Noctisardor Bypass [m]istletoe has moved into the lampshades

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: yikes.

The relief Druid felt after giving birth was like nothing she’d ever known before. It didn’t even hurt. As soon as the pups were parted from her body, Druid feasted on a deer leg @Glaukos had brought her. The newborns nursed as she ate her fill, replenishing herself and all of them at once. There was no nausea.

@Heda, @Dinah and @Ava Amara popped their heads into the den to meet the newest members of Rivenwood. Even @Anselm and @Etienne were there, in the background. Despite just giving birth—not to mention the gauntlet of her pregnancy—she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as she ushered them all closer to meet…

Her eyes swept down to the bundles of joy attached to her teats. The puppy nearest her tail had wriggled too far, so Druid bent to grab him. She was too late. He crawled back inside her body. She couldn’t decide which was worse, the horror or the pain as he tore into her tender flesh, ripping her apart from the inside out all over again.

Druid jerked awake with a shriek as the first pains of labor began.

Glaukos' attention had split drastically after the arrival of the healer. He did not trust the boy to stay and do his work and as a result, felt a greater urge to guard Rivenwood's access route. He also knew that caches needed to be continually filled and prey must be hunted, so he covered all of his bases by prowling far from where Druid made her den, and was unaware of her labour beginning.

If he caught anything, the frustration and stress that had begun to weigh upon him as (essentially) the sole provider for the sisters and their broods, he would throttle whatever he had caught and leave bloody messes across the natural egress corridor our of the bypass. Within a few hours Glaukos was bloodied, the paths were decorated with the grisly remains of festooned rabbits, pieces of muskrat, and the remnants of what might've been a baby deer.

He was failing. Glaukos knew it, and that only added to the mixed feelings inside of himself; and like a typical man, he would deal with it far from prying eyes at the expense of his soon-to-be-born family.

it felt like her eyelids were going to tear with how swiftly they opened. in her own womb, the children rolled at the sudden jerkiness of their mother, and heda grunted in pain as she ended her patrol, and dropped a fish just inside the den. she paused for a breath, shutting her eyes once more. she had been dozing a moment ago, almost dead on her feet; now heda only gathered herself.
but then she was at druid's side, murmuring with reassurance, eyes filled with a soothing she could not conjure for herself. since that day, heda had barely left her sister's side, enlisting the help of her daughters to ensure their aunt was never alone while she and glaukos hunted.
but that was becoming impossible for heda; very soon she must resign herself to being bedridden again.
"it's starting, druid, but don't worry. i'm here and glaukos will be back. just breathe," heda crooned, looking forward to the end of her sister's agony and sickness, even if druid must then contemplate the entirely new world of demanding firstborns. and that she could help with, as she had woken that morning to find her bare underbelly damp with a responsive letdown of early milk.

Dimly, Druid registered her surroundings. She was in the den she and her sister shared in Dawnleaf. She felt bad for screaming, only to realize she was alone anyway. Heda had probably stepped away to attend to pack duties. With Druid entirely out of commission, much fell to the poor widow.

Grunting, she sat up and slumped against the cool wall of the den. Her breaths came in shallow pants. Another pain arced through her pelvis, bad enough to prompt a slight wince. Druid started a little when she felt a gush of fluid. Her heart skipped a beat, though some instinct reminded her this was normal.

One way or another, this pregnancy was finally coming to its end. Druid didn’t want to be alone, yet there was only one wolf she wanted close right now. Supporting herself against the wall, she scooted toward the den’s mouth to call out for her sister, only for a fish to plop at her feet.

Heda, she murmured as her sister pressed to her side. I know.

She buried her muzzle in Heda’s red scruff momentarily, then let herself slide back to the floor. Druid’s eyes ate into the side of Heda’s face. She’d mentioned Glaukos. Druid knew something had happened between him, Anselm and Etienne, though she didn’t know the details even now. She relied on her sister’s cues about him.

