Northstar Vale I want to drive away with you.

Feel free to skip me!

It had been just over a week since her girls had arrived and Ibis was growing more protective every day, not letting anyone visit except for @Akavir - and even then, she would hide @Arielle and @Lilitu from view, coveting them, afraid that they would vanish from her life. At some point while she slept her fiance and his brother @Viinturuth extracted the lost children from around her.

The entire affair had left Ibis in a state of overwhelming dread. She was oblivious to the general upheavals within the empire, the health of their Empress, the loss of their medic Awenfen and the demotion of the loyal few who remained. Her entire focus was on her twin girls, they were everything. When she slept it was only to have nightmares and so Ibis forced herself to stay awake for longer and longer periods. She ate like her namesake, picking at what was offered, but often leaving her meals to spoil. Gradually her pregnancy body began to lose its heft.

But when her girls were awake and crowing with life, singing in Lilitu's case or murmuring with little squeals in Arielle's, all was right in the world.

assuming this is AW -- let me know if not okay!

The days went by in a blur. Not that she had any concept of days—it was more a shapeless blob of time, oozing onward. Eat, sleep, poop, pee, cry, blind-deaf milk worm wrestle. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It was easy. It was simple. It was peaceful.

The dreams were a different story, but we'll get to that later.

Lilitu wriggled against her mother's belly, having just finished nursing and now making her way toward her mother's face. She slipped through the slim forelegs and up the chest, butting her snout against Ibis's chin with a small boop. If she were a kitten, she would have purred; as it was, she curled quietly (for once) in the curve of the young woman's throat, enjoying the delicate warmth there.

She felt a pulse. It mirrored her own. How wonderful and strange this existence was!

Arielle's little world was perfect. She ate when she was hungry and slept when she was tired and there was no shortage of warmth or snuggles. He mother and her sister were always there for her to nuzzle into whenever she was feeling cold or in need of attention. 

Her belly was full to almost bursting point before she realized her sibling's warmth was gone from her side; the place where she had been was now alarmingly cold. She released her mother and lifted her head back before moving it from side to side, searching for something that would tell her which direction to scoot. Unfortunately, she still only saw darkness and she felt nothing of her sister's presence in the immediate area. 

With a few quiet squeaks, Arielle scooted against her mother, nosing along her side to find her favorite spot. She was easy to please, so when she realized she had no idea where her sibling was, she settled for her other source of warmth and comfort. When she found it and snuggled up into her mom's fur, her nose brushed the tiny foot of her sister. With another small squeak, she wriggled her way over and curled up beside her before burying her face in the fur of mom's chest. Wrapped in the warmth of her family and with a full belly, sleep came quickly and easily.

Lilitu tucked against her throat. At first Ibis felt a faint alarm sounding in her head, but she knew her children were innocent of malice, that they did not wish her harm, and calmed herself. It was a deeply rooted instinct to protect one's neck - but her daughters were pure, and so she relaxed. She held an idea in her head for a moment and then with a faint smile, began to hum. Different notes at different lengths - wondering what the little singer would do.

She felt Arielle moving too, and tried not to move while the little one adjusted. She felt her little body perched against her and carefully adjusted her limbs to wrap around her loosely, fencing her in, feeling warmth emanating from her little puddle of a self. Would she be a singer one day too...? Would Ibis be blessed by the twinning voices of her dear daughters? The thought thrilled her, and try as she might to remain still to not disturb Arielle, Ibis couldn't help the idle thump of her tail.

She was snug as a bug in a rug, until all of a sudden. . . Well. No. That was actually pretty soothing. The vibration underneath her body threatened to lull her into an even deeper slumber than before. Given that she couldn't yet hear very well, Lilitu didn't pick up the sound of music—but she could feel the differences in frequency, based on how quickly or slowly her mother's throat buzzed.

How fascinating. She tried to mimic the sound, but it resulted only in a pfffbt sound from her tiny lips. She tried again, and: pfffbt. Dunno what kind of backing instrument this was, but damn it, it was the only one the girl had.

Ibis hummed, and Lilitu pfffbted. What would Arielle bring to the mix?

She let out a belch between pffftbts, her breath warm and redolent of milk.

There was far too much going on for Arielle to sleep very long. It seemed like this happened a lot: she slept while things happened but was eventually woken. She, of course, didn't mind; she wanted to be awake for any new things that happened around her. She was quiet and agreeable but curiosity had started grow in her little mind. She was surrounded in darkness and silence but still interested in the world around her. 

She felt the vibrations again and was instantly awake. She felt her sister move against her paw, and she stretched it further to explore that way. She felt a similar vibration and was intrigued. Arielle wiggled closer to her mother's chest and placed her two front paws against it and was met with more vibration. Her tail twitched behind her in a failed attempt to wag and she lifted her nose up. A tiny squeak left her and it was then that she realized the vibration in her own chest as she made the sound she couldn't hear. She was frozen in wonder for a few moments before she repeated the sound—a high pitched squeak that probably sounded in no way like it would fit into her family's musical number. She issued a few more squeaks anyway, oblivious to sound it was making and completely taken with contributing her own vibrations.

It was too bad that Seabreeze would never see her grand-daughters. That Terance was off somewhere else, too. Ibis was oblivious to the truth of her family: that both her mothers were long gone, so far gone that their old homestead was being built-over by a new conclave. She did not know that her father had left the Wilds, nor that he had died somewhere nameless. In her mind, her family was alive - having relocated somewhere when the world destabilized.

She watched both of them as she hummed her little tune, not aware that parts of the composition came from memory rather than spontaneity. It was like a hymn, almost. As one child shuffled, the other stretched. She brushed her nose against the exposed belly of one little girl and thought she might start weeping then and there; the shape of her daughter's round belly became incongruous as a sheen developed over her eyes.

'What would mama think of you?' Ibis could not help but think. 'Would she see herself in your face? I do.'

Carefully Ibis pressed a kiss to that belly, to that little nose, to the curled ears. She pulled Arielle towards her sister with a careful shift of her limbs, tucked them together beside one-another, and gave her the same myriad of tiny kisses.

'You're almost as dark as daddy,' she thought of the bronzed girl, 'You'll be handsome like him, I bet.'

'Maybe when you're older we can go see your grandpa.' She thinks, blinking away that sudden sadness and replacing it with a shy smile.