Her zorilla and honey badger had worked hard to help her dig out a hollow under one of the willows further back from the banks of the little creek that had all her favourite fish. It had been particularly difficult to make enough room for Ghoul to get in, and if Mac tried to visit someone's butt would be hanging out the entrance but the curtain of the branches overhead provided some extra privacy so it would do for now, at least until things were a little more certain.

Ghoul wasn't far away with the first pangs came. She had gathered up some plants to help with the pain that would come (were they guaranteed to be great for the kids? Probably not, but would she fly through the process high as a kite? Yes... her kids probably would too, perhaps that would explain some of their quirks when they came into their own).

The first to come was dark and light, small with pink and black skin, and even some spots to match her own. In her delirium, Cricket might have excitedly declared with a thump of her tail. "I didn't know Mac was having babies too!", the next to come entered the world in a wave. They were a lighter bunch that definitely took after their dad in looks, only one other having a hint of the green that marked their mother. She couldn't even remember what order they had come in as she cleaned each tiny body and set them to nursing against her chest. Five. There were five. She was breathless and looked to Ghoul with a relieved grin, her body shaking with exhaustion. "Can we name them after fish?" She asked with a wiggle that set the puppies to growling and lunging back at the soft flesh of her stomach, their tiny paws tickling her undersides something awful.

"speech"

The hollow dug out in the willow grove was… a tad cramped. Compared to Cricket’s large size, Ghoul could feel the sides pressing down on him. He tried to ignore the claustrophobic feeling since Cricket was the important one here. If this is the size she wanted, this was the size he would be happy with. It wasn’t long after he arrived that the first one was appearing. Thankful that her companions had been there to help, Ghoul settled close behind Cricket so that she lean on him or do whatever necessary to feel the slightest bit of relief. And so he watched with wide eyes as that first one appeared and was scooted toward her belly. His body trembles with fury for a second as her words hit his ears that pinned back against his skull. A growl builds in his throat but it soon subsides as she continues to birth the rest of their pups. Once all five are cleaned and snuggled against her belly, he stares in wonder. Is there how his mother felt seeing him and his siblings for the first time? He couldn’t quite comprehend the feeling in his chest. How he knew right then and there that he would do anything for the little gremlins no matter what it came too. So lost in thought over these emotions, Ghoul didn’t realize what he would agree to until it was too late. “We can name them whatever you want,” Ghoul whispers softly as he leans his muzzle over to snuffle at each one of them as gently as possible.

With Ghoul's blessing, and still oblivious and definitely high, Cricket took a moment to look at her pups a little closer. Now that she looked closer, the first pup didn't look so much like Mac. She already had her daddy's thick build and what she had thought was white, wasn't quite there. The black matched Crickets darkest markings. "Oh look, the lighter bits are pinky like you and she's got my spots! She can be Muskie,", because she looked big among the pups already. Cricket couldn't know how tiny she would actually stay. "and that one can be Gourami," she pointed to the next pup that had a little bit of green coming through. He had spotty, swirly markings that suited his name perfectly.

The others were a little harder to place. The two white girls would take a little more thought, but clearly the pinky one should be named after some sort of salmon. "Coho," Ooo, Gourami was the only boy. "Molly," she pointed to the one with the pink marks that came up over her shoulder... and the last. Well she couldn't get the name out of her head, and it was white, just like she was. "Hagfish." Her tail gave a happy little thump against the ground.

Cricket allowed herself to gasp now that they all had names. "So many girls Ghoul, what're we gonna do?" Now the realisation had hit her, she was actually pretty worried. Girls were hard work, (she should know, she was one).

Cricket’s exclamation that the first girl really was more like him than his brother had Ghoul feeling more relief than he expected. Turning his ruby gaze to the splotchy girl, he smiles gently. Muskie. Not a bad name. Then she points to the only one and names him Gourami. “Gourami,” Ghoul whispers, his nose moving to nudge the lightly green tinted boy. A happy hum leaves him as he then looks to Coho and Molly. Both pale and taking after him. “Good names so far,” he whispers, the smile broadening until they get to the last girl and Cricket says Hagfish.

“Hagfish?” Ghoul asks, holding back his confused expression as he notices the happy thump of her tail against the ground. While he wanted to protest, he wouldn’t. He had already agreed that she could name them after fish and hadn’t given her any ground rules. She also wasn’t giving him any more time to fester over it. So many girls and only… one boy.

His eyes look to Gourami again and his lips draw into a tight line. “They’re going to pummel him, aren’t they?” He noses the boy once more before resting his chin on Cricket’s side. “I think we will be fine. They shouldn’t be… too hard to handle. Right?” Ghoul really shouldn’t have been speaking on the subject considering he only had one sister and… she had never been fond of him. Was this some sort of prank?

When he echoed the last name with a question, Cricket nodded. "Aggie for short... Unless she prefers Hag..." But they wouldn't know that for a while yet. A girl needed a strange name sometimes, if for no other reason than a stranger stopping to think about it might buy her an extra second or two to run away!

As for the girls beating Goo up, "They'll probably cover him in flower crowns and make him beat up boys that make them sad." Y'know, normal big brother stuff, or at least, she assumed. She didn't have any siblings she remembered. Cricket hoped that would be all they would torment the poor boy with, those would have been the things she was most likely to do if she had had a brother.

"speech"

From what Ghoul could see, the pups all appeared relatively small. Especially Hag and Gourami. He wasn't sure either of those two would be beating up anyone anytime soon. Of course he lets out a laughing snort at her comment. "Fight? Not sure they'll be capable of fighting," he comments, not realizing how... rude the comment could come off as. "Plus, if any boys are making any of them sad, those boys will be answering to me," his brow furrows as he looks at each puppy. Each beautiful in their own way, but also so fragile and precious. "They shouldn't be talking to boys anytime soon anyway," there is a grumble in his voice as he leans his chin down on Cricket's spine so he can groom her sweat coated fur and still keep an eye on their brood.