Unfortunately, the responsibilities she'd so convinced him to forget were remembered, and the two would separate the next morning. After some much needed rest she was spry and feeling more than fantastic, Rhythm could get back to the task she'd been intent upon before the storm. After a drawn out goodbye the Chocolate girl made her way back to the knolls. Her slim frame made its way to her boulder shielded den where she'd kept some of the dried plants that Cascade had directed her to almost a year ago. Hopefully being with Valentine the day before wouldn't mean anything. As she walked across the plains the thought would trouble her, but surely if she consumed the herbs now they would be successful in keeping her sterile. She was in love with the thought of becoming a mother herself, but the reality of the immense danger she would put herself in was too much. The risk was very high, with Valentine's size her life was on the line. She had her nieces and nephews to love after along with Valentine's children. That had to be enough for her, and he was most certainly enough for her. She needed to be smart and would take the herbs without further hesitation. She might have to talk to Cascade about dosage when she got the chance, but at the moment she'd need to focus on just getting more. Returning to the surface she'd look out over the knolls from her vantage point on the hill. Pausing as she thought about which direction she'd go first and try to push away thoughts of the potential litter they would prevent. ""

The southern heat was bothering her far more this year than last, probably because her last heat cycle had been disrupted by the unexpected pregnancy before she even knew she was in early heat. This year she didn't have that buffer to shield her from its affects, and with that on top of her black coat it made the summer weather nearly unbearable. Ugh. But something caught her attention as she rolled around trying to cool herself in the dirt, and she lifted mud-crusted ears in interest. Oh-ho... was that the Rhythm herself meandering through Cascade's little corner of the territory? Even more, was that the scent of little Rhythm's heat scent, thickly overlayed with the scent of Valentine and sex? Oh Valen you poor sweet idiot. Did he have any idea what he was getting himself into this time? Rolling to her paws she moved to intercept, and then trot alongside the chocolate-brown female. "So I guessed right," she opened with a feigned casualness. "You finally stopped playing coy little princess and lifted your tail for Valentine, eh?" Her words were deliberately crude, deliberately toed the border to cruel, though her expression and tone remained mild. "Sure hope you were smart enough to start taking those herbs as soon as you went into heat, or you've got a rather large set of problems growing in you." ""

The morning would go on, Rhythm hadn't quite found any plants yet but the journey was started. Summer was new, but the heat was already very much present. Rhythm didn't mind it too much, but the more the day progressed the hotter it got. She'd hopefully make her way to the Orchard by the time noon came. While she hadn't found what she was directly looking for it was as though her thoughts summoned a wolf she was both glad and mortified to see. Of course she'd appear before she could properly bathe, she must have smelled a mess. Already her cheeks were hot and Cas hadn't even said anything yet. The Et Uxor wouldn't hesitate taking up pace with herself, and pretty must instantly Rhythm was alarmed by this most recent meeting. Ears would pin themselves to her skull, and she'd keep her gaze away from Cascade's quite deliberately. Why'd she have to say it like that? She wasn't some little harlot, Valentine loved her.. they were sharing something special. "Just can't hide anything from you, huh?" She'd try to say with a little chuckle but Cascade's next words made her mouth dry. Yeah she knew the consequences, too bad she hadn't acted on them quicker than she'd jumped Valen. "Um..." She'd slow to a stop as she looked out to the horizon first and then back to her little chocolate paws her ears still very much against her skull and eyes avoiding Cascade in any way possible. "The morning of the second day is pretty close." She'd mumble afterwards, there was a bit more panic coursing through her now. Biting her lip the she wolf chanced a quick glance up towards Cas. ""

Rhythm seemed very uncomfortable with her being there, which of course only encouraged Cascade. The girl's ears slipped back and she looked away at Cascade's greeting, and Cascade grinned. What's the matter princess, embarrassed to be just another conquest? "Oh, honey," she said with the greatest of mock sympathy, "anyone in the pack who isn't completely scent blind is going to know as soon as they cross your trail." But Rhythm had stopped in her tracks at the mention of the herbs, and Cascade stopped as well, and smirked. Oh, miss priss didn't plan ahead? She had no sympathy at all for her, though she did feel bad for Valen. But that smirk contorted quickly into a snarl, and Cascade's hackles raised at Rhythm's quickly muttered reply. "What?" she snarled out, a frantic sort of flutter in her stomach. "You just now started taking them? You little idiot! What the hell kind of a healer are you? Didn't you bother learning anything about the fucking plants you were eating? They won't prevent a pregnancy after you already got knocked up! You're killing them!" Cascade, not one for niceties, didn't hesitate or explain herself as she attempted to leap toward Rhythm with the intention of knocking her down, dirty paws scrabbling at the girl's muzzle in an attempt to pry the jaws apart so she could shove her paw down the idiot's throat and get her to vomit the stupid herbs back up. Every hair on her body fluffed in alarm - she didn't know how long ago Rhythm'd taken the herbs, if vomiting now would even help, and she was putting herself at a great deal of risk putting her paw in another wolf's jaws, but she sure as hell wasn't going to risk the kind of heartache birth defects or miscarriage from the herbs would cause Valen. She'd sit on the bitch and hold her down if she had to. ""

OOC: Sorry, kind of escalated quicker than I expected. We can turn it into a real fight if you want (dominance for the right to stick her paw down Rhy's throat? Sounds dirty) I just wasn't sure how far it would go.

