There was no mistaking her pregnancy now. Four weeks in, Bazi's belly was very obviously rounded, and there was very little winter coat left to disguise the fact. She had not felt them move yet, but suspected that Scimitar had planted at least ten pups in there - it was difficult to move at speed, and her enlarged teats seemed to be in the way of everything. Bazi was amazed that nobody had stepped on them yet, and the fact that they were so obvious now made her feel quite self-conscious around the pack. They didn't need to see and know everything.

Some days ago, she had found a shady spot near edge of The Tangle that served the dual purpose of announcing that Bazi wished to be alone, and allowing her to perform some of her pregnancy rituals in private. The state of her ballooning body was a source of both horror and fascination, and she could while away several hours just staring at the changes that were taking place just behind her shoulder blades.

And then there were the cravings. 

Her sexual appetitate had returned with a vengenace, replacing constant nausea almost overnight. @Scimitar was a good sport, of course, but in these quiet moments away, Bazi let her mind wander. To that Blackfeather wolf with the wild eyes, to the Arctic newcomer, to Kieran. 'Absurd!', her conscious mind protested, but did nothing to chase the thoughts away. In the half-light of morning, Bazi drifted off to sleep, thinking dirty thoughts about wolves that weren't her mate.

And despite herself, she dreamed of @Danica .

Until the day she died, Bazi would not admit the contents of that dream - or how disappointed she was upon waking, mouth dry and chest heaving. It was still a few hours shy of noon at that point, and the pack had wisely left her alone. Thank the stars. Bazi rolled (literally) onto her growing belly and tested the stability of her hind legs. They quivered dangerously beneath her, and she sank back onto the ground with a shaky sigh. Shit, she thought, eyeing the distant forest. Shit.

Despite being far from the sea and her usual sources of recreational drugs, Hedda had been lucky to find one such secured spot, where the plant she needed, had spread it's roots. Though she preferred to chew on stalks and fruits, because they had less unpleasant side effects later, roots worked as well. After all, when it came to sharing the mind of her master, you could not be a princess about, what you were offered. Therefore after some digging and tearing, she had just enough matter for her to use the next few days. It would have been more convenient, if the messages she received during her journeys had been less cryptical and more direct, but then again... the way of gods was never easy.

Hedda was on the lookout for a safe spot to perform the ritual, when the unmistakeble scent of expecting mother hit her nostrils and made her freeze in her steps. It was sweet and calming - one of the few things in this ugly world, which she would deem almost beautiful. There and then she decided that the master was in no hurry to get in touch with her, she changed her path and sniffed the air to find the source. And not too far from where she had been initially, she caught sight of a snow-white she-wolf, which was obviously pregnant, the aroma so thick and distinct around her that Hedda could not only smell it, but see it.

Still holding the root between her jaws she stopped and observed the wolf with hungry eyes.

As the vestiges of her dream crumbled away, the feeling of being watched crept up her spine like a slow conga line of spiders. Bazi drew a steadying breath and pushed herself upright, head lowered protectively and eyes scanning her sparsely wooded surroundings for danger.

When she spotted the staring wolf not a stone's throw away, the Alpha's lips pulled back over her teeth in a silent snarl. It was not her prerogative to take chances any more - not with an unknown number of lives depending on her survival.

When it came to obeying the rules of the wolf kind, Hedda liked to push boundaries and see for herself, what would happen, if she did not respond the way she was expected to. But she was no reckless fool either and she knew, where and when to stop. In this case... the scent of the she-wolf was so enchanting and overwhelming that the old witch wanted to feel and enjoy it for longer. Therefore despite the warning she took some steps closer to the pregnant girl, keeping her head and body politely low, tail going in quick wags - she wanted her to know that she came with peace and meant no harm (which was probably not entirely true, if we see it from the point of regular person's view).

At a safe distance, yet near enough to speak and be heard without raising the voice, Hedda stopped and sat down, her head tilted slightly to the side and ears drawn back in submissive manner. Just as her fellow mentor The Great Pretender - she could flawlessly shift from one mask to the other. She could be a smart and cunning witch, who enjoyed being scary and scaring people. And just as easily she could be this worn out and timid traveller, who was just curious to see another living being in a very long time. Those, who did not know her that well (and there probably weren't many), could not tell the difference, if Hedda herself didn't want them to see.

She put down the root by her feet and greeted the white she-wolf in a friendly manner: "Hei!" Her gaze was soft (as much as her only "readable" eye could convey) and politely averted.

She looked like a spider. Long, thin (Bazi was jealous), and unsettling. The state of her eyes did not help - one of them looked as though it has been replaced by a lump of polished coal. Bazi's lips ceased quivering, but she did not raise her head. "Hi," she countered, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Unlike Hedda, Bazi did not - could not - disguise her emotions. "What was that thing you had in your mouth?" She should have asked what Hedda was doing there, so close to Nova Peak, but her hormone-addled brain has other ideas.

"You mean this?"Hedda appeared genuinely surprised, as if she had not expected the girl to take interest in her "thing", and placed a paw on it, just to emphasize, what she had meant by it. "Traveller's root,"she explained, having not to fake anything this time. There were many names to this plant, but this was more common and told exactly, what it did. It let your spirit travel the other realms, but, depending on, how much you took at a time, you could also experience comfortable haze and pleasure.

