Dragoncrest Cliffs the seasons after winter

It is with the hide of a rabbit, a few bones still attached by ligaments she carefully ate around, and had what could be a makeshift wolf-crib mobile. If they had the right way to hang it up. Instead, she intended to have a little more variety of things to the pelt that @Sirio and @Dalia could chew and tug on their own and decide what to do with. If they are anything like her own, they are developing their teeth and their new senses to the world and she hasn’t yet greeted them into the world.

With a little smile on her face, she approaches the den and drops her gift. It is the first time she has visited since the day they were born (though she had not gotten to see them as Wildfire had) and she’d only caught a glimpse the day before when @Portia visited with her brood in tow, meeting the other puppies. She chuffs after a moment, searching for the mother, or @Dio, or either of the puppies to poke their head out for their gift, and she eases herself to the ground to patiently wait.

it is not a tiny, fuzzy, pup who tumbles out of the den-- no. instead, mother hen herself greets thuringwethil with a gracious bow, her tail waving excitedly. she'd smelled her moments before she heard her, and is pleased that the commander is finally visiting-- for real this time. "heda!" she chirps, eyeing the gift curiously, "are you here to see the pups?" the question was a bit obvious, but she figured she'd ask anyway-- in case thuringwethil had some sort of fisa-related task and merely brought a gift as a two-birds-one-stone type deal.

"they're getting so big," she added proudly, turning to look over her shoulder to see if either of them were creeping near. if so, she'd usher them closer to see their leader and commander.

She didn't appreciate her mother moving away, not one bit. That meant her protector and more importantly, her heat source, was gone. Dalia felt the bed to alert sirio this with a nudge before shakily getting to her small legs. Gently, she turned her body to locate mom and was able to see her form near the den entrance. What was she doing there?

waddling like a duck, dalia made her way over cautiously and went underneath Portia and wedged herself between her mother's hind legs as she had done before during her first time out. Dalia at first stayed quiet, enjoying the feeling of mom being as close as possible to her, though she was able to make out another form in front of her. Color was something she didn't perceive well enough to know what it was, but she understood the difference between lightbthings and dark things. She knew that her mom wasn't dark, nor her dad (whom she had yet to truly imprint on as she had done with Portia). To see something so large and so dark was shocking to dalia, she nearly fell on her rump as she stumbled back in fear. What was that big blur, and why was it so dark?

It is Portia that greets her from the den and she waves her arched tail, stepping forward for a moment to lick the side of her face. A small token of affection for the young mother that seems so… happy. Thuringwethil’s smile is weak but as the healer looks over her shoulder while she wipes it away from her face. A young blob of a puppy meanders out between Portia’s legs and she looks down fondly at her. She’s seen so little of Dio, and much less Portia and her children that she realizes what little she knows about them.

“They are,” she says with warmth in her voice. “And yes. This is for something to chew on. They’ll be able to rib the bones off in a few weeks.”

Thuringwethil’s eyes drop to focus on the puppy the has come along, dipping her nose for a better look. “And who is this?”

portia let out a purr-like rumble at thuringwethil's lick, returning the affection by reaching out and licking respectfully at her chin. she eyed the mobile again, her tail wagging. "really? that's fantastic-- thank you so much, heda," she said with another grateful dip of her head. she looked down at the tiny mini-me pup that waddled between her legs, dipping her head to give the little girl a lick to the top of her head. "they just opened their eyes," she shared, looking back up, "they do less waddling into walls and bodies than they used to."

"this is dalia," she then introduced, and looked to dalia again. "they don't talk yet but... hey lia... can you say hello to your heda?" she cooed to the child, hoping her voice would at least warrant a giggle or a yip of excitement-- that would be enough.

the little girl enjoyed mom's kisses greatly, sighing gently in appeasement, though her small ears figeted at the voices she could hear. her mother was talking, she had began to recognize her mother's own voice. dalia made sure to focus a bit more, she couldn't understand the words but when her mother was doing something, she ought to pay attention. her little blue eyes looked up to her mother's face as she had grown closer to the front legs to look at the darker form in front of her. who was this creature, what was it?

dalia, being the small-minded thing she was, had no clue. yet, with the encouragement of her mother's presence and voice, the little girl pushed on just a bit, perhaps a step or two in front of her mother to greet the newcomer. she said nothing at first, though let out a small "weof" noise as if she was trying to say hello in puppy language. a sense of strength and comfort wrapped around her and soon enough the little "daredevil" plopped down and stared up at the grand wolf before her, her heda, whom she had yet to recognise as so.

