Dragoncrest Cliffs Wild things

Between her chronic sleepiness and round belly—seriously, it had gotten enormous over these past few days—Wildfire sensed that her mobility was about to decrease drastically. She waddled out onto the beach, contemplating going to her mate's preferred spot. But all of her instincts commanded her to make an about-face, shuffling back through the caves to find an exit that let her out into the forest. She made a (very slow) beeline to the hollow redwood tree and sighed loudly in relief when she reached it.

She flopped unceremoniously to the soft earth just outside the little entrance, panting from the exertion of making her way here. Wildfire guessed her due date could not be more than a week or two away. She idly groomed her bulging abdomen, smiling when she felt the familiar stirring. The pups kicked most of the time lately. In fact, she was forced to push herself upright to pad behind the tree and take her nth leak of the day.

When the Bandrona finished, she rounded the tree again and ducked inside. She stretched out with a sigh, her joints slightly achy. She could hardly keep her eyes open. Wildfire hoped @Thuringwethil wouldn't mind that she had chosen the tree after all, because she was pretty sure she was officially stuck here until after she gave birth.

While she knows she needs to rest and keep from exerting herself, she knows she can’t stand in one place for too long. She does her best to rest and keep from pushing herself over the edge when it comes to how quickly it will allow them to heal. Instead, the day before, she’d been a little too rough with her evening and the morning left her in a struggle. It only keeps her down for a little while but she doesn’t go out of her way to do something stupid and further exert herself.

Of course, until she notices Wildfire slip away.

She begins a steady pace to follow after her but she isn’t able to keep up with her in sight. The scent she leaves behind is all she’s able to follow so that she doesn’t increase her heart beat and, subsequently, her breathing, nor does she want to cause any sudden motions for a startling pain. With minor success, she locates the tree she’s chosen as a den and her lips purse together, unhappy with the decision. She can’t make the woman move without damaging something between them. Using her power as commander to do her work between her and her mate is off limits, she’s come to learn, but she still doesn’t have to be happy about it.

Thuringwethil chuffs softly as she approaches but keeps her distance anyway.

She fell fast asleep, though some unknown amount of time later, a quiet noise caused her eyelids to flutter, then slowly peel open. Wildfire blinked a few times before her mate's face registered. She lifted her head and peered up at the commander, brow knitting in concern—should Thuringwethil have walked this far with her injuries?—but her mouth curving into a soft, sleepy smile.

With a very unladylike grunt, the Bandrona pushed herself to her feet and padded out to meet the commander. She stopped and winced, however, when one of the pups aimed a kick right at what felt like a rib. It knocked the wind out of her momentarily and Wildfire took in little sips of air, shooting Thuringwethil a wide-eyed look. She made a fairly swift recovery, then planted her hindquarters on the ground mostly because she was legitimately too weary to remain standing.

Leaning forward, she gently licked the Heda's chin, then her cheek. As if reading her mate's mind, Wildfire then glanced behind herself at the tree before looking back at the commander's face. I know, her expression seemed to say, frowning a little apologetically. But she didn't acknowledge it aloud, instead saying, "How're you feeling?"

Thuringwethil often toys with the anxieties and doubts with the location of the den but she can never decide if it is proactive or damaging to tell the expectant mother. Her only motive is to keep all of them safe and if she can seclude them from the rest of the world, she can make sure they are guarded properly. It pans out in her mind as Wildfire staggers out of the tree and closes the distance between them, only hesitating once that causes her brows to come together, but eventually she settles a moment later nearby and she leans into the affection.

“Okay,” she answers after a moment. She may have considered sitting too if it wouldn’t put too much pressure on her, so she remains standing. “How are you feeling?” she says, her nose indicative of the rather swollen midsection. Even if she wants a family with Wildfire, Thuringwethil knows now she could never put herself through that torture.

Thuringwethil was so stoic, it was easy to believe she might be in more pain than she indicated. Wildfire gave her a long look, though she decided to take the commander's response at face value. Besides, her mate effectively distracted by inquiring after her. That was a tricky question to answer right now.

"Exhausted," she replied, "but happy." She took a breath, still recovering somewhat from that kick to the ribs, telling Thuringwethil, "One of your children just made sure I can properly empathize by nailing me in the ribs." Her mouth curled at the fondly sarcastic tone of her own voice.

