Northstar Vale oh, you will see me thrive

11-15 days: eyes open! tags for reference but always an invitation!

time was a concept that towhee jr does not understand, cannot grasp yet. so, one of her numerous naps during the day or night brought with it something different.

it started out normal enough; the smack of her lips after a quick meal of sweet mothersmilk. a stretch of her tiny body that was slowly becoming less lumpy ... and the opening of her eyelids.

she freezes in shock, body going tense.

she could see!

poorly, everything was blurry, shapes undefined. but she could see @Sable and the towering form of @Towhee, which though she doesn't know it yet also meant she could see @Phox and @Maxim, too!

a exhale of surprise leaves her and squirms with more vigor than she had before in an effort to grab someone's attention.

Towhee Jr didn’t have to try very hard at all to grab her mother’s attention. The Eidos stared at both her babies quite often, though admittedly her gaze tended to linger on her mini-me. Her youngest daughter was a marvel and Towhee didn’t think she’d ever get over perfectly duplicating herself.

The pups had finished feeding a few minutes ago, so Towhee took the opportunity to stretch her legs and park in the roost’s entrance for a few moments, where she could enjoy the morning sun and fresh air. She glanced backward frequently, so she caught Jr’s fussing within a few seconds.

Towhee moved quickly enough to aggravate the scars on her back, though she barely noticed. She loomed over her daughter, a furrow in her brow quickly disappearing when she saw the cause of her fidgeting. The Redhawk matriarch smiled and gently nudged the baby onto her back to nuzzle at her belly before sniffing noses.

-“Hello,”- she said and signed, fairly certain Towhee Jr’s vision was too blurry and limited to make out her gestures in the peripheral, though it was the principle of the thing.

The vibrations woke him.

The nap had been brief, barely more than a minute, when his sister began to wiggle. Sable’s stubby little head picked up, his opening ears trying to find the faint trickle of sound he could actually hear and not the vibrating he could feel instead.

It was a simple thing. One second his eyes were closed, the next they peeled open like oranges. And immediately, the boy was gobsmacked. The world around him was bright and cheerful in color, and not one, but two dark blobs sat in his vision. It was information overload in Sable central command, and fires had already started.

As it was, he just sat there with his little mouth wide, blurry pupils twisting this way and that, cataloguing, testing, seeing as he’d never managed to see before.

that her brother's eye opening follows after her a mere minute or so later, goes unknown by jr. she is too enthralled by what blurry things she can see to be aware of anything else.

her paw! she shifts it, staring it curiously only to have her attention whisked away by OG towhee.

jr blinks up at her namesake, fat head tilting ever-so-slightly to the side as she watches the movement. though specific, it was not seen very well by jr; and the words fell up literally deaf ears.

awareness that sable is, too, moving steals jr's attention away soon. and she lets out an excited, soundless chirrup.

Sable began to fidget as well. Towhee reluctantly tore her eyes away from Jr’s and was surprised to see his eyes open too. Her tail waved as she shifted slightly to loom over her son now. She watched him marvel for a moment and wondered what it was like to suddenly possess a sense you not only didn’t have but had never even known existed before.

-“Sup, Sable?”- Towhee said. -“Welcome to the wonderful world of vision, both of you,”- she added before coaxing herself to sit back and just watch the tykes explore this newfound dimension.

Whatafuck

The blob moved, closer to him, the vibrations and the noises making his tiny head wobble in the air, before it fell back into his neck rolls in an impressive scrunch.

His eyes sat wide and unblinking in his face, like a doll inhabited by the spirit of a Victorian orphan, watching the blob for more motion. When that didn’t happen, Sable central command sighed its relief, and the tiny cub turned instead to the small blob.

He opened his mouth to give a wheezy sort of cough, meant to be a chirp, but Sable was still figuring out most things. Like seeing, and moving, and being sentient.

The pups’ attention turned to one another as Towhee sat back and watched. They didn’t do a whole lot, just sort of stood there and squinted at each other. It must be such a marvel, spontaneously discovering a brand new sense. It was like they didn’t really know what to do with it.

-“Don’t worry, kiddos, there’ll be plenty of time to figure out this whole life thing,”- Towhee said.

It wasn’t long after that Jr seemed to tire of this novelty. She yawned, prompting Towhee to reach out and gently scoop the youngster closer to her. Towhee Jr blinked rapidly for the first time in her life, then seemed to recognize what was happening through her other senses. She went boneless in her mother’s arms, baby blues closing.

-“You want in on this snuggle sesh too, nerd?”- Towhee asked Sable, reaching for him too.

Delaney told me to PP/skip Jr. I’ll let you decide if we continue or wrap! :)