Larksong Grotto christine

anyone who would be allowed near the grotto! as of yet, only jhala and reek have seen baby seff; vuk is not allowing any visitors at this time.

her son lay curled inside, but vuk had slipped from the close air of the grotto to sit outside in the sunlight for a bit. she felt useless, helpless, trapped by the limitations of seff's needs and her own broken body. in the mornings she woke to blood on her thighs, a small amount, but alarming all the same. a healer would have given her an herb to staunch it, but vuk did not know if there was one in larksong, nor did she want to seek one out.

aside from the wolf, no one had ever touched the secret places of her body, and she wanted to leave it that way. the pallid girl lay in a tight circle on the dirt outside the grotto entrance, though the upthrust of her ears caught each nearby sound and word.

Couldn't resist :p

Hunt roll is 2: Success!

Now that Vuk, Terich, and their newborn baby boy, Seff, occupied Reek's den space, they had become an unavoidable part of his life. Despite being nearly always present, they were no bother to him in the slightest. In fact, he liked having them around. There was something about having new life within the grotto that distracted Reek from his own failures with his own children. There was a peace that came with it, and if its cost was losing a portion of his den, then so be it. He spent most of his time out and about within the territory anyway.

The locusts that had become such a staple in Reek's diet as of late were beginning to thin. He had to resort to other measures to fill his growling stomach with food. Taking to the lake, Reek played a game of patience and began to fish. He stood like a statue for what felt like hours, but eventually, when the time was right, he snatched a fair sized fish by the tail. It writhed and squirmed in protest, but Reek's grip held fast until it's movement stopped. Victorious, Reek set off back toward his den.

When he returned, he found Vuk curled tightly in front of the cave's mouth. He dropped his fish in front of her and said, "Here -- you need this more than I do." Reek's stomach growled in protest, but he knew she had a child to feed. It was then that Reek noticed the scent of blood. His eyes narrowed. "Is everything alright?" he asked, concerned.

it was reek who approached her finally; vuk gave a wave of her plume and reached up to lick his chin in gratitude. the smell of fish caused her belly to to twist and growl audibly; she would have reached for it had not his question froze her. vuk turned her gaze back to her leader quietly, but her lips trembled and finally she found her voice, locked away in her throat.

"b-blood," she responded in small and cracked tones. "h-here," vuk went on, gesturing down at herself. "n-not .. b-ig," the girl added, trying to stress that there wasn't enough to be worried about. she begged silently that reek would let her alone. 

but she knew it was not in his nature -- a man who had taken in a starving couple and a pup who did not carry his genes would not allow a woman to bleed, possibly dangerously, after having given birth only a handful of days ago. silently vuk waited, wondering what reek would ask of her.

Her gratitude was evident in her reaction, however, Vuk made no move toward the fish. Surely, she would eventually, and though the twisting in Reek's own stomach screamed in protest, he would not play takesies-backsies with his gift -- no matter how hard it was. But, as she motioned downward, the fish was all but forgotten. Reek's sad eyes trailed down to her thighs. There, he could see a crimson stain against her white pelt.

His expression softened. "Vuk," he whispered. "I'm a healer— Will you let me look at you?" His face was wrought with concern, not only for her, but for the child she nursed. Her health was imperative to her responsibility as a mother. "Are you in any pain?" asked Reek, crouching down to be on her level.

no! her mind screamed as reek asked to examine her, for she knew what it meant. she wanted the touch of no man, let alone a male gaze, but part of her knew she must be seen, for she herself did not know why she continued to bleed. reek lowered himself and vuk steeled herself against the urge to bristle and nodded. 

but she would not do it here; she rose and moved into the shadows of the grotto, where she lay down in the dim light and let herself be seen. nerves trembled her body visibly; vuk shut her eyes and fought to quell the rising quickness of her breath.

Reek recieved no verbal response, but the answer was clear in her nod -- Vuk simply wanted her privacy. An examination such as this was intimate, and though Reek had professional know-how, he understood Vuk's qualms about him giving her a glance over. After all, Reek was not her mate, however, he was unsure if Terich could help her in this way. The healer was not a wolf to deprive another of their dignity, not unless he had good reason to do so, so Reek complied without complaint and followed Vuk into the grotto— after grabbing the uneaten fish, of course.

He laid the fish beside where she lay and immediatly went to work. The nervous tension in her body was evident in the way she trembled. Though Reek shared his home with her now, he was still little more than a stranger to her. "It's okay," he murmered, hoping he would find comfort in the softness of his voice. "I just want to help."

Dipping his face down, Reek positioned his head behind Vuk's rear. Everything was still there, he noted. Nothing looked out of place, save for the bloody streaks running down Vuk's thighs. While Reek had never been around a new mother, he knew some of the basics thanks to his grandmother's advice on midwifery. "How many days has it been since Seff was born?" He asked.

she opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling of the grotto as reek spoke soothingly, his presence too close but warm all the same, and nodded against the ground. the tension began to ebb slowly from her muscles, for he did not touch her, merely looked as she suspected any female healer might. the smell of the fish traveled to her but she did not reach for it, not yet. "s-six," she mustered in answer to his question. six days. 

she heard her son begin to stir -- he whimpered in his sleep, and she knew he searched for her. yet his murmurings were contented for now; she had stiffened at the sound but relaxed again. she could not bear to look at reek, not when he was so near to her, not when this meeting was so necessarily intimate.

His inspection continued in silence until he recieved an answer, but once Vuk spoke, Reek did not linger around her loins any longer than he had to. The tension radiating from Vuk was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Though Reek made no contact with the woman, her discomfort was palpable. He pulled away and settled a few feet away on his rump. There, he mulled her condition over in his mind.

