Duskfire Glacier violin

hoping for @Lane (again heh) -- this can be quick and fast, idk what the current timeline for duskfire is <3

By now, it was well and obvious that Sakhmet was...expecting.

The roundness to her sides had not yet become debilitating in any sense, but it showed off that she soon would be den bound. Unable to move and unable to see much of anyone besides @Kigipigak — which meant her time to be prepared for her future ticked by quickly.

She hoped for one of the few faces she knew here, the medic leader.

She would linger near the outskirts of the duskfire village and call for her directly. No urgency, just a simple request for a visit.

It was hard to ignore the changes in his wife.

While Kigipigak had not expected it, he didn't think it was a bad thing. He wasn't allowing himself to feel everything in depth though; he was afraid, which wasn't something he was used to feeling and so he rejected it outright. How dare he be afraid of this development? What else could he have expected anyway, given how much he loved Sakhmet and how close they were to one-another?

So when she wanted to visit the glacier, he went with her. She called for Lane and he kept watch for any guards, or any raiders, and wondered if the wolves of Duskfire had abandoned their village yet. Knowing that the threat of Ursus was out there might've prompted them to migrate sooner than either wolf was aware -- but he remained vigilant.

Lane joined Sakhmet and Kigipigak at the border with a spring in her step. Tuuluuwaq was home, her kids were home, Issorartuyok was home, and everything was right with the world. She knew there would be another emergency right around the corner (because there always was) but for now, she breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Hey, Sakhmet. Kigipigak." She looked between the two of them with a smile. Sakhmet was looking rather jolly around the middle. Good for her. Good for both of them.

"I never got the chance to say thank you for your help with scouting party, Kigipigak. I know Rivenwood really appreciated the help." She wagged her tail briefly, then she added, "Not many people would take a risk for nothing in return." Kigipigak was not part of a pack that was allied to Rivenwood, and yet he had eagerly helped anyway.

Ah, it seemed her husband was the unexpected star of this meeting. Although Lane had greeted them both, the village woman seemed rather keen to spread praise over Kigipigak.

Sakhmet would not step on this accomplishments of his. He had been unnecessarily brave to go to the raiders, but she also understand that was who he was.

Her pale gaze settled on her husband, if he wished to say anything in return.

Kigipigak was caught by surprise as Lane appeared, heeding not the call by Sakhmet, but the sight of himself. She lauded him a hero of some kind for doing what was right; earlier in his life he might have grown pompous from the pride this flared to life within his heart. Now, he merely smiled.

I am a friend to both villages. It was the right thing to do. That was all he would say on the subject, nodding appreciatively, and then looking to Sakhmet; this was her meeting with the issumatar -- she had been the one to call.

Kigipigak's response was polite, if a little perfunctory. He looked expectantly to Sakhmet, and so Lane also turned her attention to her. "You look well, Sakmhet," Lane remarked with a twinkle in her eye. She meant to express her gladness for them for any little ones they were expecting, but she wasn't so socially inept as to comment on the pregnancy before it was officially announced to her.

Her head craned, eyes roving her own side. As if it was a surprise to her as well, but it most certainly was not.

Thank you, She softly responded. I was actually hoping you might have a minute to discuss things with me as...two women, and you with knowledge as a leader.

Sakhmet was not so proud as to think that things would simply fall into place without her putting in work.

When he heard Sakhmet make her request - woman to woman - with Lane, he knew to step away. He was close in case something were to happen but not so close to infringe upon their conversation.

He imagined this was something she might've shared with Kukutux if they had lingered within Moonglow; instead they were here, with Lane. It was just as well, as the woman was wise in her own ways. Kigipigak was not suited for this conversation, as a man, and so he gave them space.

"Oh.. sure," Lane agreed, tilting her head at the unusual request. She had expected Kigipigak and Sakhmet to beg off the journey to the Hinterlands-- given Sakhmet's condition-- but that wasn't a conversation that need be kept between women. 

She almost spoke up to note that she really didn't possess much "knowledge as a leader." She was constantly second-guessing herself and pumping her counsel for advice. But she held her tongue, sensing that Sakhmet might need her to be confident and reassuring.

She was grateful for Kigipigak's situational awareness.

So she'd join Lane's side, voice hushed but not yet a whisper.

I'm sorry if this seemed...abrupt, or unexpected. You're the only other woman I know here. Really the...only other face who isn't Kigipigak. This was a conversation she might have pictured herself having with her own mother, or Kukutux. Alas. She had lost the former and departed from the latter.

I was just hoping you might have words of advice for...everything? Soft laughter to cushion her awkwardness.

Sakhmet was a little awkward with her request, which was understandable as she and Lane didn't really know each other all that well, despite the fact that Lane was the only one she knew here apart from Kigipigak. 

"I'll try," Lane laughed. "I'm usually the one receiving the advice, not the one giving it." 

