It was late into the night, and he was surrounded by the soft, warm forms of his children, and his Wife. he could hear their breathing, the occasional stirring, or soft whisper in the den. The purr of his cat companion, who wrapped about his youngest. It wouldn’t be long before most of his children were bigger than the Leopard. He let out a content sigh, knowing that this was what happiness looked like.

He rose slowly to his feet, knowing the time must be close to midnight, and shuffled gently around the sleeping forms, and grabbed Asla by her sleeping scruff, jostling her as little as possible as he picked her clear from Bast, who cracked open an eye, and unwound herself to pad silently behind them. With child in his maw, he made his way to the exit of the cave, leaping onto the rock he had placed near the entrance, and used it as a platform to leap onto the roof of the den, padding along further to the entrance to the den he had been digging out in secret. It had two entrances, one from their den, and one from the sky. He placed Asla at the steps. It wasn’t the first time he had whisked her away in the night for an adventure.

There was a balcony, a viewing platform across the roof of the den, with steps down into the large den, a den large enough for maps. When Zee had told him what Asla had wanted, Sirius knew he needed to craft her something with his own paws. He looked to the sleepy form of his daughter, a lopsided smile on his maw, as he waited to see her thoughts.

The small pup, though most likely serene looking while she slept, was dreaming of blood and violence. Inspecting the inside of the brown log with the flat tail had triggered something within her. She wanted to see if the insides of other things were different or if things were primarily the same. Next time though, she would make sure that the creature was dead first. It had been too hard to keep the thing alive while they inspected its insides.

So, when her father plucked her from the warm embrace of her cat friend, Asla struggled a bit in his grasp. She had thoughts of her recently eviscerated prey rising up to attack her and gave a few sleepy kicks. Having been pulled from deep sleep, the dreams quickly ceased. She only woke when she felt the cool ground under her body. Blinking open amaranthine eyes, Aslatiel looked upon the large form of her father. "Papa?" she questioned softly, still shaking sleep off of her brain.

It was a moment later that she realized that they were on top of the den. There was a hole in the top and she tilted her head in question before shooting a look back to her father. "Whats this, Papa?"

He looked down at his tiny little daughter, and tried not to beam too dorkily. Honestly, something about his little children brought out a goofy side of him. “This is yours” he explained, waving a paw towards the balcony and the den entrance. There was a little bed on the balcony, that one could lean back against, and look up at the stars. This little bit of height and clear area gave an unobstructed view of the sky.

“Come on” he said, and squeezed into the little door, having built it more with Asla in mind than himself. The den itself was large, with walls built to hang maps, and storage alcoves along the sides. There was plush bedding on the floor, and some little potters near the door where the sun could hit them. He knew Asla and Indigo were close, and this would give the two of them something to work on together if they decided to grow herbs or flowers in the den.

The large, semi-round floor could easily be cleared, and there was a circle engraved into the floor - an arena, so she and Azure could train and spar together in the privacy of this large room. The door to the larger den could be closed more solidly then most, giving her privacy, with her balcony doubling up as a back door, so she could arrive and leave as she pleased. Last, but not least, was the large pile of extra bedding so she could fit the entirety of their family into this spacey den if they all wanted to snuggle.

"This is yours," her father had said. The girls eyes went wide. This was hers? Instantly her little stripey tail began to wag at the excitement. This was hers! As Sirius moved to show the girl what he had constructed, she dove into the hole after him and scrambled to see everything that he had to show.

Eyes roamed over the space. There was room for her maps and loads of room to work. There was a big empty space in the middle that could be useful. There were places for plants. So this place was for all of them, not just her. It didn't bother her though. The cream and grey girl bounced around, looking at each thing within the new, spacious den. It. Was. Perfect!

Asla bounced back to her father, leaping towards him and wrapping her little body around one mighty leg. "Thank you, Papa! This is so amazing!" She loved her father so much and all of his hard work to build this for his children made her love him all the more.

