Ah shit. This wasn't her first rodeo but she hadn't expected the cramps to come when she was half way across the expanse of water, swimming back to the island. Her head dropped below the water as a particularly painful contraction overtook her, and she managed to hold her breath and kick back to the surface. It wasn't like she could just start giving birth in the middle of the ocean, could she? Her bird seemed to realise what was happening and quickly flew ahead to Daager Isle, shrieking out his alarm as he went. All Modesty could do was paddle. It wasn't just her life that depended on it.

“Speech.”

The shrieking bird all but dive bombed him from the sky and the boy panicked. The wife was where?! His frantic howl for Gilgamesh was about all he could manage before he ran to the area of the building he had claimed as his own. He'd stumbled across an orange round thing... It tasted terrible but it floated really well, and it had some strange white vine thing strung around it's edges. He grabbed it swiftly and made his way down to the beach, spotting the flailing woman out far too deep for his paws to touch. At least if he could get the ring near enough to her, he might not drown in the process.

“Speech”

Of all the wolves that could have come to her aid, why did it have to be one of the smallest members of the pack. He was carrying something round and bright, and as she coughed and spluttered and flailed, she accepted the fact that she was going to die out here, drowning on her way home because some goddamn child wanted to show off his new toy.

As he got closer and pushed the ring towards her she realised it was floating and clung to the ring with her front legs, pushing it down under the surface of the water as she tried to scramble on top of it. The device sunk under her weight and she quickly realised she could only support her front end above the water, but she was grateful for any assistance when the next wave of contractions took her over.

Modesty barely registered the ring being towed to the beach, that her toes were digging into the sand as she stumbled, gasping and wretching salt water from her lungs. She tried to pull herself further up the beach as the first child was born, the force of her fight for air expelling the brown mass into the shallow waves. Luckily the pup was so large that his head didn't dip below the water lapping  at the isle's shore. She didn't have time to do more than scoop the child further up the sand before the next one was coming. Of course she couldn't have the quiet, peaceful family experience she had been craving her whole damn pregnancy, could she? Nothing the raiders did was free from chaos.

“Speech.”

Midwifery hadn't even been on Sakana's career radar, but then again, either had lifeguard. Why was nothing ever goddamn simple around here? Thankfully, his newly acquired monkey was on hand to scoop the baby closer to it's mother and shoo her further up the beach, practically catching the second child before it could hit the ground as the fledgling healer tried to direct the wife to somewhere even close to sheltered.

He gave the first kid a look over, raising a brow at the mottled brown coat, but otherwise finding the pup in good health, the second was given a clear bill as well. He grabbed bottle and thrust it at the wife, a mix of herbs he had set aside for just in case, left to infuse in a bottle of water in the lead up to this moment. It was a mixture of herbs for the pain, to speed the delivery and stem any potential bleeding. He had traded some bulbs for the blend from the tiniest pink wolf he had ever seen, who was apparently a bit better versed in childbirth than he was.

Just don't ask him what was in it. It didn't smell like poison, and that was enough for him.

“Speech”

   

The stumble up the beach was long and arduous. Where the fuck was her husband? She was going to kill him. Five Four had been hard enough last time, but pup after pup made their way into the world and she had begun to thing there would be no end in sight. She lost count after three and drank the tincture the budding healer thrust her way, after all he hadn't seemed to kill Ignis yet, and she simply focused on the task at hand.

When the contractions finally did stop rolling over her, she could barely lift her head off the sand, even if they had somehow made their way up the beach and into the shade of some low lying shrubbery, underneath a stand of palm trees. The babies were nestled against her chest and for a moment, she thought she was seeing double. "How many?" She mumbled, utterly exhausted. How many monsters did she need to wrangle this time?

“Speech.”

At least beyond the whole almost drowning thing, the whole birth seemed to be a rather uncomplicated affair, even if for a few moments there, Sakana was convinced there would be no end to the puppies being birthed. Each one was checked carefully, all seemed to have all their toes and enough eyes and ears. There was the brown spotty one, a reddish one, a very black one and a grey splotched one more like Gil that were all boys. The other three were girls, with at least 2 inheriting some of their mums colouring, he supposed maybe the redder boy did too? He wasn't familiar enough with her extended family to guess where the kids colouring had come from. “Seven, four boys, three girls, all healthy. How're you feeling?”

“Speech”

First came a shriek from a familiar bird. At first, he didn't pay much attention to it. Often, the feathered creatures around the Isle found ridiculous things to scream at. Like a raccoon or a snake. Only an ear twitched in the direction as the insisting alarm blared over and over. He really had no time to figure out what was going on so instead, he motioned for his wolverine, Urtur, to go figure it out. Whatever was causing this bird to be so emotional, Urtur could handle. Continuing with his task, he let out a grumbling growl as he tried to focus.

There would be none as he heard a beckoning howl a few minutes later. This time, it was Sakana who was not the owner of the shrieking bird. But he was calling for him. Why? The small boy never asked for much. Really, he noticed Sakana spent more time lingering around Modesty than anyone el-fuck. Modesty. His eyes grow wide as his head jolts up and swivels until he's nearly looking backward. The puppies. Instantly, his heart soars as he finds it hard to breathe. Was she okay? Were they okay? The last thing he wanted was to lose another one...

Even before Urtur came rushing back to him, Gil was scrambling to make it in time. Unfortunately, he was on the other side of the Isle and too far away. By the time he approached, panting, sweaty, and as frazzled as he had ever been in his life, the pups had arrived. All seven of them lay neatly at her side. Wait, seven? Seven fucking puppies? Four had been hard enough! Trying not to collapse himself, Gil leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Modesty's forehead. "I'm sorry," he murmured quietly into her ear before looking up at Urtur.

"Fetch water and something to help move her," Gil told the wolverine before turning his attention back to his Wife and the new puppies. He was about to go take a look at them before remembering that Sakana was still there. "Thank you. If you want a promotion, we will talk," he offered a simple nod of his head to the boy before moving to look at what the little gremlins looked like this time while he waited for Urtur to come back.

"speech"