Stone Circle I used to think that silence was golden.

Mature Content Warning

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The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: Premature birth, graphic descriptions ahead! TLDR: Her puppies are here early, she's passed out by one of the stones now but has called for help. Tagging a few of you mentioned, but you're all welcome to reply! we're formed yay!

there were rumblings deep beneath her surface. sanja, planet-sized, orbiting one of the standing stones; the sun having risen hours ago, and she has not yet slept. she cannot stop moving.

distressed! her tail whips at her hocks or curls to her belly, as undecided as the rest of her. she had woken before the dawn to a slick feeling between her legs, and urgently tried to clean herself. the last thing she wanted was to be found by @Inkeri, or seen by @Bjarna -- there was no need to worry, she preached to herself.

a groan erupts from her. there is pain in her belly and she does not immediately think of the lives she harbors; only that she hurts! it hurts! it won't stop! and she's crying, in that wolfish way; huffing breaths and grimacing as she leans precariously against the nearest stone - mother stone, as @Taktuq might call it.

in the grass lay two bundles, one with caul and both garishly anointed with red. this last one won't move; it knows it is too soon somehow, it isn't ready, but there is ample room now that sanja's other children have been born - nothing to blockade the passage through to life.

the last child arrives and sanja isn't aware of what has happened. only that she's light-headed, and that it feels like something's been ripped out of her; her pieces scattering behind like the diamond dust of a comet.

she falls to the dirt, gasping, weeping, and finally manages to call out with a pitiful sound -- help!

Inkeri had seen the restlessness of Sanja. And had stayed near just in case. She knew instinctively that it wasn't time, but sometimes nature had other ideas.

Blood tangy and bitter comes to Ink and she rushes forward. Sanja all laying down. Blood everywhere. Horror trickles along her spine. To be quickly replaced with drive. First thing. She checks on Sanja licking her face then onto the littles. Cannot be cold.

She licks the sacks from three of the four and noses them to Sanja's side. The fourth cold and dead and sad. But she cannot dwell. She grasps cobwebs, ripping them from their gossamer spun homes atop trees and tries to stem the blood flow. She curls around all blood mixing into her white.

Howling for @Taktuq

@Lucius

entering w permission! <3

mahler had followed a herd of deer far from the edge of the hollow. perhaps it was the last wanderlust of a man, perhaps it was pure peril, but when he saw the bear-paw walls of the valley below, he descended.
mahler was not so foolish as to approach ursus. he headed 'round, keeping the place of the cursed cultwolves in sight but a good distance between.
it was for this reason alone that the gargoyle was within earshot of the woman's agonized voice. the midwife's ears knew it at once for what it was. he crossed the new borders with only a small wince; he found a woman with dead and living children. another she-wolf crouched beside.
"peace," the man called to them both. "i am a midvife, ja?" he explained in a gruff voice. he looked at the woman who sought to stop the blood and nodded. "do you have more of this?" mahler took a place near the side of the downed mother, searching her for infection.

She could not understand the scene she came upon - Sanja, bleeding out, with Inkeri and a stranger around her. Inexplicably her nostrils flared. Some base instinct searched for another scent around them. Predator. Cat.

But she found nothing unusual, save for a familiarity in the man (as far as his scent went) and the presence of others.

Children.

She might have gasped, if she'd had time to think before hurrying forward in time to catch the stranger's words.

Cobwebs? she asked, and already started backpedalling her steps, unable to dwell on any thoughts of what was happening, only on what they had to do, of course - of course! I will find you more!

She knew not how to apply the cobwebs, only how to collect. Taktuq retreated, without listening for more.

only post from me in here! :D

His mother thought of diamond dust.

But the only way that Dagur shined was in a wake of blood.

For a moment, there was a threat he'd end that way too. Unable to break free, stuck in a sac that had once been nothing but protection. Smothered.

Then that too was broken. A rush of the world beyond. Not that he knew much of it beyond touch and taste. Currently neither was too appealing of a sense.

He is placed along the side of the comet that had displaced him.

Oblivious to all of the disruption that his arrival had caused.

For Skáld, his delivery was uncomfortable, and when things finally did become still and quiet, he found himself unable to breathe. He shifted and squirmed, and wheezed in relief when someone cleared the mask of membrane from his face and stimulated his breathing. 