He smiled down at his daughter as she flew to him, and he wrapped her up in his embrace, holding her tight as he collapsed to his side, and rolled onto his back, dragging her with him until he bounced upon his chest. “This space is all yours. You can share as you please, or keep it to yourself.” He told her, playing back in his mind the conversation he had had with Zee about Asla wanting her own space.

He had been unhappy at first, but… Asla was his daughter, his only daughter. In the end, he had whirled into action to bring to life something she could love. “Just promise me, you will cuddle with us every few nights. The den isn’t home without you in it.” he said softly, reaching forward to nuzzle both sides of her cheeks with a sloppy kiss.

Asla rolled with her father, laughing as he kept her in his grasp. She lay upon him as their motion stopped, her tail still a blur in the air. He told her that she could have the whole place to herself or she could share it. He then went on to say that she had to cuddle a few times a week and the girl giggled again. "Okay, Papa." She wasn't a baby anymore, but if it would make him happy, then she would do it.

Eventually the child stilled, her tail ceasing its frantic wagging. Her features turned serious. "I want to share it with my brothers. I love them." She released a sad sigh. "They don't love each other though." Aslatiel then proceeded to tell Sirius about the camping trip on the beach that she had worked very hard to plan. She told him about Azure and Mortis hating each other. She told him that Indie had even been a little upset with her and, in the end, their night was ruined. She had gone away crying. Az was the only one that she'd spoken to in depth since then.

"What's wrong with them, Papa? Why can't we just be a strong family? We're supposed to protect each other, right? It's our job to keep each other safe." She was sure that this was how it should be. The striped girl would do anything for her family. So why weren't the rest of them the same?

She brought things serious very fast, stilling on his chest, and face drawing into something sad, and serious as she let out a sigh. He continued to cradle her on his chest. She would talk about the beach party she had made for her siblings, of the boar she and Sirius had taken down together, and used as the primary meal. Of Azure, and Mortis, and the clear divide between them.

The Warlord let out a slow, soft breath. “Mortis is different, in this family we are all strong, and know how to be independent, but love and lean on each other regardless. Mortis does not possess that same autonomy, and I believe Azure does not know how to relate to him. As the two of them grew, they didn’t develop that same bond of family that the rest of us did, they are just two wolves living in the same pack. Mortis is jealous, and Azure is easily fed up with him” Sirius described the relationship between the two as best as he could. In a lot of ways, he related with Azure, he also struggled to understand his weak first born. “The divide likely became irreparable the day Azure tried to help him fly.”

She listened to her father and tried to understand what he was saying. Of course Mort was different. They were all different. It would be boring if they were all the same, right? "Yeah, Mort is different. We just have to support him and help him to be strong, right? Maybe he's just taking longer." Aslatiel loved her siblings more than life. There was nothing that she wouldn't do to make them better. "Maybe Mort just doesn't know how to be strong yet." She would protect him until he learned.

Then Sirius said something about Azure making Mortis fly. The girls brow furrowed and she looked down at her father. "What do you mean? Az made him fly?" They all knew that Mort had wings. She didn't think that they worked though. He never flapped them or anything like that, so she just assumed that they were dead weight. How does one teach another how to fly? She knew that Mort hurt his paw but he wouldn't tell them how. Was there more to that story?

Asla definitely had his possessiveness with family, she just found it easier to extend it to Mortis then he did. The recruisive, quiet member of their family frustrated him more than he cared to admit. He just needed the boy to grow a spine, take an interest in fighting, and learn how to use his gifts appropriately.

He ruffled Asla’s fur absently. Loving his little daughter was as easy as breathing, he would go to crazy lengths to get her every tool she needed in life.he would teach her, mold her, and love her with every breath. He was lost in these thoughts, and his brow furrowed at her words, before cleaning. “Ah” he said softly, caught by surprise at the boy's secrecy. He could see why Azure didn’t want to share it around, but it surprised him that Mortis had not confided in his protective sister. “That's for your brothers to tell you Little Star Flower, if they wish it known.”

