Swiftcurrent Creek homage

this is PRIVATE for now for just @Reverie atm — will open it up soon!!

Today, she welcomed no one but the golden midwife.

Something primal wormed its way into her already hotwired brain. She had not been able to waddle her way to the creek and with great displeasure, she confined herself to her den. The fox fur on the floor had been ruffled, bunched up, then set aside all together when she could find no comfort there either.

She had waited, let the sun move along a clouded sky.

The world darkened and she could no longer prolong the inevitable. The creek would hear it in the way her voice lifted, summoning her midwife to her with a unique urgency.

Reverie was with @Lestan when she heard the call, but she did not hesitate to leap to her feet. Oh! It's time! She realized she would need to explain. I - promised I'd help!
It wasn't a great explanation, but there was no time for anything better. She ran off without offering anything further, tearing through vegetation in her haste. Reverie did not stop for anyone or anything. When she reached Jakoul her heart was racing, beating so heavily in her throat that she thought she might vomit. Instead she said, I'm here, She stepped tentatively into the den. I'm here. Softer now. She had left some herbs nearby, but for now all she could offer was her presence. Reverie did not want to risk over-medicating her, harming her or the pups.
Suddenly she was filled with an intense and inexplicable worry. She drifted forward hesitantly, testing how receptive the woman would be to her nearness. If she allowed it, Reverie would come to sit by her in the manner of one sitting at a bedside. Just to be near; to give comfort with her presence.

She laid there, in wait.

Counted how many exhales she fit between each wave. Each contracted jolt of pain that reminded her of the hours to come. That this would be only the beginning.

A great hunger rolled through her, battled with the cramped feelings in her stomach as well. After, she thought. Afterwards she would eat her weight. Not to mention she would need it too!

"I'm here,"

She sat upright, crooned out tiredly to her midwife. A certain relief rolled over her before she shifted with another wave of laboring. Rolled to her other side, as if it might make the whole ordeal more manageable. A laughable idea.

A tired motion to the fox fur in the corner, if the midwife might find it more comfortable than her patient had.

Reverie's mind was moving almost too quickly for her own comprehension. They were still in the early stages, when all that could be done was wait and — suffer. Pregnancy was so like an illness that she couldn't help but think of Jakoul the same way she might a sick wolf. Her eyes followed the gesture to the fox pelt, and instead of seeing it as an option for her own comfort, she saw a threat. The pups were liable to suffocate in such fur, at least in their early days. So she took the thing and bundled it further and tucked it as far into the corner of the den as she could.
Just until the pups are older and it's safe for them, She explained softly, and resettled near Jakoul. They would be waiting for some time, and it only felt right to fill the silence with thoughts of something positive. Something less trying than what lay ahead of them. When - this is all done, maybe we can do something to celebrate? Whatever you want, Jakoul. I'll stay with you for awhile, if you like. She was only speaking idly, almost rhetorically; meant to give hope but not meant to inspire an answer. There would be time for that later. For now she only wanted to distract the woman from her pain.

we can time skip or keep doing a round or two more of prep <33

She did not understand and yet all at once, she listened. It mattered not if she understood or not.

Reverie was to be midwife and trusted. Whatever command that was made, would be followed. As well as a woman in labor could follow, mind you.

Celebration?

If she closed her eyes, she remembered the sand of Akashingo. The halls and the celebrations held there. Would the pharaoh had thrown a celebration if he saw her now? Sides wide and fit to give a new pack its first round of children.

She suddenly missed it with the same force of the pulsed pain.

Perhaps she had not been meant to respond, but her voice raised in a croaky fever now. Wants pulsed strong.

Song. Story. Her pale gaze fluttered harshly beneath her lids now. No amount of switched sides helped ease the rolling contractions. Perhaps it only stimulated everything along further. A rocking motion that matched the waves.

Food. She drooled at the thought nearly. The desire to eat roared furiously now, commanded her to do so! Yet she knew better than to trust the feeling.

The next wave of pain forced her to lurch upward before she settled back down.

Let's time skip with your next post? <3

She was watching Jakoul too carefully to miss the emotion that gripped her, but Reverie could not begin to understand it. Pregnancy was a time of many changes for women, she knew that. Physical and emotional. She knew the stages of it, and of labor; she knew some of the things that could go wrong and some of the remedies for them. That was all.
So she felt it must be impossible for her to grasp what came over Jakoul, but she tried nonetheless to give the right response. She reached out with one paw to settle it over Jakoul's very lightly. I'll sing for you, Reverie promised thoughtlessly, breathlessly, though it was forbidden, though she hadn't dared lift her voice in song since the day it was decided that she would be a dancer. She still remembered the way it felt. When Jakoul lurched she lifted her paw, but her touch returned when the woman settled again. And I'll tell you stories. I'm sure Lestan will hunt for you. Oh, maybe he has stories too...
She was rambling. She closed her mouth with an audible click of teeth. After a moment she remembered that her role here was midwife, not friend. When the pups start to come, I'll give you something for the pain, Reverie promised softly. And then it will go quickly. Then you can rest.

one big puppy arrival post! jakoul will likely have one more post after this and then i will open it up to anyone who wants to react!

It all sounded nice.

Yet what followed was not nice. The true start of the birth of her children. Jakoul was not dazzled by the miracles of motherhood. She only knew that it might be worth it on the other side. Once the children were free and no longer kick, pushed and shoved every organ.

Medicine for pain had been given as promised, now she only had nature to follow in the tired swells of this all.

