The Sunspire dear child (i've been dying to reach you)

The den was empty in comparison to its occupancy for the previous weeks; Rannoch was relieved to have his privacy again. There had been times during the cohabitation where he had felt claustrophobic, and he could only imagine the stress that the crowding had come from the different living situation.

@Remi, @Deshyr, @Wisp, and @Breccan were growing like weeds, and with their developments came new opportunities for them to make discoveries. Today, Rannoch hoped, would be a new adventure for his gaggle—they were going to take a trip to the stream. Thankfully, it was not too far from the family den, and Rannoch would carry Wisp if she had difficulty with her broken leg.  

Nap time was nearly over, and while his children began to stir, Rannoch watched from the other side of the den. He had been biding time by gnawing on a stick as he waited for them to wake.

On her back, Deshyr allowed a leisurely stretch – the kind that went down straight to her toes before she went limp. Her puppy jaws opened in a yawn, eliciting a tiny whine that was more like a moan. With sleepy eyes, the girl tilted her head to the side, catching a glimpse of her father – and noting with instant intrigue that he harboured something in his grasp.
 
With little time wasted, the dark agouti girl was on her paws, though they were still not so nimble. Swaggering over to her dad, she stared intently at the stick. “Miii miiine,” she chirped, her teeth then moving to her target, ready to simply take what she expected her father to give her.

Breccan's ears twitched in his sleep as he subconsciously took in the sounds occurring around him -- the crunching of Rannoch's teeth on a stick, Deshyr's yawn and her subsequent demand for the aforementioned stick. He popped open first one eye, then the other, blearily observing his surroundings. When he realized that he was missing out on something, he quickly jumped to his feet and raced towards his father and sister as quickly as his little legs could carry him.

He boofed loudly, imitating the sound that he often heard Rannoch make, his tail whipping to and fro as he look expectantly from the stick to Deshyr to Rannoch and back again.

Wisp wasn't roused until Breccan's loud bark snapped her to consciousness; she was a deep sleeper despite all her seeming sensitivities and easily blocked out Rannoch's chewing and Deshyr's request. Her brother's raucous voice, on the other hand, woke her instantly. Her eyes popped open, squinting against the light, and she flattened her dark gold ears back on her head with a disgruntled noise. "Shhhh," she hissed, voice hardly above a whisper.

She tried to press her paws to the sides of her face to ground herself, and that was when she remembered the splint. Every night she went to sleep hoping it would just be gone the next day, and every morning she woke to find it wasn't. The restriction frustrated Wisp, and when she became frustrated enough, she cried. There had been many tears since she broke her leg and most of them weren't because of the pain. She frowned at the sticks holding her ankle in place, then laboriously tore her attention away to watch Breccan and Deshyr interact with father. She didn't get the allure of the stick and didn't join them in vying for it; she was selective about her toys. Her new favourite was a hoof from the horse, which was presently under her belly.

Her gaze danced elusively among them, never resting on one for more than a couple of seconds, and darting away immediately if it seemed like they would meet her gaze. Yawning, the gold pup stretched, whining as her broken limb ached, and rose awkwardly up to her feet to complete her rigid morning ritual of shaking out her fur, grooming her shoulders and toes, and going out to pee.

It was their absence and not their presence that stressed her. Remi missed the other pups and their mothers and she wondered why they had gone. In the wake of their leaving, sadness and concern showed readily on her face, and she would spend time sitting at the den entrance and watching for their return.

She awoke from her nap to the sound of life stirring in the den and hopped to her feet, hopeful that the other families had returned. But it was just her family here. Oh. Her disappointment was momentary. She smiled as she looked upon her brothers and sisters and father, who had a stick everyone was coveting.

Remi started toward the stick. She wanted in on the fun. But Wisp's whine captured her attention immediately. She swung her head toward her sister with a pained expression and drooped ears. Remi lifted her paw and held it gingerly as she watched her sister go about her rituals. She wanted to go to her, to worry and fuss over her, but she knew to let Wisp do the things that she did.

So, Remi waited at the back as Wisp left the den and her other siblings engaged with their father and his stick.

Rannoch had quickly gathered an audience, and he grinned down at them as Deshyr moved towards the stick, and Breccan boofed. They both seemed interested in the stick. Before he knew it, his second-oldest had grabbed onto his chew toy, and he smirked. "You think it's yours?" Rannoch then turned to Breccan with a mischevious look in his eyes, and he let go of the stick. "Get 'er, Breccan!" he prompted; there wasn't anything wrong with a little competition between siblings, right? 

While his child presumably tussled, Rannoch pushed himself onto his paws and walked towards the back of the den, where Remi waited. He nudged his eldest in greeting. "You wanna play with them?" he asked; Rannoch didn't want Remi to be excluded from the game. He kissed the top of her head and looked in the direction that she was looking. When Rannoch spotted his third-born, he boofed to catch her attention. 

"Come back in when you're done," Rannoch called to Wisteria. Despite the game going on in the background, Rannoch would wait for Remi and Wisp before he re-joined the fun.

*crashes the party*

Liffey smiled softly as her little family gamboled about. Unlike others in the pack, the Frostfur matriarch had found contentment in Olive's and Seabreeze's abandonment. Her heart ached for Terance and the children he had lost, of course. And it did twinge some for her own children who had (presumably) grown fond of the other kids during the time they had denned together. But for all of that, Liffey had never quite been able to free herself of the resentment she felt towards both litters and their mothers. They should never had had to be the ones to deal with Olive's. And Seabreeze's simply never should have existed.

But, they were gone now, and some well-buried part of Liffey felt both smug and grateful for it. Their kids had always been lesser and long had she wanted the pack's focus to be solely on her little prince and princesses. The others had been cute, but.. Well. They were not Frostfurs. They were not hers.

Liffey stretched serenely before she stood to join her mate. She dropped to his side with a gentle kiss to his temple before looking down at her brood. Her eyes trailed to Wisp and a familiar sting of remorse struck her over the injury she had not been there to prevent, but she made no motion to interrupt the girl. She looked instead back at Remi, her tail wagging as she called to her. "You just going to leave the stick to your brother and sister?" she goaded playfully, hopeful that she could draw the girl into the game, "It's an awful nice stick..."

With Rannoch's encouragement, Breccan moved to make an attempt to take the stick from Deshyr. He grabbed the opposite end of it and tugged, though not hard enough to pull it away from her. He was still figuring out the understanding of his body in space and how much force was necessary for each individual interaction; and, being the only boy in the litter, he was perhaps a little less rough-and-tumble than other male puppies would be.

He was content to play tug with Deshyr and paid no mind to Wisp and Remi, since they currently did not seem to a pose a threat to his play.

The family played! (And Chan made a mental note to start a new thread as the Frostfurs were long overdue.)