Arrow Lake graue himmel

for @Blodreina <3 @Ingram & @Praimfaya welcome ofc

another child for diaspora, the last. mahler woke with conflicted thoughts of the vale upon his mind, mingled with a midwife’s worry over olive. he must go and see her again, the gargoyle decided, gathering up his birthing supplies and heading at a steady lope for blodreina’s birthing den.
a fierce and robust woman, he had not been summoned during her travails. but takiyok was equally strong, equally feral, and her birth had been long and difficult. therefore mahler prepared himself for a weakened mother, perhaps a sickly child.
pausing on the shelter’s threshold, the man cleared his throat to announce his presence, waiting before entry as he had always done.

the days following praimfaya's birth were quiet and blodreina spent most of them sleeping, restoring her energy and stretching her legs gratefully when ingram came to give her a few minutes; and while the fierce wanlida's gone through a gamut of emotions pre and post birth she looks upon praimfaya now where the girl is awake and currently nursing and feels nothing but love ...a love that she thinks only a mother can feel for her child. warm and soft and protective. like she'd give her the world and tear it down for her in the same breath. she'd never considered that she'd one day be a mother, or that she'd settle down with anyone ...and while this path is new ( and in it's own way a little frightening ) for her she doesn't regret it.

her head lifts from where she's been fondly watching her daughter at the sound of approaching footfalls — knowing that they are not ingram's even before the clear of throat is given. she's been here a little over a month now and realizes that the only diasporian she's had any sort of conversation with was their leader. mostly, she stuck close to aure and ingram, proving to herself that old habits truly did die hard. she'd always been one for a smaller social circle; thus, the visit comes as some surprise to her.

she shifts slightly, mindful not to disturb praimfaya ( it was becoming a lot easier to find more comfortable positions without jostling the babe around too much as she grew accustomed to her being in the outside world ) and speaks the invitation, come in.

movement within, and then blodreina spoke. ducking his head, mahler entered as far as space and his large body would allow, depositing his wares in the corner. as eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he could make out her form and the tiny body of a single child curled against her, a female from the scent. 
the shelter held the fragrance of blood, milk, and birth; he could detect no illness in it, nor the sharp tang of a cut vein that sometimes followed new mothers in a dire way directly after delivery. "vas the birth a great strain upon you?" the man inquired, nosing through the folded pelt for a strip of fat-rich beaver tail, and reaching to lay this near the mother.
"for your milk," he explained, a small smile arching momentarily across his face as he turned his lavender eyes upon the child, silently assessing her.

blodreina studies mahler a bit wearily — she is grateful for his and disapora's acceptance of her, ingram and by proxy praimfaya but he is still a stranger to her nonetheless ...and if not a stranger than at best an acquaintance. still, he has come bearing a gift — for her milk, he would tell her — and asks her if her birth was a great strain for her. she isn't exactly sure how to gauge what is considered 'a great strain' or not and had no previous birthing experience to draw a comparison from. i labored for a while before i finally gave birth, she begins thoughtfully. and i was tired afterwords but rest helped a lot. she tells him with a soft and errant shrug of her shoulders. in hindsight, she thought it went normal but, again, she couldn't say either way.

thank you. she speaks as she quietly accepts the beaver tail he offers to her. blodreina falls silent then, watching him assess her daughter. instinctively, she shifts again. her name is praimfaya. she offers without prompt for the sake of filling the silence.

he had not worded things well, but blodreina answered as best she could. mahler, satisfied with the size and movement of the tiny girl, offered the new mother a warm look. "you have done very well, blodreina," he pronounced with a quiet pleasure. "i am glad you vere able to have her here." 
praimfaya. not a sound with which he was acquainted, and so he suspected it was of a tongue he did not know. yet all the same he was charmed, and repeated it aloud once in the quiet dim of the den. "ingram has been here," he observed with an approving nod. like verx and aurewen, these two did not appear to be formally mated, but there was a supportive nature to the male that mahler liked.

blodreina accepts mahler's praise with a quietly murmured thank you. and small dip of her head. the praise seems a bit odd to her, but she supposes its what others do when a mother gives birth. i'm glad you and yours allowed me to stay. reina replies, tone laced heavily with her gratitude. despite her struggle to find her foothold thus far — stuck, for the time being, in the geist rank as she was — they have continued to allow her to stay and while she isn't pleased with her own failures she supposes it could be worse.

yes, she replies to the inquiry about ingram. he is very attentive. not that reina particularly thought it was in question. understandably, their status as an unmated pair was likely unorthodox and in the wake of aure and verx's fallout and verx's eventual departure ( also an unmated pair with cubs ) might raise a few questions about the wiseness of being unmated ...but even mated pairs don't always work out and she likes to think that her and ingram's current situation is different than aure and verx's ...which had always seemed a bit one sided to blodreina ( not that, mind you, she'd ever point that out to aure ).

an irony then, in blodreina's consideration of aure and verx. mahler's opinion was much the same. the silverscarred wolfess seemed totally devoted to her lover in a way he had not been to her. brusque as he himself was, the gargoyle was of the mind that such radiant love should have been better returned. of course, mahler was also unrelentingly judgemental, and found himself superior to vercingetorix in many ways, the least of which was loyalty.
"do you have any questions for me?" mahler inquired, settling himself. blodreina seemed self-sufficient in all ways; while no mother was exempt from the post-birth exhaustion, he had few doubts she would fall into motherhood easily. and he was prepared to leave her to it, provided her needs were met and she was not holding back anything that was better said.