TW: Infant loss, body horror, birthing, blood, bodily fluids etc

Sedna had been in the Oaks gathering bits of this and that to make sure the pack supplies were well stocked when the inevitable came. Fuji had made the trip home, in her own words, because she knew her mother "would drop the kids on the grass and keep going if someone wasn't there to keep an eye on her". So her smallest daughter was accompanying her on this trip. Sedna had endured the tongue clicks and muttering, about it being too close and too far to get back to the bamboo if there was an emergency. What if predators were lurking around? The Oaks hadn't been claimed that long... etc etc. The mother just rolled her eyes and continued about her work. This wasn't her first rodeo and she had assisted with plenty of births before that. It wasn't like it didn't come naturally in their family, after all.

As the sun began to dip below the tops of the trees, and fireflies started to make their presence known, was when the familiar buildup of pressure and waves of discomfort began to wash over her with more regularity. She finally heeded Otis's tugging on her tail (honestly, the way they were fussing over her, you'd think the whole process was dangerous), and she gathered up her supplies and made her way back to their hut, Fuji nattering away all the while.

Perhaps it was her own overconfidence that would be her downfall this time?

"speech"

Fuji was anxious.

There was no other word for it. She had stayed behind in the Armada while her mother had travelled home, despite her better judgement, and she had plans to return once she knew her new siblings were safely delivered, but everything her mother was choosing to do was putting the young healer on edge. She knew her mother was particularly skilled with plants, but should she really be risking gathering mushrooms and herbs that may or may not increase the chances of a miscarriage in her condition? She could tell from the glazed-over look on her face that her mother was tuning her out, so she glared instead, and gritted her teeth. Even Otis was worried about her (though to be fair, that seemed to be a standard state of affairs with the crotchety opossum).

The girl tried to be relieved when they finally made their way back towards the bamboo, a suspicious trail of fireflies seeming to gather around them. She was sure to tell her mother that 'this was their last outing' and they wouldn't be leaving the limits of the bamboo again, and as a healer, that was her order! But nature always seemed to have other plans.

Her mother's cry was sudden, and unexpected. She darted closer to provide what little support she could given her meagre size. They were so close now, it was just a few more steps. With a tip of her head she signalled for Otis to run ahead and start preparing their medicines. It seemed like today was the day after all.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Something was wrong.

The deep-seated tearing pain that pulled from her abdomen was unlike anything she had felt before. She wasn't able to hold back the cry of pain and it was all she could do to not fall on her daughter as the tiny wolf darted closer. Her vision blurred and blacked at the edges as tears threatened to fall freely from her squinting eyes. For all her confidence that she didn't need help and that this was a perfectly natural process, she was beginning to feel thankful for her daughter's insistence on accompanying her.

Sedna stumbled the last few steps into the hut and barely dragged herself to the pile of skins just inside the infirmary before she fell heavily to her side, and laboured panting wracked her body. Her sides were so taught with pain that she couldn't even turn to see what was going on. Something damp coated the backs of her legs, but it was all wrong. It felt viscous and smelled like damp earth. She began to struggle, to try and get up to see what was going on, but Otis took hold of her ears and held her down, spreading his fingers across her temples in an attempt to calm her down, but the thick scent of fear filled the room.

The desire to snap and tear and flail was too much to bear. She threw her head, blood coating her tongue as her teeth closed on something soft and furred. Dark limbs struggled to get underneath her, only to slip on the flooring beneath. She moved across the room, banging into implements and walls, leaving a trail of whatever it was that smelled so much like the long night behind her. Still, she couldn't see what was going on.

"speech"

There was no denying that Fuji was well and truly out of her depth. There was nothing natural and easy about the scene that was playing out before her, and she tried to contain her panic as her mother collapsed and something earthy smelling and oozing began to escape from inside her.

Girl bit her tongue until the taste of copper filled her mouth just to stop from screaming. Whatever it was oozed and glowed, like the mucus from a deep forest mushroom. Kenta was paying more attention than she was and if he hadn't flicked the childhood rabbit skin toy when he had, she would have found herself down an assistant.

