Wheeling Gull Isle and i will love you until my last breath and beyond

 

Hemlock was still pacing even as she felt more fluid shifting and flowing from her. It wasn't a gush but it wasn't just a trickle, and she couldn't stand the sensation and turned to irritably try and groom herself while she still could. It wasn't as if she could reach easily and she prowled the densite anxiously. A shift of the wind brought a fresh wave of sea-salt to her nose and she sneezed, the sensation rippling awkwardly through her body and cut sharply in a growl from her throat. She turned to her herbs, nosing through and finding the borage and chewing a portion of the stock. No doubt they would be born within the next few hours, and she was set on helping her children as much as she could through any means necessary. She wasn't afraid of the pain, it was....it was so much more than that. 

This momentous task came down to her and no matter the soothing words she had offered her wife so long ago nothing came to her. The sounds outside made her pause and the medic lifted her head from her meager cache to see Arturo's familiar form. He thankfully didn't even stick his head into the densite, lest Hemlock take it from him. Instead he served as a sentry, noisily chewing and working at a bone while she did all the hard work. She could almost hear Lotte chastising him - that he knew nothing of the work of women, that he was lucky to be able to distract himself so! And it was then that Hemlock clamped her mouth shut and swallowed down the thick cry, equal parts emotion and pain. She wished Lotte was there, with her, maybe if she had only whelped earlier Lotte might have been with her and not out on another venture and whatever misfortune had fallen her could have been escaped. 

It was then that Hemlock could no longer stand to stand, shifting to the ground on her side. She was panting quietly, the pains becoming more intense and more frequent. It was a subconscious thing that she spread her legs to try and ease the pressure between them, if she was not torn asunder she would have been impressed and shocked. Lotte managed, you will do her proud. It became a mantra, and Hemlock could almost see her dark wife blotting out the brightness of the sky beyond - to keep her safe and keep her solitary and unbothered. Somehow she expected that Arturo would keep anyone away, but, still, her mind was trying it's damndest to keep her together too and it was her dark beloved it offered. 

The pain was near constant and on another more intense wave Hemlock felt the need to try and push - the thought of expelling her children out into the cruel world almost enough to make her wish it not done. Nature would not allow her to go back now, that wasn't how things worked. What had been begun had a natural progression and she was seeing the fruits of her labor. She grit her teeth, a horrible gnashing to her jaws as she fought and struggled. Soon she felt the most pressure, expelling a sac she turned instantly to free the puppy, met with a mostly dark figure she began grooming instantly. She let out a relieved cry as the child struggled against her ministrations. If Hemlock had questioned how she felt, or might have felt, in that moment there was no question: all she could imagine was love. She brought the child to her breast, watching her son as if he were the first child ever born, a tiny miracle. @Droman might never know her personally, but, Hemlock could only think of Mallaidh and the way the girl had come to the world. 

Now that she was more accustomed and the first rush of oxytocin had tempered some of the aggressive waves of pain things seemed...easier. It was different. She still watched Droman as he moved and breathed - everything was so new. Another surge of pressure and pain and Hemlock bore down again, this time, when the next child was born it was sandy and still, Hemlock swallowing back another whimper this time of her own grief. The child was still as could be, no matter how much she nosed and pressed at it - hoping that like Eirlys, the child might be willed back to them.