But, I don’t want anyone else anywhere near me, Druid admitted, ears tilting back almost guiltily. Just you. And me. And them, soon enough.

heda wanted to further comfort her sister, to say something foolish like 'it will be over soon.' but she knew now to understand that births could be anything but quick, and thus wisely kept quiet on that front.
"then it's just you and me," heda smiled in spite of herself, hugging a rawboned arm around druid's shoulders.
she could do with a break herself, feeling she'd annoyed glaukos enough to let her kids fall from his favor. theirs, she reminded herself, needing to say it, to think it, until this was real.
she crossed the den only to pick up the fish and a mouthful of water-soaked moss, offering them both to her sister as she leaned spine against the wall and opened her arms to hold the laboring mother.
"i can't wait to meet them, druid."

Satisfied by something, finally, Glaukos began to gather up some of the more edible parts of the animals he had strewn about; he moved almost guiltily from point to point as he inspected the piles, or the ribbons of flesh, and came away from the ruined creatures with a few choice pieces that could be salvaged.

The journey back along the natural corridor brought Glaukos to a crossroads again, where he could faintly smell Etienne; no doubt the boy was hiding as he recovered, but there was always the potential for a retaliatory ambush to make up for what Glaukos had done. A vague paranoia settled across the black bear, and he moved on, seeking the path that would take him to the shared den of Druid and Heda.

When he arrived there, he could hear voices faintly from within. There was a fish smell by the door and Glaukos wondered if that meant the birth was over, and all was well. He had never seen a birth before and had no concept of what it entailed. He piled the entrails and assorted meats nearby, gave a cursory look through the trees for any sign of danger, and then called in to the den mouth with all the stoicism he was known for:
You shit 'em out yet?

There was so much amiss within Rivenwood and Druid herself right now, though she felt calm as Heda tended to her. Her two-toned gaze was filled with gratitude when her sister brought her food and drink. She was surprised to note she was hungry, despite the rhythmic cramps that played precursor to the contractions to come.

I can’t either, Druid said, voice soft as she reached for one of Heda’s paws, clasping her own overtop it. That goes for yours as well. Is labor contagious? I wouldn’t mind giving birth together, she mused with a raspy laugh.

Loud footsteps heralded the arrival of Glaukos. Druid’s withered frame went stiff. Before she realized what she was doing, she shoved shakily to her feet and appeared in the den’s mouth, teeth bared in a ferocious snarl. Every fur on her body stood on end.

Get away from here, she hissed, compelled by instinct but, in this moment, weary of his nonchalance toward their children. Druid relented only slightly to add, I don’t want anybody near me right now, in the hopes he would read between the lines and guard the area, preventing anyone else from approaching the whelping den.

With a quiet huff, she retreated back inside and nosed Heda, grateful for her presence, reassured and reassuring.

"wouldn't that be nice, and convenient," heda commented, her pleasure deepening into a grin. it definitely would take some strain off their shared man — mate? — to know exactly when the puppies would come and to birth them all at the same time, rather than have demands staggered yet again.
"another couple of weeks i think, maybe one, honestly," she was saying as glaukos paused outside the door and called something so ribald she could only blink at druid in horrified surprise.
did glaukos not know how children emerged into the world?
druid growled and the sight of her tense sister guarding the entrance had heda up on her feet as well. 
nosing the laboring wolf, heda glanced toward the entryway to their den. would glaukos try to come in? she leaned as if to look, craning her neck before looking back toward druid. "he's brought more food if you're hungry. i imagine right after you will be," heda murmured, really talking about nothing but wanting to keep her sister focused on both the present and the future.

Rebuffed by the sight of teeth and the sounds of Druid's snarls, Glaukos is at first taken aback by the display, as he is not accustomed to seeing it from the usually level-headed woman; but neither is he offended, and he is withdrawing quickly enough following the explanation.

He would go and watch for danger, and if her pains became great enough to cause the need, he would call for Etienne to come and do his work; otherwise, what was the point of bludgeoning the boy in to staying?

The shadow of the black bear receded from the den mouth, and Glaukos focused on the world outside of the den as well as the possible threats that lay waiting within Rivenwood.

Druid’s lips parted to pose a question when Heda mentioned the food Glaukos had brought. Her hackles rippled, then smoothed. She settled down with an uncomfortable exhale, clicking her tongue. She reached for the fish, though she didn’t eat right away.

My bits are wet and it’s making me cold, she explained, taking a few moments to bend in half—as much as she could, what with her considerable baby bump—to clean and dry herself.

