Moonspear the party's underway

His life had changed forever since the day that his children had been born. Charon could not describe the pride he felt when he looked at their faces, the love he felt for them, for his four daughters. He could not tell the black ones and the white one apart yet, but it did not matter, for such distinctions would surely come with time and he loved them all equally much. His fears for recognising Lazarus in them had been quenched for the time being, and only time would tell if it would resurface at some point.

Blood was fresh on his lips as he brought @Amekaze the first fresh kill since the birth of their children. He'd fed her food from the cache before, guarding the den and keeping her healthy in the meantime; he hadn't left the den for as long as he had now yet. He returned with a scrawny rabbit between his jaws that he dragged towards the den. After chuffing to announce his presence to @Amekaze , Charon crawled into the den and put down the rabbit so that he could look upon @Korei Julia , @Alya , @Lyra , and @Hydra in the den.

She had been a relatively light sleeper all of her life, yet somehow this was dialed up to eleven after the puppies were born. With a little time elapsed since she had brought the small squeaky wolves into existence, she'd already worked on perfecting this. Any noise, scent, or motion and she'd be keen to it soon after realizing it. The smell of blood, and fresh no less, followed by Charon brought her up out of a light doze, and she lifted her head to his chuff. He entered not long afterward.

She always caught herself feeling tense at first about someone else being around, even Charon who was the only one allowed so very near. But, Ame was promptly distracted by the rabbit (and hunger) and she soothed quickly to reach for it with a grateful rumble in her throat in lieu of proper thanks. 

Despite trying not to jostle them much at all, even her smallest of motions would still sometimes disturb them, and her careful reach for the rabbit may have been no different. When she hooked her teeth into the skin and pulled it towards her forepaws, she caught herself glancing sidelong where the bundle of pups sat next to her expectantly. It had been relatively peaceful today, by their still-establishing standards, so she was prepared for some fussing to follow shortly -- assuming that they'd been quiet to store up their energy for now, perhaps. If that was the case, she wondered how much of it she could pawn onto Charon (if only for a moment), or if he would register as too foreign for their meager senses still. The thought of not having them complaining at only her brightened her, truthfully. 

Until she needed to intervene, she tore at the rabbit and watched the pups from the corner of her eye. Otherwise, she was still feeling kind of groggy herself, but warming up slowly. Having some company that wasn't just a few days old sounded practically refreshing at least, and she would address that more after food.

Over the few days that the tiny babe had been out of the tranguility of the other world, she'd slowly adapted as much as a little pup like her could. Her daily routine was eat, sleep, wander, eat and sleep. Of course, her wanders only took her so far, and most of the time, she didn't even make it past her mother's paw, but even that took a lot of effort. 

Soundly she slept until the soft she'd later identified as Mommy shifted. She didn't exactly understand why or how Mommy became Mommy, but Mommy seemed primal, and that was all that mattered. So, Mommy must stay close. The shift merely awakened her, causing one or two muffled squeaks to erupt from her mouth. She raised her head as if she were looking around her world of endless darkness before flailing her legs. She army crawled, and let her legs go wherever they decided to take her, for it didn't really matter. There weren't to many places to go. Unknowingly, she was slowly but surely making her way towards Amekaze's forepaw. 

Eventually, she made it there, but not without bumping into it with her snout. She froze, confusion and fright settling in. These were new feelings, and she didn't like them. She let a wail form in her vocal chords. She was too tired to turn around, plus, she didn't even know which way to go. Whimpering, she sat there, the air around her suddenly becoming very, very cold.

Amekaze was awake, he soon found out, and the rabbit that he had placed down in front of her was soon taken, to be devoured by her. It was good that she slept so lightly, waking as he approached, for that meant she'd awaken upon the approach of an enemy, too. He smiled in satisfaction when he suddenly noticed the littlest of the surviving pups, the light-coloured girl, move. Ears perked forward as he watched her with interest, keen to keep a watchful eye on the pups even though they were safely with their mother.

