Redhawk Caldera we sleep until the sun goes down.

Sibbies or papa or maybe aunty or uncle plz :)

The first few days of Liffey's life had been entirely uneventful, not that there was truly much to expect at this point. The squishy lump that was her heater/feeding trough moved very rarely save for the shallow but constant rise and fall of her sides as she breathed. Otherwise there was the periodic globe that came down from the heavens to clean her and shift her this way and that whenever she began to fuss, but that was really all the excitement she got from the world.

Oh, and there were those other little beans that periodically thwapped her or tried to bulldoze her. But Liffey was only ever aware of them on rare occasions, for she was far more intent on sleeping and recovering herself than trying to hold anything as unneccessary as "oh I have siblings" in her feeble little brain. They did not feed her. They did not clean her. They barely even provided any additional warmth - not that she was ever wanting for me. They were really only ever a nuisance, so she didn't give them the very minimal space she had in her yet-to-develop memory.

The big thing was sleeping again when Liffey finished tugging at a teet to feed. For once, the little girl did not immediately pass out again as she was wont to do. Instead, a teensy glimmer of personality decided to make itself known that day and she wriggled in place, moving her paws to knead at the earth until she had turned away from the trough to face the unknown.

She regretted it immediately, and showed it by promptly squalling and flapping her limbs uselessly as the dirt while her twitchy little head shifted to and fro.

Peregrine's fever finally broke and, though he barely remembered his fever dreams, he surfaced from his ailment with the distinct feeling he had somehow seen and spoken with Peter somewhere in there. And though it didn't make much sense, it left him feeling strangely calm, like a mellow, orange sunset after a terrible storm. His heart still ached for his youngest, yet it didn't weigh on him as heavily as before, and he felt a renewed sense of duty to his remaining sons. The famine was breaking, so there was still a chance they would not only survive but live, thriving where Peter had not.

And apparently there was even more hope in the form of new life. The Alpha hadn't yet swung by the Beta pair's den, not wanting to expose the squiggling newborns to his feverish illness. But now that he was feeling better—and now that small game was cropping up enough that he managed to break the neck of a skinny rabbit—Peregrine crept up to the Blackthorns' homestead to greet the caldera's newest members for the first time. The carcass swung from his jaws as he approached, then paused, an ear bending as he listened to the unmistakable sounds of wolf pups squirming and whimpering within—and a tiny squall which distinctly reminded him of Wildfire.

Yay twin <3

Lagan wasn't tired. He wanted to move around. But when he did, his mommy moved or his twin sister kicked him in the face with her flailing feet. The little silver fluff ball rolled over flat on his stomach, trying to reach a teet. He wiggled on his stomach, flopping from side to side and throwing his arms around until her got to his destination. Tiny tail shaking, he grabbed onto the food source and kneaded his tiny white paws against his mommy's tummy. To him, Finley was a big bag of milk. Not really a mom quite yet.

A soft foot drop kicked Lagan in the face, and the tiny boy tumbled onto his side into the thing attached to his foot. Instantly feeling scared, the second born frantically flailed his legs, trying to return to mommy and their other sister. The little black blob Lucy. It was mayhem.

It was rare that Elwood left Finley's side these days, spending all of his time making sure that she was recovering. He also found it hard to tear his eyes away from their three little miracles, who were defying the odds day by day. But even the proud father had to get out and stretch his legs every once in a while, and he was returning from a short walk nearby when he spotted Peregrine's dark form hovering near the outside of the den.

He chuffed softly as he drew to a halt next to his friend and leader, bumping his shoulder against Peregrine's as he eyed the lean rabbit carcass. It was still strange to have food more readily available; prey was not as plentiful yet as it had been previously, but he was thankful for even the smallest morsel. Obviously this meal was meant for Finley, and he knew she would appreciate it.

"Two girls and a boy," he commented as he peered inside, watching as Tiarnach and Caoilfhionn wriggled next to their mother and mismatched sister. He squinted, realizing that he couldn't tell the two apart from this angle.

yay twin i eat u!