"It has many uses and properties," she was not going to play all her cards now. She had learned that it was good to keep a few up your sleeve. "Technically... if you know, how to use it... you can have either a painkiller or... something that takes you on a ride of your life," she smiled in a little less pleasant way as a harmless traveller would do, giving an impression that she knew a lot more than she revealed and not all of it was good.

When the stranger grinned, Bazi was instantly reminded of the old witch doctor at Swiftcurrent Creek. Lecter, she recalled with an inward grimace. Hedda's otherworldly appearance and fascination with things that grew in the ground strengthened the resemblance, and Bazi shifted uncomfortably where she sat despite the fact that Hedda was being perfectly pleasant.

She would have made her excuses and left were it not for that magic word: painkiller. The word expanded in the air like an inflatable neon sign, winking seductively at her. "Painkiller," she repeated, creeping forward half an inch. Her eyes wandered to the tatty root beneath Hedda's paw and back to her queer and off-putting smile. "How good is this painkiller, exactly? Thorn in the paw good, or.. birth good."

When Hedda sensed that she had got the woman interested, her so called inner-self - that carefully controlled everything her body and mind did - smiled gleefully. It was odd really - how easy it was to get someone take one step closer to a trap - if you promised to relieve pain. It happened every single time. People could go at lengths, if the pain was unbearable, and she had watched a good deal of them die at her paws, smiling and feeling good for not feeling the pain anymore, yet blisfully unaware that they were dying at the same time too.

This time killing this lass was not Hedda's purpose. First - because she had a certain amount of respect to expecting mothers (because they provided more meat and souls to torture in the future) and second - Bazi was lucky, because the witch sort of liked her, which was unusual. "Any kind of good," she said with a cryptical smile, "mends bodily pain just as much the one of a soul." Of course, she didn't mention anything about the side effects. She wanted to see, how desperate the wolf was to make a foolish decision.

"Any kind of good," the witch woman replied in the manner of a gypsy peddling cheap knock-offs on a street corner. Subsequent talk of the root's mystical soul-mending properties triggered every one of Bazi's 10,000 hokum alarms, knotting the pale woman's face into a disappointed sneer. 


"Does it work or not?" she demanded impatiently, turning to offer Hedda a full view of her bulging sides. "Do you know how far along I am? Halfway. Half. By the time these things are good and cooked, giving birth to them is.." Bazi shivered visibly. "So does it work, or not? And what do you want in exchange for teaching me?"

The lady was not born yesterday and this was a good thing. Far too often Hedda had had to deal with people, who didn't have any self-protection instinct at all. It was admirable, how easily people fell for her promises, false in belief that in their state there was still something miraculous the witch could do for them to make them better. This kind didn't deserve to live, therefore, whenever she had left someone making it's last steps towards the Hel's realm for people, she didn't have any scruples for doing that. They would have died at some point anyway, it did not matter, who did it. Though... she liked to think that the exit she had offered was a much more pleasant way.

The woman was far from dying and was healthy enough to bear young. Hedda looked at the lady's swollen sides with mild interest, feeling a little bored inside. Pregnancy was something she had seen so often that it was no news to her at all. In the same manner she had aided in terminating them too, if such need arised. Common healers were not that willing to feed a girl herbs that would "fix her problem", therefore she had helped numerous shield-maidens in trouble. Out of her good heart. However, this help had not come without a price, but it was something they realized too late - long after Hedda had disappeared from the area.

"Do you want to try it out? Now, perhaps?" she ignored the question about "teaching". Hedda rarely shared her wisdom with anyone. "Because it works on me, but then again... there is always a possibility that it won't work on you," this was a valid argument. And despite her better nature, she would give her just enough to feel euphoria and numbness, but not enough to poison. This girl probably had a family somewhere around and, since Hedda knew she would be staying at this place for a while, she didn't want to make enemies just yet.

"Do you want to try it out? Now, perhaps?"


Bazi eyed the witch suspiciously. No matter how desperate she was to lessen the imminent pain of childbirth, she was not an idiot. It would be folly indeed to ingest some unknown plant matter whilst alone in the company of a witch wolf she did not know, without pack mates to step in if something went awry. "Only if my mate and his sister are present," she countered, "And you have to take it before I do." There was nothing in the deal that would benefit Hedda.

If this was a fairy-tale about Snow white and seven dwarfs, then the evil stepmother had met a clever princess, indeed. Feeding her the poisoned apple was not going to be an easy task, but on the other hand - Hedda was merely offering help in relieving the pain not a real killing drug. With the added value of seeing some nice visions and feeling happy as a fool for hours to go.

"Smart move, but not a fair one. I don't have a back up and, where is the guarantee that they won't slit my throat the moment they see me? I am not keen on losing my life just yet," she shook her head slowly, declining this part of the agreement. "But I can take it before you - even now, if you wish - you and me are the same kind after all," in other words - if the drug did not harm Hedda, why should it harm the pregnant girl?