The Night Mother's Children (BIRTHING THREAD)

@Damien @Cicero The pups can post in any order and after two rounds Keith can come in. :P

It was a bloody and long birth. It started late in the evening, with a twinge of pain in her abdomen but quickly deepened into something worst. Luckily for her she was prepared and set up a den near her herb store, where she got a herb bundle and curled up with it. Waiting for her pups to arrive.

When they did, only three out the the six she bore were stirring. The other half were dead, lifeless. Sent to the Void. The first born was alive, a large black male with a patch of white on his chest. When she lapped the birthing fluids off of him, he responded with a mighty screech and commended to knead at her side, latching onto her teat and suckling strongly.

The next was dead, black like his eldest brother, but with varying patterns of white flecks along his body. She tried in vain to revive him, but it became apparent to her that he had died in the womb. The two following were alive, thank Sithis. One wore a motley of grays, blacks and whites, in a erratic pattern she could not place. He was smaller than him too, a lot smaller but long and lean. Like his brother, he let out a squeal when she licked him, and wriggled to her body instinctively.

The one after, a female, was white like her father, with black peppering her back. She merely squeaked in response, and joined her two surviving brothers at Meldresi's side. And the final two pups were dead, like the one before. One pure white like the father, the other white with black ears and paws.

She sighed with relief when she felt no more pups trying to push through her body, spewing blood all over the cave. She lapped at her surviving pups gently before turning her attention to the dead ones. There was one thing she had to do before she could relax, something most mothers would dread, but Meldresi was fine with. It was an unwritten rule to reabsorb the pups her body spent weeks creating in order to nourish the living ones and herself. The Night Queen set upon her lifeless pups, tearing into their tiny bodies as her living ones thrived on her milk.