Heron Lake Plateau Stars come swimming out of the horizon.

Towhee eagerly awaited the day when she would be able to start teaching @Kite, @Owen, @Phoebe and @Vasa ptero. For now, they were still shapeless little blobs without eyes or ears, though, and thus their interactions were limited to taste, touch and smell. The Beta didn't mind much. Although some would say the pups were boring at this stage, she found interacting with them sort of fascinating. They alone knew what it was like to live in a world without sound, just like her, albeit for a hopefully limited time.

"Yo, guys," she greeted them when she stepped out of the baking July heat—seriously, the air was thick enough to chew—and into the cool dark of the den. Sure, they couldn't hear her, but that wouldn't stop her from talking to them anyway. "What're you up to? Booling, I bet," Towhee guessed, stealing a word she'd picked up from @Tegan, though she didn't actually know what on earth it meant.

All four were, in fact, presently attached to @Raven, a refined leader and medical expert currently reduced to a glorified milk bar. Towhee licked the Alpha's cheek before returning her attention to the youngsters and settling down on the den floor beside them. She bent down to snuffle at the nearest pup's (dealer's choice) soft, curled ear.

And what a milk bar their mother was!

Phoebe didn't have any complaints about the service, but some of the other patrons were... interesting, to say the least. While no one in range had been subjected to the gurgling rear end of Vasa yet today, they were met with the sense of someone relatively new.

Just days out from a milestone or two, it may have been safe to suggest their awareness was gradually getting better. At least meaning that when a puff of air and warmth crossed over her towards someone else, it gave her a moment to pause. Somewhat unsteadily and maybe about half as uncertain, she lifted her head to squeak questionably.

What was that?

Better not have been Vasa.

Her face scrunched in preparation.

Owen was sprawling himself out on the dirt floor, spread-eagling his limbs as far as he could make them go to try and combant the smothering humid miasma of the air that laid across the world like an overthick blanket. Burying his nose in Raven's side didn't make it go away, and neither did his attempts to hide from it under his sisters. Molding his body to the cooler earth of the floor was not quite satisfactory, but unfortunately it would have to do.

His little lungs felt like they had to work extra-hard at pumping the sludge of the air in and out his nose. Vasa of course provided another good motivation to dig one's face into the floor, but a certain subtle change in the the atmosphere lured him into cautiously raising his snout and sampling the air. The first few gentle snuffs did not show any further signs of the previous stinkbombing of the area, at least... but Owen jerked back with a surprised sneeze as the air suddenly got even wetter and thicker where it touched his ear. Wait what?! No, that wasn't the air sniffing him back—that was something...someone else. Not-Mommy. But not quite entirely unfamiliar either, even if this one's scent had only been a tiny and subtle flavoring of the air from most of what he could recall previously. Owen blindly reached out a paw to bat experimentally at the beast. Then he sneezed again, as he sniffed the bit of down his reaching paw had thusly managed to acquire. What the hell—that bit didn't smell like a wolf at all. Was this newest visitor some sort of part-wolf monster, trying to disguise its foreign feathery bits?

Interesting. Owen tried to scrape the ticklish fluff off the end of his paw as he waved his head in the air and tried to acquire a little more information. Mommy didn't seem concerned by the creature invading, so in his mind it at least seemed like a friendlyish sort of monstrous hybrid...just very, very strange.

Kite was at her most belligerent when she was at the milk bar. She had to fight so hard to keep her head steady, and most of the time, she left hungry — but she was getting better at it, day by day. Today she was latched on with a voracity that surprised even her, her trembling, quivering paws kneading with fierce determination — but between the waving of Owen’s paw, the knockback of his sneeze, and the soft brush of his shoulder against hers as he inquisitively reared his head, she popped off and tumbled down, rolling over twice before she belly-flopped inelegantly.

Oh. That was not a good feeling.

Feeling nauseous, Kite hiccupped and burped at the same time, a pitiful little whine wheedling from her muzzle. She’d learned that the world around her shook less when she stayed still, so for a prolonged moment, she lay without moving. Tick by slow tick, she began to catch her breath as she waited out the feeling of queasiness.

"Kek," she huffed gently into little Owen's ear, amused as not only he but his two nearer sisters began to squirm, likely in response to her body heat and the smell of her breath. Towhee chortled even as she drew back, suddenly noticing the piece of down attached to one of baby Owen's peets. It must have been stuck to her fur, likely just a bit of X's molt. She wondered what the infant would make of it.

Meanwhile, Kite had taken a bit of a tumble. Raven moved to right her, though the Beta glanced at her with an, "Allow me?" sort of look. When the medicine woman grew still to permit it, Towhee nudged Kite back into place beside one of her mother's teats. Her body felt so tiny and frail as the Beta maneuvered her. "Milk does a body good," she murmured, nosing Kite to coax her into latching again, "strong."

When no horrid smell came to assault her fledgling senses, Phoebe squeaked with relief. At least that was the intent behind it, not that she attached any particular note of displeasure to it. At least now she could have some certainty that Vasa was evidently not so near... and that said rear was not positioned anywhere near her face. Resting her head again, she opted to press closer to the downy furs of her mother, but did not quite search yet for food. The puff of air was soon slipping from her mind.

