Taiya

She'd down play it, but she's exhausted. Limbs feel heavy from the strain of bringing five pups into the world. She trembles a bit as she nudges each ball of fur for the hundredth time, ensuring they're alive, nursing and well. A little voice in her cranium tells her to relax. They've cleared the woods. There's five strong, healthy pups that have been brought into the world. Her duty isn't over, but the difficult part of the day had concluded. Taiya rests her head on the ground, calling out softly to Blue, who's been sitting guard at the mouth of the den and assisting her through the process. "Tell Crucifix he can come in," Taiya's voice is hardly above an exhausted whisper.

Blue blinks, nodding softly as she rises from her post and wiggles out of the den. The pack is mulling nearby, Taiya and Crucifix's older children excitedly awaiting their newborn siblings, the others just as eager to accept new blood into their pack. Blue points her nose towards Crucifix, nodding at him. "She requested you," Blue informs.

Crucifix

He was getting old and he knew it. There would come a day maybe not tomorrow maybe not for a few more years but that day will come when he would be no longer fit to lead. He wanted to make sure his genes, his fathers genes continued on enough to survive. He was pacing not far from the den. He was always nervous. He moved down into the den and made to nuzzle her. Fivehe said as his eyes looked them over.

Krush & Sunburst

Excitement had grown in the pack as the pups' arrival date crept closer and closer. Krush had spent extra time making forays to the dump to acquire extra food, while Sunburst had taken to the borders, marking and remarking the edges of their land to make sure there were no unknown visitors stumbling into their domain during such a delicate time. It was shortly after returning from one of these patrols that he found most of the pack loosely clustered around the den, with no sight of Taiya.

The lithe little ex-Haunter kept his distance from the den where Blue was diligently guarding and offering her aid. He settled instead near the others, sitting back on his haunches, with his tail beating merrily against the ground.

Krush was likewise nearby, ears popped up and and tail swishing when Blue finally emerged from the den, trading places with the aging Crucifix. The blue-eyed wolfdog dared to inch a little closer, his gaze bouncing between the den and Blue, "Did I hear five? How are they all doing?"