Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Do I have to?" asked Kerr quietly, trying not to sound too whiny. It's not that he didn't like Sahleir, he did but he didn't know her. And he didn't like being separated from his adoptive mother any. The way his real mom had just vanished had created a fear of abandonment in the young cub. He feared everyone in his life would disappear some day.

Eirwen chuckled and shook her head at the green cub padding next to her. "Kerr, I'll have to go hunting some time. It's the duty of the Caregivers to look after cubs when the parents are on duty." She explained patiently. "You have to get used to the idea. And anyway" she added when she saw the cub's pleading look "I'm not going anywhere right now. We'll just be helping Sahleir with cleaning up here." She wished it wasn't just the two of them girls and a cub, but the others were busy cleaning up the dens and making them inhabitable. "Hello, Sahleir!" Eirwen greeted with a smile. "We've come to help!"

Kerr gave a weak smile too and muttered a "Hello." He hated being this clingy, but suddenly his life had filled with all these new Saighneian. And after living for so long only with Eirwen and her brother Frost this was a little too much for him to handle. However he wanted to please his mom and stopped complaining. He was a big boy now and he wasn't scared. Not even a little bit.

"Yup, you have. Actually we've come to help you with cleaning this place up." Eirwen repeated as she peeked inside to see how much damage there was. "Wow." Pretty bad. "This is the Nursery?" She remembered all the times she had played with her siblings and other cubs from the clan in these caves. Right now the place looked like no one had ever set foot in there. "It's going to take a while." She looked back at the other female and gave a smile. "I suppose we should get to work then?"

"Kerr, go to the other side of this hill. You'll see another cave entrance there, it's where the Healer's den's used to be. I just need you to peek inside and come back to tell us how bad the damage is. And if you see and hear anything strange run right back here, okay honey?" She instructed quickly and then turned back to Sahleir. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"Okay, mom." Kerr nodded and headed to the other side. He was a bit worried that he might meet...something, but if Eirwen felt safe enough to send him off on his own he wasn't scared. It wasn't very far either and soon he found himself at the other entrance. After a quick look inside and no unwanted encounters he headed back.

"Rats." Eirwen said distastefully. She didn't like rats at all, her first encounter with one was very unpleasant. "I'd love to get rid of the little buggers." She started sniffing around the cave for their nest. As she did so she replied to Sahleir's last words. "I know where we can get materials for new bedding but I don't know about the stink. I think we'll just have to wait for it to clear. Or bring lots of nice-smelling herbs."

When she found the nest she started digging and soon the rodents were running off. Eirwen growled at them and swatted a few towards the exit. This made the rodents disappear even faster. "Well, that takes care of that." She announced once the last rat was gone.

Kerr returned just as the rats were pouring out of the cave and hopped on a rock, out of the way. "Ew." He scrunched up his nose. Once the rats had gone he entered the cave. "Well there aren't any rats in the other one at least." He told the two females. "But it's very dirty and there are weeds covering the entrance."

"Alright, honey, thank you." Eirwen nuzzled the top of Kerr's head. "Now let's help Sahleir with cleaning up all this." She motioned towards what used to be the bedding and started pushing what the other female had already dug out outside.

Kerr purred and nodded. "Okay, mom." With that the little cub went over to the Caregiver and started helping her dig. His paws were small and he couldn't work nearly as fast as Sahleir, but he tried his best.

ooc|| -shame- Sorry about that, you should have told me earlier! I just remembered it wrong, I guess.

Kerr pulled his little paws away with lightning speed, pressing himself against Shale. "Bite me?" He made a disgusted face and then suddenly realised what he'd done. "I'm not afraid of bugs!" he said a little too loudly and went back to digging, more carefully though. He was blushing faintly, a little embarrassed by his reaction.

Eirwen chuckled at the scene that unfolded before her. That Kerr, he always tried to be brave even though he was just a cub. "Sure, we'll go." She nodded. At Shaleir's next words surprise briefly appeared on her face. "Didn't you hear?" She asked curiously. "Frost picked up a new cub, Falknir was his name, I think. A little gray boy. Aside from him there's only Mr Brave here and Blizzard, but I think he'll mostly be with my brother. He's the Heir after all. So yeah, I think you'll only have two little ones to worry about." Most of the time anyway.

Eirwen looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm. Well, Frost, Aileena, Lael and your brother are cleaning up the dens we'll be using so we don't need to worry about that. The Healer's den's though...I think we should clean them up anyway. So they are nice and ready when we need them and Aileena might want to stash some herbs in there, just in case." She made a mental note to ask the Healer about it. "After that I guess we're free." She smiled.

Falknir

Falknir trotted to the den with his tail held high, seemingly in high spirits. He slowed down when he got to the mouth of the den, and poked his head in while his eyes adjusted to the limited amount of light.
"Uh...hi."
He said shyly, not used to being in the presence of so many Saighs. He shuffled his paws uncomfortably as he awaited someone to tell him whether he was allowed to enter or not. They all seemed pretty busy inside, with the loud squeals that were emitted from the inside. Would I be interferring if I went in now? He thought to himself nervously.

Shale smiled and nodded, taking a critical, perfectionistic eye over the bedspaces and plucking what remained of individual rotted slices of bedding out of crevices the swift-moving paws had missed, then sweeping them out of the cave and smiling up at Eirwen and the cubs. "Well, Hello, Falknir." She smiled, setting herself down. The only reason she really remembered his name was because she'd just heard it spoken.

"If you'd rather not go with Eirwen and Kerr, I'm about to go clean out the medic side. You're welcome to help me dig out the rotten bedding." She smiled softly, purposely trying to make her job sound the worse. She'd never really felt it was a cubs' duty to help clean anything. Cubs were supposed to play, learn, and come crying to the adults when they're being picked on, in her mind, though she did respect that many of them were very intelligent and receptive. "Of course, you could get some valuable scouting experience and maybe some hunting in if you go with the lady Eirwen." She hummed softly, further romanticizing the more... Out-of-cave ventures.

(Since iZann's not posting...)

Shale smiled as they returned, wandering back to the nursery den at the same time, since she'd finished with the other den. "In the bednooks, so the cubs can lay down when they're ready. We only need a couple filled right now, since it's just Kerr and Falknir." She smiled, offering to help Kerr drag the plants and leaves and all the other flora-shrapnel into place. "Why don't you boys go ahead and make your beds comfortable for you, alright? You're going to be the ones to lay in them, after all." She smiled, perching herself by the door to watch curiously.