Blackfeather Woods wisteria

Back dated to about a week after the northern siblings arrive

The nausea has long since passed and she spends most of her days hungry, sluggish and tired, and unable to do much for herself than she knows how to do. The mute mother has children of her own and most days she sleeps, in and out. The slight change in temperature and occasional ray of sun are all she has to figure out the time of day. Occasionally, food shows up. Sometimes it’s Relmyna . Sometimes she goes a few days before anything is brought at all. The lack of communication with anyone makes it difficult to know who know she’s pregnant but being the lowest priority in a pack of… who knows how many, she doesn’t expect much to get by.
 
Each day, her belly swells just a little more while everything out shrinks. All the nutrients she does get settles easily in the life growing inside her, her spine bulging along her back the rounder she becomes.
 
The warm temperatures begin to cool as the day progresses on, losing the ray of sunlight she’d been laying in long gone. Ocracoke stirs a little, stretching out her gaunt legs and slowly picking herself up. A tremble sets through her and she stretches a little more, angling her nose up to pull against her every possible muscle. After a moment, she moves forward and sniffs the air for scents of another or anything left behind.

Tahani was still floating on clouds in the wake of the news that her sister was pregnant, but she knew that there was much work to do, not only regarding Shivali, but with the other pregnant and nursing women in the pack. she had seen glimpses of the nursing woman and her pups--one starkly white, the other black as night--but had not yet met the other. . .the damaged one.

carrying a rabbit in her jaws, its long legs swinging as she walked, Tahani padded down into the Spiderlings' Glen (one of the more beautiful places in these dark woods, she thought) careful not to lose her footing lest she slip and crack her head below. finally, she made it to the bottom, and caught sight of a lump of brown-gray fur. the woman.

with a low, keening whine, muffled through the prey in her mouth, the healer approached. the woman's eyes were closed, and Tahani was puzzled when they did not open as she drew closer. why did--

the northerner recoiled, dropping the rabbit in panicked reflex. no, the woman's eyes were not closed--but gone. naught but ragged scar tissue remained, marring a face that had once been beautiful. she swallowed thickly, feeling grief like bile churn in her gut. she summoned the fortitude to pick up the prey, placing it at the woman's feet.

"eat," she said in her tongue, forgetting in her shock that the woman might not understand her. "you need your strength."

As she moves forward, the wind shifts and brings with it a scent she does not recognize but the additional smell of prey causes a rumble in her stomach. Instead of continuing onward, Ocracoke takes careful steps in reverse as the stranger makes herself known. The kill hits the ground in obvious shock and her nose points downward, lowering the rest of her form to the ground. Her stomach rolls in knots between hunger and anxiety but she suspects it’ll find its way to the other mother.

She’s proven wrong a beat later as it’s picked up and dropped in front of her, the scent wafting in her direction. Her mouth instantly pools with saliva and she licks her lips, nose twitching this way and that. The stranger then says something but she does not understand. Her nose points upward, just slightly, in the direction of the voice, trying to listen over the rapid sound of her heart beating in her ears. “Wh-what?” she stammers out, flinching at the sound of her own voice.

the woman shot her a question, or at least what Tahani thought was a question, based on the upward swing and uncertainty of her voice. but it was in the common tongue, a language she barely knew, and she balked, not knowing how to continue. any other time, she would have mimed something out: but this woman had no sight, so any communication based on gesture was impossible.

"um." she paused, unsure, and pushed the rabbit closer, so it touched the woman's paws. "f. . .f-food," she tried, frowning. she thought that might be the word. slowly, she made a quarter-circle around the mother-to-be and gently nosed her side, the bulge of her womb. "good?" she asked gently, trying to copy words she'd heard Siarut say to visitors to the tundra.

she swallowed. "i. . .Tahani. i Tahani. you?" she had a million words of encouragement and kindness for the woman, but the language barrier had reduced her to a few tremulous syllables.

Silence lingers between them after she questions the strange words. A lot of waiting occurs when she can’t see, unable to read any facial expression or gestures and whether or not they’re still standing there. The stranger makes a sound, indicating to Ocracoke she hadn’t turned to leave. Her nearness causes her head to pull back and out of the way and when the kill touches her paws, she extracts and tucks them under her chest.
 
