Noctisardor Bypass we built these dreams on sand

The children had been born, and nobody died.

Glaukos had been delegated the role of babysitter suddenly, which meant he had to sit with them and keep an eye out, and he knew he could guard them well enough. That wasn't the problem. Druid fled for some alone time which he was more than happy to afford her; although the moment he was laying there (half in the den mind you; he is a big daddy) the surrealism of the situation was overwhelming.

They were so small. If he wanted to he could crush them between his teeth; this was the epitome of an intrusive thought and it jarred Glaukos deeply when it popped in to his mind. The same could be said about the sudden vision of the den full of blood, with himself looming victorious—

No. They were here, they were new, they were safe with him. On and on the mantra went.

ava had intrusive thoughts too, though of a slightly different nature. 

she watched druid leave, as the den-daddy draped across the threshold. most of the puppies were asleep. heda’s sides rose and fell like the image of a soft wave. 

ava was troubled by what she had seen in dinah. she was no stranger to such emotion, but did it belong here, resurfacing?

she pressed a paw to her head with a grimace, as a pang splintered across her forehead and stole her focus.

There was movement outside the den, a sound of claws upon dirt at the very least, and Glaukos used this as an excuse to remove himself utterly from the den; rolling his massive body aside like a boulder, turning his eyes upon the craggy terrain rather than the softness inside, he saw his father standing there with one eye bright—until his own eyes adjusted.

It was just a girl. One of Heda's, if Glaukos remembered correctly. There was nothing special or familiar about her; she was only here to see to the children, like the rest of them. Better her than me, he thought.

He hadn't realized yet that he stared.

alone in the den with glaukos (well, besides the sleeping heda), ava was struck with just how enormous this man was.

she'd never met someone so immense. caracal had been slim-lined and agile. the boy in the woods had been stocky, but short. etienne was text-book svelte.

but this man was a brick, and looked like he carried all the menace of one.

ava stepped over the squirming bodies, repositioning herself close to her mama and the new cubs. while there were six in the den, and ava would care for all of them if asked, it was really only two of them that caused her heart to stir.

ezra and gideon. she wondered if this was how the sweetlings had felt, the day she arrived at their doorstep.

looking up, ava met the harsh gaze of two repressed, sunken suns. ava flinched, another dull ache pressing her temple.

cameo! <3

heda slept, exhausted. her little boys fit against her side like they had always belonged. in druid's absence, she muzzily stirred, allowing any of the others close if they also wished to share her milk; she was not opposed, though she expected ezra and gideon to fight their cousins.
or were they siblings?
with little awareness of how branchless the family tree appeared these days, she readjusted in her sleep and swept close whatever two puppies happened to be the nearest, cuddling them against her chest as she relived a dream of baby days upon a sunny isle.

Heda shifted in the den and briefly Glaukos' attention shifted to watch her and the little bundles she moved; he would not stop her. So far as he was concerned he should not touch them. He was more likely to do harm even if he didn't wish to, given his size. The man was not soft, he had never known softness, and would not be the one the children went to in the future for such things. They had two mothers for that—and two sisters. So many women.

He felt cramped where he was, suddenly.

The dark girl with Merrick's face looked at him and then appeared to flinch away from him, which Glaukos didn't take offense at really; he didn't know what ailed her, and presumed she was only intimidated like everyone else. He continued to loom over the little bodies of his children and very carefully, without touching them, gathered their scents.

It was sort of like watching a tyrannosaurus tending to a clutch of eggs—one wrong move and, splat.

short breaths held ava together until the pain subsided. in the corner, heda shifted -- collecting her brood of children. two nestled close to her chest.

ava's gaze flickered back to the man; the hulking, huge, lumbering man. he'd stood up, and now stood over the squirming puddle of puppies, his large and black nose glistening. the arc of his nostrils flared in and out.

ava rose suddenly, ignoring the pulse of pain in the back of her head. she met the man's gaze, supping from their collective scents each individual aroma, in the same manner he'd done.

if he instilled any fear in the child, it did not show.

As Glaukos looked across these tiny bodies, breathing them in, he heard a bit of movement and turned an ear towards Ava, then glanced at her, and their eyes met. She was studying the little ones the same way he did. He felt nothing to indicate he should chase Ava off, and in fact felt like the misplaced entity within the den. That could have been the claustrophobia but just as valid, it could have been the spark of overwhelm upon realizing he was a father.

Was he, though? He knew himself to be a soldier, protecting Rivenwood as it rose up around Druid and these newborns. His body was a weapon for use against the forces that meant Druid ill. He didn't consider himself a purveyor of justice or a protector of the realm—what did he care about the bypass, it was only a place, and he had lived many places—he didn't even consider himself among those worthy of such protection. As he looked upon these weak, mewling, hungry, smelly bundles of fur that couldn't hear him, or see him, or order him around, Glaukos wasn't sure if they fit in to the category of things worthy of his attention let alone protection.

The girl beside him was watchful of the children. Glaukos wondered if she felt anything when she looked at them, or if she was only doing it as a favor to her mother and her aunt. What did she get out of it? As these thoughts began to pivot, he released them to the aether of shadows here in the den, and chose not to pursue them. If it did not feed his own ego or otherwise inform Glaukos of something he deemed valuable, he wasn't going to waste his time.

She was here, one more woman to mind the children.

He was reminded of Germanicus again; he had wisely kept the women and children separate from the soldiers, and the more Glaukos looked upon these useless little creatures, he could see why. He did not feel the need to end their lives as he looked down upon them one last time—but neither did he feel connected, and why should he? He had merely been their donor.

Glaukos wordlessly sinks back against the wall and draws his eye towards the den mouth, to the light, where he hoped someone might appear and dismiss him from this tedious job.

the man is lost in his own thoughts as ava inspects each child. she’d observed the way he carefully pulled from each of them a scent; understanding its significance, the girl imitated the guardsman. 

her lot was not to be den wife- it was to be stalwart. as the smelly, mewling things squirmed over their mother, ava rose and stalked over towards glaukos. her head rung painfully as she stood to all fours again, but settled down shortly after. 

she set down like a sphinxlike pose several feet from his elbows, her eyes trained towards the entrance same as he. 

two protectors were better than none at all.