Lion Head Mesa everybody loves you, baby [m]

tavina truly was enveloped by toula's adoration, and put out her paw for the young mother to clutch as tightly as she was needed. "well done, Great One, well done. again, now," and her voice went on in such a manner.

a tiny white-gold girl with wildflower hands was birthed from the royal pharaoh, calm as a gilded idol. tavina checked thrice to see that she breathed before she cleaned the girl and set her down beside the pair of brothers.

a dark girl, a last child, oddly laughing already. she smoothed the birth from the nightfall fur and laid this, the fourth divine baby, among the first three.

"two healthy princesses for the red palace," she murmured to the radiant couple, basking in their joy for a moment before she turned to her tasks.

toula would be given one draught of wine tinged in poppy and several offerings of water. tavina retreated to the foot of the bed, clearing ruined cloths, directing how far from the palace they should be taken and buried. goose fat was brought as a first meal, and the next morning would be the powdered liver she had ordered as the labor began.

she would not be left alone for two weeks, after which tavina felt she would be outside the threshold of sudden death. bedrest until then, was the order, though she planned for the most sumptuous fare to be brought after those first days of broth and fat!

she stepped into the hall to breathe, refused to think of nala, and returned only to say for pharaoh, "you were named eight days after birth." it was toula's choice; the sesh only passed on this tradition and settled herself on a makeshift pallet in the corner.