Food. There’s uncertainty in her tone and if she could see the stranger, she would see the confusion, but it doesn’t relay so well for her to understand the other has a barrier. She struggles to remember the last time someone brought her food and made it known, instead of leaving it somewhere in a cache or near where she spends most of her day. The concept of time feels lost on her most of the time as loneliness isolates her even more, despite wolves she should call pack mates.
 
When the stranger touches her rounding belly, Ocracoke yelps in surprise and shuffles on the ground so that she is out of reach but flinches in response as if it had been the Monster that pressed against her. She misses the following words, unable to focus on any other purpose than to avoid any backlash from the strange wolf but finding herself unable to determine what she desires of the broken mother.

the woman flinched from her touch, shattering any sort of connection that might have been made in that moment. Tahani backed up, taking three or four slow, even steps until she was a tail-length or so away. her lips curled upward in a horrified snarl. who had violated this woman, so? they had not only taken her eyes, but her peace of mind, as well. she was irrevocably broken, a feral, frightened thing.

"i Tahani," she said again, slower, enunciating each syllable as best as she could. "i. . .em Tahani. you?" if she had the woman's name in her mouth, she might be able to get somewhere. as it was, the chasm still existed between them, yawning, insurmountable for now.

"eat," she commanded gently, looking down at the rabbit. "eat food."

She takes long, deep breaths, trying to keep her calm and tell herself she isn’t in danger. That the other wolf is only trying to help, offering food; she doesn’t know what’s been done to her, none of them do (aside from the obvious). The woman—Tahani—tries again, introducing herself and she slowly nods her head. Ocracoke licks her lips and lifts her nose just slightly, turning to the direction the voice is coming from. She does her best to keep her “gaze” downward to avoid any indication of a challenge, and to hide what she can only imagine what her face looks like now.
 
“Oh-oh-oh—” she stammers quietly, trying to find her voice. It wasn’t often used during His control over her and her visitors are few and far between here. “Oh-Ocracoke,” she struggles to enunciate as clearly, but she sighs, trembling as if to expect backlash.
 
Tahani reminds her of the food and she swallows, turning a little and sniffing for the food, gently pulling the kill to her chest and pulling to close. Ocracoke nods a few times to express her gratitude when her lips are too shaken to form words and too conditioned to eat in front of anyone else.

the woman stammered like she hadn't spoken in years, but she finally managed to get out a strangled "Ocracoke," which Tahani filed away as useful information in her mind. "Ocracoke," she said slowly, trying to get the sound of it correct. she smiled, even though she knew the woman couldn't see it. she hoped she could hear the expression in her voice. "hello, Ocracoke."

Tahani waited for the woman to eat her fill, sitting patiently. her eyes wavered over the gaunt form, the swollen belly that seemed so out of place. she must be due well before Shivali; her pups would compete for resources with the northern children. . .but Tahani would not wish them ill.

no, pups were a blessing, and Ocracoke needed a pick-me-up more than anyone. even if they were borne of trauma, they were still new life.

Ocracoke only offers a few short shakes of a tail as introduction, thumping on the ground, before it’s curled around her and stilled. One front leg remains out in front of her and the other tucks into her chest, holding onto the kill. The stranger is silent then and she remains still, turning her head and listening for sounds of change in her area. She’d heard no rustling of the other getting up to leave and her scent remains strong in front of her. By result, her breathing becomes pronounced but she focuses on it for a moment so it does not become out of control in the company of someone she doesn’t know.

Ocracoke was clearly uncomfortable in her presence and wanted to eat alone; Tahani was more than happy to grant that desire. with a nod of her head--accustomed to speaking to wolves with sight--she left her to it. "i come back," she stressed, meaning every word. "soon."

what sort of savage did that to a woman? someone had gouged out her eyes and left her pregnant. she shuddered to think that that sort of man roamed these wilds; she hoped, for the woman's sake as well as her sisters', and hers, that this man was dead. that, however, was rarely ever the case. these monsters lived on forever--if not alive, then in legend.

shuddering, Tahani trotted swiftly out of the glen, looking for her siblings. the visit with the marred woman had shaken her greatly.

Tahani doesn’t press her for anymore conversation, or to eat the food in front of her. Instead, she decides she’ll come back another time. Soon. Slowly, she nods her own head and offers a brief flash of her incisor in a submissive smile. Thankful for the understanding, Ocracoke lowers her head again protectively over her food and waits until her footsteps fade away. Still, she waits a while longer, eventually devouring the kill with little remnants left.