Sun Mote Copse A New Chapter.

@Carnation, @Cosmos, and @Aurora Artemis. I'm not sure if they're all in the communal den or not, so just in case, @Asherah, @Elohim, and @Anatha as well. Pups don't realy have to post if they don't want to, haha.

Many things had changed in the past few days. Honey was now a mother to three, two of whom had come from another: Giana. Her loss was one that pained the pack deeply, but all Honey could feel in the light of her passing was gratefulness. It wasn't because the young mother had slipped away, but because her absence blessed Honey with the chance to raise a second brood as her own. These were things that she kept hidden to herself, but they were apparent nonetheless. She leaned down and nosed at the three babes suckling at her side, grooming their fur with her tongue so that it lay flush against their backs.

He wouldn't remember his mother. No matter how hard he tried, Cosmos wouldn't be able to remember the love she had held for him. As far as he was concerned, the woman who had nursed him his first few days had never existed and as a result he would never care for her. Her death and disappearance meant little to him, especially since she had been so quickly replaced by another. He still had food and warmth, in fact the only real difference was that there were now two mouths to compete with instead of one. Other than that there had been no change in the young boy's life and he continued to remain oblivious to the sorrow that surrounded him. He was content as he enjoyed this peaceful, trouble free life and suckled soundly beside the two other blobs that lay with him. He was happy and that's all that mattered to him, what else was there to care about?

Let's say they are! @Giana @Eshamun PP that she told Eshamun their names, and Eshamun told Asherah at some point. PM me if I should change.

After Giana's burial, Asherah had set out to make a communal den. The earth was hard and cold, it was mid winter. She had searched many places around the Copse, but had not found a place already exsisting big enough for them to dwell. She had lingered at Eshamun's old den, but feared using it, as much as the woman's scent brought comfort. Eshamun had left and Giana had died, she was still wondering if Giana's death wasn't some form of punishment from Molech.

Instead, she had gone to her own birthing den. The walls within were cold and hard, but not as hard as if she hadn't been warming it herself. She dug it deep and wide, resting only slightly. There were separate nooks for sleeping if mother's wanted more isolation, and an antechamber for them all to gather with the children. Honey had been eager to move in, and Asherah was eager to have her. Together they would raise Giana's children. She planned to tell the children of their mother as well, once they were old enough to understand the words.

It was strange to adjust at first, to the den. Having another so near was at once comforting and fretful. Asherah found herself adjusting, though, and it made it easier to trade nursing duties with Honey whenever the woman wished. She lay in the dim light of the den, thinking things over. The den was quiet when she spoke, her eyes searching for Honey in the darkness.

"The male is named Cosmos. Cosmos...Apollo I think Eshamun said. The female is Aurora Artemis. Molech be praised that Eshamun mentioned them in passing to me after Giana's birth. Else their birthnames would die with her. I only pray I remembered them correctly." She fell silent a moment, listening to the gentle sound of nursing. "When they grow enough to understand, we will tell them of their mother. Of her fierce protective nature, of her beauty. They will grow knowing her name as well as ours. Giana deserves that much."

They had been moved to a new place. A place that had much more...place. He was walking much better now, and during the move the one he now knew as mother had let both him and sister walk. He hadn't much liked the change at first, he much prefered the dark and warm to the bright and cold. When they had reached this new place, though, he had been pleased. It had much more room to run around in, and mother didn't always keep him from the outside.

It also had another wolf. He had seen other wolves before, though blurry and distorted. He hadn't been able to do much with them then, though. Now he could play. His ears stood up all the way, he could hear and though mother didn't always understand the noises he made, sometimes she did. He was pulled from his nap by his mother's voice in the big place.

He hadn't had much chance to explore the new wolf, though occasionally things mother called babies came to nurse at her side. He was sore over this, because he wasn't allowed to nurse barely at all anymore. He was jealous, and he often babbled angrily to show it. Mother did offer meat now though, and that was much better than what she had at her side. The babies were with the other wolf now. Honey, mother said.

"Huhy." He spoke softly, rising from his mother's side and looking at the wolf with new interest. "Huhy, huhy." He walked towards her, sparing a glance back at his mother to see if she'd try to snag his tail and pull him back. He didn't yet know to be cautious of other wolves, so he walked with confidence towards the mother. He reached her side and looked down at the things at her side. "Bayees, Huhy." He said with pride, waving his tail as he looked at the other's face. 

He reasoned that she must be mother too, if she also had the babies. She wasn't his Mama though, and he wouldn't call her that. He stuck his nose towards her face to sniff her.

She did not want to move.
she was perfectly content in their den, her and mother and brother and the occasional visit of another. She had followed her mother and brother without complaint as they had set out from the den, steps big and awkward as she navigated the deepening snow and the cold that bled through her fur. And then they were there,  the new place. It was bigger, and there were others.

she stayed a distance from them, close to her mother's side, gaze falling on them but making no move to approach. Elohim seemed much more at ease with the presence of the other's,  and occasionally she attempted to catch his gaze in vain, wishing that he would come back and they could go back to their place. What had been home. But now they were here, and to her distress they showed no signs of leaving.

Carnation would no longer have to face the loneliness of being a single-child, but instead had to face the competition of two. The pup had no perception of good or bad, but at the moment other mouths were poking and prodding her food source, and she had little power to keep them away. She was weaker, as she was born later, and had difficulty keeping up with her own meal. Eventually, she'd grow to love the two others, and be raised to think of them as siblings versus dinner stealers. There would be no life where she wouldn't remember them with her, but for now memories were nonexistant and only survivng was on her mind.

Listening to Asherah speak on how the pups — Cosmos and Aurora — would be raised brought up both anger and guilt in Honey. Part of her felt that as the one who'd taken responsibility for the pups, she should determine whether or not they knew of their birth mother, but she also knew that it would be selfish to keep them from a key part of their heritage. Then approached Elohim with a intriguing curiousity. Honey did not mind his intrusion on their little space, but rather found it comical. Hello there, she cooed. Then her attention was turned to Anatha who seemed the much more reserved of the two. Though she wished she would approach, she knew how children were, and chose not to speak on it.

The thin girl suckled.

Never would she know of Giana, the Mother who had loved her, just as she could possibly never know of her Father.  The one who had left them before she and Cosmos had been born.  This was her new life now, the one she would grow into alongside her originally one but now two siblings.