Phantom Hollow In my hands I hold a jar to gather up the evening dew [birthing thread]

Forward dated to the 5th of April (birthing order: @Lumiya @Revan @Venamis @Zan , 2 unnamed puppies will not survive due to the stress of traveling) @Damien is of course welcome, I think the others will have to wait a little to meet them (Looking at you, Moath)

Perhaps it had been a bad idea to move from the Weald so close to her due date after all. It begun the night of the new moon around 12 am when the stars were out and she had found a place to rest. It was just slight discomfort at first, an ache she couldn't get rid off no matter how much she turned and huffed and puffed. Left side? Nope, the ache was there again. Perhaps upside down? Dear God no, now her head lay in a puddle of water. Huh... strange, she didn't remember settling nearby the stream. Her ears swiveled. There was no rushing of water nearby and the sky was clear. It smelled like iron, a thick scent she only remembered from the borders and successful hunts. And that one time she almost ate someone's face. The aching became worse.

She woke up in a cold sweat, panting now. How much time had passed? She had dozed off for what could've been a few minutes or a couple of hours with her stomach cramping and a terrible pain deep inside her flower. Her breaths became shorter and she got herself up, only now noticing her head was covered in liquid that was most certainly not water. Was this it? But it was too soon! She still had a week, right? There was no way they were coming now. She reached down, noticing the iron scent was strongest around her entrance. Oh Mephala have mercy, she wasn't ready to do it here! They had to get back home, or at least to Blackfeather Woods - not this awful Hollow. No wonder she couldn't walk any further, her children were ready to come out. Damien...! She gasped, not even remembering if she had settled with him. Her vision got blurry but something told her to push and get them out of her, right now!

With her head between her paws she squeezed and breathed and pushed. The pain made her lose track of time and space, all her other worries shoved to the back of her mind to make way for the emotional journey ahead. She felt something move - someone - and out the first popped. Everything went way smoother after that first little head was out of her. She cleaned the light, slimy, wriggling ball of flesh and bone and instinctively moved it near her teats. She barely had time to see how her firstborn looked before the other eagerly made its way outside. This one was bigger, she felt, because it hurt more even though she was numbed by the pain at this point. This one got the same treatment as the first; clean, alive, to the teats, repeat. The third one came with a struggle, and when she nosed it over she knew it wasn't breathing. Like the good mother she was, she tried to bring it back to life, get its little heart pumping and its little lungs working, but there was no point. She barely had time to discard it when the fourth came sliding out. Luckily, this one was breathing and well. She placed it with its siblings and for a little while nothing happened.

Calm before the storm. It wasn't over. The fifth took its sweet time but mother had had enough. She pushed a little harder and out came the fifth, just as alive as the other ones. Four out of five, that was good, but it wasn't over just yet. To rub it in that it hadn't been a good idea to travel, there came a sixth. It was cold when she touched it, more dead than the other had been. She whimpered as she shoved it around, licking its little face, but it had to join the other one that hadn't made it.

And then it was done. The aching went away, her head cleared up, and the pain was numbing. She collapsed in exhaustion.