Silvertip Mountain Bring on the rapture

FitzDutiful was pacing outside of their den anxious. Things were going terribly wrong. They thought Raissa had another week but no, she told him the puppies were coming now. He'd vacated the area immediately, being the gentleman and staying outside while woman's matters took place in side. He was trying his best not to get angry. All she had had to do was take care of these children and yet they were arriving a week early! It was terrifying the thought of losing them.

As he paced forwards and backwards he realised that the time he had talked to Bindi about was getting closer and closer. If they puppies were born now then it was only a matter of weeks, maybe one month, until this façade was at an end. Until he called off their mateship. Time seemed to pass so slowly until Raissa called him inside.

He wandered in, his eyes adjusting to the gloom. There were puppies. Six of them. They were all small but... only one was moving. He looked from them to Raissa trying to assess this situation. They had lost them all. All but one. A little Virtue.

"I... Do you want me to take them outside?" he asked his mate, unsure of the condition she was in both mentally and physically. He nudged at all the puppies with his nose. One by one. Three boys, no response from either. Two girls and —

He started as the little thing squirmed. Had it squirmed? He prodded her again with his nose and yes! That was a definite squirm! "Raissa!" he said excitedly, carefully trying to prod the little life towards her brother. "She's alive!" He looked at her, hoping she'd believe his words.

Raissa had been asleep when she felt the first tremor ripple through her body. She woke with a start, her eyes wild. This wasn't right, it was too early for the pups to come. Hope lifted her spirit as the contractions halted and she thought it was just a scare. But then another came, making her body shake and she cried out. The rest was a blur of pain, somewhere through it Fitz left the den as she cried out in agony. When the pain finally dulled, she looked down to see six small little mounds of fur. She wept as she took in their lifeless shapes, only noticing one that was moving. She quickly moved him towards her with her paw, licking the matted blood from his fur.

As she did this, she whispered little words of comfort to him as she gazed upon his fragile form. There might only be one left, but she would love him more then life itself. Sometime during all this, Fitz reentered the den. She gave him a sad smile, that held new wisdom. She watched him as he looked at all the pups, her eyes widening when he called that one was alive.

She quickly welcomed the trembling bundle into her embrace, licking her sticky fur to get her warmed up and clean. When she was satisfied and had guided both pups to the curve of her stomach, she turned her gaze back to the still forms of the rest of their litter. New tears formed in her eyes as she brought her gaze back to her mate. In the past few weeks, his loving care had brought her back from the dark ledge she had been lingering on and she had hope for their future.

"We have to bury them, honor their short lives." she said sadly, her gaze falling on her poor babies before turning back to her live pups, suckling at her side.

Something had forced her out of the safe cocoon she had been part of. It had been a painful process and things hadn't felt right. She had felt almost stuck for a moment before squirming into the world. One was wriggling all over the place. Another was still. June chose to be still also.

She took breaths but it hurt, so she didn't take many. She breathed in then out and suddenly remembered she had to breathe in again. It was a conscious effort. She felt hungry, but how was she to get food. Her mouth made suckling movements but to no avail. She soon stopped. Still was easier.

Something poked at her side. She tried to wriggle away and it helped her remember to breathe. Again and again it happened. Then there was a strange sensation of being away from the earth. Licks seemed to caress her, they also helped her breathe.

Eventually she tried the suckling thing again, it seemed to be worthwhile now. Milk flooded her insides and she stopped suckling. Take a moment, it was tiring. Try again soon.

It was not exactly the miracle that people labelled it, birth. Mason Virtue Silvertip entered the world as chief at the head of a procession of death, trailing slowly behind. Mercifully his ears were spared the wrought screams of his mother. Feeling her warmth leave him was enough. For some moment - or was it minutes? - he lay on the cold floor of the den, gasping. His fur was soaked in various fluids and his body began to shiver of its own volition.

Suddenly the movement in the air around him stopped. And then her muzzle was there, nudging him close to her, bathing his silken fur. He was tiny against her, he shouldn't have come this soon. Mason didn't care, as he felt the warmth of his mother's tongue caress him he felt at home.


After a wonderful bath he was nudged close into the soft, warm curve of her belly and the scent of milk captivated him. He did not know of the harrowing words his parents spoke, and he did not yet know June survived alongside him. His mind focused solely on moving his head closer to her body, grabbed a teat with his pink gums, and then the reflexive suckling began.

Bury them? 

It made sense. Sorrow deep in his heart he watched as Raissa took the little girl and got her to eat next to her brother. With heaviness set deep within him he lifted up the others, all so small and fragile, in his mouth and carried them outside.

Bury them where?

He didn't know where to go to bury their little bodies. It seemed to inhumane but he wondered if Raissa should have consumed them. It would be good, sustenance. These bodies were just shells and nothing lived in them. He doubted she would see it that way. Maybe burying them had a symbolic nature where she was from. Maybe this was just another difference between the two of them. A tree overlooked a small lake not too far and he wondered if that would be a good place. Why not. They would feed the tree.

Bury them how?

He started the dig. It seemed shallow but when he placed the bodies it looked deeper than he had thought. They were so little. Turning around he kicked the dirt back over them. What a waste. He eventually went back to the den. Pausing outside for a brief moment he told himself to be strong. They had two at least.

He walked back into the den and focused on Raissa now, even as his eyes only saw his children. "Are you okay?"

