Ocean's Breath Plateau in between spaces

@Marina @Chakliux first please!! Puppy time!

Dawn was upon them when she finally lay in silence. Her breath was quick, her eyes closed. She swallowed around what felt like a tongue larger than her mouth.

But she had done it.

Tullik rolled her head, fortifying herself for a moment before she would manage to raise it. It had been hard, every moment a ripple of agony she would never forget. With every inhale, she had felt more of herself splinter, felt more of herself shred, felt blood and fluid mat to her thighs. And then, it was done. It felt like a thousand years, or simply a thousand moments. Somewhere in between those moments, the place she had slipped to that was pain and determination, somewhere in there she had born three. She remembered that at least, every rallying shout she had yelled to Chakliux of what had occurred, every scream a new number.

Tullik moved, achingly slow, to rest her head on her shoulder. Three, nestled against the newly deflated curve of her belly. One wearing her colors, split with Chakliux’s whites (@Sea Hunter). She near wept at the sight, even moreso when she finally got the energy to reach out. A son, like the brothers she had never gotten to have.

Their legacy lives with you, loud, quick boy. You will scream with Kinnualâk‘s voice, you will run with Tuavi’s quickness. She whispered for the boy to hear, though he could not. Her nose moved from him to the white child next to him, rearing her head back when the babe squalled at her. Laughing, she reached down to touch the girl child (@Kilalurak) again.

Feisty creature! Like a little cougar! You are Chakliux made again, small cub. You will be just as ferocious. Leaving the Girl to angrily suckle now that she was awoken, her nose made it to the final child. Wrapped in foreign golds, but she knew them well. Her response was a belly laugh, from deep within her, before she made her way back to the child (@Sirmiq).

You, who look like Dutch, you will be just as special as your siblings. You will hold the attention of thousands, with stories and song. You are magnetic, little one, and I cannot wait for you to show them all. Tullik let her head slither back to the pelt beneath her. Quiet reigned, but that may have been the blood in her ears.

Marina? Was her fellow wife alright?

to be father again — it pleased chakliux very much. the seal hunter kept close to their lodge, admitting only the sunshine woman kukutux in to help his wives. otherwise he crouched outside the entrance, perhaps with @Raiyuk, glancing intently from time to time at the sound of pain and distress.
his shoulders were tense; he wanted to go in! but he did not, and in fact restrained himself even unto the point of gentle jokes and carrying laughter.
but the hours wound on and he found himself silent, silent until — until the lodge echoed with new voices. only then did he give a sharp inhale, and stand, turning to enter the shelter with eager step and eagle eye.
tullik strove and their firstborn was a boy. the second, a girl who greatly resembled himself, and the last, another boy, whose pelt spoke of the panther. 
chakliux grinned, and kissed tullik's forehead, lingering to say she had done well. now he looked toward marina, wondering, awestruck.

When they looked for her, they would not find her.

Marina had been there through much of the night. She'd been at Tullik's side, comforting her through the worst of it and all the while ignoring every sign from her body that told her something was wrong. She felt sluggish. Weak. Her own labor had begun as a whisper, and remained so for hours.

By the time the sun began to rise, she knew it had been too long. If she could not bring her children into the world soon they would die, and her with them. Marina had slipped from the lodge in silence. She'd gone to the water.

By the time she was found, the sun would be shining in full. In the shallow water at the shoreline Marina nestled her two living children atop her flank, where the sea could not touch them. A son (@Chagak) and a daughter (@Puffyn).

Three remained in the water.

Marina leaned back and closed her eyes, too exhausted even for her grief.

Sea Hunter's arrival was a loud one. He drew his first breath in a gulp, as large as his new lungs would allow, and he yowled. His cries carried on as his down-soft furs were cleansed, as he was poked and nudged and prodded, and only when his mother's focus returned to her labouring did his voice lessen.

