unusual moment of immaturity, Elwood laughed out loud and said, "Titmouse?" But as he spoke the name and looked down at the little male pup, he bobbed his head again. "Titmouse -- I like it," he said, glancing between Finley and Raven to gauge their reactions. Not only did the moniker fit the boy's appearance, but he knew that Fox and Peregrine would have busted a gut over its double entendre.

They didn't seem to like her suggestions, though Fin hadn't expected them to. Orca at least had stuck, and soon enough, another had been selected. She grinned at Titmouse and chuckled softly at the thought of how his parents would have approved. Had she known the actual circumstances surrounding Peregrine's death, she would have barked with laughter. Or cried. Probably both.

"Oriole, Towhee, Orca, Titmouse and Phox," the alpha repeated thoughtfully, giving them all a proud smile. She glanced at Raven to share a smile, then looked at Elwood. Her own experiences with parenthood had been quite the shitshow, and yet still the idea of doing it all over again was appealing. With none of these little bastards tugging at her tits, it was hard to remember in that moment why exactly she shouldn't have anymore herself. Not yet, at least. She'd come to her senses soon enough, once they started shrieking at them for one thing or another.

Elwood snatched one of her suggestions, seemingly at random, but it immediately felt right. "Titmouse," she concurred with a grin, oblivious to the double entendre for now. Now all the pups had names, good names, even if Raven was slightly disappointed that Panda hadn't been used after all.

"Should we give the girls middle names?" she piped up after a few beats, remembering how Peregrine and Fox had tended to give them to daughters but not sons. Raven thought of her own middle name, then Wildfire's. Both of them had been named in memory of dead loved ones. Heck, they'd even done the same thing with one of their sons (Peter Pan).

Finley spoke each name aloud, and Elwood let his gaze slide from puppy to puppy as they were officially christened. It was a moment of relief, and at the same time, he felt the weight of what they were taking on. Raising a whole litter of puppies that weren't their own in the dead of winter was no easy task. But if there was one thing the firebirds would never have a shortage of, it was love; he felt confident that he, Finley, Raven, and the rest of the pack would take good care of them. (As long as they didn't let any more of them die.)

He tilted his head slightly at the mention of middle names. He didn't have an opinion on the subject, but it would be a nice gesture, since it was another one of Fox and Peregrine's traditions. But, again, Elwood was no expert at coming up with names; if he had his way, the girls would be called Towhee Elwood and Orca Elwood. "That's fine with me, as long as you can come up with them," he said with a laugh, glancing at Finley.

Her moment of accomplishment seemed short-lived, for just as soon as Fin had closed the book on this name session, Raven had opened it right back up. Middle names? They needed middle names? Fin had somehow missed this tradition in her time spent with the Redhawks. She thought of her own family's traditions, that middle names weren't really a thing. They all had nicknames that they were better known by, much as she'd been calling the firebirds Screech and Mumble and Widget. Thinking more about it she realized: Shit, these kids were going to have a lot of names.

"I'm with El," Fin commented, "Whatever you think is best." She smiled at her niece, truly meaning it in that moment. If Raven wanted to give them middle names, then Fin was all on board with whatever she wanted to come up with for them. That would likely change a few minutes later when Raven picked something Fin didn't like, but you know. We'll get to that.

Her godparents not only seemed in favor of the idea, they both indicated that she should come up with the names. Raven licked her lips thoughtfully. For a second, she grew excited at the idea of recycling Panda as a middle name. But when she paired them up with each of the girls' names, neither combination appealed to her. Raven sighed and let the name go for good.

She blinked thoughtfully at the Alpha pair, another idea coming to her. "I think we should name them after you," she said softly, yellow eyes flicking between their comely faces. Raven did not elaborate right away, taking another moment to think on it and come up with, "Orca Elfin and Towhee Woodley." They sounded a little silly, sure, but Raven immediately loved both names and just hoped the Blackthorns felt the same way.

But just in case they didn't—because the Gamma could easily see both of them modestly refusing the honor—Raven reminded them, "You said it was okay and that I could come up with them." Her eyes twinkled as she first made eye contact with Elwood, then Finley, and added, "These are absolutely the best names I could think of."

Of course, she would defer to them if they absolutely hated her suggestions. But assuming they wouldn't (and didn't), Raven murmured, "Orca Elfin, Towhee Woodley, Oriole, Titmouse and Phox." It felt good to call them by proper names. And it would be so much fun to introduce them to the pack. But that would come later, of course. For now, they still belonged only to the trio of caretakers.

I figured this was a good place to conclude? Feel free to wrap up! :D

Raven's final suggestion was pleasantly surprising to Elwood. She wanted to honor the puppies' godparents with their middle names, and the combinations she came up with made him smile: Elfin and Woodley. He approved.

"I like it," he said. "And not just because I get to have someone else named after me," he added with a chuckle, although he appreciated the fact that his own naming traditions were subtly being honored, though they weren't outright being called Elwoods. Raven might not have realized it, but he felt gratitude nonetheless.

Getting to his feet, he said, "Getting named is hard work. Let's let these little dudes have a nap." He grinned and then delivered a nudge to the cheeks of both Raven and Finley, then gave a parting chuff as he slipped out of the shelter to tend to his non-puppy-related duties.