Phoenix Maplewood lügnerisch

maybe a @Lane? no pressure! <3

he ranged out, as much for himself as any other. rivenwood held night watchmen now, though the younger wolves were more retiring in nature.
approaching the firetree forest, he of course though of iana. she did not remain far from mind these days, as laurel did not leave him.
burdened with his regret in refusal, struggling beyond, mahler sat himself down to watch the sun flicker from late noon into evening, watching a pair of nesting bluebirds twirl at the edge of the woodland.

Backdate to May 23, and you can have a Lane. xD She's currently on a journey across the mountains, going to visit Kukutux.

 

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: Food cravings/binge eating, vivid descriptions of vomiting later in thread.

There really hadn't been much of a reason for Lane to swing so far east in her travels, it was just that the fruity scent wafting from the maple forest was damn near irresistible. After half a moon of vomiting up whatever meat hit her stomach and dry heaving if she caught even the slightest whiff of a foul odor, she seemed to have finally turned the corner. She was ravenous, and the berry bushes of the Phoenix Maplewood were singing her a siren song.  

She gorged, shuffling from one bush to the next as she scarfed down any berries she could find that had managed to ripen. Darkness was beginning to gather-- she'd forgotten how much earlier night fell within the treeline-- but she couldn't seem to tear herself away from her feeding. If she had to, she would find a place in the woods to settle down for the evening. One night passed without the stars visible overhead wouldn't kill her.

done!! <3

there was the sound of branches rustling together, the sound of plucking. it was too loud to be birds, and so mahler lifted himself up, peering into the shadows before drawing closer to the noises.
it was a woman, a spice-ivory creature with peculiar ebon markings beneath her eyes. she ate near desperately of the berries. his practiced eye spotted perhaps an extra curve to her flank, and mahler cleared his throat to announce himself. "i am told the cravings can be quite strong."
friendly nature to his voice, but he knew how he looked: a massive figure against the mellowing backdrop, and so was still until the other made his invite or turned him aside.

Lane paused her munching, albeit reluctantly. She turned to face the voice addressing her-- it belonged to a scarred, hulking man partially veiled by the gathering darkness. She was able to make out bright, lilac eyes-- a rare, curious color, to be sure. 

She quirked a brow in amusement. "Oh, you think I'm pregnant? Maybe I'm just fat." She released a chuckle. If only. Was she really showing that much already? She thought she would have a few more weeks before complete strangers felt confident enough to comment on her pregnancy in casual conversation. 

As for the fact that he was a complete stranger, it didn't bother Lane in the least. She had been raised in a bubble, in a sense, growing up with parents who were widely known and revered. She'd never had reason to fear any stranger, not when she could gain instant favor by merely mentioning her surname. 

And really, what kind of person would do harm by a pregnant lady?

"vould it not be the same sort of craving?" he chuckled, moving forward so that he could be more easier seen. 
"i am mahler, of rivenvood. vintersbane and i have been long acquainted. i am their healer — and midvife."
perhaps he was mistaken. his eyes were ageing after all, a secret new development that he had kept to himself, and would until it became too great a thing to silence.
he turned half away, looking toward the bluebirds once more.

Lane did not expect so swift a quip, and her chuckle bubbled into full-blown laughter as she was caught off-guard. "I guess that's true," she admitted as her giggles wound down. 

Rivenwood, right. Their ally to the east. "Oh, Wintersbane?" she echoed. "It's him I have to thank for these.." she glanced down at her stomach, "..cravings." She looked back up at Mahler. Her amusement had faded from her features, and it was only evidenced now by a small, wry smile. 

"My name's Lane. I'm the medic in Duskfire Glacier... well.. one of the many, I suppose." She really ought to branch out a little, maybe explore a trade that wasn't already so heavily represented. 

"Wait.." Hang on just a minute. "Did you say midwife?" You didn't hear that every day: a scarred, brawny warrior introducing himself as a midwife.

her laughter was pleasant, and brought his own out again. lane, of duskfire glacier, and another medic. "yes, i have had the —" pleasure stress horror regret sorrow longing "— enjoyment of meeting iana. ve have been sharing medicines, and testing them."
wintersbane, a father. mahler quirked a brow, for now lane's earlier jollyness had muted. "a congratulations is in order, then," he said softly, for the woman seemed more contemplative than anything about her pregnancy.
another little chuff. "i have been a midvife for several years. but first i vas only a curious boy, and then i vas a young man who had to patch his own vounds. after that, i vas curious again, and here ve are."
a throat-clearing. "vhat is your specialty, if i may ask, lane?"