Mostly she tried to ignore Cascade and her comments, Rhythm didn't hesitate in getting flustered at her words. As she admitted her timeline the snarl caused her to cower, the dark pelted woman was above her, very much correcting her actions. It hadn't even been half a day yet though! She opened her mouth slightly to interject, but Cas was quicker and Rhythm hadn't been expecting to get tackled. Maybe she could have fought back more, but her last statement had really jarred Rhy. Mentally... Physically cascade's shoulder would do that. With a surprised yip the chocolate brown girl was on the ground, her muzzle awkwardly pried open as a paws was shoved down her throat. It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes since she'd eaten the herbs, and with more than a little retching and gagging it would come back up pretty much in tact. Her breathing increased slightly with the effort of heaving up the potent plant. Obviously she was off to a great start, trying to kill her children before she even knew she was pregnant. "I'm gonna be a great mom." She'd look away again, if Cascade had ever let her up her body would follow her stare. She was now 100% not in the mood for teasing. ""

Her goal accomplished, Cascade was left with nothing more than a pile of vomit and half digested herbs, a thoroughly disgusting and slimey paw, and a suddenly very mopey Destruction. She backed off, wiping her vomit-paw violently in the grass and dirt around her, and made a very rude sound in reply to Rhythm's comment. "No one is a great mother. Being a parent is always trial and error. Everyone screws it up. Of course not everyone takes abortive herbs the day after they screw someone." She shot a furious glance over at the brown coated wolf. "Seriously, Rhythm, where was your head? You should know herbs like that take time to work. They aren't a miracle cure! You'd be a few days pregnant by the time they kicked in and Valentine's children would be dead!"

Visibly forcing her hackles down she squeezed her eyes shut a moment to try to calm herself. Surely she'd gotten the damned herbs out in time. Surely Rhythm hadn't digested enough of the plant matter to cause damage to the pups that were even now ready to form in the girl. They'd be fine. Valentine would be fine. Opening her eyes, she glared in Rhythm's direction. "This was your mistake and you're going to live with it. You're going to carry these pups to term and they will be fine even if I have to babysit you in your den the whole pregnancy and feed you bite by bite myself. And they will be fine," she reiterated, as much for herself as for Rhythm. She was still shaking in anger, and the fear that had raced through her the instant she'd realized that Rhythm had taken the herbs. This was not how she had envisioned this little rendezvous going, not at all.

So much for walking away. She had been released after Cascade was happy with her work, even though she wasn't restrained Cascade wasn't about to leave her alone. She'd flick her ears at the gross sound, but the words hadn't been for her ears anyway. Rythm did try to turn away from the taller wolf but her voice wasn't about to be quieted yet. What had she been thinking, well certainly not that the timeline was going to be so important, or that her lack of thought might cause the death or disformity of her tiny babies. "I.. didn't think." her words were a quiet mumble, ears still slicked to her head and gaze away from Cas, form obviously submissive. She'd mention the mistake again, but now that Rhy realized her mistake she wanted these pups. She'd never intended on harming them.. just preventing. This was going to be dangerous, and as Cas went on to convince herself and the brown girl she was afraid. They could very well take her life. Seeing and hearing the passion that was in Cascade's voice was more than incredible. They didn't even know if they were really in there and the woman was obviously very much concerned for their well being. Her shamed stare would find its way back to Cascade, her respect for the she wolf had already risen incredibly. "Thank you, Cascade. I'm sorry I'm such an idiot." She really was and hopefully her bad decisions didn't kill her. She'd look down at her thin waist, curious about what might become of this dangerous mistake. She was still pretty scared though, "It's a comfort, knowing you care about them so passionately already." If she perished would Cascade take them in like she had the previous year with two other litters that were not her own? "I'm sorry I've burdened you so heavily," she'd manage to whisper as her eyes misted up. Motif had birthed three very large pups along with Shaye, and she knew very well she wouldn't have survived it with out Rhythm's quick action. She could try and go it alone, but there was serious doubt Cascade was letting her far from reach. This was obviously going to be dangerous for both her and the unborn. "I.. your help. I'll need it." ""

"Clearly," she muttered to herself in reply to Rhythm's confession that she wasn't thinking. She was already starting to feel very uncomfortable with this conversation, her whole body tense and stiff as she paced back and forth in a disgruntled stalk, so Rhythm's disconcerting gratitude and passivity did nothing but make that discomfort worse. Hell, she wasn't used to being the responsible one in any situation and she didn't do well with super-serious-slobbery-emotions stuff. At least Rhythm wasn't crying. She couldn't deal with crying adults.