Still, he was sore, exhausted, cold and hungry. He mewed, not knowing what he needed, but he could feel his strength sapping with every passing moment.

Everything felt cold - distant.

Someone hovered over her; another face came, lit by a tyrian gaze. Pressure wedged itself against delicate places and Sanja groaned, gasped, winced, slept. In and out of consciousness, while parts of her lay seeping in to the grass.

Inkeri whined and pulled more cobwebs from nearby areas. But not wanting to stary to far from Sanja and a stranger.

What is wrong?

Her accent thicker with the tears in her throat. She was helpless and scared, but trying to be brave for her friend. The dear one she had grown to care for. She longed for @Lucius.

She would step into take the puppies, curling around them as needed. As soon as she was given leave too.

Gunnar was late, but in his maw he carried. Cobwebs, aloe and pippy. He hated poppy, but at the first scream it was the closest he could find. He moved forward. Looking to both Inkeri and the stranger.

I can translate if she wakes.

another woman, off for cobwebs. another man. dead children. living children. "cobwebs. comfrey. borage. poppy. i need those things," he told the accented woman. "she is hemorrhaging."
he pushed each of the living puppies toward a pack wolf. "varm them. breathe on them. keep them sheltered."
mahler turned back to the fading woman. "vhat is her name?" he asked gruffly of the older man, and when it was given, he began to nudge her face roughly. "sanja. stay vith us."
cobwebs for her bleeding. comfrey also. borage for her milk. a third-dose of poppy for her pain. the puppies would not be able to nurse until it was clear she would suffer no fever. mahler worked in grim silence.

Just a cameo, I don't have the muse to write at the moment!

Howls rang out, and Lucius started nervously. He would find his way to those who had called, only to find a grisly scene — Sanja unresponsive, a stranger working on her. New whelps, the scent of milk tainted by the tang of blood. Lucius hung in the background, having no skills that would help in this moment.

If she had stayed to listen and panic had not driven her away, she might have heard the next commands the stranger directed to the wolves of the Circle. As it was, she was single minded, her thoughts set on cobwebs and very little else.

She grabbed a stick and sought to catch as many as she could. In these morning hours, the webs were easy to see, glistening with few drops in the early sun.

Were these sufficient? How could she know! She was no healer!

Instinct drove her back, a base understanding someone better should be out here - and when she arrived, she would settle into the place most needed for her to be, whether exchanging positions with Inkeri, so she could follow out in finding whatever instructions for medicine she had missed, or taking one of the pups towards herself to woo and calm them.

And she prayed, all the while.

popping another post in!

mahler was not immediately present to answer any questions, not until the blood began to ebb and cease. the silver young woman who had returned to the scene with cobwebs was given an approving grunt, for these he used at the last.
eventually the midwife sat back upon his heels and regarded the little group around him. "is there anyvone else to nurse the children if sanja passes?" he would not spare them the reality of it. "the next seventy-two hours are crucial. she must be vatched round the clock for fever. her pain must be managed."
he regarded the living children. they would not make the night unless they fed. if there was no one who could feed them, he would motion them closer, to be placed beside their mother for a supervised time.

New posting order? or? I can delete it. Mahler, Inkeri, Taktuq? Gunnar can be skipped.

Inkeri looked to the male a sadness in her face. Is there a way for Taktuq or I. She swallowed and continued on. Is there a way for us to make milk for them? None of us are nursing, but if there are herbs, I will take them. Them.

Inkeri would do what ever it took to help save these little ones. Because they were their future now. She looked to Taktuq hoping the female didn't mind her bring her into the equation, but she wasn't even sure if her idea would work.

Gonna fade this here if it's ok.

Sanja wasn't entirely oblivious to the panic or the pain which swarmed around her, rooted in the pit of her belly.
On some level she could still hear everything going on. She felt something being pressed against her.
A man's voice caressed her ears amid the din of others.

While she struggled to hold tightly to life, she thought of her daughter - although Bjarna was not her's by blood, they were linked in every other way that mattered.
For a time Sanja was there with her; they were enjoying a warm meal not bartered with flesh, with the summer sun fanning through the trees.
It was enough to hold on to while the people of Kvarsheim mourned, and struggled, and kept her from dying.