Roleplay - 29th of October

Willows
Current Season: Dry (Winter/Autumn)

Ages of those under one year:
Lavender ........ 9 months and 19 days
Hutch ...... 5 months and 26 days.
Daisy ...... 2 month and 19 days
Megan... 2 month and 12 days.
Dewdrop ...... 1 month and 29 days
Golly Gosh, Grace, Glade and Gretel ..... 2 month and 3 days
Meg, Ivy, Jamela & Ariel...... 10 days

Temporary Dispersals:
Grace
Gretel
Vahki
Evyenne

Temporary Adoptions still available:
Visorak

Due Dates:
Maylene and Tank's Litter........ Due 11th of November
Linda and Ninja’s Litter....... Confirmed (2nd December)
Luna and Lithium’s Litter.......Confirmed (2nd December)
Buckeye and Keeko's Litter.....Confirmed (14th December)
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Keeko emerged and began to clear the burrow entrance.
Golly Gosh bounded after his dad.
Miley emerges and scans the area.

Jackie and Snowflake emerge and sun themselves.

Maylene stretches and after her leg having finally healed Maylene feels much better and ready to start her day off and get some food into her belly. Then after having stretched, Maylene comes above ground and begins to sun herself and then goes on sentry duty.

Lancaster is already up and sunning himself but he's sitting several feet away from the burrow to be alone. His attempts to find his missing brother Tank over the past 6 days have come up empty. He searched all over Willows territory to try to find him, in burrows and boltholes, through patches of tall grass, in bushes, in fallen trees...everywhere. Lancaster lowers his head and sighs lightly. He fears he may never see his loyal littermate brother alive ever again.

ooc: Is it ok I can start rping Lavender?

Linda emerges and begins to sun herself after greeting the others. She sees Lancaster sitting alone. The loss of Tank must really be taking it's toll on him. They've lost one of their best.

Bravo sleeps in. He's become well adjusted to mob life, and is exploiting it to the full.

Lancaster gazes somberly at the landscape wishing Tank would suddenly appear. Losing Tank adds insult to injury on the Willows as they are just getting over the loss of Alice and Verniece. With another Willow down, it seems fortune for this once successful group has suddenly taken a dramatic turn.

Linda looks down at her belly with curiousity. How many pups will be in her litter? It might be a large litter. That means more mouths to feed, and less food to go around, and more pups for the adults of the mob to care for. Pups keep coming, yet adult numbers are decreasing. It seems only one litter may be allowed to survive, and with Maylene's pups due sooner... She stops thinking about that. She must resist her instincts.

Bravo emerges, having decided that sleeping in wasn't doing any of them favors. He stands to sun himself and looks along the horizon. He's gotten himself to believe that Tank really is dead. No meerkat with a full dose of poison in their body can survive that long alone.

Lancaster sighs. He has to move on. Tank's 'death' may have been devistating to him and the group but in the Kalahari, life is too short to stay in mourning. Lancaster accepts the fact that Tank is gone and decides to return to the company of the group. But he can't help but to allow a few tears to roll down his cheek. Tank was his best friend, protector, mentor and loyal brother. It's going to be easier said than done to accept that he'll never see him again.

Linda walks over to Lancaster and peeps to him in sorrow. Losing a close sibling is tough, and she knows how he feels.

Bravo looks along the horizon. Though tragic, they must move on and keep going without Tank.

ooc- I was going to have Bravo go on a roving trip soon. Anyone want to start a plot?

Lancaster looks to Linda after hearing her peep. He knows that every meerkat will go through losing a fellow member sooner or later. It may be tragic but it's apart of life here in the Kalahari and it's something he has to accept.

Linda sits and looks at the ground. They can't afford to lose any more members. They must stick together and stand united. Not only is there outside forces they will have to endure during the winter, but she has a feeling the Midnights will be back...

Bravo decides to take up sentry duty incase any early bird predator wants to make a meal of them.

Lancaster watches a heard of gemsbok off in the distance. He goes into a spaced out gaze as his thoughts begin to wonder. He starts to think about the possible fall of the Willows. If the Willows lose one more member, they may not be strong enough to keep hold of their territory if a much bigger rival group challenges them. Sentries won't be very plenty leaving them more vulnerable to predator attacks. Lancaster closes his eyes tightly. He doesn't even want to think about that. But there is something more on the possitive that he should be thinking about. The group may have lost members but they're about to fill in that gap with more pups. In fact, the group may actually gain more members than they lost once the pups are born. Lancaster smiles as he thinks about the arrival of the Willows' next future leaders.

Jackie looks at Lancaster with sympathy. She'd lost family that were close to her aswell.

Snowflake also casts Lancaster a sympathetic look, even though he's not sure why.

Linda gazes at the ground, deep in thought. There will soon be a spike in population in the form of the three litters due (though unaware of the fourth), but they just simply can't care for that many pups. It seems now, the only option for her to ensure her own litter's survival, is to do the unthinkable.

Bravo keeps a clear focus as he scans the area for any danger, regardless of what form the threat takes.

Unaware of Linda's deadly intentions, Lancaster thinks about the stress that the multiple litters could put on the group. If each litter has 4 pups in it, that will be 12 mouths that will need feeding and protection. Too many pups to look after and at this time of year half of those pups may not even survive to adulthood.

Linda shakes off the thought. She won't let intincts overrun her judgement. She realizes she's hungry and decides to start digging for food.

Lancaster looks over his shoulder at the burrow. If the pregnant females' litters survive to leave the burrow, the Willows will have to work together to keep them safe but they'll have to work hard to keep them alive if they keep losing more members.

Linda stops digging, realizing there's little to find near the burrow. She grooms herself and sits near the burrow entrance. She looks along the horizon. Ninja still hasn't returned. He doesn't even know for sure if their liaison has resulted in pups or not. For all she knows, he might think she never got pregnant, and the mating was a failure.

Bravo keeps a steady watch. Maybe he will babysit today.

Lancaster hears a loud rumble come from his stomach. He hasn't eaten much over the past week. He's been eagerly offering to babysit and hasn't spent much time looking after himself. He's thinking that today he'll go foraging.

ooc- Buckeye is pregnant again too I believe.

ic- Linda's hungry as well, but patiently waits for Buckeye to emerge. She enjoys the morning, not thinking about anything that may ruin it anymore.

Bravo looks into the burrow. Prehaps he will babysit today.

Lancaster's hunger has erased all of his bad thoughts for the time being. He looks around thinking that he'll try to find something close to the burrow as he waits for Buckeye to emerge then lead the group out.

Keeko remains on sentry.
Miley, who was also very hungry, begins to dig around the burrow, hoping to find something to eat.

Jackie stands sentry, patiently waiting to leave.

Snowflake starts foraging around the burrow.

Bravo thinks. He wants to babysit today, but his curious side is telling him to rove and look for mobs with the best females. He knows it's dry season, but it will give him an edge when roving season really starts. He might even get lucky and find a female willing to have pups in this time of year.

Linda hears her stomach growling. She really should eat now. She heads off to an area a little far away from the burrow and starts to dig.

Lancaster sees an area close to the burrow that looks promising to have some morsels. He pads over to the spot and starts to dig furiously but his 3 dull claws on his front paws are making things difficult for him to claw into the hardened ground. Lancaster is frustrated but doesn't give up, he keeps digging. He's lived with this deformity since birth and has learned to work around it.