for which my soul did pine

weaning time! whoever wants in ♥
@Tiberii @Dalmatia @Euphemia @Aurelia @Eileithyia

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Oh, what a time of transition for her dear, sweet babies! They grew lanky, losing their puppy soft roundness that filled her with such a deep level of satisfaction. She loved to see it as much as she loathed it, watching them age. It seemed preposterous that her puppies were nearing two years in age, and honestly, it felt a little unfair that her babies had slipped through her paws, just like that. There was nothing she could have done to stop it. 

Perhaps that what it was; it was the powerlessness she had over this part of life, that belied her discomfort with it. 

They had all grown so curious, all five of her girls. They no longer could be contained to the nursery. Instead they played and galavanted with relative freedom around the rendezvous-vous site, hoisted high up in the mountaintops. Watching them cavort was a part of their burgeoning adolescence that she could easily savor, despite the sourness of losing her roly-poly babies; another was that she (or any adult) could leave them for small amounts of times without a babysitter. With eyes and ears wide opened, they could easily perceive danger and trusted them to stay within their well-defined limited. Mother, however, came and went at times.

At this moment, she returned to them with her belly gently convex, after gorging on caribou. Using herself as a vessel, she had carried it back to her babies, so that they might have a bite of meat, and get used to the taste of prey. They nursed less and less now, and she could feel her own production slowing. Generally, it was around the event of weaning that puppies aged out of a midwife's care — knowing this fact, the mother & midwife still managed to sound chipper as she called them all towards her. 

"Sunbeams, gather 'round!” the sylph chimed, looking around to see a gaggle of wagging tails appear from the brush.

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 "Ma!" The little pup bounded up to her mother, tail wagging and tongue lolling. Was it time for food? She began to jump up towards her mother's stomach, anticipating when the woman would lie down and let them feed. "I'm not a sunbeam! I'm a warrior!" She happily named herself. She hoped it was feeding time, she was quite famished and ready for food. 

 Let the milk flow!

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Aurelia lingered somewhere nearby, rummaging in the dirt to see how many different kinds of plants there were. Since her newfound freedom, the little pup found herself absolutely fascinated with the great wide world and all of its treasures - how could there be so many different types of grass alone?

She gasped, spying a small white flower hidden among the brush. It was impossible to know what it was, but she plucked it anyway, fully intending to find out.

"Sunbeams, gather 'round!”

Aurelia turned quickly, hearing the sound of her mother's voice calling enticingly from the den. She bounded over in typical puppylike fashion, ears flopping comically in time with the limp flower she still held between her jaws.

“Momma, look,” she said, presenting her find eagerly, “What's this? Does it have a name? What's it called?”

Tiberii, of course, was only interested in food - but how could she think about eating when there was a whole universe of mysteries out there waiting to be discovered?

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equally curious as her siblings but slightly disadvantaged by the ever-waning language barrier, eileithyia spent most of her adventuring time alone but within earshot of the other girls. eavesdropping implied malintent; rather, she would listen and mimic (not mock) their words, taking time to process what each one meant for herself.

luckily, the once-orphan was a quick learner who had already learned enough of their language for basic communication. for example: “sunbeams, gather round!”

eilie slowly roused from her resting place to answer her adopted mother's call. tib and ari had beaten her there, as had a pile of something she had little interest in, so the girl's focus instead set to trying to nibble at olive's teats.

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The ones who answered her call the most eagerly were to be assumed: her first born Tiberius, the ever-curious Aurelia, and the newest, be speckled addition to the bunch — not that she would ever know that she was in any way different from her siblings. They came barreling forward, each in their own way, and they were welcomed openly and receptively by their mother, who lowered their head and lifted an arm to gather as many of their wriggling bodies together as she could, in for a hug.

One of most interesting parts of motherhood was how it was autonomous, and continued onward without any participation on her part, other than being a vessel. Her body, and its own divine intelligence, controlled everything from conception to birth, to nursing and now even their weaning. It was a tell-tale sign when a mother became agitated at the things that once gave her pleasure; when her puppies teeth and cosseting for milk was more of a frustration than it was a joy, it was clear that weaning was in order.

Similarly, their cosseting and rooting around on her belly brought something up within her that she knew was steadily growing. A brief bought of nausea overtook her, and she leaned to the side and opened her jaws, releasing the contents of her stomach to the earth almost as if in offering. Immediately the cloud above her dissipated, and the slight sylph worked to turn their attention from her own body towards the pile of half-digested meat that lay steaming in the snow.

"Today is the day you start eating meat," she instructed, knowing that they had certainly had tastes of it before, but this moment was a demarcation from their sense of normalcy and she attempted to convey that with her tone. "No more milk — you're not babies anymore." Oh, how it hurt to admit! Her eyebrows knitted together and she waited for the barrage of questions from her curious sweetlings, especially Aurelia, whose previous questions had been unceremoniously and unintentionally snubbed.

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Miserable!

Tiberii had once been aglow with enthusiasm, excitement in her actions as she'd simply prepared to nurse, a coveted moment, even, but now Mother presented to them something familiar enough to intrigue her... and familiar enough to make her scrunch her nose up in protest; the darkling had her creature comforts. "Nah," said Tiberii, as seriously as possible in a body so small still yet, gravitating toward Mother and abandoning what had been presented like a meal. Stubbornly, she plopped down at Mother's stomach and firmly tapped her with a paw. "Yes?"

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Great. Interesting. Cool.

She glanced over at the warm pile of meat that Olive had deposited nearby, curling her lip in mild disdain. No, she liked milk just fine, she thought - but then... meat was what mother ate, and father, and all of the other adults. They were big and strong and capable, and knew lots of things. Maybe if she ate meat too, she could also grow into a fully contributing member of the pack. Hunting wasn't just for sport, after all; they hunted for sustenance and the survival of Duskguard, and hunting itself was a skill she would one day need to learn.

Aurelia was intrigued by the meat, but right now, she had more pressing matters on her mind.

“But mama,” she said insistently, pushing the flower closer for inspection. “What is this? What's it called? Does it have a purpose? Is it like one of your healing plants?”

Olive seemed distracted, trying to entice her siblings with the offering that lay only a few feet away.

“Mama, you aren't listening,” she yipped, bouncing around to block her view and hopefully garner the attention she so desperately craved. “You know all sorts of stuff 'bout plants. If you tell me what it is -” Aurelia smiled coyly, tucking her chin into her chest as she looked up through fluttering eyelashes. “- I'll try the meat you brought.”

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