Redsand Canyon There's none so blind as those who will not listen.

Two weeks old—eyes opening!

Leona was, for the most part, an easy baby to care for.

She slept long hours. She ate when food was available (either from @Towhee or the visiting @Aquene); she did not fuss against her brother or any of the other tiny bodies she found herself nesting against. They were not all born of the same womb, but so far as the child was concerned, she was the only one to exist among the plethora.

The child was kicking her brother repeatedly now. It wasn't on purpose—she was once again, asleep—but in her dream she was running towards something.

Her brain was so convinced of this, that Leona ran in place until the dream resolved itself, and with a final violent donkey-kick of her back legs, she shrieked awake. Her eyes opened wide to take in the bright, hazy, somewhat painful shine of the sun as it poured in through the den mouth.

I hope a brother is alright! >w< Just let me know if you wanted to keep this as a read-only. I can delete the post. <3

Holy moose hooves, Leona had some umph.

Jack had been sleeping like a good boy. Peaceful, small, tender in all the ways that children were. His eyelids had been closed tightly and his mind had created a myriad of colors and surprises in his dream. All the while, Leona had been pounding away at his spine with their big meaty paws. The final push had roused the boy from his sleep. His eyes opened to reveal dim light and a lovely interior of stone.

Confused, he rolled until he faced his sibling.

Two blinks were offered to Leona. Jack yawned a wide yawn. Then he stuffed his front paw into his sibling’s face with enough strength that he might just cram it inside Leona’s mouth. The other paw lifted to push at a cheek? Maybe Leona’s whiskers? He didn’t care. He just wanted her to get the hell out of his face.

For a long time, she had firmly believed one was the perfect number, though now she decided two was actually ideal. A pair was not only manageable, especially with two parents, but it meant that the puppies could keep each other engaged and entertained to some extent. Not counting the excitement following the birth, tending to the twosome fell into a simple (if not easy) routine.

Their eyes were due to open any day now, so Towhee wasn’t surprised when Leo stirred awake and squinted blearily around the stone den. Jack yawned and her eyes moved to his face to see a tiny sliver of baby blue there too. A happy note rumbled in her chest as she bent to nudge them reassuringly.

-Hi,- she signed, well aware they wouldn’t be able to properly see her for weeks, much less begin to understand ptero, but she always liked to expose her children as early as possible.

The only thing to cut through that glaring sunlight was a waving paw, and it was such a gargantuan shape that Leona could not properly make it out; she had no hope of doing that, really, since her eyes had yet to learn to focus. She moved to reach her forelegs up and try to grapple with it, but because of poor motor control it was more of a hurray! action.

It also left her wide open for retaliation by Jack Snipe.

His front paws were abruptly front-and-center upon her chest, with one of them managing to wedge hard against her nose, leading to a gasp, and then her mouth was full of toes. A surprised burp came from Leona before she began to instinctively suckle on the tiny digits.

Leona had some real strange ideas about what kind of fun Jack was into.

With his paw pushing against his sibling, trying to create space, he was completely taken aback by the sensation of his toes in Leona’s mouth. Once there, the boy was left with a feeling of indescribable confusion. Jack did not know how to combat such a foe. His mouth opened and he squealed into the family den.

Then, he placed his other paw at his sibling’s neck and began to shove harder.

Take that, you suckling fiend!

She watched their endearing antics for a moment, huffing a laugh through her nose when Jack flailed at Leo, his tiny toes ending up in her mouth. When she began to suckle and he began to struggle, Towhee took that as her cue.

Alright, you two, she murmured to herself as she used her snout to gently separate the two pups, break it up, break it up! She laughed at her own stupid joke.

Mouthing them with equal care, Towhee placed son and daughter at her belly, hovering in case they needed any help latching. It was far from her first time feeding her offspring, of course, but she didn’t think she’d ever take this experience for granted after what she’d been through.

For that matter, seeing her young’s eyes opening for the first time could’ve been a banality at this point in her life, yet it was still just as magical as ever. She looked around, only wishing @Maxim was here to see it too. He was probably on a patrol. He would return soon enough.