Dragoncrest Cliffs Guppy

Siblings are very much welcome! As are mom and dad. <3 ^^

It was getting warmer and warmer with each passing day.

Swordfish yawned. A small squeak from his mouth before he nestled his snout into the fluff of his mother’s belly and felt her steady breathing. As different as it was outside, the young pup could not help but to think that it wasn’t all that bad. He got a seemingly unlimited supply of milk and a few lumpy footrests. No matter the squirming, Swordfish was unperturbed – the squeals of his siblings fell on deaf ears.

Feeling that he could use a little food, the young pup began to poke his nose in search of the glorious milk tap. The longer he searched, the hungrier he became.

hope this is okay, lmk if not! <3

even if her brothers stayed away, mireille had discovered a new affinity for babysitting that kept her close to aminthe and quennell. eventually it also brought her to the den where @Meerkat and her da had been given little ones as well.
for a long time she hung back, a fish dangling from her jaws. on some level the girl understood that women with new pups were quite hungry.
but curiosity got the best of her. she set it down and stole forward, ears splayed; mireille wondered if meerkat or even njord himself would warn her away.
"hi," she muttered to any listening. "i brought food." she watched the nearest pup hunt along his mother's belly.

No matter how fussy they were—and @Mercy in particular proved quite the colicky baby—it never tempered Meerkat’s adoration of the three newborns. She saw to their every need with patience, no matter how exhausted she felt. They would grow fast, she knew, so she was determined to savor every moment, even the messy, trying or unpleasant ones.

Her eyes were at half mast when she felt a small nose rooting around her breast. Meerkat opened them and leaned down to guide Swordfish, waiting for him to latch. She thought she smelled fresh fish on the breeze, which set her mouth to watering, but she did not look up until her son was nursing.

A beat later, Mireille appeared, hovering nervously outside the burrow’s door. Mireille, hello, Meerkat said with a sleepy smile and a single thump of her tail. Thank you, she said, nodding at the fish before redirecting her attention and saying, Mireille, I’d like you to meet @Stingray, Swordfish and Vixen.

She caught the yearling’s eye, welcoming her to take a closer look if she liked. In the meantime, Meerkat dragged the fish closer to herself and began to eat quietly.

Please feel free to PP and/or skip her. :)

Cameo only!

Right on cue, Stingray rolled in his sleep and lashed out all four sandy paws in an enormous stretch. Oooh, yeaaah, his sleepily smacking chops seemed to say, don't act like you're not impressed, ladies! The moment passed quickly with Ray folding all his limbs up and rolling back into the puppy pile, where he fell back to sleep with his nose smushed up against Mercy's side.

A visitor had arrived to see the children.

Swordfish was – gratefully – guided to his mother. He began to drink until he filled his belly and felt sleepiness take hold of him. The voices of Meerkat and Mireille would not be heard. He was still in the freshest stage of being a child, and his eyes and ears had not opened to the world. Sleep would be easy enough in a few minutes. Until he was ready to fall into dreamless slumber, Swordfish made a few little squeaks as he wobbled and pushed his nose deeper into his mother’s coat.

The warmer the puppy, the deeper the sleep. Even Stingray’s wiggling did not reach his brother.

meerkat accepted the offering. mireille crept closer, stilling the ragged shake of her breath as she nosed curiously toward the babies. "stingray, swordfish, an' vixen," she repeated aloud, committing the names to memory. she'd probably have to be reminded again, but mireille planned to be back as often as meerkat would allow.
"two more brot'ers an' anot'er sister." her tongue lolled happily. "dat be a lot of babies!"
soon she was back at it again, inspecting the tiny new lives with a gaze gone deep and affectionate.

I figured I’d post again since the babies are snoozin’. I’d be happy to continue this a few more rounds, unless you would prefer to fade it here? :)

She wondered if Mireille knew how much it meant to her, to hear the yearling refer to them as her little brothers and sister. Meerkat paused in her eating to swallow the sudden lump in her throat, her eyes veritably shining with adoration as she beheld the girl.