Oh my fuzzy wolfgods it was breathing on him! Was this strange partwolf monster preparing to pull off its mask, to reveal the feather-shedding creature with a toothy maw concealed beneath in preparation for swalloing him whole?! No...actually, it seemed it was just puffing a comforting bit of warmth on his rusty little earflap, still a benevolent monster at heart. Owen supposed (after a moment of thought) that was pretty okay then. Although then again, maybe if he could convince it to eat @Vasa instead that might make the place smell a little better... ponder, ponder.

But not all monsters were puppy-eaters. (Alas.) In fact, this one seemed to be concerning herself much more with making sure baby Kite was getting nutrition into her own belly than with filling up its own stomach with anything, or anyone. He spent a few more minutes sampling the bizarre array of scents the weird hybrid had brought inside with her before he turned awkwardly back with a mental shrug. The small furrows of dirt his motions overturned were a blessedly cool if slightly-scratchy presence against his skin. He floundered until he was pointed in mostly the right direction and then battled his way back toward Raven's beckoning belly. He was not going to let Not-Mommy here feed all the best milk to tiny @Kite. Owen needed as much of that steroidal hulking-up juice as he could get, too, if he was going to grow big and strong and run about confronting monsters like this! He was sure not every strange creature he encountered was destined to be as benign and obliging as this one, after all. He supposed he could let itty-bitty Kite share some of that wonderful milk, he allowed—she was awfully scrawny and sticklike every time he stepped on her, after all—but Owen needed more of it just as much or more than her, he stubbornly maintained as he squirmed his way back into place, not particularly caring who or how much he had to claw his way through on the way, as usual. At least he wasn't having to outright shove a Phoebe off his favorite teat today!

But as Owen greedily placed his paws to either side of the nipple he squealed and yanked one paw back all of a sudden. That stupid stubborn bit of fluff was still hanging on, and it tickled! Oh my gosh. This was Not Acceptable. He wanted it off his foot. NOW. He didn't want to turn into some sort of freakish wolfbirdthing monster too...shoot, was the condition contagious?!

Oh! There was someone new here!

To say that Kite remembered…well, anyone, except her mother, father, sisters, and brother, was being generous. At this stage, collecting memories was like scooping up the same clot of sand handful by handful — some of the granules stuck, and others would get brushed away as new ones surged to the fore. Still, she knew enough to recognize that this wolf’s voice felt different when it teased against her tiny, folded ears. She smelled different, too, and in a misguided attempt to both resume her feed and explore the new visitor, Kite gaped her baby jaws wide and made to suckle on Towhee’s nose. Her tiny paws would scrabble for purchase, and if the beta would allow, would settle at last in the whiskery bristles on either side of her nose.

Instead of latching onto one of her mother's teats—as Phoebe and Owen were demonstrating—the diminutive Kite began to suckle on Towhee's nose. Although the Beta found this endearing, naturally, it also tickled. "No, you dork, you can't get big eating boogers," she muttered affectionately, gently prying the tiny girl loose and a little more assertively redirecting her toward a nipple.

She caught sight of Owen's struggle with the piece of fluff. With a smirk, she bent to pluck the downy feather from his toes, tongue scraping against her teeth even as she swung sideways to deposit the now slobbery plumule elsewhere in the den, out of reach of the pups. As soon as she was rid of it, she turned to face the brood again, hoping all four of them would settle down to feed.

Owen jerked back in surprise and gave his paw a boggle-eyed look. Upon spotting his down-blessed paw, the mysterious hybrid monster had reached down and taken back the piece of its disguise had taken. His heart was pounding at the swooping nearness of the beast, but already he vaguely sensed it had turned away and done—something—with its reaquired treasure, and was keeping an eye on his sisters just as much as him, it seemed. Owen thought this strange pattern of events over for a moment and decided this was all fairly all-right by him as his heartrate slowed back to normal. It was not only a monster with benignly neutral intentions, it seemed, it was downright helpful, if perhaps slightly selfish in its motivations in taking back the weird bit of feathery fluff. Good enough.

Owen turned awkwardly to "look" at the monster for a moment, briefly (and in his own mind, quite bravely) aligning his tiny nose to get a better, more direct sniff of the thing. He momentarily reached out some splayed, fluff-free toes in the creature's direction, though whether in thanks or acknowledgement was unclear. Then he turned back to the important business of food acquisition, fumbling a sternly shoving paw out in @Phoebe's direction to give her a preemptory warning shove: she'd better not even think about getting in the way of his spot at their (fortunately endlessly patient, or at least too exhausted to be too bother by her brood's shenanigans currently) Momma's belly, here. His sisters would doubtless soon realize they too had better rush in and claim their own share if they didn't want their bratty brother to claim it all for himself.

*wraps* :)

When Owen looked at her blindly and stretched out a tiny paw, Aunt Towhee couldn't resist the urge to gently lick the outstretched digit. Soon enough, though, Owen returned to feeding. The girls followed suit. It wasn't long before the den filled with the quiet murmurs of milk-drunk, sleepy pups, not that Towhee could hear any of it.

-See you later,- the Beta signed to her sister, gazing over the little family with utmost fondness written all over her face. She then made her exit, keen to summon X and get to the borders. Patrolling was always important, yet it seemed all the more necessary with these new, tiny lives to protect and serve.