Post by Deleted on May 26, 2023 23:31:51 GMT
Tatu'elier was beginning to be far less skittish within the greenhouse walls. Everything was so different now. It seemed as though it only took one event, one very bad day, to turn her whole life upside down. She had loved, she had lost, and all in the short span of a few months. Yet those months felt like a lifetime and a half to her. She barely felt like a proper Ah'mir dog anymore.
Standing at the doorway that led to the outside world - what she would have once considered freedom, she now considered a harsh landscape full of death and destruction. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful day. But it did not feel beautiful. Where she once would have bolted out to frolic in the sunshine and through the plants of the undergrowth, she now felt reserved and shut in. No. She had no desire to step outside.
Her ears perked at a familiar sound. Her nose turned to follow. There they were again. Those cries. She had heard them through the previous night. It tore at her bleeding heart. Licking at her lips in a way that comforted herself, she crept forward, walking slowly and carefully as she approached. Her muscles were tensed, ready with every fiber of her being to run or fight should anyone come near. Though she was unsure of which.
There were babies in this room. Not much younger than her own. Yet, they were not her own. She had been told these pups belonged to the chief Li'Greyo. But in her short time back she had yet to note a mother. Her tail drooped behind her as she inched closer to the nest. They were so young still. Squirming and squeaking. Her gaze flicked over each one. For being younger than her own whelp, they were indeed larger. Their mother must have been someone to behold. She stretched her body out, attempting to lower herself to be as close yet as far from the puppies as simultaneously possible. Her nose poked over the edge of their bedding, while her rump and hind legs were splayed at a far distance. Her nose twitched as she took in their scents. A small whine escaped her own lips as she found that her tail had begun to slowly wag in their presence. Seven little pups.