"Well.." she paused thinking for a moment. She recalled all of the advice she'd gotten when she was pregnant-- the vast majority of it unsolicited-- in which wolf after wolf had told her she should take it easy. They hadn't been wrong. 

"First thing, you probably shouldn't come with us to the Hinterlands. Travel will be hard on you, and harder on them," Lane noted, referring to the them inside Sakhmet's belly. "I learned that the hard way myself." With her paws full with her two living children, she rarely thought of her stillborn third child, but she knew every mother was different. Some would struggle greatly with such a loss.

The Hinterlands was off the table.

Regardless of whatever anyone may have felt, Sakhmet knew with such a warning about them that she could not risk it. Certainly Kigipigak wouldn't wish to risk it either.

But there was the lingering fact that Lane had experienced hardship with her own pregnancy by traveling. Which left Sakhmet to wonder before she timidly asked —

What...happens?

Lane blinked at the question. It seemed that Sakhmet would not be appeased by vague euphemism. 

Sucking in a long breath of air, she said, "I have two children. I should have had three. The third was born still and only half-formed. Couldn't even tell if it was supposed to be male or female." Lane spoke unflinchingly, watching Sakhmet's reaction.

Her stomach dropped before it twisted.

Mortified by the thought of something...half-formed. Still. Would it happen to her? Would she face the horror? What if they all came out that way?

Oh, She only managed, breathless. Dizzied by the thought.

I'm sorry.

Sakhmet had been consumed by the horror of this possibility but this had been Lane's reality.

Lane was not a great reader of faces, but even she could see that Sakhmet was affected deeply. She shifted uncomfortably, a little guilty that she had scared the expectant mother. 

"Don't be," Lane waived away the apology with a sweep of her tail. "Two children were more than enough. I wouldn't trade Veteran and Wayfarer for anything, but truthfully, the litter was an accident." If the third pup had lived, he or she would have been just one more fatherless pup roaming the Teekons.  

"You and Kigipigak will be fine," she reassured Sakhmet. "Just take it easy-- let Kigipigak do the hunting. Settle nearby, if you can. Feel free to den in the caverns, if you want. My kids were born and raised there, and it worked well enough." The Duskfire wolves would not be around much longer, so someone might as well get some use out of the Greyfall Caverns.

Lane was far kinder than Sakhmet had ever expected. Not that the woman had ever been mean, but last summer Sakhmet had not been...the kindest. Awkward around the pregnant scout.

Now look at the ruddy Melonii. The very thing she had been so prickly about.

Did you step to leadership when they were born?

Sakhmet could only figure it made...some sense. Unaware of all the random litters that had sprouted in the duskfire village.

It was a fair question, even if it was a bit left field. 

"Oh, um.. yes and no.  I stepped up to leadership when there was a temporary need, because at the time I felt I needed to be in a position to better protect my children. Then.. the temporary need became permanent. I was never... I wasn't Wintersbane's mate." Lane had not been chosen. Tzila had received that honor. But now both Wintersbane and Tzila were in the ground, and Lane ruled over their wolves. She raised their children. There could be little argument as to who had won out, in the end.

"It was a hard time for me," Lane admitted. "Motherhood was not an easy transition. Things will be different for you, because you have the support of a mate." She smiled encouragingly. Her thoughts turned suddenly to Tuuluuwaq. If Lane and Tuuluuwaq were to become mates and breed, would she take more joy in motherhood this time around?

Lane had lived a life unlike anything Sakhmet could have ever imagined, even if she did not know all the details of it.

Yet it felt like a pressing reality that loomed over her head.

They wished to make a village, the children in her womb evident of that. Soon enough she would stand at a helm — but with her husband. Kigipigak.

He's been...very attentive. I'm lucky, She admitted softly. Almost sheepish with some bare level of guilt. It was evident Lane had not had it so easy.

Do you think you'll have children again? Maybe once the village has resettled...? She asked coyly with a brief show of a playful smile. An attempt to lighten the mood from grim possibilities and realities.

Sakhmet admitted that she was lucky, and there was a shyness about her. It was an almost guilty look. Lane wondered if that meant that Sakhmet was aware of how close she and Kigipigak had come to courting. All that had come of that extremely brief interlude was a gifted albino caribou pelt lying somewhere in Lane's den, folded and gathering dust. 

"Me?" Somehow, Lane was always surprised when people asked her that question. "Oh, um.. I don't know. It's not really something on my mind right now." As soon as she said it, she realized it may sound dismissive, especially to Sakhmet who-- no doubt-- could not keep babies out of her thoughts. 

"But I suppose I should be thinking about it," she allowed. "I think my time-of-the-year is due soon, if I'm going by how it went last year." God, what was she going to do if she went into heat? She hadn't made any plans at all. Maybe it was a good thing Sakhmet had asked.