Chapter 1617: Chapter 1616: They Grow So Fast
Another month came and went rather quickly, in that month the five pups had gone from maybe two feet or so tall to nearly three and a half and also making the ’leap’ to speaking in broken sentences... which should have made me proud, but...
Well, for the most part it did make me proud, honestly, but when a majority of their time speaking was simply to issue a challenge, berate, demean and fight with one another, it really did make me reevaluate... everything.
Camilla in particular was quick to pick up speech, to the point that she was able to clearly shout "You dumb dumb head! Just..! Lie..! DOWN!" while pushing Nicoletta’s head right into the pillow chair, trying to suffocate the ever energetic and determined girl that had only become even more... herself.
"NO! You..! Smelly! Stupid and smelly!"
Camilla growled rather loudly and tried to force Nicoletta to submit only for Samara to creep up behind her and whack her on the side of her head before she murmured "Stop being noisy! Dummy!", which of course just enraged Camilla.
Astra was currently ’talking’ to Mother about things in the kitchen while Zaria was perched on my shoulders, holding onto my hair and shaking a little as she quietly asked "Mama, why they fighting lots?"
"Because they enjoy it, baby. No other reason besides that, I’m afraid."
"Enjoy..? But... It loud, noisy, scary..? Why?"
Shrugging carefully and reaching up to pat her head, I kept quiet as I watched Nicoletta scramble off of the pillow chair to tackle Camilla from behind, only to get thrown off rather easily as the larger pup just stood up and used her superior strength to untangle herself.
The immediate punch thrown towards Samara was barely evaded, though sadly the second oldest mistimed the follow up and promptly landed on her butt when Camilla displayed her strength as the oldest, which was a rather sizable lead ahead of all the other pups.
Grumbling to herself, Nicoletta glared at her oldest sister before turning and rushing over to me, hugging my calf and staring right up at me - and glaring at Zariah for a moment, which made her tremble on my shoulders - as she asked "Mama, I... hungry! Mama!"
Looking down at her and sighing softly I reached down and plucked her by the scruff of her neck, marveling momentarily at the loose skin on the back of her neck that made that so easy before I settled down onto the rocker, which we had brought in and covered in pillows to make ’safe’.
My third pup immediately began to nuzzle against me as I sat down, and the moment my breast was free she started to drink greedily, gulping down milk like she hadn’t just had some an hour ago, while Zariah shifted on my shoulders before sliding down to join her sister.
Nicoletta just ignored her and kept drinking, letting Zariah join her a few seconds after she verified that she was ’safe’ and causing me to raise a brow before I leaned back, shutting my eyes for just a moment.
The immediate screech and sound of the oldest two fighting made me sigh again, my eyes remaining shut before they opened when Samara yelped and let out a somewhat shaky "Mother..! Mother!"
From the other side of the room Anput glanced over and tilted her head before she suddenly had her pup lunging at her chest, a few tears trickling from her eyes as she showed off the somewhat red mark on her cheek that likely stung like a bitch.
Camilla stood in the middle of the room for a few seconds, uncertain of what to do now that she won and clearly not knowing why Samara had bolted like that, but after a moment she turned towards me with a pout.
At first I thought it was because she thought she lost her sparring partner and that was it, but when she waddled over rather dejectedly I raised a brow before lifting her up, letting her sit on my shoulders for now while the other two continued to drink.
"I didn’t... It wasn’t hard hard, Mama... She just..."
Her quiet and somewhat shaky explanation made me nod a few times before I glanced at her and murmured "But did you try and hit her hard hard?", to which she just stared at me for a few seconds before guiltily nodding.
"And what did we say about hitting your sisters as hard as you can?"
Camilla’s frown deepened while her ears drooped, my eldest pup clearly not enjoying this even as she dejectedly answered "Not to...", her eyes swinging down towards my chest as she avoided my gaze.
"Then stop trying to hit them as hard you can, Camilla. You’re the oldest; you aren’t supposed to be hurting them, you’re meant to protect them. That’s your responsibility."
"But Mama-!"
"No buts. You can train however you like, but really hurting your sisters is not good, Camilla. I don’t care if she called you names."
Her head drooped while her eyes watered a little, until eventually she weakly argued "But she called me a dummy...", to which I just raised a brow and murmured "After you called Nicoletta a ’dumb dumb head’. And before that you said many other things."
Sensing the immediate need to antagonize her eldest sister now that she was already so dejected, I glanced down at Nicoletta and narrowed my eyes, causing her to return immediately to my tit instead of doing something stupid.
Camilla sniffled once before nodding and burying her face into my hair, staying there for a few minutes before she glared down at Nicoletta, who hadn’t stopped peeking up at her ever since she got quiet.
Zariah was the one to climb down from my lap and scurry away though, so my eldest took her spot and slowly settled down even more, eventually letting out a yawn and curling up on my thigh while Nicoletta rested her head against my breast.
One peek over at Samara lounging on top of Anput’s head as the two slept on the floor made me roll my eyes, while seeing Gabrielle nodding off in Leone’s lap not far away reassured me enough so that I could take a nap too.