Six days, he silently repeated -- mouth moving along with the unspoken words. Pregnancy and birth were far from Reek's area of expertise, but somehow, his unease had been settled by the short amount of time that had passed between birth and now. "You're going to be fine, I think," he said as the corners of Reek's mouth pulled taut with a thin, sad smile. "You pushed a body out of you, so I think bleeding after should be commonplace. There's not much I can do though -- my cache was wiped out, but I can check up on you every once in a while if that would make you feel better."

He shifted and inched closer to her flank, eyeing the fish he had layed beside her. His mouth watered with hunger and desperation, but he refrained. "For now," he continued, "You should eat. Keep your strength."

she breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled away, gathering herself into a tightness as she sat up to regard him with gratitude and trepidation. his words put her at ease, but he was incorrect about one thing. there had not been only seff -- there had been three others, and whatever else the dark alpha had said was lost in the sudden rage that blinded vuk and pinned her ears against her small skull.

"f-four!" she cried suddenly, lips trembling -- the weight of the lie terich had woven for her weighed heavily on vuk, but she could not take it back now, not when seff was in such need and would die without the protection of a pack. but her eyes were wild now, hackles bristled -- four four four! one living but three dead, because she was a failure, a horrible, sinful creature who had doomed her children to death the day she took them away from taggarik's teeth.

she had not even saved them! they had died anyway, stunted little starvelings. hoarse sobs began to thrum through her; vuk closed her eyes tightly, unable to stop them nor the hot cascade of tears along her face. she was crushed, faltering beneath the burden of the lies and the hunger, the fatigue, sleepless nights spent in terror that seff would stop breathing, the way that capriccio had looked at her and the way taggarik had told her he would kill her children.

blindly she groped for reek and lay her muzzle against his shoulder, searching for any pillar that stood firm in the waves of grief that threatened to choke her. seff stirred and this time he whined loudly for her, but vuk was lost, lost in herself, falling into a spinning salt-tinged blackness as she relaxed against reek and let go into unconsciousness.

He had forgotten. The details of the tale Terich had weaved were lost in subconscious memory— but the circumstance of Vuk and Terich's departure from the ridge didn't matter, just as the details of Jhala's departure from the same pack was of no consequence, at least not to Reek. Wether the story was a lie or not, he would have taken the family in no matter what. The child needed him and the pack he provided -- and the woman, he could tell she needed him too.

There was a sadness to her that he instantly connected to. She was broken just as he was: lost and clinging to life by a thread. The extent of her loss was punctuated by a shrill outcry, full of emotion. Initially, Reek recoiled in surprise. Four. There were four. He blinked rapidly and finally remembered that she had lost her children on the way (according to Terich's story, that is) and that Seff was the only survivor. His gaze immediatly fell to his feet.

There was nothing he could do to fix her in an emotional sense -- nor could she do anything to fix him.

She broke down and reached for him. Reek stayed firmly rooted to the spot as she sobbed into his shoulder. Only recently, he had been in her same position -- a broken wreck, but then, he had no one to cling to, to tell him that it was all going to be alright. He leaned in close and whispered the words he had hoped to hear himself when he broke down weeks prior: "You're not alone."

As Vuk slipped away, Reek remained at her side -- adamant that he would not budge until she came to.

well i cried a little <3333 reek is wonderful. last post for me and we def need another.

vuk sank gratefully and headfirst into the welcoming warm blackness, but even in its grasp she felt she heard seff's voice. the woman turned in the dark water and breathed, attempting to escape from all noise, but she ached with milk and her body answered seff.

she woke, disoriented, dismayed that she had given down the sustenance so freely. reek remained close; vuk was confused until the memory of what had occurred returned to her, and her turquoise eyes found his face. there was raw pain there, somehow made more keen by her own shameful collapse against him, but she reached to nudge his cheek in silent gratitude that he had not fled her.

it healed the pain of her heart in some small way to know that the man had stayed; she rose and moved toward seff's cries, pausing only to bite away half of the fish reek had brought. the other was for him. she moved gratefully into her nest and brought her wailing son closer to her belly, where his unhappy noises were soon satisfied by her milk.

from the gloom, vuk smiled sadly at the larksong alpha, tiredness still full upon her -- anger had drained her. indeed, the entire ordeal had sapped the girl's strength, so that she lay her muzzle alongside seff and was soon asleep, lulled by the gentle sounds of his nursing.

Yes we do! On another note: you get post #1000!

Surprisingly, Reek did not find it hard to be an emotional anchor for the woman in the midst of her strife -- especially when he had not had such a tether himself when he had broken down like a piece of obsolete machinery. Though Vuk was little more than a stranger to him, Reek couldn't bear for her to feel as alone as he had— as he did. Loneliness, guilt -- all were hard crosses to bear alone. She wouldn't have to face her grief on her own.  

As Reek waited for her to come 'round, he couldn't help but wonder where her mate, Terich, had been. Surely, this was a moment where she could have used the comfort of her mate, (the man whom Reek believed to be) the father of her child. Instead, she was comforted by a run-down stranger and Terich was nowhere to be seen.

He remained at her side until she stirred. Vuk rose, and Reek accepted her demonstration of gratitude with a threadbare smile. A welcome warmth spread though Reek's cheek from the point of contact and radiated outwards across his face and down along his spine. Then, for a brief and strange moment, Reek felt as if everything would be fine. It was a fleeting thing, and it faded fast as soon as she pulled away to gather her son.

The boy nursed and Reek watched on with a thin smile. He lingered in the cave for a few moments after. Once Vuk was enraptured in the throes of sleep, Reek gathered the remains of the fish and departed to allow mother and child some much needed peace.