Dreams

She had known for some time now that she was in labor, but it was mild enough, a long slow build, that she had mostly ignored it. Mild, but annoying. She had been working in her workshop instead to distract herself. From the annoyance, and from the always present grief that waited always just over her shoulder. She couldn't ignore it any more, though. It was time. She didn't want to be in her workshop while she gave birth, just in case she needed someone to assist if something went wrong. She didn't like people in her workshop. Her sleeping alcove would be good enough. So she closed up her workshop behind her and settled onto the hide she'd set aside specifically for this, knowing it would likely be ruined, close enough to a little fire that it would warm the cave for pups but not so closely for it to be dangerous.

It didn't take long before the first pup slid into the world. It was a sturdy black and purple thing,and so perfectly formed. Yet it never drew breath, no matter how vigorously she worked over it. Dread slithered through her chest in memory of that weird vision at the altar... But no, those pups had been alive, just fewer of them than she had expected. She closed her eyes briefly, wondering if unborn pups had souls, and if so, if her stillborn son now kept her mother company. She wasn't even sure there was any sort of afterlife at all, so that didn't bring the comfort it might have. Grimly, she returned to her labors. This time she produced a tan-coated pup with smudges of color, so like her mother that Aris was startled. Anxiety, until the pup squirmed and whimpered beneath her cleansing tongue, then relief. The rest of the labor was considerably more difficult, though, and she began to wonder if she ought to call for Gossamer. She couldn't remember if Goss had returned or not, though, so she kept quiet.

Exhausting hours later, three more, larger, equally lively infants had joined the first. It wasn't unknown for bitches to whelp more than five, but Aris even in her inexperience was certain by then that she was done. Four healthy,active Fatalis children had joined the family, and while she would grieve to never know what the lost child could have been, WHO they could have been, she couldn't focus on that grief and lose herself in it, not with four other children in immediate need.