Luneshale Pass So when you leave me, I should die

It was a strange and unfamiliar pain, one she had not felt before. Similar to the cramping she had felt throughout her pregnancy, and yet far more intense. It passed like a wave through her body, painful and unforgiving. She knew all too well that it was likely time to retire into the den that herself and Soto had dug out about a week prior.

The process was slower than she thought, beginning late at night and ending as the dawn rose over the pass, it lasted several hours with each puppy arriving individually. It was a vile pain that she had not properly heeded warnings of, and a stress she could not possibly have been prepared to face.

The first to arrive was a son. Wailing the best he could, he was a healthy boy who she was quick to lick clean and pull close; a positive start. @Apollo Amaranthus, her first born child and her first son. He would make Verapaz proud.

Next was a daughter larger than the first. She too squeaked and cried as she was exposed to the cold air for the first time, Leto dragging a tongue over the little body to warm her up before bringing her next to her brother. @Artymis, a daughter who Leto hoped would grow to be a warrior, independent and strong.

The cries of her first two children were a sound she begged would cease, and yet when the third arrived in silence Leto wished he would begin screaming. Licking to warm him up, giving careful nudges, she soon heard a weak squeal from the puppy. For her third child, pale and late to cry, Leto only hoped that he, @Delos, would never scare her like that again.

Exhausted and dazed, Leto watched her children with wide eyes as each began to nurse over the course of a few hours. It was quiet aside from the occasional whine, the sound of suckling puppies, and her heartbeat which pounded in her ears.

Shadow reigned over the sands when the boy drew his first breath. Apollo; firstborn, halfblood, god-marked. For now, nothing but a squirming boy, hale and lively in these first moments.

Quickly the child settled.

The clouds shifted overhead.

The world went on, seeming almost the same. But it was changed.

Laid in the shade of his mother's den, the third born was comfortable nestled between his mother and littermates. Pale and smaller than the first and second born, he was utterly unaware of the scare he had given his mother.

Suckling and squeaking, there was no further reason to worry. Not yet.