Something about the smell had sent her mother into what seemed like a fit of some sort. She was desperate to get up, her pupils were dilated and her breath was coming in short, shallow, unproductive gasps. "Get Tenshi, or Kiriko... It was almost a whisper to her golden cat companion, anyone that isn’t me. "Go! Now!" She said with more authority, knowing he wouldn't want to leave her with her mother this volatile, but also knowing she was well in over her head. She could only hope the older healer hadn't left already, or that the new one had enough experience in this stuff to be more useful than she was.

Turning her honey coloured eyes to the opossum cowering in the corner, she gave him a bracing glare. "Sedatives, what have we got?"

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Her last litter had been normal, so she knew this time that something was abnormal. Her thrashing had dragged her through the familiar glowing ooze that smelled like petrichor and must. Like earth and sky. Natural, but supernatural, and the glowing spots in the corner of her vision were all it took to throw her back in time. What had she done that was so terrible as to be cursed like this? Was this a gift from her mother's gods? A price to pay for a debt outstanding? She wouldn't put it above the old bitch to curse her like this for daring to leave in the first place.

Anxiety pooled in her belly as the desire to push came on. She could feel her children fighting to find their way out but this first one... something wasn't right. She gathered her senses, and ceased her thrashing once she was able to get her elbows beneath her to lift up her head and focus on her breathing. Fuji held something in a bowl under her face and her teeth pulled back in a snarl. Like she wouldn't know that scent... But a quick glance at the wreckage she had left in her bout of flailing and the weary way Otis looked at her... Wait, what was in her mouth? She dropped the rabbit skin toy, coated with blood from where she had bitten her own tongue and looked into the unyielding eyes of her daughter. Maybe it was for the best?

As the urge to push began to come in steadier waves, she drank down the bitter draught and let her mind zero in on the task at hand. Everything else faded to fuzzy distraction at the peripheries. As the first child slipped free she expected her daughter to bring it closer for her to see, but instead after a few quick prods it was handed to Otis, ready with a scrap of short skin. The scent of fear amplified again and her worried growl was cut short by the next wave of need. This time things felt better and the baby was rapidly scooted closer to her chest, where she could clean and encourage it to nurse without too much fuss. "Show me the first." It wasn't a question or a request, and she hoped her daughter would know as much without her having to force the issue.

"speech"

Fuji was going to hold her nose and force the draught down her throat if she had to, if she could get close enough that was. When her mother finally turned enough to get her elbows beneath her, her daughter was there, holding up the bowl of bitter liquid that would hopefully calm the older wolf enough to focus on the task at hand. She didn't sigh out her relief when the drink was finally gone. Merely offering a hint of a nod as she moved back down to the business end now it was time for the show. The ooze was unsettling. It smelled like a mushroomy part of a forest after a storm and she certainly didn't expect childbirth to be anything like this. It wasn't what her mother had explained to her to expect. This was a nightmare, and on this day she was convinced that she would never let a boy put his thing anywhere in her general vicinity if this was the eventual outcome. Why or how her mother had thought it would be a good idea to do it twice? She would never understand.

The first... Wait, she wouldn't call that a pup... What was it? It slid free without a sack attached, coated in a yellowish-brown substance that smelled awful. Where one might have expected to see eyes and ears, there was a cluster of mushrooms instead, fungi instead of limbs, vaguely wolf shaped with a small canine nose and mouth but not much else that was recognisable as a wolf. She moved it closer to Otis to check for a breath or a pulse.

She wanted to scream.

Before she would have time to process what she was seeing the next came through, this time in a sac and looking normal enough. All black and greys, 4 legs, 2 ears, she slid this one closer to her mother, and waited to catch the next, but it seemed like things were slowing down already. That couldn't be right... Sure the pup was huge, but her mother's sides still bulged and contracted, there had to be more. What could possibly be the hold up?

