Tisiphone: Sure, motherhood all sounded nice and wonderful and warm and fuzzy when spoken of in the abstract. Obviously, none of the people who spoke of it as such had ever been pregnant. Or if they had, they had conveniently blocked that time in their lives out of their memory...permanently.

She scowled as she nursed sore paws and wondered where her lauded mate had run off to this time. If he was responsible for getting her this way, he was damn well going to suffer through it with her.

Hephaestus: As if hearing his mate's disgruntled thoughts, the alpha of the Acropolis pack stepped from the rolling clouds drifting over their pleasant, if snow covered, plateau. The puffy white things drifted over the edge of the cliff that marked the Southern edge of the packlands like cotton, floating gently above the green forests below. A fat hare hung from his jaws and he had a chagrined look to him.

Dropping the meal at his mate's sore paws, he shook the snow from his back. "Why do I feel like I should be apologizing?"

Tis: She glared at the large, sheepish male, but the effect was slightly ruined by the fact that her nose was already seeking out the warm, fresh meat he had offered her.

"Perhaps because I am three times as fat as I should be, which means I am three times as heavy as I should be and my paws have to suffer for it while you get to prance around as lean and pain-free as ever?"

She gave in and snatched up the rabbit, devouring it with gusto.

Heyoka: Her mood had improved dramatically, even as Tisiphone's had worsened. In fact, there seemed to be an inverse proportion between the two: the grumpier the black female became, the more overjoyed Heyoka got. There was an easy explanation for this: Pregnant wolves were fun to bait.

With a skip in her step, the grey female bounded toward where she new Tis would be, prepared to have a bit of fun with her.

Heph: The big male seemed at a loss for words, battling with his response. Many words came to his mind, but all of them might unintentionally set his still beautiful, but overly hormonal mate off the edge. In the end, all he could do was dance from paw to paw, at a loss for words, and whine.

"I'm sorry?"

He truly wasn't, but at this point, he was simply trying to keep his manhood intact.

Tis: She gave him a muffled growl, not at all convinced of this, but neither was she particularly inclined to emaciate him...just yet. She had to finish her lunch first.

Heyoka: She bounded with all the unrestrained joy of a puppy into their midst, completely disregarding personal space -- or, for that matter, that Hephaestus was her alpha. He was boinking her "sister" which, in Heyoka's view, made him pretty much impossible to view as anything particularly imposing. Besides, Tis had hardly been able to control her as it was.

"Hungry, huh?" Heyoka asked, flopping down to her haunches and eyeballing Tisiphone's dinner, as though contemplating taking some herself. She narrowed her eyes, looking shrewdly at the black wolf's belly. "How many pups did he put in you, anyway? It looks like a lot."

Heph: Never one to be embarrassed in the past, Heph finally found the one thing that had the ability to make him want to tuck his tail and slink under a rock. His ears flattened and he let out a puff of air in embarrassed surprise.

"Heyoka, I...Well, she....You can't ask...."

Slumping down into the snow, he covered his head with his paws and let out his breath in a long, exasperated puff of foggy air.

Tis: Her growl gained some force as Heyoka eyed her meal. She was hungry. If little sister thought she was going to get any, she had another thing coming. The pregnant female finished off the body meat and started working on the bits in the legs, completely ignoring her mate's discomfort.

"It feels like a lot."

Heyoka: Nodding knowingly, she glanced disapprovingly back toward Hephaestus. She clicked her tongue. "He's turned you into a moose." Did she even know what a moose was? Well, no, but she knew they were big.

Heph: His comfort level felt like it had been run over by a startled herd of elk, and he stared hard at the snow beneath his paws, as if the little white flakes held some sort of answer or rebuke, even a shred of dignity for him to muster.

But alas, he was left at the paws of his female tormentors.

He could at least fight back....a little...

"Do you even know what a moose is?" he asked sullenly, grabbing onto anything he could in an attempt to get some pride back. It was a little pup-ish....But the alpha was already at the bottom of s**t pile, why not stoop to immature levels?

Tis: She glared at Heyoka. "I am not a moose...even if I feel like one." She turned her glare to Hephaestus. "When I wan move properly again, you will pay for this."

Heyoka: "Tis does," she replied, grinning up at Hephaestus. She liked seeing him cower. It was good to know that everybody was scared of Tis. She looked back at the black wolf, and rose to her paws to circle around her and examine her contemplatively. "What if they're moose babies?" She looked back up at Hephaestus, narrowing her eyes shrewdly with the obvious unasked question - are you sure you're not a moose.

Heph: Rolling his eyes, Hephaestus rested his head on his paws, staring at his beautiful mate. "Like they even could be..."

Though they picked on him, when it all came down to it, he felt happy. Joyous, even. But also calm. Here he was, with another strong, wonderful female at his side, with his pups on the way. He hadn't felt this way since Kiion had been born, though that moment had been filled with strife even as it had been filled with joy.

