Moonspear I can laugh at your jokes, convince you to take me home

tagging @Talamasca for visibility, as promised! 

others will be tagged with invitation to join soon — but for now, only Chakliux, pls! :3

The day had come.

She had known it would be soon, for the aches had grown worse. Each night before now, she had not even slept. The pain was too much, but it would only get worse.

It was late in the afternoon. The sun had grown dim, barely shinning its light over the lodge. Nasamik had been attempting a nap while the others were away, but had no luck. For just when her eyes had finally closed, they shot open again, wide, as a searing pain shot through her body.

A pained howl escaped her. She could not hold it in. Sides heaving, her body jerked. Panic stricken, she looked down towards her belly, then to her hind legs. Blood had begun to slowly pool around them. Wider, her eyes became.

This wasn't supposed to happen, was it?

Then it came again. The pain. Nasamik shrieked aloud, voice then rising to the air for @Chakliux.

They're coming!

the seal hunter and his never-ending stalk had taken him deep into the ribcage of moonspear.
he had pursued a goat, a hare, a stag; now he came back and warm and panting to the lodge, wanting to tell nasamik of what he had seen.
the screaming of his wife speared through the air, sending him stock-still for a moment before he ran uncaring, to enter the space, to come upon her writhing body. blood, and the violence of it frightened chakliux.
the children. they were arriving. but even an ignorant man such as he could tell that something was vastly wrong. "do you want sialuk?" he asked, reaching to smooth her brow with a shaking forepaw, eyes widened at her agony.

taking it round by round, one child for each, so that both can absorb the birth process in full and know which have passed and which have lived. 

additional joiners will be permitted in the final thread when the surviving child arrives!

Her husband came in an instant, eyes nearly as wide as her own.

Then he asked of her want. But even she, in this moment, did not know what she wanted. Only these babes to be released from her womb, for they caused her so much pain.

Yes— A quick, unthought gasp. ... no—. Then she spat, unsure yet of which she wanted.

But before a decision could be made, a third yowl erupted, echoing through the lodge.

By her leg, she felt weight. A tiny lump had landed, encased in a heavy sack. One mostly consumed by blood. Still, unmoving, breathless. Turned to the grave before even a single minute of life could be achieved.

Unable to reach to look upon this child, to see whether it lived, her eyes turned to Chakliux with plea.

a more seasoned father would have already called for the raindrop woman. but chakliux was only able to watch in growing horror as nasamik was consumed by the agony of her travails.
more blood.
and then a child. silent. tiny.
chakliux looked at nasamik, then forced himself to turn the small form toward himself. 
but there was no breath in the child.
anger became rage became blinding pain. he shook his head.

A shake of his head. Denial of life. A failure, she had already been proven, regardless of what came next.

Tears threatened to pour from her cheeks, but they could not. More pain would follow, agonized whines seeping from her tightened lips.

Closer. Nasamik begged of her husband. He was so far away. She could not touch him. To feel his embrace and shed any sorrow for their loss. Though, unknown to her, it would not be their only.

A second wave. Down next to where the other child had landed, a babe was lain. And like the last, it was still, unmoving, breathles. But like the last, she did not know it. 

She could have moved to check, but fear and pain kept her still, frozen. She could not bear to be a disappointment yet again.

stiffly chakliux moved to be closer, but he was already distancing himself from the entire bloodstained scene.
more pain. her body trembled. he hated what was happening to her and that he could not stop it, that it was in vain.
and a second time in vain.
chakliux's breath was ragged. he snorted through his nostrils; he shook his head. again.

Again, she saw his head shake.

Were all this children to be born lifeless?!

No, they couldn't. Not everything that had happened to get them here.

But there was no one to blame but her! She had made these bundles inside of her. It was her who had made them this way. I— Nasamik croaked, struggling to release these words.... I— .... have failed ... There was no other explanation but this!

And in her moment of solitary pity, a third lump fell to the earth. Moving, full of life, heaving with breath. But this time was different for Nasamik. She did not even bother to lift her head. No pleaful gaze to be passed to her watchful husband. The answer would be the same as it had been. However many times this would reoccur, she would not be forced to hear it.

it would be easy for chakliux to blame her. 
but who he blamed was himself: for his lack of readiness. for resenting her. for not loving them as they grew inside his wife's body.
and now two lay dead, and nasamik was beside herself with devastation.
"no," he said aloud, then cut off, eyes caught by the movement of the latest child.
"nasamik ..." the seal hunter mumbled, reaching with tremulous arms to draw their baby toward him, toward her. "nasamik, look."

now with all the wee babs out, time to invite the "family".

no one is obligated to join, but all tags (untagged Moonspear invited as well) are welcome to join in at will! 

@Sialuk, @Kannoyak, @Quennell

No—

She could hear his voice, yet she was not fully listening.

It was only when she heard a small whine; a cry, that of a child, that her head lifted.

A babe. It lived. It lived!!

