Ouroboros Spine will you burn down when i ignite the torch?

no obligation, bee! any & all of the bebes are welcome. <3

to say that he's been avoiding the birthing den, painfully devoid of sakhmet's presence ... would not be a lie. but in that he was avoiding his baby sister ...well, siblings, kivaluk reminds himself, for @Kukutux has morphed naturally from 'aunt' to 'mother' in her own right and by marriage to sakhmet.

but he desires to know her, @Galana, he's heard her called.

hoping to be a better brother to her ( and his other baby siblings ) than he'd been to akkuma.

so, he heads towards the birthing den, a gift of a plump rabbit held betwixt his jaws: meat for his anaa and the fur for the little ones.

he lays it at his paws and lets out a low chuff to announce his presence and ask permission to enter.

Though Massaraq was not fully old enough to leave the den he found himself more and more curious. It was bright and light and from what he saw the world came and went there - the idea of an inside and outside was beginning to dawn on him and so when he heard a low chuff he thought perhaps it was one of the large wolves who came. But the towering figure he had to peer up to look at fully was not someone he knew. "Anaaaa?" He was confused, he knew this was not his Anaa but he was very large and was carrying something that smelled like a meal.

He was slowly becoming more and more confident in his pawsteps and he bounded up to meet, bumping his head against the leg of the other wolf and giving out a squeak of surprise at having arrived so quickly. Almost as soon as he had fallen he was on his paws again and looking around, peering up at the stranger "You?!" It was a declaration and a question though what exactly he meant by it he did not know.

hope you don't mind Massaraq! I had him bump in Kivaluk but let me know if I should change it ^__^ feel free to powerplay him - he's about 27 days old here

not at all! thanks for joining! <3

a small, lighter furred lump comes flying out of the birthing den in his direction: a blur and a shock. kivaluk doesn't have time to react, blinking as if trying to grasp that what he saw had been real but soon was proven real enough when the small boy bumps into his foreleg.

kivaluk recoils back, somehow still managing to keep ahold of the rabbit; blinking at the boy — his little brother — as the boy lets out a you?!.

gingerly, kivaluk sets the gift down and lowers himself into a sphinx like position, chin laying against his paws for a moment, getting down to young massaraq's level.

it felt better than looming over him.

me? i'm kivaluk. you're brother. he studies the young boy curiously, struggling to think that once he'd been that small though he remembers those months well enough if only because they held little but a sort of shakespearean tragedy to them.

The large figure crouched down and now Massaraq could see his face a little bit better. He had eyes like his other mother, the one with red fur - the color like Galana's would become though Massaraq did not know that at the time. Massaraq's own gaze narrowed as the stranger introduced himself, brother he said - but all of Massaraq's brothers that he had met so far had been his size. "Kiva...val...valuk." He tried to say the whole thing but stuttered halfway through. "Too big for brother...." His voice trailed off at the statement betraying that he was not sure. After all, he knew that Arrluk and Kassuq were his brothers but he did not really know how brothers worked per se. Peering closer as if the other wolf's face would give him the answers he sought he saw streaks of red near his muzzle and eyes and wondered if maybe his mother didn't clean his face. Nosing forward his tongue went out to lick at the red spots closest to this muzzle but they stubbornly refused to come off, sitting back on his haunches the pup puzzled over the double mystery.

things had been changing so fast! her sight had become clearer and then the little girl began to hear. the moonwoman's beautiful voice was among the first. there was still so much she did not understand. her mother's absence would not be felt for many months to come. kukutux would fill a void galana did not know existed.

her brother stirred as usual always active and moving. though galana, as young as she might havr been knew this time was different. this was not any of the presences she'd known, but he was welcomed. her tiny feet lifted her, bringing her to the one she did not yet know as brother. when she did truly know him, he would be loved and idolized blindly. his name was spoken, but she remained quiet; sleepily she stumbled to massaraq's side, then sniffing at kivaluk.

for a moment, there is only an aching swell of missing heavy in kivaluk's chest as galana joins the little party. she looks so much like sakhmet that it physically hurts kivaluk, who worries day by day for sakhmet, to look at her.

but that wasn't fair to her.

hi, he greets her, offering her his undivided attention before his gaze goes back to massaraq; to whom kivaluk offers an easy grin.

your older brother. he corrects himself. though an adult in most senses of the word, he hadn't fully hit maturity yet ... and wouldn't until close to the beginning of next year, he surmises.

still, he was adult enough when compared to his youngest batch of siblings.

a small breath of surprise escapes kivaluk as massaraq attempts to clean off the red markings on his muzzle; a startled laugh following.

they won't come off. he says, almost apologetically.