Liffey wasn't aware that she had bopped any of her siblings in her little fit of flapping paws. She was still of the mindset that she didn't actually have any siblings. But soon enough, at least one made himself known to her again, and she took it perfectly in stride. Almost as if she always had been aware of these other squiggly beans that shared the feed trough with her. Almost.

The firstborn twisted her head towards her twin brother, unwittingly placing her face right in the trajectory of his flailing arms. His paws bounced against her nose and cheek in a manner that - oddly enough - stilled her screeching. What were these things? Liffey opened her jaws to set free her waggling tongue, swinging her head in the typical twitchy little newborn fashion as she tried to no avail to fasten her gums upon this "new" thing she had found.

His lips twitched fondly at the memory (even if his ears had nearly bled at the time), then Peregrine gently set the carcass down beside the entrance and leaned to take a peek inside. He saw three little bundles of joy, his eyes immediately and suspiciously drawn to the black one (that's racist). My lil' homie, he thought, immediately favoring the child before he even knew its name or, hell, its gender.

Elwood approached then and announced some identifying information about the monochrome potatoes. "Congrats," Peregrine replied, once again reminded of the first litter of Firebirds (the surviving ones, anyway). "Do you have names yet?" he only remembered to ask after a beat, because most parents weren't weird like Fox and chose to assign names early on, sometimes on the very day of the children's birth. Hell, sometimes they had names before they ever even got here.

"And, uh," he added after another pause, motioning toward the literal black sheep of the family, "what, uh, happened there? It wasn't me," Peregrine hastily disclaimed.

The world was dark and incredibly rude in most aspects, or so the little inky blob had decided shortly after being born. While Lucy was not truly capable of complex thoughts involving blame and the way the world worked, she was feisty about having been upheaved from the comfort of the womb and dropped into the bedding of life without so much as a warning. Since birth, her entire existence had been suckling and desperate attempts to kick her siblings in the skull with her wild swinging paws. On some occasions, she was successful at doing both in a single day.
 
The little creature could not hear or see, but she did find herself growing curious… and with curiosity came the weeble wobble of her little feet in every direction. Her dark body did look strange next to the paler greys of her siblings, and even her parents. While she did not know the dark wolf who had come to visit them, and even though she could not hear the words that he spoke, when Peregrine motioned towards her inky coat and made a joking remark, Lucy opened her mouth and squeaked as loud as she could.
 
After a breath, the pup bobbed her head and began to waggle a single paw at her sister’s face.

Lagan could sense others, not milk machine or the obnoxious things he was used to. Frightened a bit he went to move away, but found he was stuck. Something wet had leeched onto his leg. He flung his tiny silvery body to push off the creepy slobbery thing on his foot and found himself pushing over his sister. Where had she come from?! Had the mouth gotten her too? He wriggled up closer to her as if to comfort his sister, still scared. Maybe the leeching thing was that other presence near by. 

He sensed movement nearby. His other sister was wagging her paws all around. He opened his mouth, snuggled up by mommy and Liffey, and squealed in Lucy's face. He did not like being hit, or eaten. It was frustrating and scary. Mommy never ate him or smacked him. Why couldn't those other two things be like mommy?

Plants were returning and things were looking good. Mommy had survived and while she was weak, Eljay just knew she'd be okay. Eljay sort of missed spending time with Peter, but he was also growing up and probably had his own things to do, so that had to be why he didn't see him around so often. The den with trinkets Eljay had gathered that he was going to give to Peter was piling up; he had to have over ten gifts so far. Cool leaves, special-coloured rocks, shiny feathers, fox tails... All sorts, and when he saw Peter again he'd give them to him.

Today however he had a different location in mind. Eljay figured he'd go watch his baby sibs so that daddy could take a little time off. When he arrived at the den he saw uncle P was there too. "Hi Uncle P," said Eljay and he nipped his uncle's chin in a respectful gesture before he turned to daddy with tail wagging. "I can watch mommy and the pups for a bit so you could do something else." He offered this with a soft smile and open attitude, as though daddy could refuse if he wanted to; but he dearly hoped daddy would take the offer so that he could watch his adorable little siblings for a bit. And spend time with mommy, of course.

