[ooc; due to the nature of dutch's mind i'd prefer if nobody came in that would assault her mentally. she is liable to snap and go down a dark path when i prefer she get out of her funk. thank you!] she should try to craft again. it was the only thing that made her... acceptable in the eyes of others. her 'skills'... both desired and easily cast aside. the Hjarrandi seemed to have taken everything stable to her. her trust, her peace of mind. nothing was right after her short captivity. though she had been treated better than some of the slaves, Dutch didn't think it was any less serious. once a bandmate, a friend, and then bound and gagged like some common prisoner. her children seconds away from being born in a ditch of all things. called a whore - an item - by Valkyrie, who Dutch had considered a friend. maybe she'd never craft again. there was no joy in it. Thoren was traded for her mistake, where Valkyrie probably thought she'd earn another crafter. but her brother was no crafter. he would be useless to the Viking bitch and he'd probably be sold because he was useless. then there was no telling where he'd end up, or with who. at least she knew he was with the Hjarrandi. for now. staring at her paws outside her makeshift den, the dwarf would keep shooting looks at her three children behind her. they were all curled inside the soft nest she made for them. she could see Godbrand's erratic coat, Gimli's longer fur around his neck and Beryl's piebaldism. so much like her father's. the rest took after her more northern heritage. she didn't know whether her children would be accepted by their family or not, but they deserved the chance. lowering her head, she'd stare into nothing in front of her.

The pack had been bustling with activity, something that was taking him a while to get used too. A lot had happened in his young life so far and he hadn’t had any proper time to process it all when he had a litter of his own to care for. He had sheltered them while they were resting and recuperating from all the traveling, but soon it would be time for them to explore the pack and meet the rest of his family. He had a lot of work to do, despite him lurking within the shadows of the pack and keeping his main focus on the wellbeing of his pups. This also meant he was missing out on a lot of important things, including the birth of his sister’s first litter. Since that he had heard others speak of Hannibal’s new litter that arrived not long after.

The partners to these litters, Rapture knew nothing about and he wasn’t willingly open to try and find out about them either. In the same sense he needed to pay his respects and do something to welcome the young blood into the world. He was sure his sister’s litter was pretty pampered. Every time he got somewhat close to her den he could always hear a bustle of activity. His brothers litter, which he was only able to find by Hannibal’s scent since there was little talk of their location, he had not found much activity at all at. This drove him to doing something for the newest litter first before deciding what he could do special for Death and her children.

He had tucked the kids in early and headed out for a hunt, managing to wrangle with a young buck and bring it down, not without some minor injuries and bruising. Then he drug it, as quiet as he could manage through the territory to the quiet little den that Dutch and the kids were in. There was no very fresh scent of Hannibal which meant he must have been out on his rounds. Pink gaze watched the mouth of the den as he quietly got the deer close. Letting it close enough that the mother wouldn’t have to go far for it. Then quieter then he came he turned and attempted to leave before being spotted. He didn’t want to upset the mother, nor the pups and he really should be getting back to his den.

-attempted exit by Rapture-

"wait. please." she'd been a bit aware of the presence outside of her den. anything that came close to it kicked her motherhood instincts into gear. when she noticed it was another one of those Kleins - one she hadn't seen before - dropping food at her doorstep... she shook herself out of her funk briefly to exit the den. leaving her three kids behind, she'd sit at the mouth and stare wearily at the other. honestly, she'd been a bit touched by the effort. the other Kleins hadn't bothered, not aside from Deathbelle and Hannibal. she had gotten most of her food from the father of her litter every time he visited. but none of them had actually come this close. her pink gaze sought his own as she looked up at the much taller wolf. "t-...thank you" the dwarf uttered with embarrassment, not sure how to properly express her gratitude. her eyes dropped to her paws. "for the food and uh..." caring she wanted to say but her lips felt fat. "can I ask what's going on in Ashen? if ya... have the time to chat" if she was gonna be a member of this pack, Dutch might as well know the latest scoop. "er, I'm not beggin' ya to keep me company though. if ya have work to do, then you can leave." she fumbled.

Her voice made him stop dead in his tracks, ears flattened for a moment cursing himself for not being quieter. He wasn't the most social of his siblings and very weary of strangers. But he was not completely rude. He was sure if he would be rude and continue to walk away Hannibal would have his head. So the male turned, his pink eyes looking back towards the den as the small women came out of it. He wasn't as big as Hannibal, but he was quick to notice that this was a small women compared to even himself. Pink gaze would find her own as she thanked him. She stammered a bit on her words and for some reason it made him feel more obligated not to leave right away. His kids knew better then to disobey him and leave the den. She was asking for a bit of a chat, which he should get to know those within the pack.

He would turn his form around and come back a few paces, closer but a respectable distance from the mouth of the den. He would then sit and look to her again, pink eyes scanning the emotions in her face and eyes for a moment. His thoughts gravitated back to her question, frowning for a moment as he realized he really didn't know what all was going on within the pack. He had been so busy with his own brood that he wasn't that intermingled with the pack yet. The frown soon faded before he looked away for a moment.

"My sister Deathbelle recently had a litter and as far as I know the pack is bustling with activity. Much more then that I don't know I've had..... my own kids to care for," he stated quietly.

Why had he felt the need to tell her? She could easily seek out his children and kill them, how could he trust her? Somehow he didn't think she would do something like that, plus he was finding it fairly difficult to provide for his kids what they had lost with their mother. The comfort, affection, and deep connection she had held with them. He just didn't feel like he was as close to them all as he should be.

Speech

"you're Hannibal's brother, ain't you?" Dutch said suddenly, seeing a small resemblence with him and the rest of the Kleins. the man mentioned other children and the dwarf resisted flinching. so Deathbelle had her litter... she wasn't sure what to make of that. she both wanted the woman to like her and also respect her, but if she - the main alpha - had pups... her own may be lost in the bustle. it was already happening; no other Klein showed up to congratulate her and see their new family members. they all had Deathbelle's best interests over her own. but that was to be expected; the empress was an empress. she didn't hold it against the woman. but the man also mentioned his own kids, causing her to nod. she would step back from the den, to the side and beckon him. allowing him forward if he wanted to be. "would you... like to see them?" if anything, Dutch had pride in her newborns. she may have stopped grooming a bit and struggled with dark thoughts, but those three pups were her light. any reason to show them off was acceptable to her. did the rest of Ashen even know the names of these three though? "the big one is Godbrand. the littlest is Gimli, and the albino is Beryl."