Oh? He knew Iana too, and they had been meeting up? That might explain why Lane hadn't had the opportunity to spend quite as much time with Iana as she had hoped. Perhaps as a function of her studies with Mahler (and her recent rise to leadership) she hadn't been as available as the others. 

Her thoughts might have drifted toward suspicions of there perhaps being more going on between the pair, but Mahler redirected her attention back to her condition, offering her congratulations. 

Had anyone else congratulated her yet? Was Mahler really the first? 

"Thanks," Lane returned, feeling slightly fraudulent in accepting his congratulations. Admittedly, she hadn't quite reached a celebratory mindset about her pregnancy. Not yet, at least. 

"Oh wow, you're self-taught?" Lane commented, impressed. "My specialty? Uh.. wound care, I suppose. Battle medicine." She wasn't really the slowly-nurse-people-back-to-health type, for that you needed at least an ounce of bedside manner. Emergency medicine was much more her element. 

"I met a great healer, once.." Lane mused, "And she told me I had to become a mother myself, to truly understand how to care for mothers." Well.. maybe those hadn't been Kukutux's exact words, but that had more or less been the gist of it. Right? It had been an awful long time since they spoke on it. Before Duskfire Glacier, before the meteor...

"..I take it you disagree with her?" Lane posed the question almost hungrily, deeply curious for Mahler's response.

as she spoke, mahler settled to his haunches. a wind rose, cuffing 'round his shoulders at the granite fur there. "i know how to take care of mothers," he said gently. "but i am not a mother. nor vill i ever experience motherhood, or anything that it entails." not the growing of one's belly, nor the pain often complained of through one's hips, nor labour.
nor loss.
"so perhaps it is both: you do not need to be a mother to know how to tend them, but only in being one can you truly understand."
he considered the rest of what lane had said: battle medicine. "it takes a a quick mind that can hone itself to broken bones, cut arteries, slashed throats. not every medic is able to do these things." and it had been a long, long while since mahler had tended someone in the heat of conflict or the air of war. 
he was thus, impressed in return. "i do not believe i have met anyvone vith your skills before. mine are far too rusted to be of use these days." a twinkle to his stoneflower eyes.

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: References to food craving/binge eating and vomiting.

Lane nodded. It was the same with injuries. She'd never had a broken bone herself, but she knew how to take care of one. Of course, whether Kukutux had been correct about her motherhood theory was a bit of a moot point now. For better or for worse, Lane was a mother now, right smack in the middle of gaining whatever valuable knowledge such an experience would provide. 

The man paid his compliment, and Lane smiled. If he was trying to win her favor, it was working. She liked him. He had the exact sort of calm, intelligent, self-possessed presence that made a person good company, and he had injected complimentary doses of praise and humility in the perfect amount.

"I bet you remember more than you think. It has a way of coming back to you in the heat of the moment, when you really nee--" 

Oh. Oh no. 

The berries had left behind an acidic taste on her tongue, and now saliva was beginning to pool in her mouth. Lane had been pregnant for long enough to know what that meant. She stumbled a few steps away from Mahler, and then with a gagging cough, she brought up a colossal amount of half-digested berries.

lane had revealed that wintersbane was the father of her children, but she had not elaborated on the nature of them to one another. and mahler would not ask, as much for politeness as not truly wishing to know if the man he regarded highly as his brother now made the same misstep he had gone first to do.
for lane's sake, the gargoyle hoped that the tundrian would make the affable woman his proper wife, and have no other. he had learned — long late, far too late — that this was the only way to grant a true stability.
it was neither here nor there, none of his business, except that even his first meeting with lane had left the impression of her genuine nature. logic to be a battle-medic, introspective, and pleasant. she deserved more than what he himself had ever done for wylla and for nyx.
projection.
shaking himself away, mahler scolded himself for such inner croakings of doom in time to begin his agreeing nod. but the nature of pregnancy had gagged his gravid companion. he was not concerned, only upon his feet in a moment and at the side of the duskfire woman, though not so close to touch. "please sit." voice neither firm nor wan. he stepped aside decisively, and this time scanned the trees for the birch sap, just beginning to seep in gobules along the paperbark.
it would taste of alpine mint, he hoped; lips sticky with it, he carried back a bit of it and set the small sticky orb near her paw. "you may find that this taste helps vith the nausea," and no more, hovering close but with a small berth, an unofficial nursemaid in his most official capacity.