"They're gonna be here soon, in a week or two. Are you ready?" the Bandrona asked point blank in the next breath, head tilting.

Thuringwethil offers a smirk when Wildfire speaks and it does not surprise her that it is about the children. She is near her due date and it is expected and if she wasn’t talking about them at this point, she might be concerned. Perhaps she’s gotten used to it at this rate and perhaps for the best, considering the next part of her life is going to be nothing but their children. She’s managed thus far keeping herself occupied with things that involve Drageda and her wolves within and delegating where she needs to and she hopes the transition is smooth once the puppies are born.

“I guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” she says with a smile and wag of her tail. She lowers her nose to lick the side of her muzzle a few times. She wants to sit and wrap herself around her but she settles for the repeat affection by her nose, thankful it keeps some of the discomfort at bay. “If your clumsiness is wearing off on me, what are they going to be like?” she says with mock horror across her face, turning into a smile and encouraging nudge.

The words struck Wildfire in a peculiar way, though the commander's tone and expression were at odds with her phrasing. She peered shrewdly at her mate for a beat, taking in her smile and the wave of her tail, then let the momentary feeling fade. Her own face broke into an even broader smile as the Heda licked her cheek. She hummed happily, leaning into the gesture a bit before turning and peeling back her lips to nibble affectionately at the other woman's facial fluff.

She huffed a laugh against Thuringwethil's cheek at the quip. "They're going to be falling all over the place. We'll have to raid Portia's stash, wrap them in feathers and seaweed, y'know, make some papooses so we can carry them everywhere... and so that if they do end up falling, at least they'll be padded." Wildfire chuckled deeply at her own joke (like a loser), though it trailed off into a breathless sound of discomfort. Oh great, laughing hurt now.

Wildfire entertains the idea of how they’d care for them, though Thuringwethil doesn’t fully understand what she’s being told. She laughs, and Thuringwethil’s smile widens, and she’s distracted enough from the confusion not to bother clarifying. When her mate stops abruptly, her own smile turns into a frown and she noses her softly to encourage her that it’ll be okay. “Come on, you should rest,” she says, this time with a little more forceful nudge toward the tree trunk. Even she moves a few feet past her sitting mate to stop somewhere nearby, accepting she can’t change her mind about it and there is no need to cause any unnecessary worry.

"That's all I do anymore," Wildfire pointed out after recovering from the brief episode. Despite her words, she immediately heeded her mate's command, slowly pushing her portly figure onto all fours and then shuffling toward the redwood. It pleased her that Thuringwethil seemed to have accepted it as her whelping den of choice. Out of both love and gratitude, she paused to snuffle gently against the Heda's cheek.

She then waddled back into the tree, grunting and sighing and making all manner of noises as she finally made herself as comfortable as possible. "Will you stay with me?" Wildfire asked even as her eyelids drooped tellingly. "You should get some sleep too. We won't be getting much of it once they're born. Well," Wildfire mused, "I guess you could always sneak away and catch some Zs. But I'll pout at you a lot if you do," she jested.

Even with the jest in mind, Wildfire follows suit and begins to get settled in the tree after another round of affection. Her eyes flutter as she leans in to it, opening up wide enough to see her step away and lower back to the ground. Thuringwethil watches her from the entrance and though the tree is wide enough for her to rest, she isn’t sure she’ll be able to rest comfortably without the extra room to spread out. “I think I will need to stay here,” she explains with a slight frown but she slowly works to lower herself to the ground so that she at least takes up residence nearby. It is a process and it takes a few rejected moves before she’s finally on the ground and comfortable again.

Although she was a little disappointed that Thuringwethil couldn't join her inside the tree, she nodded her understanding. "'S okay," she slurred more than a little sleepily. "Do whatever you need to do," she added a little generically. She was having trouble parsing her thoughts and filtering them to her mouth, that's how tired she was all of a sudden. Actually, it hadn't come on suddenly; being tired was just part of her everyday reality at this juncture.

She stretched out a leg so they could at least hold hands, her chin dropping to perch atop the other one, which she crooked toward her chest. The instant Wildfire's eyes closed, she was down for the count.