Portia speaks fondly of her children after their initial affectionate and her eyes have become glued to the spotted girl. She is not much different in size from her own children across the field. “They are a wonder,” she murmurs with a wave of her tail, lowering her head to properly meet one of Drageda’s youngest. The sound from the girl causes a wide smile on her muzzle and she quietly boofs a breath of air back in her direction, curious to see how she reacts.

a small twinge in her lower back forced the mother slowly to a sitting position, letting out a slow huff of air. she'd been sleeping funny lately, she decided, hopefully when they moved back to the caverns it'd be a little easier on her limbs. "they are," she replied quietly, thoughtfully, watching heda drop to give a soft noise to dalia. dalia was the more spunky of the two, portia didn't think she'd handle it poorly. sirio, on the other hand, might've run to hide behind her. still, she waited curiously for a response from the baby.

Dalia felt herself lose track of everything as she stared up at the large and burly woman before her. The sight of her made Dalia feel like she should do something in respect, like bow her head (it was a strange feeling for Dalia to understand). She continued to gaze up, and soon enough her presence was acknowledged a bit more with puffs of air gently lapping against her head like the tide waves on the shore.

she was surprised at first, sinking her head into her body like a turtle retracting into its shell. Yet, she didn't cower and run off. She instead, while overcoming a small sneeze, lifted up a paw and gently reached for heda's nose, as if to bop it.

Thuringwethil loses sight of Portia in the moment as Dalia reacts to the stimulus. When her little paw touches her nose as she lowers it, she wrinkles the skin atop her muzzle and huffs a second time. Before the girl can come for her again, she turns her head to where she’d dropped the mobile and tugs it close, putting it between them. She nudges it close, hoping to see her enjoy the toy she’d brought for the two of them. Any hesitation she had in setting Drageda’s next generation is washed away as she sees them all thriving with life and the support as they would have found in Seageda, and she flashes a happy smile toward the healer.

portia sat aside and watched with a curious green gaze. she made no moves to interfere with the heda's actions or with dalia's response, merely sat and watched. she herself was curious of what her daughter would do, a small smile painted across her pale muzzle.

dalia liked this wolf, she was gentle like mama, just a little scary looking. but that didn't matter, everyone was a little scary to dalia because she hadn't met them yet, not to mention most towered over her. yet, something about this woman made her feel at peace, she gave off this aura that there was no need to worry, that everything was safe under her care. before dalia could attempt to boop her nose one more time, she felt another huff on the top of her head.

a small grin was placed on her lips, enjoying Thuringwethil. Dalia was going to try to mimic the action, but something else came to light. it was the thing heda brought with her, a rabbit that was quite dead but ready to be played with. dalia scooted a little away from it, wondering what it was. it smelt weird, it had a scent of metal and dirt, something much different from her mother and brother. but nonetheless, dalia edged forward, step by step, wanting to get a better look. a dainty paw would tap closeby the rabbit, though it would recoil quickly.

after repeting the process for quite some time (a few seconds, to be honest), dalia sucked up her courage and finally touched the rabbit. upon feeling it didn't move, she grew closer, her head tilting in every way possible, she even made a few rings around it to give it a good look. she porbably looked silly to the adults, but her curiosity was getting the best of her.

The girl finally catches on to the hide and steps up to it, investigating in circles. Most of it has been picked clean, leaving the ligaments that keeps the bones together for her to chew and play with. She’d gotten one for her own not long ago, letting them play with it—there isn’t much left to it—and she ultimately expects something similar to happen to the prize at her feet. Now that she seems to have accepted the gift as her own, wondering if she’ll share with her brother, she passes a glance to Portia before she slowly shuffles back to stand on all four feet, towering over the puppy between them.

“I should go,” she tells her, dipping her nose once before she lowers it and blows another breath in the tuft of her betwixt her ears. “Leida Dalia,” she says with a swift shake of her tail before she steps back and departs.