Whitebark Stream two, again [birthing thread]

FORWARD-DATED TO MARCH 23 (TOMORROW) @Kavik  @Alsek 

The pains had started the day before. Actually, if Grezig were honest with herself, they had started about an hour after her… interaction with Kavik. They had been light at first, just a slight poking sensation in her uterine area. She had assumed, at first, that they were the feelings of her pups moving around. It made sense, seeing as how they were supposed to be born at the end of the week, by her calculations. It was hard to remember, though, exactly how long she’d been pregnant at this point. And she’d only done this once before. By no means did she consider herself an expert in pregnancy and childbirth. 

Over the course of the next few days, though, the pains had worsened. They had become sharper and harder to ignore. She had lain down, and then gotten up and shuffled around her den, trying to do anything to quell the pain. Something was wrong. She knew that now, and while she didn’t claim to be an expert, she was aware that stress could take its toll on a pregnancy. She worried. She sprawled out uncomfortably in her den and tried to sleep, tried to calm down, tried to suppress her fear, as well as the anger she still felt for Kavik. She needed to be at peace now, or risk harming or—gods forbid—losing her children.

…

She awoke suddenly at the feeling of sharp, awful pain in her uterus, as if she were being stabbed. With the sudden feeling as if she needed to shit, she stood on shaky legs and squatted, knowing she wouldn’t reach the outside of the den fast enough. She’d clean up afterwards. She groaned, strained, pushed, grunted… and what came out instead of shit was… a pup. Screaming its tiny head off. 

Grezig was shocked, but her instincts kicked in quickly. She turned and began licking it. She didn’t need to check if it was breathing—that was for sure—but she still needed to clear the birthing sac away. She tasted blood in her mouth as she cleaned the pup, a boy. “Alsek,” she muttered, even though saying the name of Kavik’s father caused her anger to flare up again. They had agreed, and she would not go back on her word even if he had. 

She felt another contraction come on, squatted, and delivered the second pup. She turned toward it and began to lick away the birthing sac and fluid, nudging it with her nose to get it to react.

It remained silent.

“Shit.”

Grezig continued to lick and nudge, clearing any obtrusion away from its nose and mouth. It was so small… so small… Too small. A runt. Compared to its much larger brother this little girl was a mouse. A dead mouse. Grezig whined, licking and nudging. She felt another contraction but tried to ignore it, focusing on this little girl…

She squeezed her eyes shut, squatted, and delivered. She could tell from the smell that it was the placenta. There were no more. There was just the boy, and a stillbirth. 

“Fuck.” Her mind went white. She shut down her brain.

She turned to Alsek blindly, pushing him against her, suddenly fiercely protective of him. He would live. He had to. He was all she—

A cry pierced the air and Grezig felt herself breathe again. The ringing in her ears stopped. She turned to the oh-so-small girl, nuzzled her up against herself and her brother. “Pele,” she said. And laughed quietly. The name had come from her time visiting Tizir, her first daughter. Tizir had told her of the goddess, Pele. The goddess of volcanoes: lava and fire. How fitting that the daughter named after a volcano would lie dormant for so long, and then suddenly explode into being. “Do not make that a habit,” she warned the tiny child, who was now suckling a teat next to her much larger brother. 

Two. Just like last time. And they both looked like their father. Grezig sighed resignedly. “So be it,” she said, and then laid back, allowing her children to continue drinking, and fell asleep.