The lightest one neared both himself and Amekaze, and he glanced between his mate and the pup with interest. He leaned down, stretching his neck to gingerly sniff the pup and inhale its scent, were he to receive fragile permission to do so from his mate.

The rabbit was a welcome gift and as she tore it up to eat it organs first, she swiveled her ears towards the voice raised from the little ones. A quick glance confirmed it was the smallest of them, the first of them -- and the only one she really had any way to distinguish from the others for now. Ame paused her meal to give the girl a soft bumping nudge closer to her forepaw. Despite the blood on her lips, she lingered her snout over her lighter shoulders with a warm chuff of breath, hoping to reassure her somehow with that alone yet uncertain if that would be enough to quiet her whines, temporarily or not.

Charon's interest had not gone unnoticed, either. She watched him sniff and allowed it since she appreciated the delicate nature of his approach. This time, because she trusted him, Ame gave the smallest pup a tiny nudge closer to him before pulling her muzzle back to her rabbit remains -- intending fully to sneak another bite or two before potentially returning to puppy soothing, although her sights  remained trained onto the newborn and her mate as she did.

Comfort came at her beck and call. A soft nudge pressed her closer to whatever she had bumped into, and she soon learned that it gave her warmth, just like Mommy and the others. She qas quieted for now, and more nudges and light touches came. She assumed they all came from her mother, for she did not know of her father's existance. At least not yet.

Content with were she was, the pale babe settled down one more for a nap, her movements growing sofer and breathing slower. All that hard work tuckered her out.

The tyrant had awoken.

There was shifting, and Hydra, at first, dealt with it. When there was more of this, Hydra let out a mewl. Stop, was the command. But when her demand was not met, Hydra lifted her head and began to cry loudly. She was accosted by a great many things: hunger, tiredness, and a strange ache in her belly. Hydra liked this not at all, and detested it verbally. Appease me! Her cries demanded, now! She kicked wrathfully at whatever lay beside her, hoping to inspire those beside her to action as well for the worthy cause.

It was roused on the insistence of its Most Beloved companion. The companion's voice was a strange new feature, but it could never have mistaken the feel of the Beloved One. They'd been knit together in the Darkest Place, made from the same secrets. And while there was one other companion that could also claim this, it had always loved this companion above all the others. Their kinship ran deep, and was undeniable to it.

It answered the voice with a whimpering call of its own, and then discovered that it pleased it to cry. There was much to be upset about, after all. The brightness, the loudness, the strong scents, the movements - what manner of creature lived in this fuzzy mountain range and endured these miserable conditions? It and its companions, now, it seemed.

Not one to be detered by such simple things as utter futility, it continued to voice its complaints as it rallied with the Most Beloved.

A fragile moment existed between the family — mother, father, daughter — when Amekaze nosed the pup in urge to connect to Charon. He sniffed the girl's pelt, inhaling her scent. She was so small. He guessed that all pups were this small when born, but the last batch he had been around with was when he himself was not very old yet, and so they had seemed bigger, and these looked smaller now that he himself was bigger.

He smiled at the quietude of the moment yet the fragile peace was soon broken. Out of seemingly nowhere, one of the black pups started to trumpet, and soon after another followed. Ears folded back, pinned against his skull as though hoping to diminish the impact of the wails. "Fuck, how can such a tiny thing produce so much noise?" he said, half-joking and half-pained, as he looked at Amekaze and grinned.

She watched as he sniffed the palest one, who settled there. This kept her satisfied, especially since there had been a worry the pup would not receive him so smoothly. She had no idea how introducing them to other wolves may go. Charon was.. far different than most, and rightfully he was the first step for he would become someone they valued greatly. So she was happy to see it go simply and without issue.