He found comfort later, when all around him had settled and the tension ebbed away. There was love and warmth in the lodge, enveloping him in the form of parents and siblings. Sea Hunter nursed his fill then cooed sweet little sounds as he nosed among the other small bodies who shared his space.

sirmiq entered the world opposite of his brother. silent to the point of worry, he let out a frustrated little squeak only when prompted, a breath filling his lungs with life and vigor as his mother's tongue swept over him.

he nestled himself aside the other wriggling bodies he would know as siblings, quiet and content as he nursed himself into a milk drunken slumber.

The new world was no so different from the one he'd known before. Memories of that other place we're already quickly fading — the sensory deprivation of that space couldn't hold a candle to the bright, loud, tactile sensation of this new place.

But he was still close to his mother's heart. The thrum of the waves mimicked the rush of Marina's blood.

And he still had at least one sister beside him. Already, memories of the others were a pale and distant thing. Soon enough, this would be all he knew and all he'd ever known — but even as the newness began to wear away, Chagak found himself exhausted by the process of it. He slept, limp and senseless, perfectly at peace upon the HMS Marina — as sure and seaworthy a vessel as he'd ever known.

While his father comforted Tullik, Raiyuk was awe-struck and silent. He wanted to be of use but at the same time he did not want to be in the way, and kept his distance, then drew away from the lodge entirely when he saw that Marina was not there.

There was concern for her. Her scent wove towards the sea, and that was where Raiyuk found her—soaking wet and fading to sleep or something far more permanent, he did not know.

Raiyuk rushed to her and checked for life. He did not focus on his new siblings yet; Marina was cold from the water and barely moving, which drew his focus. He turns towards the lodge to call for his father and falters there too, knowing he is a man now and should be able to handle this without calling for his father.

He carefully hoists Marina up and brings her to the sun-warmed sand. Then he goes back and finds the litter, unsure of what to do; but Raiyuk carefully takes each of them and begins to ferry them to Marina's side. He does not feel the difference between the two living and three not - all are cold.

cameo! tags for ref!

kukutux crouched beside marina when raiyuk brought her back to the sand. nasamiituuq, who was beside her, was sent to bring @Reina. @Minnow, @Faele, and @Paeon were given roles to support tullik and her newborns, as well as being water for several teas.

the birth appeared to have been a crushing ordeal for marina. "they need warmth and milk," moonmother said to raiyuk. "here. take this boy to his second mother," she said, motioning to @Chagak. she herself took @Puffyn, and when others came to join them on the beach, she would instruct that the girl too be taken to tullik.

warm pelts, chewed meat, and an enlivening drink would be brought to marina, after which chakliux would aid and oversee as she was carried back to the lodge, worry stark in his eyes.

three had died. kukutux knew the seal hunters buried their dead, and quietly covered them with a pelt for their father to tend later.

Cold.

It was cold. Why?

The temperature difference shocked her, freezing her immobile for a fraction of a second before propelling her into furious motion. She'd been in water before, but this was different. Her maw gaped in a silent wail, unable to expel the fluid from her newly-minted lungs. Within the next span of what should have been a breath, she was suddenly thrust into an even stranger cold, as water poured from her mouth. Exhausted, what should have been a piteous cry of distress was the barest whimper. Puffyn barely registered anything happening as she was moved from the mercy of the sea's waves to her mother's side. Limp, with little strength left in her bones, she stayed where she was placed, submitting to sleep.

She was shivering vigorously when her respite was interrupted by another sensation. She found herself taken, lifted in the air by someone or something. The scent wasn't Mother. The girl gave a weak attempt at thrashing, struggling against the strange new force, but could manage only the barest wiggle. A cry of protest came as a soft squeak before she stilled once more. She was passed along from stranger to stranger, moved here and there: all of this hardly registered. All she wanted was warmth and something to stop the pain of hunger in her belly.

Puffyn wanted to be, to just explore and taste and touch, but she could do nothing. Why wouldn't they let her sleep? It called to her so gently...