Larksong Grotto Today I Remember

Five days old and the sunborn was still going strong. He wasn't the biggest of the two but the little one didn't know that. He had a big spirit though. The pale pup often crawled from teat to teat and let it be known when he was not agreeing with something. Life was pretty good for him right now. Naps and warm milk, some more naps. What was the best of all was when this warm thing would come and lick him. Of course the young one didn't know that another bigger thing was licking him but it was a very nice feeling and he was a sucker for it. He always turned into a pliant little pup when he felt it, sometimes he would pee a bit from excitement which only made the licking continue.

Sometimes he was a bit surprised when the licking began like he forgot what it was but then remembered again. The still blind pup decided that today, now he remembered, he wanted to go look for the thing that did such a nice thing! He didn't realize that there was a connection between the warm furry belly he snuggled up against and was his milk-bar was the same thing. He still had to realize it was his mother @Jhala.

Tapat was anxious. Astik slept soundly beside her but Tapat seemed to squirm, as if he was begging for attention. Jhala knew he was too young to see or hear or-- or really anything, but she didn't understand how that was possible. 

"You're so little," she muttered softly, her head tilting gently to the side as she studied the pale child. She wasn't the best mother, but every mother had some sort of maternal instinct. So she shifted and dipped her nose to the first-born, pressing her nose to his back before lapping gently at the downy fur on his little pink head. His fur was so thin, so velvety, it hadn't fully grown to cover him. Around his mouth and his ears and his tummy and his paws was a baby pink. Astik was darker-- so it was harder to see his soft skin, but on Tapat it was clear as day. "Why do you move so much?" she asked between licks, ears shifting as if she expected an answer from the child. 

While he was moving the little boy kept on making little noises which consisted of whines and grunts. He was trying to find this nice thing, the warmth and the softness. He was not sure why he liked it, but it was the same thing with the milk. He liked it. Luckily for the milk thing his tummy reminded him when it was time, and then he had to think why he was feeling like that before he remembered that the milkbar was the way to go. Now however he remembered the other nice thing, and to his luck he even found it!!

As soon as he felt a warm puff of air he stopped with his whines and shakily lifted his tiny head a bit. His liver colored nose rose a bit into the air, though it was gently pushed down again by the warm tongue. There it was!!! The whiny thing was quiet now, only moved to find something soft to lie next to. It turned out he snuggled against Jhala's front paw, but Tapat didn't know that. It wasn't as soft as her belly though, so he squeaked lightly. He wouldn't mind this location if he would have that warm tongue over him.

"That's my foot," Jhala told him, aware that he didn't understand. "You've got feet-- but they're kinda small... I dunno if they actually work," she rambled on for a bit, staring at the white pup as he whined and wiggled around. She kissed his head softly a few times, moving then to give Astik a kiss as well-- careful not to leave him out. Briefly, Jhala remembered a sibling, they were older than her two kids but not by much. It was a fuzzy memory, blurred by age and a lack of thinking about it-- but it was there. She pushed it aside, giving her pale son another lick on his head. 

When the tongue moved away Tapat let out protesting whines to his caregiver. She turned out to be his mother but that was only something he learned later. The pale one snuggled closer to the paw, being a bit cold because he could not provide his own heat. In return he also grew hungry again. He turned away from the paw to look for the milk thing. But now he didn't know how to find it again.

He crawled away from his mother, whining and yelping. He didn't give his mother much rest unfortunately. The pup tried to crawl further, but now he realized that he had no warmed at all! He didn't know which direction to go to and let out louder yelps of distress now it seemed that his mother along with her warmth was gone.

"I guess they do work," she murmured softly, watching the child crawl away. When he realized his grave mistake, he let out cries of confusion, and Jhala gave a small smile of amusement. "Dumbass," she muttered playfully, tail tapping against the ground, "I'm right here, you've traveled like maybe half a foot away." She leaned forward to grab the child delicately in her teeth, pulling him back to her stomach. Her head tilted to the side, studying the child curiously to see what he'd do next. They were boring and kinda of stupid-- but both pups were undeniably great sources of entertainment. 

Tapat was once again reminded that his crying out for his mother worked. Slowly it was becoming something that was nestled in his long term memory. He was picked up soon enough and rewarded with the warmth of her belly. The pup nosed through her fur to one of her teats and eagerly started to drink. His little paws moving against it to push more milk out of it, delicious tasty milk. The little stayed relatively little compared to his brother. He had a lot of of growing to do if he wanted to ever catch up with him. The pup let out a small burp and snuggled against his mother, loving the warmth she was giving him.

The child was so quick to be calmed down, and his quick movement straight to food caused Jhala to give a little snort of amusement. "You can't eat everything," she scolded him teasingly, not that he'd understand the difference, "Look at your brother, he was born a fatass and'll probably grow up to be a fatass-- don't follow in his chubby lil' pawsteps." Truthfully, Astik would fill out more as he got bigger, but his size would merely mirror his mothers, who was beefy and wide-set herself. Jhala didn't look fat though, since she channeled all of her time and energy into training, and every bit of her was coated in muscle. She assumed her son would eventually do the same, but for now, Astik was in fact a round and potato-like sad excuse for a puppy. Tapat was much slimmer and smaller, despite being the first born, but Jhala assumed he'd grow to be closer to Reek's size.

