Rhyme coughed deep in his lungs as he roused from slumber. It felt like the crystals were growing into his lungs, almost like every day he had less lung space. So far his performance in the pack wasn’t noticeable, but he knew he was keeping Samara awake at night as his body tried fruitlessly to remove them with the cough. From the difficult winter to this odd affliction, Rhyme was worn down but he hadn’t even been able to admit it to himself. Business as usual even if he was pushing himself harder than he should.

Part of him was defiant of the obvious, the natural wearing of time. Something he’d thought about before heavily but now he clung to his life. Rhyme was content with where his life was now, everything had fallen into place beautifully and Samara was the whole reason for that. They raised a beautiful family together, and now their children were children no longer. Rhyme had a deep amount of loss and pain buried beneath the life he lived, but he always wore a smile because this was everything he had ever wanted.

He caught his breath and stretched his limbs, moving stiffly as he struggled to get himself to his paws.

Rhyme was trying to hide his affliction from everyone else, and for his childrens' sakes Samara would honor that wish but there could be no hiding it from her, not when she saw him at his most exhausted, at the end of the days when he was wheezing from effort and tiny trickles of liquid that escaped his mouth and nose dotted their den before she'd inevitably clean it. It wore away at her, eroded the confidence she tried so very hard to keep from slipping. Nothing seemed to help him and a deep fear had settled itself in her. Rhyme was dying. She had known it would happen, he was older than herself and had been showing his age even when she'd done her best to save him after the fire, after his loss. But being faced with it was different from trying to ignore the creeping worry that the man was going to leave her behind sooner rather than later. It didn't help that nothing she did seemed to help soothe him, she couldn't stop whatever was inside him from slowly killing him from within.

So instead she decided to spend what precious time they had left together, or at least as much as he'd let her without giving the inevitable away. He still got up to run patrols and she could do nothing but pray he'd drag himself back to her at the end of the day. But there was something deeper gnawing away at her. She was afraid he was going to leave her behind but there was more than that. Samara wasn't sure she believed in anything after death, but ghosts seemed to be roaming now and it filled her with something even more dreadful than a life left to live without him... A life where he'd choose to leave her. Samara hadn't been much of a jealous type when they'd met but as her life became so intertwined with his, as her life became so close to his she'd started to give so much of herself to him and his world, her own family felt more like a footnote to her now... And though she did not resent his other children, nor their mothers, some part of her feared the worst. That if there was something after death that meant he'd not choose her when it came down to it, when he could choose Shaye...

Samara's sleep had not been peaceful, jolted to panicked wakefulness each time Rhyme's body shook from his coughing and she held her breath to see if this would be the fit that finally took him from her. So when he moved though she was exhausted the woman was instantly awake again. She rose to her paws much quicker than he did and she gently put out a tiny limb to place it on one of his. "Stay?" She asked softly, turning baleful eyes upwards towards him. It was a simple request on the surface, she was asking him not to go out today, to not keep pushing himself. But it was more than that. Stay with her yes, but stay alive with her, choose her.

"Speech"

Table Art by Kharpa

Maybe it was tragic blow after tragic blow, perhaps it was the exhausting life he lived in captivity, maybe it was just the intensity of the illness in which he battled but Rhyme was dying. He didn’t have any desire to accept or acknowledge that fact but this morning he felt it harder than he had before. The steady ebb of strength and will. Rhyme hadn’t given up, his sheer will kept him going. For the pack, for his family, and for Samara. He’d vowed that he would cling to this life for as long as he could. Even through this illness Rhyme fought to retain normalcy, but it wasn’t to be today.

Samara didn’t have to try very hard to get Rhyme to give up his struggle to get up. As his blue and lavender eyes met her bright blue gaze reality crashed over him. Her gentle word and the many meanings behind it had him gasping for more more than air. He swallowed hard as he settled into their bed and became very quiet for a long moment. This could be one of his last days with the woman he loved, the woman who had repaired his heart and saved his life. The one who had become his other half and shared his life. He was with her now, and he would fight to stay for as long as he could, but time had become a precious resource.

”For as long as I can.” Rhyme would finally promise, his gaze falling to Samara’s paws. He wasn’t going to pull through this, but he continued to try and ignore the truth. Slowly, and quietly, Rhyme reached out to her, trying to pull her closer to his chest. He’d bury his nose in the soft fur of her neck and he’d cling to her like he clung to life. ”Samara…” His voice broke as he struggled inwardly. Now that he was facing the end more than anything he wanted to continue.