Blackfeather Woods [m] blackreach

Mature Content Warning

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The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: Childbirth mentioned.

Wolfskull was no place for children, but it was the place that she ended up in her time of need, oblivious to the history of the space. It didn't feel wrong to be here. The stone was cool to the touch; the deep shadows were a comfort to the frenzied woman as she sought solace within them, and as she felt the throbbing pain of one contraction relenting to another, Parvati knew she couldn't go anywhere else. This was how it was meant to be. The cave would be her fortress and her blood would be an offering to the forces within it — for Parvati would give everything for these children, everything.

She willed herself to stay focused as she crossed through the atrium of the cave, and when she could go no further she let herself collapse rear-end-first to the dirt. She felt them inside of her body. Little creatures kicking, twisting, eager to escape the confines of her womb. Parvati was manic with the pain and made mute out of fear, and did not call for help. Instead she began to brace herself against the dirt, and did not linger long upon her haunches as the quickening of her womb forced her up again. A contraction coursed through her body and she grit her teeth against the urge to gasp and crow. It would be hours before the first babe would make an appearance — if she could survive it all.

The woman was panting and pacing within irregular intervals, pressing her sides against the cold stone walls as she passed them or pausing to breathe — trying to remember what she'd seen in her past life among the women, and what she had told Cassiopeia during her own tribulation — and then, frantic, she recalled something older, something she should not have knowledge of yet somehow -- perhaps by the will of the gods she thought had abandoned her -- Parvati felt deep in her soul.

She began to claw at the earth; thinly at first, shaking so much that her blunt claws did not produce straight lines. As she paced and as she focused her mind on this new task (meant to keep her mind off the pain but, it was growing insurmountable) she got better and better. The woman roamed in a circle around the edge of the cave and scrawled shape after shape, correcting some as she passed over them a second time or a third or a fourth; until around her there were strange glyphs — ancient sigils of importance to her own people, meant to protect her.

As Parvati came to the center she staggered and braced against the cavern floor — feeling something warm and slick leaving her body, hearing the whispered thump as it landed in dust. Instinct won out at that point. She turned to examine the lump and with some cleaning, the face of her first-born gleamed bright: a pale child, radiant despite the darkness of the cave. With tender kisses she cleansed its face of blood and dust — but this was not over.

The pains rebounded through her and Parvati thought, 'I cannot do this again. One is enough—' but nothing came of her pleading except pain and worry. It felt as if she was being torn in half from the inside-out: she felt much the same as the first birth, but this one was difficult. Different because it wasn't just one child, but two, racing to reach the world outside of her. Parvati knew that there was something wrong with painful clarity — and in her need, she shrieked for help, the sound of her voice carrying from the cave: @Maegi, @Tundra -- @Ramsay --

Yet the sound of her voice thinned, lost to the wood, and as Parvati gasped for breath she felt release — her body relaxing just enough to allow one body, then another, to pass through her and to the floor. She wasn't sure how she felt in those first few moments where pain no longer ruled her. There was a swooning calm flooding her every sense, and she moved as if in a dream to gather these bundles — cleaning them with tired kisses, pressing them to her belly and realizing at some point she'd sprawled upon the cavern floor and in her frenzy, obscured many of her scrawlings.

Parvati rested, then. Her breath slowly lost its panicked beat - and alongside her wriggled her babes, around which she wrapped one of her shivering limbs. 'My babies—' she thought as she fought to stay coherent, '—I love you with everything I have.'

@Anansi, @Sakhmet, @Sobek.
June 15th 2019 (forward-dated)

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