We'll bloom under midnight ceilings

For the kiddos! @Almalexia @Penumbra @Zephyr @Coelacanth

Week 6 -- Around 17 lbs
The pups sense of vision and hearing are now quite clear. They are able to understand simple instructions and respond in limited and simple single-word replies. Their muscles are now fully adjusted to them running around, and their balance is super. They are now playing a lot more than the previous week but still sleeping for hours during the day as they continue to grow at a rapid pace. All of the pups are now completely weaned off of their mother's milk by mid-week and may accompany adults on short trips away from the den.

---

If Esmerelda thought her heart had soared before, it must have been past the world's skies and stars by now. It had been three weeks since the sea-blessed pair had found them, three weeks since her heart had grown to have space for five more. Five! All of them had already started to show their personalities, show the most raw and unfinished version of themselves. No doubt that they would change over time, but Esmerelda had a feeling that each would come in to their own.

The silvered sea witch lay curled up with a few of them now, while she watched the rest tumble about and entertain themselves in their own various ways. With @Wake off hunting down a meal for them all, she was the sole caretaker for the moment, and was quite pleased to watch over them all. Five daughters and sons, five bundles of joy that had forever changed her and her wife's lives.

Esmerelda could not have been happier.

the staff team luvs u

When she dreamed, it was vibrant and brilliant. Visions of a time before, one she would never be able to remember and speak aloud. A woman revered and powerful. All knowing and radiant with the knowledge of the universe.

Almalexia, the world whispered in her ear. Wake and kiss the world with your wisdom.

Only when she opened her eyes she was unable to speak her bountiful wisdom. It had been locked away behind her lack of development and inability to recall her grand dreams.

Woe was her, the girl burdened by spirit.

Yet she still felt glad to stir from her nap. Greeted by siblings, but most importantly — mother. Both were not present but one was more than enough to keep her entertained. She blinked her eyes wide and wonderful as she gazed up at her mother's face. Oh hello, her gaze said even if she did not speak.

Instead she reached greedily with her teeth to grab at the wispy tendrils of her parent's cheek.

the staff team luvs u

She felt the stirring of her daughter before she saw it, a shift in the spiritual world, as if some great shadow had moved and displaced the energies around them. It brought a flutter to her heart, a breath to her lips as she looked down and met the brilliant eyes of her daughter.

She smiled.

“Bom dia, minha estrela. — Good morning, my star.” Esme would lean lower her face closer to the girl, sweeping a gentle tongue across a downy soft forehead. “How did you sleep, little one?” Her voice was quiet, so as not to wake the others yet, finding a specialness to the moment with her little Almalexia. She knew the girl could not yet answer and still asked all the same, pleased to just have her awake and alert.

the staff team luvs u

Almalexia knew the words like a familiar touch.

Her mother's tongue lived in her heart, even if the dark cloak girl had not yet said words aloud. Surely she would at some point. She was just...taking her time, perhaps. Learning everything before she dared to babble what may become a first word.

The voice rumbled warmly through the sea daughter.

Her eyes closed for a moment, but her movement had not stopped. She sought to worm herself against her mother's jaw and cheek. Nearly feline in its nature! Instead it was only the childish curiosity of youth that made her behave as such.

A rumble in the back of her throat — her mouth opened once more to teeth at a pale cheek.

the staff team luvs u

Those tiny teeth combed through the fluff of her cheek in such a delicate way that Esmerelda could have thought it all a dream. Truthfully, every day felt like that, rousing each morning beside Wake and their new clutch, walking the sands and forests of their home. As it had been since she had awoken on the shores of the dark island, it had all been wonderfully perfect. Esmerelda could not deny the way her heart palpitated when she thought of all the things that could go wrong, but she also trusted in the Mother Sea's guidance.

The little light beneath her reached once more and the Mystic lowered her head to allow the child a shorter distance to reach over, a happy hum low in her throat as she lay there with the girl. Her chin settled on her foreleg while lavender eyes sparkled as they watched and took in her little light, happy as she could ever be.

the staff team luvs u