Stavanger Bay Stranger Things

From the dizzying narrows to the mouth of the den, it was only a few more paces. The Blackrock beta paused long enough to see that Furiosa made it safely across before swivelling her head back around and ducking through the entrance.

Inside, the cave was cool and dark, smelling strongly of the scented herbs that lined the walls and of Doe herself. The rats had long since been killed and eaten or otherwise dispersed, and the floor was covered in a fine layer of sand, but was otherwise free of debris. Doe had worked very hard to clean and dress the cave for both the birth of her children and housing other members of the pack during the long winter, should the need arise.

Anxiously, Doe gazed at the pale woman, wondering how she would find it.

"They'll be born here," she said softly, speaking more freely in the dark of the den. "Two or three, I think." The little nudges she'd experienced thus far were not much to go by, but Doe hazarded the guess easily enough. "Would you want - Do you think you'll come, when it's time?" she wondered, latching on to the idea as soon as she spoke it.

The whoosh of waves echoed eerily in the cavern, and Doe imagined it felt much like what her unborn cubs must have been experiencing. What will it be like? she wondered as she awaited Furiosa's response. What will it be like to bring new life into the world?

Her mother had warned her of the pain, but the little shewolf was not as worried about this; pain hardly phased her anymore. More than that, she worrried about failing the creatures she would bring forth - it was her mother's greatest shame, to have birthed a stillborn child alongside Doe and Buck.

But Doe was determined not to let that happen, even if she wasn't exactly sure what decided such fates. She laid often in the waters and spoke sweet words to the god of the waves, begging that all the lives within her would come into the world untouched. But what did she know about such things? What did anyone know, except for those who'd gone through it themselves?

Doe didn't know whether or not Furiosa had ever had children, but it seemed better to have her there than no one at all.