She shuddered through another piercing cramp before rearranging her legs and snatching at the fish again. Now Druid held it in place with one paw while she tore into it, lapping rather greedily at the juices that poured out of the body. The moss would come in handy later but the moist fish sufficed for now.

How do we feel about him right now? she asked, licking her lips after her latest bite. I don’t really know what happened the other day, between him, Etienne and Anselm. I know it can’t have been anything good…

She tsked again. As a young woman, Druid had mistrusted men, in part because of Mahler. She felt that old distaste swirling deep in her gut, though she refused to entertain it readily. Glaukos was many things but he’d provided for not just herself but Heda too. She may have chased him from her whelping den, yet she was immensely grateful to the bear of a man.

I wouldn’t be here, if not for him, she mused quietly. I don’t just mean in this particular predicament, Druid said, motioning at her belly, but I wouldn’t even be alive…

at a sudden loss to explain, heda busied herself clearing the scraps and bones that druid did not consume, but found that her eyes now rested on the promising curve of her sister's belly. she would be an aunt in a matter of hours, and how her new little relatives entered the world mattered to her.
all of heda wanted to keep the truth from druid, to let her go through these trials without more to worry about. but what was worse? shouldering the burden now or trying to deal with it while newborns greedily nursed.
a sigh escaped heda. "he cares about you very much," the red-streaked woman murmured, her gaze now finding the finery of dawnleaf's change toward spring.
"i think that's — i think it's why he forced etienne to stay, druid. after he left us that day. he'd — glaukos — he'd struck etienne or something, had him on the ground." her mouth was dry as a summer-cleared fireplace. "then anselm showed up, and — it could have been bad. it almost was. i — got between them. men," she said in a laughing half-whisper, but it wasn't funny as she recounted it. heda could have lost her life, or at very least lost those of the children almost ready to be born. "i made them stop. and then i've been with you. i — anselm won't stay away as long as etienne is here. we should invite them both, formally."
regardless of what the bear-man thought, she decided defiantly. "they're both important to us both, glaukos and etienne. if you wouldn't be here without him, i have no complaints, druid, but we have to make this right."

Druid listened in silence, a small knit between her brows turning quickly into a deep frown as Heda detailed the events of the previous altercation. She knew Glaukos only wanted to help her, though that did not pardon his treatment of Etienne. Why had he even felt the need to go to such lengths, when the healer was all too willing to help both women?

It baffled her. Heda made a dismissive comment about men and Druid scowled blackly, particularly as a cramp—more of a true contraction, this time—shocked the breath from her lungs. It wasn’t like her to pull faces or mutter curses, though she did both until her womb momentarily unclenched.

That was all so unnecessary, she hissed between her teeth, shaking her head. Men, indeed, she added with a lot less humor than her sister. Of course we’ll welcome them both. And if Glaukos ever wants to come anywhere near me or his children again, he’ll apologize to Etienne.

For a split second, she considered calling for him now. Where was he? Was he within earshot? How much would it rankle Glaukos if she requested Etienne’s presence over his? But Druid was not a spiteful creature, even in these worst of times. She let out an exasperated breath instead.

We’ll deal with all of it after they come, she said decisively, more to herself than Heda now. Right now, I just need to…

Get in the zone, she mused silently, letting out a scoffing laugh through her nose. Truly, though, Druid wanted to put everything else aside for now and focus on the task at hand. “Just breathe,” she replayed Heda’s sage, sisterly advice, her eyes slipping closed as she did just that for a while.

We can fade here if you like! Thank you SO much for spreeing this today.

of course <3 im glad i was able to do that

emboldened by druid's mutual disdain for the situation, as well as immediate agreement for offering the mountain-men a role among them, heda helped druid lie down and pulled skins around her frail body, still swollen with her advanced pregnancy.
she hated to think of anselm and etienne alone at the whim of glaukos, but things had been decided and there was no way she could leave druid. not now, not for any reason save those which concerned her daughters.
as her sister slipped off to sleep, heda made herself comfortable close by and allowed herself the fitful pleasure of a light nap, leaving it all to glaukos for a while — and god, the widow supposed.