The first came quick. A girl — Mae. Dark with the den's limited light and the collection of birth. She wondered if they all would look like so. Inky blobs with limited movement. She loved them already. Cleaned and placed at her side, a task that Reverie might be welcomed in as another saw fit to follow.

The next was a son. Once more a blob of ink ready to mark the world. Once more she found a tired, hazy love wormed into her chest. This one would be @Nicodem — for she would decide all of them in this tired place of love. He too would be slotted along her side.

Was she done? For a moment she thought so. She had nearly been prepared to fall asleep in the thick sounds and scents of the space. Her features sagged with the exhaustion and weight of it all.

Only to realize that there was one more to come. One more who could not be left behind. This one seemed as easy as the first, prepared to arrive. It mattered not if he was ready, only that he would. Only that she was there to welcome him and love him. Another son! This one @Jakub and loved as much as the two before him.

She might have stared at them in confusion and awe did she not pant now. Felt the strong pulling hand of a needed slumber.

Yet she held out with a look to Reverie — were they okay? Was she okay?

This is going to last all of 10 seconds so Mae is fine btw lmfao

All at once Mae knew life; the shifting of everything, the clashing feel of cold air and warm touches. She drew breath. Once, twice. The foreign sensation of it was unwelcome to her, and in an early fit of stubbornness the newborn held her breath. She was very still and very silent.

Alive and healthy, just not breathing. Mae was five seconds old when she first learned how to tell the world, without any words at all, to shove it somewhere the sun doesn't shine.

One…

Two…

Nicodem might have squalled, if the noise had existed inside him. 

Instead, he slithered from the darkness in a wet and quiet motion. One dark drop of ink beside another. Mae was soft. Nico was clumsy. And then there was Jakub beside him, tucked to the dark belly of their mother. 

Nicodem didn’t squeak or fuss. He feasted. Blind, quiet as the hunter’s footfall. The boy was content as he filled his gullet with mother’s milk.

Just like their mother, all three pups emerge silent—Mae holding her breath, Nicodem racing for the teat, and finally, Jakub, sliding snakelike from his mother's aching loins.

The womb was a place of great indulgence, a warm, dark, quiet place with boundless nutrients.

He'd chase that feeling all his life.

Instead, Jakub shivered as the sac was pierced and pulled away, and the chill of the world met his skin for the first time. Still, he did not cry out. Snuffling and snorting like a suckling piglet, he squirmed out of reach of whatever tongue had come to bathe him and burrowed into the soft comfort of Jakoul's belly, instead.

Rooting along, searching for something he didn't know—ah.

A gush of warmth, milk dribbling down his chin. It didn't take his tiny belly long to fill up, and before long, he was drifting off still stuck on the nipple, his body easing into deep and boneless sleep.

Reverie would have agreed very much with Jakoul's sentiment regarding what followed: it was not nice at all.
She wasn't sure when she started to panic. She only knew that it was happening, that Jakoul was suffering and there was nothing she could do and she could not bear to look at it or hear it or —
You have to calm down. You have to be present.
Was that her own voice, or another? Reverie couldn't tell. But she remembered how to breathe, and her eyes focused again and saw blood and mess and — oh! There: impossibly tiny and dark and so very still. New life. A daughter, Jakoul's daughter. Why was she so still? Reverie swept forward to nose the dark pup, her heart still drumming painfully in her throat. She could hardly think.
Nothing was wrong. Or at least, she looked fine. Was it internal? Was she malformed, destined for death? Reverie felt the panic swell again, and bumped her nose hard against the girl's chest. In outrage the newborn stuck all four legs out, drew in a deep breath, and coughed.
Oh, thank the Mother.
If she thought that was the end of her worries, Reverie was about to be very disappointed. The next was a boy, just as dark and beautiful and silent as his sister. He breathed, but Reverie was concerned. She checked him over once, twice, a third time! But finally she let him settle at Jakoul's side, eyeing the pair warily every few moments.
So quiet, like shadows sliding into existence with the setting of the sun.
The third was a mirror of his siblings, but his soft snorts soothed Reverie's worry. She let him settle without much fuss, and instead took to checking over Jakoul. There was so much blood. Distantly Reverie felt sick; dizzied. But this was not about her. That was the thing about being a healer. It couldn't be about her, and so she was reminded again of why this was not her job anymore. More than anything she wanted comfort.
She wanted Lestan.
Instead she pressed a weary kiss to Jakoul's forehead. They're beautiful, Jakoul. All of you are, Reverie cast a slightly awed glance over the silent trio. Should I - get Akavir and Arric? Lestan had said these children were theirs, right? For the first time Reverie allowed herself to really think about the logistics of that, and found she did not want to. So she pushed the thought away as if it never existed at all.

last from me i think! :<

She knew that they should be brought forth.

Welcomed to the den with faces that might be like fathers to them. Yet the great yawning chasm of sleep swallowed her in a swaddled embrace. It did not help that she felt further exhaustion as the children drank their first fill of milk.

Morning.

When the sun had returned, they could be looked upon.

For now she wished for the silent company of her midwife and the great sleep that awaited her.

Morning. Reverie nodded, and inched closer to Jakoul's other side, the side without the pups. If the new mother allowed it she would curl up there and stay with her through the night, a source of warmth and comfort. She would just have to explain to Lestan in the morning why she had not returned. Maybe he would come to see the pups. That was a sweet thought, and the one she held to as the night wore on and grew lonely in the absence of her lover.