You’re already a fantastic older sister, Meerkat murmured in agreement, stretching over her partially eaten meal to nose Mireille’s cheek. Drawing back to resume eating, she added, Come as close as you like and don’t hesitate to talk to them. They can’t hear but I’m certain they can sense it anyhow.

im cool to continue!

when mireille looked over at meerkat, it was with a sense of something new. not acceptance, as she had already accepted her da's wife into the pack and the family. she would have to think of something else to mentally reference meerkat, really anything other than 'da's wife,' which was kinda clunky and othering.
she chose to trust the woman, and crowded closer to the tiny brood, her cheeks shining with a grin. "i be mireille, probably de bes' older sister. but not de only one." her voice was melodic and pitched low. "uhum, dere be marisol an' clementine an' nieve. and den chacal an' arcelia an' solaire. den me an' coraline. an' also regin an' raleska. dey were adopted."
she nosed each child gently.
"but you be havin' a lot of brot'ers too: scarab an' reyes an' sobo an' loko. an' dis year, dere be quennell. an' reyes has his own children now, i hear from maman, so more family."

Meerkat ate as Mireille talked to the pups, smiling into her meal. Her mouth froze along with the rest of her face when the yearling mentioned a name Meerkat had not thought about in quite a long time: Reyes. She said nothing, just drew in a breath and resumed plucking at scales and pin bones after a momentary pause.

Of course, out of all the names she listed, only Mireille’s litter was truly related by blood. Excepting her mother’s former mate, Meerkat was quite glad to consider the rest extended family. In fact, she was thrilled that Mireille so readily accepted her brood into that group. She wondered if and when Loko and Sobo might come around to the idea too.

She finished off the fish and repeated, Thanks for the meal, Mireille. You should tell them more about yourself, Meerkat coaxed, mostly because she wanted to learn more about her husband’s elder daughter, and what life is like for a young wolf in Sapphique.

mireille took to that with a nod, not glancing toward meerkat to see her expressions. she had no consideration in her for the fact that speaking such at length could be educational. "sapphique, well, maman said it was uhum, reparative, to get dis place in de end. dere was a war wit a pack named drageda. rosalyn was stolen away an' hurt. she was kept down by de beach. maman erzulie come to get her, and all de res' of rusalka too. blood. deat'. all dat."
"dey did a lot of travelin' but dey came back to settle here an' have been here ever since." she chuckled. "some story, ah?" she nosed one of them. "sali, do you be listenin', swordfish?" mireille laughed at her own joke.
"so anyway i played a lot of make believe down by corsair beach — yes, we be havin' more den one beach. an' i always pretended i was runnin' up de cliffs to come get my one true love." she nodded sagely. "but now i like to hang out wit' sobo an' loko. we explore. an' sometimes we hunt. all t'ings you can do too. i take aminthe with me sometimes, though she still be little. life is good. when you are old enough, i will take you to go an' get sea urchin eggs, very good an' rich."

Feeling well fed, Meerkat stretched out a bit, letting her head drift down to perch atop her crossed forelegs. Perhaps the pups couldn’t truly hear anything Mireille was saying but she certainly could. She listened in rapt silence as the yearling’s lilted voice told some of Sapphique’s history, before moving on to the topic of the life the three newest members could expect to lead.

You’re so good with them, Meerkat wanted to tell Mireille, though she couldn’t be sure if she actually said it out loud. She trusted the young woman so completely, she was starting to fall asleep and did nothing at all to fight it. Her tail gave a solid thump on the burrow’s earthen floor, an unspoken symbol of her affection and appreciation for Njord’s daughter’s presence.

<3 this is my last post!

when mireille looked over, it was to find meerkat caught in a light doze. "oh," she said under her breath, then slipped her forelegs around the pups and pulled them a small bit closer. "now i will be tellin' you about de seaside moors. my mot'ers have lived a lot of places ..."
she would speak in a low voice until the babies too slumbered, then keep close until their mother awoke, taking the opportunity to duck her nose beneath tailtip and lie near meerkat, not sleeping but resting as she kept a watchful gaze and ear out for the little ones.