Lost Creek Hollow find a girl, settle down

@Liffey <333

while bolus, tiara, and tibia were asleep, sionnach planned insurrection. there had been a bloody coup staged earlier in the week, where the fattest of the siblings (do i even have to say who it was? ) had gotten so fat his girth simply pushed his siblings off of the golden teat.

and the golden teat was the pinnacle of teats; it was the one with the best supply, most easily assessible, and least chewed to bits by hongry puppy teeths. sionnach simply could not abide such an injustice as being tossed off the gravy (or in this case, milk) train, and more than once bitterly and ruefully bit @Aengus' toes in his sleep in retribution.

but something else had changed, too. the golden teat, previously assessible 24/7 (well, when aengus wasn't hogging it) was now closing shop early. more than once she had strolled up like a basic you-know-what rolling up in her daddy's BMW to starbucks, only to find the sign "CLOSED FOR MAITENCE" hung up on the door -- bitches didn't even spell maintenance right, either.

huffy as a door-slamming hussy, sionnach did the equivalent of scurrying back to her car and furiously slamming the door, only to get out and check back in twenty minutes. nope, still closed -- what the fudge, MOM?! with a yap and a yowl sionnach sat on the den floor and threw a tantrum, blubbering and kicking with all the unbridled rage of a toddler scorned.

Liffey had gone through a lot with her kids--things that all mothers had to experience as well as things that were unique to her and the children she'd been given. Through it all, there was one thing that she considered to be the absolute worst part of being a mother. It wasn't watching them leave her when they were grown, and it wasn't nearly splitting her body in half trying to bring them into the world.

It was weaning.

Liffey saw the look on Sionnach's face and knew as her little one came toddling up that the tantrum was coming. She laid quietly as the girl tugged at her, shut her eyes eyes she stormed off, and kept them closed as she heard the pup's little returning pawsteps. When round two failed, the tantrum came. Only then did the mother lift her head and go to her little one, feeling miserable.

It wasn't that she was annoyed with the temper tantrums or frustrated by their constant attempts to keep feeding from her. It was that her body shut down on them and she no longer could. It was the guilt she felt over not being able to provide them every little thing they asked of her that she couldn't bear.

"Shhh, it's okay, baby," she cooed as she sat down beside the toddler and pulled her close, "Your father will be here soon and will be able to feed you then. I'm sorry..." Liffey looked mournfully down at her daughter, feeling close to tears herself.

no mom, you're not allowed to get emotional. didn't you know you're just supposed to be the meatbag that supplies the milk, and not allowed independent thought or feeling? GOD, PULL UR SHIT TOGETHER.

speaking of shit not being together, sionnach was still there, BAWLING on the floor like a drunkard that had been cut off at the bar. she bawled so bad, and so loud, that she started to give herself hiccups -- mostly because she was too busy screaming to gasp for breath. funny thing about breathing, it's kind of mandatory -- so after a few long sustained wails, sionnach was redder than a raddish and wheezing for air.

her mom's tender, lovefelt, sweet ministrations were completely ignored, because as much as we want to believe liffey was sweet and kind, sionnach was positive she was the proverbial dragon tormenting the princess in her castle; HOW DARE U DENY UR CHILD MILK, HOW DARE.

the hiccups did not subside; instead, they choked out sionnach's drowning wails to the point where the little nugget was completely immobilized by very furious and very insistent hic, hic, HIC, HICS.

look what you've DONE, mom!

It didn't take long for Sionnach to prove that she would not be calmed. Quite the opposite, in fact. Before Liffey's eyes, her daughter dropped even deeper into the black hole of her utter despair, leaving her to hover uselessly over her while she slipped away. A sudden fear gripped her as she thought of Wisp, and all of the tantrums like this she'd seen while her golden daughter was growing up. Was this one similarly afflicted?

