First part “Still, thank you for keeping him alive for me.” The strange creatures had left, leaving the Great Valley with the inhabitants it had before they had ever become involved and then some. Currently, Grandpa was sleeping, his long-time lack of sustenance having caught up to him. Resting beside him were his wife and her cousin while his son-in-law was watching the reunion of his grandson with said grandson’s friends.
“It was my pleasure.” The Old one smiled gently at her family-member. “I am just happy it did not prove a hollow effort.”
“Nowhere near how happy I am.” Grandma returned the smile warmly. “I am going to be completely on his case on eating once he wakes up, though.” Her smile turned into a frown when looking over the starved form of her husband.
“I’ll be happy to help until my herd returns.” The scarred female chuckled softly. “I send them ahead, they’ll pick me up on their next visit. I felt it might get problematic to accommodate two entire herds of Longnecks for too long.”
“Seeing if you can retire soon?” Grandma chuckled, looking over the valley.
“Don’t tempt me.”
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
“Nono...” Pterano scooped one of his nieces away from him. “I am only going to tell stories when one of the others is around. You are not going to believe me otherwise.”
“They would, to be honest.” His sister pointed out, standing a bit away.
“True.” He chuckled. “Very well, let me rephrase that; I need backup so your mother does not get on my case about it.” That unleashed giggles from said sister’s menagerie of kids. He did flinch a bit at her flat glare. “I am just trying to preempt misunderstandings here.”
Saphira did snort after a bit, resting one hand on his shoulder. “I’ll trust you.”
“I still want someone really trusted as back-up.” He laughed softly. “Trust me on that, sister. Some of those things are going to make you contemplate giving me another five Cold-time time-out if I alone claim them.”
“And you’d rather not.” She shooed her children away, suggesting they get some food for their uncle.
“Should I be concerned you removed any and all witnesses?” He watched the small flock of children disappear out of sight. Only to find that if there was anything she didn’t want her children to see, it was her frantically hugging her sibling. “Saphira.”
“Don’t you dare pull something like this again.”
Turning in her embrace, he returned it gently. “To be fair, I didn’t want or plan this at all. But hey, look at the bright side; if this doesn’t get Threehorn to say I suffered enough, I don’t know what will.”
The glare she gave him pretty clearly told him he had ruined the emotional moment.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Evening brought something of a conundrum to the Swimmer-family whose mother and adopted brother had returned from wherever they had disappeared too; everyone wanted to sleep with them. What this translated to was that while Olophon was content to just be near his wife and returned child, the young swimmers all wanted to be able to touch both at once.
“It’s been a while since we had such a problem settling in.” Hadria looked over the proverbial traffic-jam between her and Spike. On her other side, Olophon was looking over her back at the same thing.
“To be fair, as far as I know none of our children usually have such specific demands to go to sleep.” One of his hands was resting on her neck as he spoke. “Usually they just form a pile with no regards to ‘want to touch mother, want to touch brother’.”
The elder female chuckled at that, looking briefly at him with sparkling eyes. “If they don’t solve this fast, there won’t be a night to sleep through.”
“Mhm...” He could certainly agree with that, the night circle already having crested the mountaintops to the east. Shifting, he leaned over his mate. “Kids, if you don’t figure this out soon, I’m taking your mom on a date this night already instead of waiting for a couple days.”
She laughed at that, her children looking beyond horrified at their father at that statement. The last time she and Olophon had had a date, it had taken the entire night, meaning there’d be no way they could sleep with her that night.
It did prompt them to finally figure something out, at least. Spike would sleep surrounded by his siblings, while Hadria would curl around them with Olophon just resting beside her.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
“So… we are just living here now?” Tyra mused, looking at her mate. The Sharptooth-family had retreated to the corner of the valley the elder male had claimed as his own since having arrived here.
“At this point, I suppose we might as well.” He was circling her, drinking in all the changes that had happened to her body since he last saw her. Chomper was nearby, hunting some bugs for his dinner. “It keeps competition down.”
“From what I gathered, isn’t that something the Threehorn would vehemently oppose?” She rolled over briefly, stretching languidly.
“Grandpa Longneck convinced him.” Chomper spoke up, running up to his parents to settle down beside his mother with a filled stomach. “I think it helped dad was already inside.”
The older male grunted in agreement, settling down as well. She did notice that his eyes were still mapping out the shining lines that covered her body. She knew him well enough to know it would take him a while to calm down about those.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The Threehorns were already asleep at this point, Cera curled around her half-sister who was sleeping in the crook of their father’s body. Tria was resting a short distance away.
Unlike her family, she was not asleep, instead looking at them with a frown on her face.