However, as she'd feared, when one of the darkest trio began, another followed swift on her heels of complaint. Ame's ears were quick to fold and the rest of her tensed, reflexive. "Hell if I know," she huffed, and moved to lick across the shoulders of the first complainer. With this motion, she pushed her closer to her underside to see if nursing would quiet her. As loathe was she was to have the little gummy jaws on her, at least they'd be more quiet there -- it was usually what she'd offer first when they fussed, anyway. If that didn't work, grooming would follow. So far, results were mixed. She mirrored the motion for the second one, who she let go a little longer thanks to her not kicking her fits, and she tried to keep them from bothering the third, currently quiet dark one. "For not having much to them, they can be rather surprising," she sighed, scooting the second dark one next to the first and hoping for quiet again.

She felt something new, and almost immediately, the tiny princess knew it was a different being than Mama. It's touch was different, it's rumbles diverse. Her little brain could only process to much in this early stage of her life, but this being seemed important too. She could not discern who this significant other was as of now, but she just knew. 

She took no notice to her sibling's peeping and remained quiet for the time being, tiny tail beginning to wag back and forth like a little propeller as she unknowingly crept along the outline of Charon's paw.

Her sister rallied beside her, and together the duo provoked action! No more did she kick at the other when her fellow moved, happy by this.

But Hydra was quiet when tended to, and even went so far as to still. This is good, she seemed to display. She was even quiet when her sister was tended to, but this was likely because she had been distracted enough to heed the 'new' surroundings. Hydra tested things, and fortunately as her first desire was hunger, she was calm.

Although the sweet liquid was close at had, it found that noise-making was not only more productive than drinking, but also more fun. For if it drank, it would sleep, and although both were valued passtimes, being awake was far more interesting. It'd been asleep when it and its companions had been stolen from the womb, and knew therefore that it was definitely safer to be alert. And while one was alert, and if one wanted to stay alert, crying out was the best way to do so.

And so it cried, the sound much the same as its unhappy noises, but joyful all the same. It was warm, it was fed, its companions were near - what was there not to be joyful about? The only thing that could make this better was if the Mover swooped down and bestowed its wet affections upon it!

A lot was happening at once — Charon was distracted by the noises of the pups, while the pale pup crawled along his paw. He might've been endeared and excited about this latter fact had he had not been so distracted by the cries of the black pups. One quieted down when Ame directed them to the nursery, but one of them continued to make noise.

"Yo, could you just not?" Charon said (though from the way he spoke it was clear he understood his words fell to deaf ears) with a disgruntled frown on his face as he looked at the puppy, but she seemed to pay him no mind at all. He nosed gently the pale pup at his paw and murmured, "You poor thing, with such noisy sisters..." while his nose ran along the pup's tiny face.

Her ears remained folded back as she touched each of them, alternating with soft licks. The response was a mixed one. One seemed subdued, another cried on. Half success was better than none? Still, she had get her patience in fine working order to outlast them.

The pale one with Charon probably did not need much of her attentions, but she couldn't help glancing her way just to check. She seemed content to explore her father's forelimb. Noted, all well and good, and she sighed softly. "Yeah, really." She licked the most vocal one's face then, offering that to temper her songs in such a confined space like this. "Wonder if they will quiet down when they can finally hear themselves and how obnoxious it can be," she huffed, although was truly curious if there would be any correlation. Or, if by then, their voices would just be stronger. "Or if they will just encourage each other. That seems to be the case now," she grumped, and resumed a vigorous grooming on the vocalist.

Suddenly, the princess was lost. She paused, and even though she was a mere few inches from Charon's paw, she did not know that. She tilted her head, as if glancing at her suroundings. Then, she began to cry. She rolled about as her useless tail flapped around, until her nose bumped up against the paw again. She quieted then, and scooted forward to rest her head on it. She was cold, and very, very tired.

*fades~*

"Yeah, let's hope they grow up to be quieter," Charon said. He let out a yawn as he looked at the pups, watching as Korei Julia quieted down. It was a relief, though Alya remained noisy for now. He watched the pups for a while, enjoying the presence of his family and, despite their noisiness, feeling love and pride for his children. Hopefully they would all live to be healthy and grow up into adulthood, untouched by nature's perils.