Phoenix Maplewood Nothing but dust in the shadows

Any combination of @Indra @Laurel @Shreya @Spring @Casmir, but max 3 others please! This is set obviously prior to Esaro going to Sleeping Dragon, for timeline purposes, but we can also assume it's after the second wave of visitors is welcome to visit them.

Saena lounges in the warm mid-afternoon sun, soaking up bright rays that pierced through the thick layer of leaves overhead. Her body curves so that her spine faces outward and her thinning stomach wraps around the mouth of her whelping den. With a lazy paw dipped into the darkness, Saena attempts to coax her pups out with swirls of her toes, although they would find themselves promptly penned in if any of them is daring enough to step out into the open.

So far, she's having no luck. Even shaky jerks of her paws are greeted only by Milo's discontent wails. Laurel and Indra are quiet for the time being, though she's sure that's not going to last long with their brother crying up a storm. The kid's a tantrum thrower and will sooner or later begin to thrash about at the lack of attention (nevermind his mother's attempts to draw him out), and that would result in him kicking one of his sisters. She catches herself hoping that of the two, he plants his foot in Indra's mug; it's harder now to wish ill on either of them in spite of whom they resemble.

"Come on," she croons into the darkness, still blissfully ignorant of the fact her children are still deaf and won't respond to her words, and might not even be ready to exit the den for any length of time.

It was a rare moment in which Laurel slept peacefully; normally she was loud and obnoxious, demanding attention a lot. Now however she was sleeping peacefully despite the prodding and despite her brother's wails and kicks. Her moment of solitude was quickly crashed upon when her brother, in his unease, rolled over and bumped into Laurel's head. This caused her to wake up with an indignant huff — how dare he?! — and Laurel quickly rolled over and away from him, then looked up and around. She blinked her eyes a couple of times, for though they were open her vision was still blurry, and stood on shaky little stubby legs while she looked around at the different blurry blobs of family around her.

since his run-in with Luke, Cas had stayed far away from puppyland, nearing only to drop a rabbit or two into the caches nearest her den. surely she was out and about, but he hadn't seen her but briefly. that was understandable. Esaro was a cool dude and Cas liked to hang with the man whenever possible, but today he was making his rounds, patrolling the borders at length as he had done during his time in donnelaith, and then a fat stoat was dispatched and carried to the aforementioned cache.

yet today he heard the puppies; the boy dropped to his belly and wriggled toward the den, keeping a definite amount of space between himself and the pleasantly fragrant darkness -- he didn't want his face eaten. shooting a quick glance around for the pale man, the Mayfair child cleared his throat. "SAEna," he called, his voice cracking loudly and embarrassingly on the first syllable of her name. "i mean, uh, Saena? it's me, Cas. i brought you some food." 

yeah, that would do it.

as any child would, indra was learning to explore her boundaries. her vision, still quite a new thing to her, had not yet entirely formed -- while she could see small shadows and the fierce brightness of the entrance of the den, it was the smaller details that escaped her. like saena's trailing paw. with milo screaming besides her (and she thankfully deaf to it) she clambered up on her shaky little limbs and sought out laurel, the only other familiar figure in the den. laurel was sitting upright and indra, aware of her presence, stalked stiffly over to her to clumsily engage in a play spar.

It was a fine afternoon and Shreya went to see if her great grandchildren could do with a babysitter for a few hours. The Alpha had been generous in allowing the grandmother of her adulterous husband to mind the pups, and Shreya didn't forget this kindness. But nor did she forget Reek as she thought of the little things, seeing in them various physical traits she remembered from her own two sons. It was odd how clearly she retained memories from years ago when she could barely remember what she had for breakfast.

As she approached the den, about to herald her presence despite a little one protesting within, she saw that a young fellow was already there, equipped with a gift for the new mother. Afternoon, the old wolf greeted him. We haven't met — my name's Shreya.

"Don't you wanna play with me?" Saena asks into the darkness with a pout, but the only response is Milo's continued wailing and the sounds of movement. Those sounds don't herald the arrival of any pups at the den's mouth and she frowns, indignant, at the faint shapes shuffling around in her line of sight until Casmir's cracking voice draws her attention. She's unable to hide a (fond) smile at how his voice suddenly rose an octave or five, but manages to keep from laughing, at least.

"Thank you, Cas," she says gratefully, shuffling a quarter turn so that she's still got the den entrance relatively cordoned but can face him properly. She doesn't reach for the stoat immediately, however, if only because it might be perceived as rude. Instead, she gestures into the darkness and says, "I can't get any of these shitheads to come out," as if luring out tiny cubs is the hardest trial of all.