Tapat let out happy piggy grunts once he was settled against his mother. He was really close to her, perhaps like all pups in their first weeks of life. Even though he could not understand a word she spoke, he could understand her loving tone and he really liked listening to her. The smaller child let out happy whines, not to be confused with needy whines, those were far higher in pitch. Tapat tried to snuggle more into his mother's fur and by responding to her words with piggy grunts and squeaks he hoped that she kept talking to him.

He squeaked and squealed and tried burying himself into her stomach, and her ears cupped forward to see if he'd actually say something useful-- but nothing coherent arose. "You can't dig dens in other wolves, kiddo," she informed him, studying him as he squirmed still, "Well, I guess you can, but it's frowned upon and you don't have the man power to do that." She nosed the white blob gently, trying to get him to stop shoving his nose into her gut-- it didn't hurt but she preferred not to relive her days as a fat, pregnant, blob. "Your brother is passed the fuck out, why can't you be like him and sleep-- or somethin'. You've been up for like an hour, that's like a whole damn day in your book." 

Tapat instantly rolled over on his back when he felt her nose over him. It was a gush of warm air coming from her nose that made him roll over and let out more piggy snorts. His little paws and tail flailing cutely. At least he stopped digging into his mother. The youngster was quite easily distracted. He squeaked, hoping that such a sound would result in more licks and pampering. He could listen to her voice for a long time, each time she stopped talking he tried to mimic it with his squeaks, whines and snorts. The copying didn't go so well though. It sounded like nothing really, at least the boy was very active and reacting to his mother.

Unsurprisingly, Jhala's voice matched her frame. It was deep and sometimes raspy, but it was a good sound, usually. It gave her appearance an edge when she was patrolling or dealing with other packs, and she rather liked having the upper hand when it came to intimidation. But it rolled off her tongue like honey when she spoke to her babies, and they reacted so well to it. Tapat always mimicked it-- and maybe you couldn't tell because he did such a crappy job copying her, but she knew that's what he was doing. He was silent when she spoke, and when she stopped he'd babble for a few moments, until she'd speak again. It was one of those things-- completely useless to the outside world, but such a victory to a mother.

"What?" she asked the child as he rolled over, rewarding his playfulness by combing though his tummy fur with her teeth, "Are you not gettin' enough attention as is, Tapat Jakob Larksong?" Her tail tapped against the ground, eyes shining brightly. "Silly goose," she teased, nosing him in a gentle tickle.

Tapat let out a long happy squeak when he got what he wanted from his mother, which were warm licks over his belly. The long squeak turned into the first notes of a howl. Even the little boy was a bit startled by this sound and managed to turn over in shock. He looked a bit dazed, like listening to where the sound went. Then he tipped his head back and let out another long squeak. He really wondered what kind of reaction that would give from his mother, it was a new sound for him. Perhaps he discovered something new and amazing!!

The pup's tail was going quite crazy really. He was laying on his tummy with his hind legs spread out behind him. He let out more squeaks but couldn't really replicate the sound again to his disappointment.

"whoa," Jhala said at the noise, her ears perking and eyes blinking. "did you just howl?" she asked the pup with a small grin, "that was the worst howl I ever heard-- damn, try that again big guy." with another slight nudge to his side, Jhala tipped her head back slightly and let out a low howl, gaze falling back to the white pup. Astik was passed the fuck out, and too fat to really care, so he was unaffected by their loudness-- unsurprisingly.

Tapat couldn't understand his mother but he could understand her tone and she sounded positive. The pale pup listened to his mother howling. It was clearly not something new then but he had surprised her. His murky yellow eyes looked at her and when she howled he wanted to join her. He stayed on his belly though but did tip his head back and responded to her with a better howl, a solid one.

Though he was quick to be out of breath. Yet the pup was more than happy with himself and ran to his mother for snuggles and licks.

"damn bud," Jhala sighed, though a wide smile was clear on her face and shining tears welled in her amber eyes, "you really suck at that number, better keep working on it." with a wag of her tail she began to shower her baby in more kisses, then nudged him closely to her side. "maybe that's enough for today, huh? your mom is tired as fuck," she said to him,wrapping her tail tightly around the two pups and curling her head to rest it beside them. warm and tight usually meant shush, maybe he would listen.

wrap up here?? sorry this has taken so long!! we can start an updated one if you want. (: a happier one... lol

Yes! I will archive! I am not sure about a new one yet, seeing what happened in the thread with Laurel! I might wait a bit before starting a new one! :D

Tapat watched his mother's expressions, knowing them well enough by now that this was okay, this was good. He slumped down happily when he was showered with kisses. That was what he liked. A strong bond was forming between him and his mother. Little did he know it was essential for his survival. When his mother curled around him Tapat looked at his sleeping brother and how his mother seemed to want to sleep too.

He settled down against his mother's warm belly and his brother's bigger body. He decided to check if there was still some milk. He felt very safe and rested his head against his brother's butt. He was not that tired yet but he knew when to keep quiet. Eventually the warmth of both bodies made the pale pup grow sleepy anyhow.