"Thanks," Elwood replied, feeling his cheeks tighten into an impossibly large grin. He hadn't felt happiness like this in some time. With the famine presumably coming to an end, he had high hopes for his little family. Peregrine asked their names, and he used his snout to point to each pup. "The grey ones are a boy and girl, Tiarnach and Caoilfhionn," he said. "And their sister is Lucy."

He chuckled and cast a sidelong glance at Peregrine while Caoilfhionn nommed on her twin and Lucy flailed her itty-bitty paws about with abandon. "You sure about that?" he pressed, then dropped his voice conspiratorially. "Fin's always had a thing for you," he teased. His ears turned as another grown wolf approached and he glanced back to see his firstborn greeting Peregrine. Now that there was a second generation of Blackthorns, it was hard to believe that Eljay was over a year old; had it really been that long? Were they really parents of four?

"Hey, Eljay. I think we'll hang out here for a little bit, but I'd love for you to keep an eye on them later," he offered with a wave of his tail. He was proud of the way Eljay had stepped up since the birth of his siblings; Elwood had been especially worried about his son's mental health after the incident with Peter.

It took the little pup some time, but finally she managed to latch her jaws onto a paw. It was a short-lived grab for she was not used to the things she bit to be jerked away so quickly from her grasp. Usually she latched and that was that until she unlatched herself. This prize she had won was taken from her, and it left Liffey feeling cheated and affronted.

The child squealed unhappily when her prize was lost. But Liffey was not to be so easily deterred, as she showed very quickly by suddenly surging forward, open-jawed and searching to reclaim the foreign paw. She bulldozed over her brother in slow motion, wagging her head to and fro. When her head bopped against Lucy's cranium, she tried to spin at the last second to latch onto her face. But gravity was already pulling her down over the other side of Lagan, and Liffey plopped onto the ground on her back. Now hers were the limbs flapping in the air while she squeaked and chirped in surprise that the world had flipped itself upside down on her.

Peregrine stared, hard, when Elwood mentioned the names. "Come again?" he said, implying his companion had sneezed or thrown up or something rather than offered his children's names. "Lucy, huh?" he added without giving the Beta a chance to react, nodding approvingly at his lil' homie. "She's my favorite. No offense to you, T-whack and Cl—" The noise that came from his mouth couldn't be properly called a word, more of a weird series of grunts. Seriously, what kind of savages were the Blackthorns, to give their small children such ridiculous names? "We look after our own," he finished with a nod and a heavily sarcastic grin.

"Eljay!" the Alpha exclaimed when his nephew joined them, immediately offering his sitting services. Peregrine waved his tail and regarded the young man fondly. He had no idea about his inability to accept Peter's death, though he did think about how his son's loss must be affecting the yearling. He was just glad he had three new baby siblings to distract him and lift his spirits. "Can you believe the names your parents picked out for these guys? I mean, Lucy's coo' but what about poor Terragon and Cauliflower?" Peregrine teased.

The wild-limbed child felt a bonk against her skull, and she instantly began to open and close her mouth like a plush version of a steel trap. Lucy’s hopes were to close her mouth on her sister’s head, though she was finding it rather difficult to do so when there was a flurry of movement occurring around her. Between Lagan’s constant attempts to nuzzle himself closer to their multi-nipple food source, and Liffey’s determination to latch her gums onto something that wasn’t a teat, Lucy was growing more and more frustrated. All the while, the inky spitfire was being eyeballed by her dark furred uncle.
 
Had she the capability to hear, speak, or truly understand the conversation that was happening between her father and Peregrine, Lucy would have chimed in with her own sarcastic quip about the names of her siblings. Instead, she – unknowingly – found herself chirping in the same manner as her sister. Her dark limbs were slowing their waggling, and her eyes were growing heavy with a sleepiness that she could not control.

Suddenly there was another voice, but once again it was just faint peeping to him. Like his siblings Lagan couldn't hear much yet, just the outlines of sound. Lagan found himself freed from the mouth, but his twin was bulldozing him the next chance she got. He continued to roll, towards mommy luckily. He had reached his goal! He reached out with his short front legs and pulled himself forwards with little white paws. Away from his now agonized screaming sibling, Lagan had found his favorite wolf. Mommy. He crawled practically into her stomach, burying his head in her fur. Finally a he found a teet, and he latched himself on. Kneading his paws quietly, like a good boy.