No doubt she'll quickly learn to regret thinking so, and will yearn for the days when the pups willingly stayed put. "Maybe you can coax one out," she suggests, deciding it's more than time for her relative to meet his younger cousins (or whatever the hell they are). As she shuffles back to give him space in the event he wants to try, she spots Shreya's approach and turns her head at the same time the elder greets Casmir. "Hey, Shreya," she says warmly, gesturing for the woman to settle with them. "We're playing go fish with the pups." The pups were winning via their noncompliance, sadly.

Soon Indra coaxed Laurel into play, and Laurel let out a huffy growl as she pounced for her sister. Instead of properly hitting her mark Laurel tripped over Indra, however, and she somersaulted over her sister with a sassy yelp, plopping down right at the entrance of the den. Of yet, she was unaware of the attention put onto her and her siblings, and she turned around to face whatever revenge her sister had planned for her.

he chuckled in spite of himself at the sounds heard from within, but turned with a brief bristle at the approach of another wolf -- a greyed elder with a knowing gaze. "h-hi. i mean, hello. we haven't met yet. I'm Casm --" his introduction was cut off by Saena's voice; the woman turned to face him and gestured to the pups.

reminded immediately of his baby sisters and how shy they had been, Cas folded his ears and whined a little into the darkness. "hey, guys. i've got a cool thing here. dontcha wanna see?" he crooned in a sing-song voice, patting the stoat. maybe they would gum its fur or something. "oh, yeah, 'm Casmir," he finished, shooting a warm glance toward the elder who had joined them.

sorry, i didn't realize i was holding up! next time smack me sooner

indra and laurel played in the dim light the den afforded, and with little growls and squeaks they parried and stumbled. laurel had managed to trip but this caused indra to do the same -- she was launched into the dirt as a little cloud of dust rose about them. indra blinked slowly, aware of another presence in the den. while she did not know casmir's features, nor even what he looked like, she was aware he was familiar -- with a babble she rose unsteadily and marched right on up to him -- or specifically, his paw.

She shot a smile to this rather shy Casmir fellow, and it was a genuine smile because boy she was in a good mood. Children! Glorious things they were, no matter how whiny and poopy they got (which was very). And she had every intention of being very present at this event, as she was representing their father's side of the family — and although that father was banished, even Saena knew that he would love these little tykes very much.

Giving a chuckle at Saena and Casmir's playful attitude, the elder came to sit nearby, blinking in the sunlight and watching as the puppies came further into the light. Ahhh, she exclaimed, craning towards the nearest with a smile. They've reached their pretty phase! Congratulations, Saena, you successfully got them through the ugly bit. From here on out, it's all big eyes and cuddlesome paws.

Shreya, who was always welcome in the little glen where the pups would grow up, received a warm smile from the Alpha female. Her attention shifted back to the den as Casmir and the elder wolf exchanged pleasantries and introductions. She could see the shifting of shadows in the den, but so far, none of her pups seemed interested in coming forth into the light.

She was ready to give up on her effort to coax them out when Casmir became involved, and whether because he was a male and new or because her cubs didn't like her, they responded better to him. Specifically one: Indra. The red-haired pup was perhaps the most active of her siblings in that she was always doing something, though Milo was a close second. Laurel was significantly quieter. It came as no surprise, then, that Indra's russet head was first to become visible out of the den—tiny, round-eared and wobbly.

Shreya cooed and Saena grinned. "They're cute," she agreed, not at all humble about that, though there was something about that striking red-brown that sent a nervous pang through her stomach as if Fox herself was reincarnated here and would grow up seeking to kill her mother.

New things were always pretty cool, and so when Indra's attention turned to something else and Laurel, too, noticed this new influence at the den's mouth, she got into motion immediately. With clumsy waddles she followed her sister, a little grunt of indignation escaping as she fell behind, wanting to beat her sister there! As she and Indra reached the paw at the same time, Laurel tried bumping against her sister to get there first, hoping to off-balance Indra and then throw herself at the new influence in the den -- the paw -- to discover it with teeth, nose and full body flop, for 'shy' was a word Laurel knew little about.

Casmir fairly trembled with joy as the puppies approached, though he held quite still as not to startle them. bright gaze danced to Saena, then to Shreya -- he was so badass for having coaxed the kids out all by himself. "hey there," he managed to stammer as his paw was gummed confidently by little Indra, who was closely followed by Laurel. Casmir laughed at their little squabble.