If Raissa had known the thoughts that had spun through her mates mind, she would have gone ballistic. Even while he might think of them as nothing but matter taking up space, they were still her children and they deserved a proper burial. She would go mourn them as soon as her two remaining pups were strong enough. But for now, they were her only concern.

The little male latched on and suckled obediently, making a ghost of a smile grace her lips. Even though he had come to soon, he was still a little warrior. The female was more hesitant, stopping after a bit and shivering. Raissa was quick to reach down and give her a comforting lick, nudging her back to the teat. She needed to eat, she was already tiny and she would need all the substance she could get.

She was so consumed with making sure her babies were taken care of that she didn't even notice when Fitz reentered the den, his eyes fixing on the pups, but his voice directed to her.

She looked up at him, a tiny smile on her face yet tears making her bright eyes glisten. "I don't really know." she responded sadly before looking back to the tiny beings suckling at her side with an adoring look. "They're so beautiful." she whispered, licking each of the pup's heads in turn.

A warm tongue swiped over her. It made her jump start into suckling again. Say one thing for mother, say she had her instincts. The suckling promptly began again and the sustenance was enjoyable. The taste she had nothing to compare to but it was somehow what she had expected. Her foot kicked out and connected the other one that was also eating. That side of her felt warm. The other side felt cold. Too cold.

When her stomach was full, content, happy. She wriggled away from the teat and turned sidewards to it, putting the side of her that had been cold against her mother's warm stomach. It was warm, nice, comforting. But there was always one side too cold. One side that her baby fur just didn't keep warm.

She shivered as she tried to sleep.

There was a loving tongue plastered across his small forehead, and Mason's body rumbled with delight. He could vaguely sense a pup near him shifting around, but he had no idea whose small body it was. Through all of the talking he kept suckling.

Suddenly, without warning, his stomach was full. With a contented sigh he released the teat and shifted slightly so that his protruding belly wasn't flat on the ground, but pushing out sideways instead. As he made this manoeuvre he felt more soft fur against his back, as well as the warmth of his mother at his front.

There was someone else who had made it too, he realised. A small foot touched his head from that other someone. A whimper escaped his small throat and then, in a snap, he was out like a light. Tiny snores erupted from his throat as he slept, his body hoping to regain what it had lost by emerging so suddenly.

Raissa mentioned how beautiful they were and FitzDutiful nodded in agreement. They were. They were a lot smaller than he had imagined but he knew that he was going to do whatever it took to protect them. They were never going to leave his protective watch for he was going to protect them until the end of his days - or until they no longer wanted that protection. It seemed so long away and yet FitzDutiful knew that children grew up faster than you wanted them to.

He needed to get the pack a caretaker. Someone who could look after the puppies should the worst happen. He'd have to get on that, some incentive for his pack members to go for the trade somehow, or recruit someone who would. "I want to let the pack know." he said, turning around and walking out of the den without a reply. It was almost suffocating knowing how close he was to being an actual father. He just had to get these pups through their most vulnerable days. Somehow.

Outside he lifted his muzzle high and called out a howl. A howl to let the pack know that the puppies were born, two of them. Walking back in, without waiting for a reply for any pack members, he looked at Raissa. "Any ideas on names yet? I'm not quite sure what personality traits to give them. I think I'll wait a few days and see what they seem like."

Raissa watched them with delight and as soon as their tiny tummies were full and they whimpered, she wrapped her tail around them so they were fully surrounded by her soft fur, her body heat radiating out to keep them warm. She smiled when she hear Fitz's call to the pack. It was completely official now.

Raissa had actually been thinking about names for a while, even though she though she had at least another week. These two pups seemed to fit two of the names she had been thinking of perfectly.

"Mason and June." she spoke softly, letting them feel the vibrations they would soon come to understand.

Small vibrations came through her paw from Mason's tiny snores. They were comforting and she tried to wriggle closer towards them. Even at this early age she needed to be close to her brother. He was her light in this darkness and would eventually be her saviour from the colder aspects of this cruel and unkind world. For now, however, she was as innocent as she would ever be and as normal as she could possibly get too.

June and Mason. Their names were spoken but her ears were unable to hear them. She had yet to be named by her father and even that would arrive before her ears could interpret the sounds. For now, close to her shining star, she drifted into a restless sleep being awoken occasionally when her breathing threatened to stop her short life.

I'm assuming Em's last post was the last she was doing in this thread. This is the last for Fitz too

Raissa spoke their names and FitzDutiful nodded, pleased. For now his intense hatred, the lies and the schemes were all forgotten. Their little babies, the ones that survived, were too beautiful and innocent for that to taint them.

Walking to the other side of Raissa, he lay down beside her and they looked like one big happy family. It was more than he could of dreamed. He had hoped, and wished, for more children but maybe they could try again when these ones no longer needed caring for. It was good to have a boy and a girl to pass the mantle to but it would be even nicer for them to have more siblings to protect and care for, more children to keep the Silvertip name running strong.

Last post for me as well!

Raissa leaned her head on Fitz's shoulder, getting lost in the moment, forgetting the past events and the scars that tainted her heart and mind. The pups snores and the steady beat rhythm of her mates breathing lulled her into a peaceful sleep, dreams of the future flitting through her slumber. Even though she mourned for their lost pups, she knew that she should be grateful for the ones that did survive. They would carry on the legend of Silvertip for as long as they lived.