After he ate his fill, Lagan attempted to crawl up closer to milk bag, but a flailing limb knocked him over. He was rolling again, this time over onto his side and into Lucy. Unable to flip himself back over, he joined in the angry flailing limbs of his siblings, and high pitched chirping.

Eljay's tail wagged at Uncle P's enthused greeting, and he nodded when daddy said that it wouldn't be necessary to look after the pups for now. He decided to stay anyway, watching the pups as they wriggled around the den. "I dunno if they'll be called by their full names all the time. Nobody calls me by mine either," said Eljay, responding earnestly to Uncle P's comment about the names of his siblings.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something else, Eljay saw poor Tiarnach getting flopped over. "Cao, no!" Eljay said and he moved closer to the pups to try and separate Caoilfhionn, Lucy and Tiarnach so that poor Tiarnach could go back to nursing if he wanted to.

Elwood couldn't help but laugh at Peregrine's butchering of the babies' names. It had taken him a few tries to get them just right, too -- but luckily, the pronunciation of Tiarnach and Caoilfhionn was much simpler than the spelling. He imagined that, had Finley been conscious, she would have playfully given Peregrine a smack and then explained the origin of the unique names.

"They're named after Finley's brother and sister. Caoilfhionn was actually Tiger's proper name," he said, raising his brows. Surely Peregrine remembered the young aspiring medic that had been with them for a short time. "The original Tiarnach goes by Colt. I imagine they'll earn their nicknames soon," he added, directing a fond smile in Eljay's direction. The youth was right; he was no longer Elwood Jr, really, and had grown into his own identity as Eljay.

He watched affectionately as Eljay reached down to gently move his siblings, making room for Tiarnach in between the rambunctious Caoilfhionn and Lucy. "They're an active bunch," he commented over the sound of the puppies squealing in harmony.

Flapping her paws didn't seem to do her too much good, so for a moment the child stilled. It was far beyond her still to mentally work out the problem that had presented itself, and yet she did manage to change track from flailing her way out of this, to chirping her way out. With a squeal from her teensy lungs, she called for help although she hardly even knew she was doing it. She could hear nothing and wouldn't for days still, and yet shrieking felt like doing something enough for her to keep it up until the nose of her elder brother nudged her out of the way of her irritated siblings.

Liffey rolled to the side with Eljay's push and instantly, her complaining was silenced. She kneaded at the ground with her paws, happy to feel the bedding on the correct side of her again. Twisting her head, she looked blindly up at the gathered adults and cooed pleasantly at them.

He chortled at Eljay's earnest answer, offering only a light, "Touché," in response. He watched as his nephew moved to intervene with the troublesome infants, then shifted his attention back to Elwood. Ah, he thought when Tiger was mentioned. He had almost forgotten all about her. But he definitely approved of the names now, knowing that they were familial. Peregrine was a big fan of that kind of tradition.

"They are," he agreed sort of absently before very, very randomly saying to not just Elwood but Elwood Jr too, "Hey, you guys should consider becoming Redhawks. I mean, I understand if y'all wanna be Blackthorns, though. But maybe, like, you could hyphenate or something? I mean," Peregrine repeated, "you already gave the newbies ridiculous fucking names, why not pile on s'more?" He felt he had a point, a good one.

Through the great commotion of their older brother coming to the rescue, the dark pup had rotated her little arms until she had nearly caused herself to fall into a deep sleep. Eljay’s bustling had brought her right back into a very alert and noisy mindset. Parting her mouth, Lucy let out a loud squeak and began working again at wiggling her tiny limbs to the point of exhaustion. The peculiar and rotund shape of her small body did not allow for her to move about much, and once she was on her back, there was little that she could do for herself to rectify the situation. Instead, she would have to wait for someone like Eljay to turn her over on her right side so that she could wobble her way back to the crook of her mother’s stomach.
 
Until then, the soot-spot would continue making noises that she could not hear, and waving her stubby limbs to and fro.