Massaraq tilted his head and took a big step forward off of his haunches, taking a closer look, but it seemed as if the other wolf spoke true. He looked over at Galana who had also arrived. His sister who was not a giant was there. Grinning he set aside questions of whether or not a wolf really could grow that big even if he was older, after all focusing for too long was rather difficult when someone new had come to say hellow. So he leaned down in a clumsy play bow, almost toppling over in his haste. "Galana, brother, play!" It was a demanding word but he did not leap or pounce, waiting to see if either of his interlocutors would be willing to take him up on his offer. His tiny tail wagged around, and his brothers and sister were willing to tumble around with him sometimes so he thought if this wolf really was his brother he would too. The idea that his sister and older brother might not be interested in this completely went over his head.

older brother.

galana, though still very young, would remember him as such. while sublimely unaware, there was a deep stare that kivaluk held. she didn't understand, but energy that followed him was longing, sad even. sakhmet's disappearance weighed on him, and eventually would weigh on the girl too, but for now she would see the world with an optimism only a child could have.

so much thinking! thankfully, her brother offered mindless play. as he bowed, galana's girlish giggle followed and an attempt at running was made, taking herself around to hide under kivaluk. she peeked at him, ready to spring out and run away, or perhaps pounce at him and find an ear to gnaw on.

it is not truly massaraq or his other siblings by kukutux that kivaluk worries for. he trusts that the sunking and moonwoman were paragons of stability, and in them galana would find it: as kivaluk has. but sakhmet could not be stolen from her knowledge ... and this sort of ... pattern in his parents was not something unfamiliar to kivaluk.

he tries, for the moment, not to let these thoughts weigh him down; hard though it was.

he does not wish for galana to grow up with the same guilt and anger and resentment that kivaluk did.

massaraq lowers into a play bow after loudly asking? proclaiming? them to play while galana darts under kivaluk.

mindful of his size and their sizes, kivaluk playfully — carefully — pats the earth with his front paws: pat-pat, pat-pat. challenging either of his younger siblings to try to attack his paws.

Massaraq gave out a tiny growl in his throat. Yes the paws of this big wolf would make the perfect enemy to practice on! He took a moment to line up his leap before pouncing on the one to Massaraq's right. Right in front of his eyes it moved a little bit and he let out a deleted shriek. Springing away from the imagined counterattack he tumbled over to hide where Galana was, bumping into her with a  laugh and another playful rasp in his throat.

a shriek of laughter followed massaraq bumping into the little girl, she twisted to leave a playful nip at the air near his ear. which only continued until her attention was averted to kivaluk's moving paws. a mock growl built up in her throat as she aimed her next 'attack' on her older brother's ankles.

❝rrrrgrrr,❞ a pathetic noise, but rather cute!
 
her grumbles only continued as she gnawed and bit, though her hardly present puppy teeth did no damage.

kivaluk's siblings accept the challenge to play.

his own laugh is soft in his chest, paws stilling once the pair attack, not wanting to accidentally step on them.

good! he praises the two, lowering himself to a sphinx-like position.

ooh, very scary. he murmurs, ears flattening against his skull as if galana's growl had startled him.

Massaraq playfully fended off Galana's attacks near his ears but as she turned her attention back to Kivaluk's paws he did as well. Going to aid his sister in the attack he sprung back towards the moving targets, going around the lowered body of his brother. If Galana was taking one then he would take the other. Aiming he lined up his pounce and with a loud raspy growl of his own he leaped forward.