Redhawk Caldera the shadows under the world

The children were growing like weeds. It had been a month since their birth at least, with Reyes doing his best to bring fresh food as frequently as possible. Sometimes he would be left in the den to watch over the little ones while @Towhee ventured out for a breather; oftentimes @Ruenna was there with him too, or @Fennec would drop by. Today he was alone with them — entirely, utterly, completely singular while surrounded on all sides.

At the moment things were quiet, as the children were down for a nap. The slightest miscalculation was bound to wake them though — and Reyes was trying to extricate himself from the puppy pile, as the trio had mobbed him on sight and turned him in to an unwilling pillow.

Thankfully there were toys scattered among the hides upon the ground. A discarded femur was one of @Tierra's favorites, as she could play tug-o-war with @Sphyra. A visit from another day had awarded half a tine-laden set of antlers, a swatch of beaver tail, and the more delicate wing of some bird that was falling to pieces by now. @Caracal had decimated the wing pretty quickly; the larger bones of the wing had been chewed on and the feathers plucked, leaving little to nothing behind.

Tediously and with purpose, Reyes slid a leg, a wrist, a shoulder, out from beneath the tangle of bodies. He carefully plucked Caracal at the nape with his teeth and placed him down slowly, with the intense feeling of impending doom should he be too rough, too fast, or too loud in the process. It was a little like diffusing a bomb.

While carefully trying to tiptoe around his own sort of minefield, Bronco tried to relieve some of the tension by giving Fennec space while making himself useful and heading to Towhee's den to check in on her and the kids. It'd only be another month or so, he figured, before he'd have his own nest of children to monitor, so he figured he ought to spend as much time with the existing munchkins while he had it. 

As always, he approached with care when he saw that the kids weren't outside the den. This might mean that they were napping, and he'd been told more than once before that he shouldn't awaken sleeping children. Hesitantly, he approached, sniffing silently to determine who was on babysitting duty when he noticed that it was neither Towhee nor Ruenna, but Reyes. 

A pang of guilt hit him. He hadn't exactly taken the time to get to know the guy, or even check him out after he'd rejoined with the Redhawks. There were a few others he had yet to get to know, but he excused himself a bit, considering that he was not busy hunting for more than just himself and Fennec. He wasn't sure how to feel about the guy, considering how wildly the opinions of him differed between his mother and Towhee. This guy was potentially the reason his mother had lost her last brain cell and left the pack, endangering his unborn siblings. Phox had still not returned, so he was left with the wild assumptions that something bad had potentially happened. Meerkat too had been pulled in on the quest- and so, the pack had lost three adults and however many children Niamh had been carrying...Partially because of this guy. 

But this guy was also his cousin. And the father of his new younger siblings. It made his brain hurt a bit to think about how exactly they were related. 

He didn't want to disturb the kids, who were quiet enough that they had to be sleeping- but he also didn't want to go straight back to his own den as he wanted to give Fennec some time to herself. So, he flopped down on the ground not far from the outside of the den so that he too could have a few moments of peace.

Since her eyes had opened, Sapsucker had gone from complaining about every little thing to immediately trying to discover every little thing.

A few things she'd discovered:

Being wet was the absolute worst. She'd managed to dart past Towhee one evening, wanting to find out what that sound was outside, only to set to wailing immediately when her fur got drenched by the rain. 0/10.

Her brother was a 'tink' and her sister was a 'sh' (. She didn't have much in the way of language, but she loved the sounds and the tone the sounds seemed to follow with. 7/10

Mom's gesture lessons were a really good time to shove her paws in her brother's ears without him seeing her coming. 10/10

At the moment, the pup was awake despite pretending that she wasn't. And she kept the pretense up right to the point where Reyes moved to leave. At which point Sapsucker bounced eagerly to her feet and stumbled after him, fully intending to follow wherever he was headed.

Sphyra had been very much asleep. She was snoring loudly and she didn't even notice when Reyes left ever so quietly; his hard work was paying off. Her snores were interrupted but briefly when Reyes slid away, possibly causing a moment of fright, but then she turned around and continued her snoring.

It wasn't until Sapsucker's warmth disappeared that Sphyra quite suddenly woke up. With a start, she jumped awake, the snores cut off, and she nosed for her sibling. She was gone!

Sphyra first let out an indignant yelp to call for her, but soon realised that her scent was still nearby. Following her nose, Sphyra leaped to her feet and with an excited yip!! she bounced after Sapsucker and her father.

While the puppies were at their puny size, they didn't seem real to Reyes. They certainly didn't send the same kind of warning signal through his brain and body like other wolves; but they were more bean-shaped, and sometimes when they were sleeping, he wondered if this was really happening. If they were real. If his life had really somehow normalized.

And other times, the chaos borne of their need to cling, climb, and crow made him want to do some pretty terrible things. Chief among them was escape; which was what Reyes hoped to do while they were sleeping. As soon as he was at the sunlit border of the hobbit hole's entrance, he was tackled by not one eager child — but all of them at once.

Tierra in the lead — or was that Sphyra??
Caracal rising to the squawk of his sister—
Sphyra - Tierra ??? to follow, bouncing in the rear.

He felt them collide with his feet and had the sudden and horrible thought that he'd stepped on one; his initial reaction was to stride further and shake his feet as if he'd stepped in mud, bopping Tierra on the nose rather hard in the process. As Reyes half-emerged he was mid turn, trying to separate the children without being too rough; checking on Tierra's poor snoot; shushing them and generally floundering while they mobbed him.

Sorry, Bronco — for now you're in for a show, and Reyes didn't have enough spoons left to accept audience participation.