Swiftcurrent Creek rubies

reverie was sleepless. she said names aloud. she ran away from him at all hours. she was avoidant and wept often.
despite the fact that he loved her dearly, lestan was beginning to feel the toll. he knew that reverie had been speaking with others, and so when she was in the company of another packmate he started to catch up with the work of patrolling and hunting, digging caches, wandering.
his trudging brought him to the den @Jakoul had excavated, and he stood silent, not wondering if he should address her or not.

Days, at most, she thought.

So she was held up in her den most of the time. Not willing to risk the wobbling to the river or towards the borders. Faces come to see her were welcomed, for now.

Lestan. A man she had almost taken! It was for that alone she welcomed him, knowing he was careful and respectful of these things.

Come, A dark paw patted at the warm, fox-fur bed.

lestan was surprised! but he took gratefully to her side, flushing a little as the tips of their hairs brushed. "hello," he greeted with a tremulous little smile.
"do you need anything? or do you want to go anywhere before," well, before she was bedridden, he expected, not being truly well-versed yet with such things.

Talk,

She decided this was the only thing she needed. The loneliness had become perhaps the worst symptom of being bedridden in the last stages of this pregnancy.

Sickness and dizziness had become all too common with too much movement.

Lonely.

This came in the voice of a hushed, croaky confession.

gingerly lestan came to join her, almost sheepish. his soft eyes reached for that of her own. "talk to me," he invited in a friendly voice, aware of their closeness, of her roundness.
there were many things lestan did not understand outside of clinicality. such things were one of them.
"are you afraid?"