Heron Lake Plateau But I don't get out much these days

@Vasa but other Quivens including Quiven themselves are welcome!

Though it was an odd pairing of tasks, Niamh had discovered, while playing with Svalinn, that perhaps she might make a good puppysitter. Mercenary and Puppysitter- perhaps two of the most separate trades she could have gone for, but at the same time, she didn't really mind the fact that she could be both a badass and a softie. Most Redhawks were that way anyway- hard toward strangers or dangerous wolves, but loving and protective of their young. So as different as those trades seemed, they actually went hand in hand. 

She went to Raven and Quixote's den, lowering her head and whuffing quietly to ask permission to enter. She was welcomed in, and gave a nudge to her alpha's cheek, before she lay down, offering the leader a break to sleep or go for a drink whilst she stayed with the pups. They'd be fairly easy to mind so far, she figured- blind and deaf, or so she thought, and unable to go very far very fast. They sure were cute, though, but part of her couldn't help but wonder- only one of them had any vague resemblance to Quixote and Raven...The other three certainly had distinct markings. One, in particular, had dark markings just behind its elbows, somewhat reminiscent of orangeish markings belonging to someone she'd rather forget. 

She told herself not to think of it. These were Raven and Quixote's pups- and that was how they'd have to be.

Something wasn't right—there was a smelly smell that smelled... smelly. 

Despite her regard for the odor, Vasa kept to herself. She had been feeling under the weather for quite some time—read: five minutes[/mdash]and she was unsure of just what was causing her discomfort. Her gut had been twisting uncomfortably, and every so often, a teeny toot escaped from her rear-end. Whenever this happened, she would blindly "glance" in the direction of her rear with a displeased gurgle; her interest and curiosity were both lost as quickly as they had been discovered.

Vasa flopped onto her side and sighed once she had examined her most-recent flatulence. Living was tough.

There certainly wasn't too much that made pups of this age terribly exciting. They squirmed, looked for food, made little sounds and flailed their heads around like little blind giraffes and slept. It seemed all but the little dark one were content to slumber, but the darkest one- the one who most resembled her parents, squirmed and made little noises, and kept hitching her head to the side as far as she could. Confused by the gesture, Niamh nosed the pup gently, and it was then that she caught the smell of puppy fart, as though her touch had been enough to set one off.

"Pouf! Milkfarts!" She said, laughing softly. "Gonna call you toots," She said, giving the girl's head a little lick. "...Don't think I'll explain it to you, though, until you're a lot older," She grinned. Yeah, that was the perfect story to keep to herself until it was time to gently tease the girl, when she was old enough to handle it, of course.

A foul smell wrested her from the throes of sleep.

Not again, but alas, it were true.

Face scrunched, she blindly felt for her mother only to find her absent—somehow, someway, the raven-haired matriarch had escaped without rousing her—but there were small comforts knowing her siblings were near. Phoebe reached out, stretching not so long legs with a face splitting yawn. She may have touched someone or something but it hardly mattered to her. She remained content.

The offensive odor was coming to pass; there'd be no need to start in with a cacophony of whimpering and whining yet. Her needs were met as well as could be and nestled down where she was, sleep was still all tempting...

She sighed, smacking her lips.

... So...just fyi... Owen's red-furred shoulder markings aren't exactly not-orange, either...lol. Though likely still a little darker atm I suppose without much in the way of multiple coat layers, eheheh.
Not that I would ever add fuel to the fires of wild speculation or anything.  ;)

With a sudden twitch and a small burp, Owen awoke. He was baffled, for a moment, feeling around himself to try and get his bearings as he tried to ascertain what vague prompting it was in which small corner of his mind that had pulled him from his dreams. ...First, he realized as he patted his paws blindly about, there didn't seem to be a Mommy hereabouts anymore. In fact, although he could piece by piece blunderingly identify first this sister and then that one, he realized with muzzy, slow-growing panicky concern that Momma seemed in fac to have been replaced! And not by the big old male who kept uselessly lurking about, either; this one was an entirely new doppelganger! Oh no!

Even as Owen's whimpers began, however...even as his paws continued to fumble blindly, and even as his stubby small nose cast fruitlessly about in search of Raven...his tiny fiery muzzle began to scrunch up in involuntary reaction. No, Momma's smell might not be bleeping on his radar, but there was another creeping, inexorable, downright stinky invader that was growing more and more impossible to ignore. Owen bawled in protest as he flung his head wildly to and fro, homed in on the terrible stench's source, and this time far-more-deliberately aimed a hefty smack of the paw straight at his offending sister @Vasa.

Stop that stink, you, right NOW! This was no time to be loosing farts and levity (in his Very Important Opinion). Mommy was missing; hadn't they noticed?! And some sort of completely-wrong-smelling fake was here, trying to take her place! Calamity! Disaster! The horror!

Kite wasn’t a fussy baby. So much of her growing psyche was consumed with trying to control her jittery limbs that she didn’t have energy for anything else.

That being said, once she finally managed to fall asleep, she didn’t appreciate being woken up — and that’s exactly what happened. Phoebe’s tiny paw pushed into the round pudge of Kite’s abdomen, and that was fine, she guessed, but when Owen’s wild thrashing clocked her right in the noggin, it hurt! Pain, fleeting as it was, was a new sensation for the pale fledgling, and she was so sensitive to tactile stimuli of any kind that she found it particularly offensive. She jolted awake, bobbling wildly, and tried to propel herself away from the source of discomfort. Her infinitesimal limbs trembled and jerked as she tried to turtle-flop herself in the opposite direction.

OMG their avatars are all soooo cute!!!

It was amusing for her to watch and see how the pups moved and reacted to her presence, even though they couldn't see her. They definitely stirred a bit more when Raven was gone, so she could only assume that they were more used to Raven's scent than hers. As long as she kept coming to take care of them, though, and give Raven a break, she was sure they'd get used to her scent as well. One of the darker pups didn't seem to stir too much, so Niamh gave her a gentle, affirming lick, nuzzling her closer in to her body to keep her warm while she rested. The little girl had a lighter underbelly, which meant that this one was Phoebe. 

The male, though, seemed quite agitated, and before Niamh could intervene (not that one could intervene much with them being so small) he slapped a paw against Vasa's little nose. It was the little one whose markings bore a vague resemblance to those that Screech possessed and she had to stifle a growl, holding her breath so the sound would be quelled before it could even start. She had to remind herself that it wasn't likely that this was actually Screech's son, lest she hold a prejudice against him...But it was incredibly difficult for her to do so. She swallowed and released her tongue from where she'd had it plastered to the roof of her mouth, and reached out to reassure the little boy, who had disrupted Kite's sleep as well. "Easy there, little S...Little sport," She said. She had to find something to call him to keep him separate from the unpleasant memories in her mind. She caressed his back with her tongue, hoping that might settle him, before she moved on to Kite. 

"I know, sweet potatoe," She said, when Kite tried to amble away from her brother- so Niamh pulled her gently between her forelegs, protecting her on all sides from her brother and his wild movements. She licked the little girl's head. They were busy- but this wasn't too bad, was it?