Verdigris Ravine This one Waits

The time had come. 

Candle had birthed her litter early in the morning. Four children. To Ko'a, this was a large litter. A blessing that all four were well with health. 

Now she hopes that the Harvester God will aid them well, so that food would be plentiful to fill the mouthed of nursing mothers. This evening, it does and Ko'a dances over the golden sands with a plump hare in her jaws. 

The golden dunes would turn to red, caked earth and ahead the blue of water could be seen. Home. This time, she headed to @Sari with her catch. It would not be long now for her cousin and Ko'a had only to wait.

S'ari was resting at the mouth of her birthing den. She wanted to get up and celebrate the birth that had happened that morning, but a yipping-howl of jubilation had been about all she could muster in her very pregnant, very fat state. Now she lay napping in the last rays of sunlight, but awoke fully, her nose twitching with the scent of fresh meat. A hare.

She peeked one eye open and saw Ko'a coming toward her, carrying the food in her jaws, and grinned. Aww, for S'ari? This one shouldn't have. And she batted her eyes prettily at the woman. Of course, she had no idea if the food was for her or not, but she enjoyed teasing her cousin no matter what.

This one most definitely should have! She says with a laughter after she settled down the hare before her cousin as she bathed in the sunlight. Candle made four and if cousin has many too, she will need just as much strength, yes?

She flops down then into a lay of her own, her front limbs stretching out so that way her paw pads could touch to her cousin's side. No matter. This one will have plenty of strength still to keep watch.

oops

S'ari tore gratefully into the hare, blood coating her muzzle. She chewed a bite and then asked, And how has this one fared in the new Tribe? Perhaps Ko'a will have little sunlings too, eh? She eyed her cousin and flashed her a grin. Although, if all coyotes have pups, Zoug will have a very hard time feeding them. She laughed.

<3

Cousin was ravenous! She tore into the kill and Ko'a's tail swished back and forth along the red sand with great pleasure that her work had been much we'll appreciated. 

When giving pause, cousin asked of her time here, if she would be expecting children too this season. It would be her first time, if so, like S'ari, like Candle. 

Ah, this one meant to with the redboy but, She shrugged, thinking back to Talisman. Perhaps not to be. She felt no differently. Looked no differently. She did not think to be with pups. 

It was very quiet for a time, while cousin was sick. But it was not bad. We were vigilant. Sureness we had in each other. Trust we built. Now they built further, with their children.

Ah well, S'ari said, unsure how Ko'a felt about her lack of children. She did not want to rub her cousin's nose in it. Perhaps next year, yes? Or with someone else? There is still time.

Ko'a spoke of the months in which S'ari was sick. This time in her life always gave her pause, made her a bit sad. It had been such a strange time--for all of them, she suspected. S'ari is glad the Tribe did not scatter across the desert while she was fevered, she murmured, and gave a small smile. S'ari is glad the Tribe did not leave her to die.

Ko'a shrugged, Perhaps. Though this was all that ahe felt was left to say on the conversation. There had been a few that could have potentially been father to her litter, but Ko'a was not filled with so much want for children, that she would wonder far from the riverways and red arches of home for it. She was young yet still and already there would be many mouthes to feed. Next year, Candle and S'ari children would be grown. More able bodies providing more food and more protection. 

Of course not! The coywolf then ensured her cousin. This one is so happy you made it through... and look at Tribe now! She gives a deep, toothy grin. This one will be a good mother. Ko'a rests one paw over her cousin's. And this one will learn from her, for next year. She decides.

S'ari laughed. Yes, yes, she said. Learn motherhood from S'ari--S'ari, who has never been a mother herself. Well. We will see, yes? Nerves made dust devils in her stomach, twisting and turning. S'ari... only hopes that her children like her. That they grow up well. It was not in her nature to be nervous, to be afraid, least of all for herself. But this fear was tied to little sunlings--to beings that she could hurt if she messed it all up.

She looked away from her cousin, out towards the heart of the desert. Desert winds, guide me, she murmured. Sun and moon and stars, light my path. She used me and my, to show how serious was her prayer, for the Tribe rarely, if ever, used first-person pronouns. It differentiated themselves from the rest of the Tribe, which was a very big deal--to become individual among the rest.