Liffey slid down onto her stomach and attempted to pull the pup closer. She reached to lick away the girl's tears, mostly trying to see if she would even allow it. Wisp had always rejected these affectations when she was in a similar mood. She was hopeful Sionnach wouldn't.

mount crybaby could not be calmed; mount crybaby was like a volcano about to go mount vesuvius on everyone's asses. blubbering, hiccuping, and sniffling, sionnach tried her best to evade her mother's embrace, but in the end she was sucked into fun-police's arms and forced to surrender.

she did so resentfully, still rightfully indignant her civil rights to milk was being revoked: with a grumble and a really loud hiccup that totally undermined the seriousness of the situation (seriously, she was gonna starve to DEATH), sionnach sank her little teeth into whatever she could, ruefully nursing with a vigorous and unrepentant force.

Liffey watched anxiously as her daughter struggled against the embrace. In her mind, she saw Wisp doing just the same in her arms when she'd been this age. And when she'd been older. She swallowed hard and tried to remain calm, even as her hold began to relax as she accepted what might be Sionnach's fate.

Fortunately, Sionnach chose that same moment to accept hers. The tantrum began to subside, and relief began to flood Liffey as she was allowed to hold her little one close. She smiled through watery eyes as the pup gave her a nice chomp on the arm. Not because it hurt, but because she was relieved. "My, what big teeth you have," Liffey said with a laugh, attempting to pull her limb away from the little vampire.

as soon as sionnach felt impact, she sucked for all she was worth -- and nothing came of it except fur and dirt. her hiccups transformed into coughs, the spluttering into pbbbbts as she tried to rid her tongue of the unpleasant sensation of a new fur rug being laid down like carpet in her mouth.

insulted by her bartender's lack of generosity, sionnach started to squirm in her mother's hold; before long she was on her back and glaring up at her prisoner, her little eyes crossed and a dark scowl on her face as she looked up at her tormentor in glowering silence.

Sionnach was certainly a feisty one. Her first litter had been made of perfectly well-behaved little ones. With the exception of Wisp, they had been a quiet, happy and polite bunch. This batch... Liffey wasn't entirely sure where they had come from. Especially this little princess, who was glaring up at her while she squiggled around on her back. This one might be the new exception.

Liffey smiled. "What's wrong little one?" she asked, canting her head slightly, "Do you need some help? Or are you just being a crabby pants?" She leaned forward and nudged Sionnach with her nose, rolling her back onto her belly and stroking her tongue along the baby wolf's spine in what she hoped was a soothing gesture.

the girl was not to be subdued; or so, she thought right up until liffey's cold nose pressed her flank. a giggle erupted unbidden from the girl's lips as she shied away from the tickling sensation, a move which did very little considering it was hard for squirmy potatoes to get much volition.

flipped right side up, she was about to stage another mutiny until liffey preened her back. slumping to the ground, sionnach could not withstand such wiles -- there wasn't anything she liked more than a good backrub. "oooooo." babbling contentedly to herself, sionnach stored plans of violent coups and upstaging temporarily -- if only because the milk-giver gave better backrubs than milkshakes.

In so many ways, kids were difficult. They were unreasonable, irrational, and completely dependent on their parents to function. Then they grew up, got a little more independent, and broke their parents' hearts.

But in other ways, they were incredibly easy. Sometimes, there was nothing you could do to calm the tantrum but sit back and watch as they raged against what they truly felt was their entire lives crumbling to pieces. Other times, they just needed a little backrub and they were suddenly the magical little angels she always saw them as, no matter their current tantrum status.

"Is my little princess getting sleepy?" Liffey cooed hopefully as she groomed her daughter. The happy little mumbles seemed to suggest she was, but the mother was learning pretty quickly that this cute little pixie couldn't be trusted to stay in one mood for too long.

momma liffey's backrubs were of top tier quality -- certainly better than her bartending capabilities. in no time sionnach's nonsensical babbles became muffled murmurs, and she was snoring heavily between her mother's paws.

no doubt, her angelic little princess would be up to throw more tantrums in a matter of minutes - but for now the darling angel slept, dreaming of an open milk bar and unlimited shrimp cocktails.