"Don't look at me that way," he murmured, sticking his tongue out at the green painted female. A brilliant idea struck him, and he suddenly knew how he could get rid of Heyoka for a while. "Go find me a moose."

He could feel Tisi's impending reprimand before he'd even finished his sentence, but seeing Heyoka's eyes light up was satisfaction enough to deal with it.

Tis: "Don't you dare!" she exclaimed. The last thing she needed was a stampeded pack member, or one whose body had been broken by the thick, heavy antlers of a bull moose.

She rounded on her infuriating mate. "And don't you encourage her. What kind of an alpha are you? Taunting your pack members into doing dangerous things. Is this what you will do to my pups?"

Heyoka: Heyoka's eyes lit up, as he of course knew they would. Ahh, now that seemed like a fitting challenge! "Do you have mooses?" Mooses? Meese? "Where?"

Ignoring Tis, she pulled away and danced a little from one paw to the other, already debating how to go out and find a moose.

Heph: Even though he knew it was coming, Heph still cringed at the sudden ferocity of his pregnant mate. Ears laid back against his skull, he turned to Heyoka. "There aren't any moose in our territory." To save his skin a little more, he added, "Or anywhere around it. In fact, the moose died out three days ago. No more moose."

Tis: "Hephaestus..." she growled, hardly mollified by his attempts at fixing his blunder. "You did not answer my question. Just what kind of an influence do you plan on having on our pups? Are you going to send them after dangerous beasts? Make them hunt by themselves on freezing winter nights? Send them down the cliff?"

Heyoka: "Oh. Are you sure? That doesn't sound right..." she glanced back at Tis, and then, feeling that perhaps she had a new ally in the alpha male, sidled over next to him. "Well, if he does, then I'll come with them. I'll keep them safe!"

Heph: This sudden change in perception left him with a growing pain in his temples. Sighing, he pondered how best to mollify his bristling beauty while also keeping Heyoka from plotting until the pups were born on how best to teach them how to cliff dive while searching for enraged bull moose.

Oi. That hole under a rock was sounding more and more appealing.

"You've met Kiion. Seen what he does. That's how I plan to influence our pups, my sweet. If there is an issue with that..." He left the words hanging, turning instead to Heyoka. "However, that doesn't mean I won't let their....'aunt'....teach them how to be brave explorers." Expecting another outburst, he added, "Within reason," emphasizing the words for both Heyoka and Tisi's perceptions.

Feeling a bit of his alpha swagger back, he took the opportunity to rise to his feet. "I think I hear Deimos howling. I best go see what he wants." With that, he ran.

Seeing as there had never actually been a howl, he would have to tell Deimos later that he had been used as a scapegoat.

Heyoka: *eyes light up, realizing that she had heard that correctly -- Hephaestus had just said she could help teach the pups, and babysit them! That was awesome! She was completely oblivious to the alpha's shoddy excuse-making...a whole new realm of possibilities had just opened up to her. Rubs paws together* Maybe this won't be so bad after all.....

Tis: *stern frown* Only if Captain or Zanza are there, too.

Heyoka: *scoffs* Oh, come on. You can't tell me that you trust your pups around Zanza but not me.

Tis: He doesn't have thrill-seeking tendencies.

Heyoka: Yes, but what if they're girl pups? No, worse, what if they're boy pups and he perverts their innocent young minds?

Tis: *with images of little Zanzas dancing in her mind* ...forget it. Captain and Dione can pup-sit.

Heyoka: *pouts* I won't let anything happen to them. Look how old I am and I'm just fine! *winning smile*

Tis: *extremely suspicious glare*

Heyoka: Whaaaaat? I won't even take them anywhere dangerous. Just teach them valuable life skills, like tree-climbing, and swimming....

Tis: O_O No tree climbing!!!

Heyoka: Short trees! More like...shrubs. Shrub-climbing. *Or cactus climbing, more like, but she wouldn't dare say that when it seemed she might be winning*

Tis: *growls* No trees!

Heyoka: Alright, alright. No trees. *cactus, then* And a little swimming. In the shallows. *to start*

Tis: *extremely suspicious glare* ...nor any other dangerous plants or places.

Heyoka: Dangerous plants? *laughs* Come on, Tis. How dangerous are plants?

Tis: Hemlock, wolf's bane, nightshade...what if they eat something weird?! Don't you dare let them eat anything poisonous!

Heyoka: *shakes her head* Honestly, Tis, you don't trust me at all. Like I'm going to just be letting your pups run around willy-nilly.

Tis: ...I'm more concerned about what you'll teach them.

Heyoka: You know it'll be pretty much impossible to keep me away, right?

Tis: I don't want to keep you away, I want to keep you under control.

Heyoka: *brow raise. Won't even dignify that with a comment...Tis should know better than anyone how impossible that is*