"I don't think he wants to talk to me, Papa. He's been avoiding me." She had also been avoiding them. While she was apart from her brothers, she'd been working on her star maps. They were coming along very well. She'd gotten some colors from Aunt Iolaire so she had begun coloring the stars as well as drawing them.

"Brothers are hard, Papa." The girl sighed like an old woman and shook her head. "I have good times with each of them, but never together." She thought of the good times that she'd had with each of her brothers. The best experiences were had with Azure since he possessed the same love of killing that she had. "Az and I have been hunting a lot. We killed a ghost rock, a log with a flat tail, another pig and some other things." She was proud of her hunting abilities and was happy to share her successes with her father. She knew that he would be proud of her.

It felt like she hadn't talked to her father in forever. "I've been taking Bast with me to collect fruit to feed to Pip." Pip was the little bat that had been a gift from her parents. The little bat was currently asleep back in the big den, curled up on a little shelf in a pile of fluff. "Mom wanted me to be softer." Asla wrinkled her nose slightly at the thought. "I like Pip though. She learns quickly. I'm going to teach her so many useful things." Like how to spy and bring back secrets.

Sirius had never had siblings, and well he had sometimes secretly counted Deathbelle as his sister, the gulf between them had always been too vast. Still, he chuckled softly and ruffled her coat with affection. “That they are” he agreed, thinking more of sons then brothers. Raising the boys was a challenge, Mort with his lack of courage, and Azure with his lack of sense. Indigo’s quiet love for growing things made his easy to manage, and Asla’s similarities to him made her easy to love.

“A ghost rock, eh?” he mused, wondering what details her imagination had captured up. Had she found a turtle perhaps? A log with a tail… a flat tail at that, a beaver? He could only guess. Perhaps she would show him the coats, and he could spread the horizons of her knowledge then.

He settled into the center of her curved room, letting the dark night and the soft sound of his daughter soothe him. “You’re already soft!” he teased, reaching out a paw to grab her, and very gently poking her with his feline claws, tickling her instead of hurting. “Look at this soft hide!” he teased. “Teaching Pip is a lesson in and of itself, and I'm proud you're grasping it quickly.” he said

Her papa agreed that boys were trouble. The striped girl nodded in agreement. They were very difficult to deal with. The jerks were lucky that she loved them unconditionally. Her father then went on to question her ghost rock and her purple eyes lit up. "Yes! It was a rock that was moving. It had a face that it could pull back into the rock. Legs too! It tried to bite me. Az and I pushed it off of a cliff. The rocks cracked it open like an egg. It tasted pretty good." She was rambling, but she remembered how excited they were and the excitement was running away with her mouth.

Sirius told her that she was already soft and reached out to tickle her. The girl squealed and erupted into childish laughter. She rolled on her back, kicking her feet as her father tickled her. When the tickling died down, he spoke of Pip. The girl nodded. "I'm glad that she was easy to train. She's a very sweet little bat." She couldn't wait to teach Pip to gather information for her.

Where she lay on her back, the girl drew her paws up to her chest. "I think Momma is worried because I like hunting. I think that's why she wanted Pip to make me soft." Aslatiel wrinkled her nose slightly. "Aren't girls supposed to kill things?" What did she really know about girls? There weren't any other females her age around, after all.

“Sounds just like a turtle, or a tortoise. A turtle has a more slimy looking skin beneath its shell, with feet made to both walk and swim. A tortoise only lives on land, and often has a bulkier or bumpier shell.” he explained to her, almost absentmindedly. “That was a pretty clever way of hunting it” he would add. His daughter lay on her back and he wiggled his nose into her chest, kissing her belly, before raising his head again, looking at the ceilings of her new den.

“Girls can be whatever they want, just like boys. You have to se a goal in your head for your future, and work towards it. Who do you want to be? Do you want to stay in the Armada when you're older, and if you do, what will you do to strengthen the pack?” he wanted his children to stay, of course, but he also wanted them to be ambitious.