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: References to food cravings/binge eating, vivid description of vomiting.

Lane lowered her rump to the ground at Mahler's firm suggestion, responding to the authoritative, matter-of-fact tone that one inevitably develops for use with patients after working in medicine for a length of time. He disappeared from her side just as she began another round of vomiting, and for a fleeting moment Lane thought that he was repulsed and meant to leave her.

He returned with an offering just as Lane finished up evicting the last of the berries from her stomach. She sniffed the small globule, but with her nasal passages still searing from stomach acid, her sense of smell was nonexistent. Her stomach gurgled angrily, hinting that her berry binge may have further repercussions later in the evening, and it likely wouldn't be coming from the mouth-end.

Lane licked up the sap, rolling it over her tongue. She couldn't say if it had any affect on nausea, which often subsided on its own after a hearty upchuck. The sap did coat her throat in a soothing way, calming the burning sensation with a light, almost minty taste. She breathed the scent up through her sinuses, and after a moment, her eyes stopped watering. She blinked, turning to Mahler. 

"Remarkable," she croaked, her voice a bit thick from the sap. "Never thought to use birch sap for that--" By now, Lane was able to identify the scent and taste of the common cough remedy-- "I was taught it was for coughs." No wonder Iana was spending time with Mahler. He seemed to have some unique tricks up his sleeve.

as if upon cue, his own lingering cough returned. mahler put his head aside politely, the scent of the returned berries now rising around them both. "it is," he confirmed when he had finished, "but it is light enough, i found, to fill the mouth when vone is sick. i use cherry-bark for coughs, and vas recently introduced to honey for it as vell."
a gentle look, and the gargoyle began to scrape dirt over the mess. it would be a feast for ants and wasps very soon, and he did not wish to invite their pincers or stings so close. he regarded lane for a tight, appraising moment; she had emptied her stomach. the pinch of hunger to come might sicken her again, so violent could the experience be for one carrying young.
"believe it or not, i have enjoyed my time vith you, lane. but i vonder: vould you care for an escort home?" he did not know she had begun a journey; it remained to be seen if he would not have suggested the same with this knowledge.
duskfire, from them, had the nonsense to be both reachable and far. she had come this way on her own, but mahler saw the darkness falling now, and in his heart would not have left her to it, despite whatever clear capabilities the woman possesed.
"i could tell you about mountain-mint upon the vay?" he suggested, a smile cutting through the deepening grey.

Cherry bark for coughs? That was another new one. That reminded her-- Imaq had found a source of catmint in the Glacier's lavender fields, which was a near-coveted cure for the coughing diseases. Lane made a mental note to bring a bit by Rivenwood sometime in the future, by way of thanks. Maybe she'd tote the pups along, if they were eager to get out and explore. 

Even as he was burying her vomit, he claimed to have enjoyed their talk, which was excessively kind of him. Lane had enjoyed herself too; that had actually been her most pleasant upchuck in recent memory. She still burned behind the ears a bit when she thought of how she'd tossed her cookies in front of Rye, practically splashing his feet with her mess. 

Mahler offered her an escort home, which Lane almost turned down. She was supposed to be travelling to Moonglow, after all. Admittedly though, her path had strayed quite a bit, and it was never a good idea to start a journey on an empty stomach.. which hers was now, sadly. Yes, it'd be better to head home and regroup, and restart her trip  on the right foot tomorrow. 

"Yeah, I would like that," she agreed gratefully, after a momentary pause. "Mountain-mint? Please tell me it's a treatment for nausea.." Lane had yet to find anything that was worth a damn for treating her nausea and dizziness, and she was getting desperate. 

Lane turned to begin walking westward, side by side with Mahler. She wasn't normally one to travel at night, but she felt more confident with a seasoned fighter and healer at her side. 

Feel free to either wrap or archive!