Nimbus Summit i've got a vision in these eyes of mine

raelle was not the largest of her siblings, nor the strongest. but perhaps one day she might be able to say that she was the strongest-willed of them all. it was through sheer determination that she hit every milestone on time, sometimes even earlier than the rest.
on this occasion, she was early. the pups were barely beginning to find their footing as they approached one month of age. raelle was determined to be the first - and so she was.
as she rose on shaky legs, she bellowed out a tiny, triumphant howl to punctuate her achievement. antha was startled awake, her shock quickly melting into gentle, proud surprise as she realized what she was looking at. raelle was standing. her legs were wavering and weak, and she surely wouldn't be able to hold the pose for very long - but she had done it.

Once she’d begun to teethe, Lilia had become inconsolable. As her little fangs began to work their way through her gums, nothing could distract her from her misery. She shuffled around in the den, blinking her pale eyes in the light that filtered in from one corner that was bright for half of the day, and then darker for the rest. She resented it, as it was where her parents disappeared when they went out in alternating shifts. When one parent left, she’d have to crawl her way over to the other to chew on them. Chewing on a sibling usually started a fight; her parents tolerated her more. 

When she heard her sister’s howl she tilted her head back and peered toward her with a frown, still working her jaws with a mouthful of her mother’s fur. Her sister stood, her belly just above the ground. Lilia huffed. Standing up was what their parents did, not what she and her siblings did. 

Raelle would get in trouble for sure and Lilia would relish it. She pursed her lips and beamed, until she turned her smug gaze to her mother and noticed astonishing pride on her features. With a snort, Lilia’s nose wrinkled, and she furrowed her brow. She looked back at Raelle. 

She was doing something different, and Lilia didn’t like that she was getting away with it. She wriggled and grumbled to herself, but could not manage to pull all four feet beneath her pudgy belly at once in order to push herself up. She failed. Her legs were just too wobbly and thick, her belly too round. She reached for another mouthful of her mother’s fur, searching for something substantial to sink her budding teeth into.

antha is skippable, i'll mostly be posting with raelle here <3

despite her initial worries, antha found herself settling into a comfortable routine with her children. they were all thriving, even @Noatak, who had quickly proven smaller and slower than the rest. @Qeorvik, however, had presented her with a different challenge altogether. she had expected it, but that didn't seem to make it any less difficult.
she loved him, yes, but...
well, that was the issue, wasn't it? there was always a but. in some ways, she overcompensated for this failing; she was attentive to qeorvik above the girls, even finicky raelle. she had just finished grooming him and settled down for a nap, in fact, when raelle's howl startled her.
pride bloomed in her heart, warm for a moment before the disturbance at her side drew her attention away. she watched lilia curiously, wondering if she would mirror her sister's early achievement. but she did not. just as she gave up, raelle flopped to the floor rear-first and cried out again. this time she sounded outraged. antha smiled, amused despite herself, and reached for raelle. hopefully the girl would content herself with chewing on her mother, as lilia seemed to enjoy doing.

raelle hardly took notice of lilia or her discontent until her mother swooped in to end the fun. she was too busy vocalizing her outrage at how short-lived her victory had been. when she did become aware of lilia, however, her own reaction was far less conscious or nuanced than her sister's.
she felt something solid and warm against her muzzle, and she bit down. her teeth were only barely budding, but it was surely enough to sting a little against her sister's delicate skin. though antha quickly nudged raelle away in an attempt to redirect her wrath, the damage had already been done. now her mother would have to soothe at least two angry little gremlins.

Lilia missed her sister’s fall, but she heard the wail and looked up just as their mother reached out to soothe her. Having not yet learned how to be couth, Lilia snorted and uttered a buttery chuckle when she realized that bold miss Raelle had fallen. Served her right for being such a show-off. 

She’d buried her nose back into her mother’s fur and didn’t notice that Raelle had come closer until she felt first the questioning nudge and the pinch of baby teeth that followed. She brayed, long and plaintive wails, exaggerating her dismay as much as she possibly could in hopes that her sister’s action might earn her some sort of punishment. If not, Lilia would make sure that at least Raelle’s eardrums took a beating.

Noatak had groggily awoken at Raelle's first triumphant (or angry) shout, but had quickly fallen back asleep. However, when her colicky sister came and bit Lilia, that cry woke her for good. She lifted her head, completely unaware of what had been going on, having missed her sister's first wobbly stand. Thus, she felt no need to attempt to stand, herself. Besides, she was too tired for all that. Annoyed at having been woken up, she burrowed into her mother's side, attempting to drown out the sounds around her, and tried to go back to sleep.

sorry Noatak's so boring lol

Qeorvik was spoiled -- not that he was complaining -- but it was an ironic development given his mother's ambivalent feelings towards him. His rising greed and princely contentedness were direct results of her coddling; an act of compensation, at best, for the disheartened stares she gave him that he could not yet perceive.

All he knew was satisfaction. No work, all reward.

He was smoothed handsome and over-tended, falling fast asleep. The Tatkret boy remained undisturbed, even through Raelle's familiar squalling and Lilia's melodramatic wails, as if already used to the sweet sound of quarreling sisters. It seemed that almost nothing could rouse or upset him at this moment.

quick cameo!

just as antha had predicted, raelle set off a chain reaction. the red witch, for her part, was entirely satisfied with her siblings' reactions. it felt right and soothing, somehow, that they were unhappy alongside her. she settled almost as soon as lilia started her ruckus, nearly smirking her content at the ripple of negative energy that washed over poor noatak.
qeorvik, however... he was not adequately miserable. not yet. raelle seemed to sense this, though whether her next actions were as deliberate as they seemed would forever be a question without answer. she crawled over to qeorvik and unceremoniously chomped on his skull. because fuck you that's why.