Though exhaustion filled her, she found some form of energy to reach, grasping the child from Chakliux to pull it close. 

Fervently, she licked it, ensuring that blood would flow perfectly through its little, writhing body. She did not know this through experience, but somehow through instinct. With even only the slightest the chance — with the slightest hope, she would do everything she could to keep this child alive.

from the graveyard of their sorrow rose a joy in chakliux, one he guarded. nasamik took the child, cleaning the downy fur of birth and blood.
"a boy," he told her, though this would become clear for his wife to see herself.
he swallowed and felt something press against the backs of his brightberry eyes.
"i want to call him @Raiyuk." a fine name. he kissed nasamik's paw and moved in the next minutes to call for the raindrop woman, for quennell and his hunting-brother kannoyak.
and then he returned, softly taking the first silent body out to be buried in the way of the seal hunters.

he had been the last his parents would ever birth — not that he knew that specifically but —

he had never been present for a birth. even now he was only a ghost. gangly and lean and perhaps haunting. each sound had instilled some deep fear in him and the nauseating waves of bloody scent had nearly had him stumbling off to anxiously vomit.

yet he returned and stayed still in case he was called upon.

eventually he sat, then laid. a cautious gaze casted out over the lands.

he felt every bit a protector (even in his terrible condition) for nasamik in these moments. she had tended him when he had joined her hearth. they shared time together while he still healed in other ways.

and the seal hunter! a brother in all ways, even if not by blood. which meant he too must be here for him as well. prepared to offer back the support he had been given during his own troubled hours.

only a soft cry within finally pierced the air. then there was an exchange of words he did not hear. seal hunter called for them. only to come out with — something.

the healing boy only cautiously peered within the den. not sure that nasamik would welcome him so swiftly. still his voice croaked carefully.

nasamik...?

Raiyuk. She heard the name, clear as day.

It had a beautiful sound, ringing in her ears like the sound of waking birds each morn.

He is beautiful... Choking words, drowned by silent tears.

Once the child was clean, Nasamik pushed him towards her milk filled teats so that he may drink. Surely, after all that time waiting, he was beyond starved.

Then a visitor came. Quennell. One she held close to her heart. He was a son to her, despite having not come from her womb like the child that lay so close.

Quennell— A quiet breath. Come, see him. He is beautiful. Her eyes fell back upon the child, adoration and warmth absorbed within her gaze.

chakliux returned for the other in time to see quennell lean inside the lodge. he clapped the boy's shoulder. "you have a little brother, young warrior." nostrils flared; he turned his head aside so that the younger would not see his grief and retrieved the second quiet bundle.
beside the waterway, chakliux dug a grave for the young ones.
he did not name them; he placed them side by side, curled as they were at birth.
"return to the oil father," he told them.
the earth would be mounded overtop, a clear delineation of where their bones would lay, and when the snow melted, chakliux would return and build a dome of stones.
for now, he went back to the lodge, to nasamik and to the joy of their living new son.

he had never had a little brother.

nasamik welcomed him closer, seal hunter gave strong words.

with awe he lowered himself to his belly as he peered at the child. how were they so small? and how had something so small caused so much?

whatcha name 'im? he asked softly.

there was a sharp ache in the back of his body. his nub of a tail had attempted movement and with each little wiggle that happened, he felt a soft pull at the uncoordinated motion.

in this moment, it felt worth the ache.

The mother sea, Nasamik, had been tranquil for many days. When the dam broke, the children flowed from her. The one to be called Raiyuk was the last, and the first, and the only; he would not know of his siblings.

There was cold first. Earth, blood, mud, then warmth and connection. He burrowed against his father's strong arms first; to his mother's breast. He sucked a breath, cooing, crowing softly, and kicked out his feet.

Quennell came nearer, watching the child in awe.

His name... She croaked, a yawn slipping, only to be sucked back in. — Raiyuk. As Chakliux had chosen.

The loss of the two others would not be forgotten, but in this moment, Nasamik chose to focus her attention on the living as best she could. 

To the suckling child, she was attentive, occasionally sliding her tongue across his tiny body with great amounts of affection.

quick one-post cameo!

Her path took her to the freshly overturned earth on her way to the lodge, and Sialuk paused to say a silent prayer for the bodies that found their peace there. She thought of Narwhal, hoping that Nasamik’s own brood would find him in the land of the dancing lights.

Strong smells of Chakliux, Nasamik, and Quennell were present at the lodge, and Sialuk intruded only a moment to give the new mother and father a soft look of congratulations. To Quennell, she offered a smile as well. He was an older brother now, and it would be he who little Raiyuk would look up to as he grew, just as Sialuk’s own sisters had seen her.

last for me! <3

when chakliux returned to the lodge, it was to see quennell and nasamik and sialuk gathered around his son.
he met the rainstar's eyes, heart quickening. and then his gaze returned to raiyuk.
and the seal hunter smiled.