Saved! Little Tiarnach was more than happy when his big brother moved him away from his sister. His annoying twin. Why was she always kicking him? He turned, wanting to see his savior. Of course he couldn't, so he turned back and made his way on his belly towards him mom's belly. He reached her, and let out an excited squeal as he put his mouth on a teet. Just before he prepared to nurse, he decided he didn't want to. He let go and tucked his head under himself, curled up happily next to his mother's stomach. He was happy now, and ready for a nap. With a yawn he began to drift off into sleep.

Last cause he's sleeping <3

Eljay was so busy with the pups he barely noticed the rest of the conversation going on behind him. He therefore didn't have much of an opinion on the matter of the name thing — he missed it completely. The young Blackthorn barely even used his last name anyway, since everyone knew him and he only spent time inside of the pack, really; he hadn't left Redhawk Caldera even once so far.

When Lucy began to fuss, Eljay was quick to intervene. "Ohh, no, it's okay, shh," he cooed softly at her and he carefully tried to right her with his nose. Meanwhile, Lagan looked sleepy and Eljay had to admit a nap sounded pretty good. However, he had two other pups to take care of too. Eljay let out a yawn, without considering it might be infectuous for the young ones, even if they couldn't yet see it.

Elwood tilted his head, considering Peregrine's proposal. It was an offer that the Alpha male had made previously, although there had been no real reason that the Blackthorns had turned it down. Obviously, Elwood was not much attached to his own surname -- he had dropped Grove in favor of Blackthorn, and now that he gave it a second thought, he kind of liked the idea of truly integrating himself with the pack in this manner. Peregrine, Fox and their children were like family to him anyway.

"Blackthorn-Redhawk," he mused out loud. "You're right, it is a mouthful -- but I kind of like the sound of Tiarnach Blackthorn-Redhawk and Caoilfhionn Blackthorn-Redhawk." He chuckled, then added, "Oops, I mean Terragon and Cauliflower."

One by one, it looked like the pups were getting sleepy -- Eljay included. The oldest boy's yawn didn't go unnoticed by his father. Shifting his gaze to the slumbering Finley and then back to Peregrine, Elwood said, "I'll talk to Finley about the Redhawk thing. I would like that." He gave his friend an earnest smile.

Had Liffey been able to speak for her mother, Elwood would have gotten one big stern wtf face. As it was, she had no idea that they were even talking. And so, the pup swiveled her head, tasting the air with her waggling tongue before determining where to find the milk and heading with surprising swiftness towards it. Unfortunately, it wasn't actually towards Finley's side that she went but to Lucy's. It didn't matter much to the little girl, for she found herself quite capable of snuggling into anything so long as it stayed still enough.

With a happy purr, Liffey rolled into Lucy's side and curled into a ball. She wasn't actually sleepy at all, and so she kept right on wriggling as the action amused her.

Eljay was too preoccupied with the pups to pay him any attention, though Elwood seemed to consider it and assured Peregrine he would float it past Finley. They were currently using her surname, so if anyone would veto it, it would be her. In that case, Peregrine would probably (affectionately) blackmail and (teasingly) torture her until she agreed to make the switch. He really wanted the lot of them to be one big, happy, formal family.

In the meantime, "I think I'll leave you guys to enjoy the schnibbles." Peregrine shot his Beta a fond, congratulatory grin and then nosed Eljay's ear. To the blind, deaf and dumb puppies, he added a last, lingering look and a, "See you later, Cuckoo Clock, Tam-o'-shanter and Home Slice." The Alpha then swiveled on a broad black paw, probably to go spend some time with his own sprogs.

Life seemed complicated for one so young, but as troubling as it was, there would always be other nearby who would lend a loving – and helping – hand. The crying Lucy, who had unceremoniously been rolled over onto her back and had proceeded to swing her arms about, had found assistance in the form of her older brother. The cold of his inky nose against her was something of a shock and she peeped at the touch of it. Once the girl was adjusted so that she was upright and proper, her head bobbed around in confusion as she wondered how it had happened so quickly and who had been her silent hero. Were it not for her lack of sight and sound, the girl would have known it to be Eljay.
 
Scooted closer to their mother once more, the soot-spot found herself relaxing once more. Once the tiny form of her sister was found beside her, the dark child nuzzled gently into the thin coat of Liffey and breathed deeply.