Northstar Vale if it be granted

wanted to space this out since im having it happen a day early <3

by now, all would know that antigone had left them, and that reyson had been sent away.

these things were failure for tamar, as much for @Meadow's clear frustration as her own unsorted sentiments. perhaps she had not disconnected him from akashingo.

perhaps she had not disconnected herself.

antigone returned to her mind, pressing, insisting. grief rose in all her spirit. tamar walked through the red forest, searching for the places her son might have stepped in his departure. a mark of paw, a wisp of his red-gold fur. anything to say he had been here.

she found his fading scent just outside the reach of the grove, and here she wept tears of wormwood bitterness which watered the earth. this loss, it grew and grew inside her until tamar realized it had become part of her body.

a crushing contraction pinned the morphe where she was, a guttural moan shattering in her throat. when it passed, she rose on shaking limbs and began to move toward her den, only to be caught on the treeline by a second and harder one.

sweating, tamar called for @Zulema and @Zosime, asking that one of them bring meadow and @Arsenio to the densite, for she was determined that she would return to that place. her steps were hitching; the short distance was marked by continual pauses as her body prepared to bring forth her next babes.

but into the prepared shelter she did go, groaning in anguish, belly distended. the labour was faster this time, her mind somehow noted.

and when meadow came, it would be to find tamar sweat-streaked and panting, reaching desperately to the heiros with a soft cry of "i am sorry."

for reyson. for meadow. for the horror of akashingo which had touched the four of them and broken stones in the foundation — for her own breaking.

the pains carried her scream next.