Special Delivery!

"Speech"

It was time, she'd been stewing on this idea for some time. Four gorgeous and rambunctious little hellions were napping deceptively peacefully at her stomach, soon enough they'd wake, rising with the moon as she'd been teaching them to do. Habari was a nocturnal pack after all, and she had no intentions of letting her little ones out of the den for the first time in the middle of the day when she was all but useless at watching over them.

As for the fifth bundle at her side? Well, she knew she wasn't inclined to keep him. The pups were starting to eat solids now and while they weren't totally weaned yet she was planning to ease them off soon anyways... Why she cared so much she wasn't sure, the lump at her side was all but useless to her... a reminder that even she was not infallible and that if she let weakness fester it would plague her for the rest of her life. The boy could not be allowed to taint the growth of the four children she saw as her heirs. This boy, he was not hers, she did now and would not claim him. He wasn't the smallest of her boys but definitely the most demure... and the way his eyes slid off of everything and the stumbling way he'd learned to walk had all worked to make it clear he could never be hers. And yet... she couldn't quite bring herself to truly rid herself of him though... maybe it was her own weakness but despite her desire to be rid of the little scrap she still allowed him to nurse, allowed him to clamber over her with his uneven wobbling movement. She had still birthed him and maybe that made her soft. That had been the biggest hurdle, how to handle this child she did not intend to keep but also couldn't simply abandon to fate... for all her flaws she intended to be a better parent to her children than her own had been, and she refused to leave a young pup alone... she'd nearly died when she'd been abandoned...

So it had to be Beat, it was the only answer she had. The fact he lived in the pack right on her border, the only one now that The Hallows had left, had seemed like a curse at first. How was she going to keep his children from him when they would inevitably wander close enough to be seen or scented... well that was something she'd worry about in the future but for today their closeness was a blessing.

Recluse sighed, the setting sun was starting to peek into her den. Her children would be stirring soon enough but for now, she had time to get her mission done. She gently dug the black and white marked boy out from among his siblings, gently scruffing him and extracting herself from the rest of the pups. Lilith moved instantly in to circle the pups, she'd not be coming today, instead of remaining in the den to watch over the remaining pups and keep them in the den until Recluse returned. Then she left the den, the blind boy dangling from her jaw. It was as she was heading down the side of the mountain that he seemed to rouse, the cool winter air filling his lungs for the first time and he squirmed and groaned. She could just see his little pink nose, so like her own, twitching manically. "Momma? What's happening?" He asked in his high voice.

"Hush," she said around his scruff, slowing her trot as they reached the nook. "I'm taking you to meet your father." She veered towards the river that fed into the lands, and carefully stepped into its freezing water. "You're going to get so spend some time with him." She said, slowly lowing him into the water, he squealed in the cold she gently set about washing him carefully, doing her best to remove the scent of his siblings from him as possible, once she was satisfied she did the same for herself. Then she took the time to lick the poor shivering boy dry.

The sun was now half behind the horizon, she had little more time to wait. Picking the boy back up she walked around the base of the volcano, along the shore of the river as it turned into rapids, then pressing closer to the base of her mountain as the borderline shifted, moving inland. Once she was content with how close to Abaven's inner lands she settled herself on the ground on her side of the border, gently curling around the boy and allowing him to wander a bit, though keeping him close with her nose and paws, though he seemed more interested in climbing all over her instead. "You must promise momma one thing," she cooed gently, "you cannot tell anyone that you have brothers and sister, or momma will be very upset." The boy nodded, still very obviously not sure what she was indicating but the last thing she wanted was for Beat to think he could have access to her or the rest of her life.

Finally satisfied she tipped her head back to call for the boy's father, silently praying she wasn't wrong about what sort of a man he was.