Her mother's demand was met with a concerned look before the opossum carried the little bundle closer and Fuji turned her face away. She didn't need to see whatever that was again.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

The concern shown by her daughter and the reluctance to show her the child was quickly clarified when Otis came closer. Sedna wouldn't cry over the loss. If it had survived this long, the kinder thing to do would have been to end its suffering. She nodded to Otis and let him remove it again, grinding her back teeth together as the next pup came. Things were feeling better, though the anxiety of more kids sporting the beginnings of crystals was a worry after the last lot. The next child came easily, dark with a tinge of blue and pale cream markings. there was some red in there too, (so far there was no guessing who may have fathered who, they very much seemed to be taking after her).

The next came sporting crystals and she had to bite down on the rabbit toy once again. Otis was by her head offering her something else that smelled suspiciously calming, but after seeing what had come first, she wanted to be present for the rest. The pup was blazing reds and blacks and again, she couldn't place it. But it wasn't like she had a lot of time to consider.

More crystals, this time shades of silver and bronze.

As the pain and the coppery scent of blood filled the air, she finally registered the fireflies that had found their way inside, adding a gentle glow to the dark of the night. At some point, someone had lit small fires so her daughter could see what she was doing, but even then the light was low. She wanted to snarl and snap and eat the insects up, but she was growing far too tired. They just had to make it through the night.

"speech"

Fuji was grateful for her dexterous paws as the next wave of siblings came. All boys so far, and all huge. It was no wonder there was so much blood and glowing goop flying around. Each time a puppy was born she could have sworn the fireflies overhead pulsed, but it had to be a trick of the mind right? A gust of wind causing the small fires Otis had lit to gutter. She couldn't allow herself to consider any other alternative. She had to focus on the task at hand.

If she had to guess, she would say they would have to be getting near the end, right?

The glowing ooze increased, and the tiny wolf gritted her teeth as a purple kid came out with bright green markings. As the sack broke more of the glowing ooze splattered on the floor. The ram-horned healer made a face. Finally, a sister but there was something weird about this one. Were those mushrooms coming out of her ear? It also looked like there were other spots that were oozing the glowing fluid. Was it this one that had made all the mess? Crystals and something spikey about the fur around her rear...
The pup let out a loud cry as Fuji poked at the white protrusion and the small healer flinched, passing her little sister over to their siblings and mother to look over. This lot... they were different, weren't they?

What she thought would be the last seemed to be a bit more of a struggle for her mother. Whether it was the sheer exhaustion of delivery or the challenge of all those crystals (mentally Fuji was crossing her legs, No-siree not me). At least this one didn't seem as spiky as the last 3 had been, and another boy, purple where the other had been red.

The tiny healer leaned back, either things had happened incredibly quickly or her golden cat had had to travel some distance to try and find the other healers. She was about to take a breath and start cleaning up when the contractions seemed to start again.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Sedna had the same wrong feeling about this one that she did the first, for a start it felt small. Smaller even than Fuji. She looked to her daughter with a flash of worry, but the girl was all exhausted business. Just like all the women in her family at a moment like this. She allowed herself one exhausted, bitter bark of laughter. It was another one they didn't want her to see, but she didn't have to tell them this time for Otis to bring it nearer. This one had obviously ceased growing some time ago. Crystals had taken over all but a thin whip-like tail, and a pale back leg. The two would be dealt with, once they had all managed some rest.

It seemed with the show well and truly over, their lampyridae audience were happy to take their leave, each seeming to drop down for a moment, hovering a bit longer over the two that didn't make it, before drifting out the door and off towards the moon.

Sedna finally allowed herself a sigh, taking a moment to nose each forehead and settle the pups close to her chest. Everything ached. She could breath again. The unsettling feeling of organs relaxing back into their regular position was unpleasant but also a relief all at once. She knew it would be some days before everything felt as it should again. Looking at all those crystals, it might even be some weeks. But the hard part was over now. Wasn't it?

"speech"