[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... ow_tia.gif[/imgright]The Half-Bloom
Work is too hard, better to just lie down and take a nap.

His family was getting large, he noticed. "His family," though it was actually Stalker's family, mostly, and his mother's family, too. He'd never had the family of his own that he wanted (or, well, didn't really want one way or the other, but at least a boyfriend, come on). Murkcrow counted off relatives in his head. His mother, three sisters, five brothers...Stalker, if he was feeling generous, her five offspring, which, after all, he had raised, her five offsprings' offspring, too many for him to even remember. Endless grandchildren and great-grandchildren until there were kin wandering the swamp who had no idea who he was at all. Suddenly he felt very old. And somewhat depressed. He'd spent plenty of time caring for Stalker's kids and even grandkids, but of his own line...well, none of his siblings had ever had any offspring, and certainly not himself.

Well, maybe he'd never had any nieces and nephews to harass with curmudgeonly uncle antics, but he still felt fatherly pride to think on the five kin he had raised. Families in the swamp were built on less.

But now, now he was thinking it was too noisy around. His mother had finally pushed his older sister off on some tribe or other, and taken up with another herself, but the number of children - he thought of them all as children, for various reasons - who popped up to see him on a regular basis had increased rather a lot. And all of them were here today. There was Stalker. There were Tree Skeletons and Swamp Gas. There were Swamp Gas's kids, Dogfight, Bad Dream, and Moonrise. There was Wasp, a great-something of someone, he couldn't quite remember. His brother Nightwake had even shown up, for some reason.

They were mostly entertaining each other, so Murkcrow thought he could just lie down and ignore them. But Nightwake barely knew them, so finally Murkcrow walked over to his brother to see what he wanted.

"Well, I'm trying to build a better shelter," Nightwake said, carefully edging around the throng of kin descended from Stalker. "It's a bit too much to handle by myself."

"Well, I know just the kin to help with tasks requiring strength." Murkcrow turned to the group. "Hey, Swamp Gas! Uncle Nightwake could use your assistance. And your muscley son, too."

Swamp Gas and Dogfight walked over and started talking to Nightwake about what he required, and soon all three of them left to get to work. Murkcrow nodded approvingly. Three kin gone, and he'd manage to avoid having to help. It would be harder to get rid of the others, though.

"Hey, Wasp," he called, figuring most of the rest of them would follow Wasp anywhere. "How about you and the other young'ns go get us some food." Wasp nodded and the rest of the group wandered off with him, leaving behind the two most antisocial of the bunch, Stalker and Bad Dream.

"I'm taking a nap," Murkcrow announced to them. Stalker would do...whatever she did when he was asleep, and Bad Dream wouldn't do anything Murkcrow told him to do anyway, but he also wouldn't bother Murkcrow while he was sleeping.