.... oh hell. Rhythm's eyes were getting watery.

"They're Valentine's babies, of course I care what happens to them," she said hastily, looking everywhere but Rhythm's misty eyes. She, barely, refrained from asking if Rhythm was even certain they were Valen's babies. Probably not the time for being catty, and Cascade couldn't summon the irreverence after that scare. Instead she stuck with just a straight forward reply. "Valentine would be devastated if something happened to any of his kids and I could never just let that happen. He's my best friend." Far, far more heartbroken than he'd been when he'd come to her angry and hurt over Rhythm's own abandonment of him, and she'd been ready to kill someone for him then.

She fought the urge to bury her face in her (already muddy, and now puke-y) paws and groan. Oh hell, this was a disaster and - if she admitted it to herself - all her fault. Not the herbs... she would staunchly place the blame for that right on Rhythm's head, though maybe she should have taken the time to make sure Rhythm knew how to use the damn herbs... but she'd been the one to kidnap Rhythm in the first place and hell she'd been trying to throw Rhythm at Valen every chance she got hadn't she? Rhythm belonged to Valen, and Cascade had firmly believed... still firmly believed... that meant she should be giving him her body.

She had not, however, planned for this disconcerting moon-eyed gratitude and that made her want to run immediately to Valen and shove the whole thing in his lap because damn, he was the one who'd slept with the girl, not Cas! But, being as he was Cas' best friend, she'd... deal with it. Oh boy.

She patted Rhythm awkwardly on the shoulder, all the more awkwardly as she realized it was the same paw she'd shoved in Rhythm's mouth, and hastily put her paw back on the ground. "Aw hell, Rhythm. Don't look like you've gotten a death sentence. You'll be fine. I was just being a bitch and trying to scare you when I said that about his babies killing you. It was funny at the time," she added defensively. "But nature has a way of dealing with this sort of thing you know. I doubt these babies will be born the same size as my three were."

There was certainly still a chance that she wasn't even going to get pregnant after a day of being together, but not taking the herbs she'd increase her chance every time they were together. It was a moot point to argue, by the end of the season she'd be a mother to Valentine's children. Cascade was quick to explain herself to Rhythm, she cared about Valentine thus cared about his feelings and his children. The other woman would be relieved to see that Rhy's eyes wouldn't get anymore wet, but they were really going to dry either. Mostly in a state of mild shock at the sudden direction of her life Rhythm was mostly unaware of where Cas's mood had gone after the anger retreated slightly. She'd seat herself, sighing heavily as her weight settled and her company groaned. She wasn't able to keep her eyes on Cascade for very long amounts of time. Only brief glances as she looked out over the territory and was bombarded with a thousand different what if's. She'd be grounded slightly as Cas patted her shoulder hesitantly. Thankfully it didn't last long before her words replaced the (rather gross!) gesture. "Yeah..." the answer was kind of soft. If she went solely by Shai and Motif's litters, her first was going to be tragic. Cascade, though joking, had hit the spot. "Still scary though." Seeing other wolves go through it was going to be nothing like being pregnant herself. She'd look back the way she had come, Valentine would probably appreciate knowing what was going to happen. "I should.. probably go say something to him." She was still mumbling but as she found her paws her gaze would find Cascade again. "Thanks for the paw down my throat." Everything was gonna be okay, she was going to go drink some water and go find Valen and... get used to the idea of giving birth. Also at some point go see her sister too. how were motif and shaye going to react? ""

She shrugged uncomfortably as Rhythm spoke haltingly, weirdly, about speaking with Valen about it. Thanking her for sticking her paw down Rhythm's throat. "If you want to. But hell, it's not like the man didn't know exactly what what you were both getting into, Rhythm. He's had two litters, he knows what a heat cycle smells like and what the result is. I'd be surprised if he hadn't been thinking all along that it's what you wanted. It might just worry him and distract him from being alpha if he knows you're scared or whatever." She shrugged again, eyes narrowed at the other woman. The adrenaline and rage of her initial outburst faded, she retreated back behind a smirk. "But if that's what you really have to do, by all means. Tell Valen that you might be pregnant. Hell, you already slipped up, you might as well fuck him again to make sure of it."

Her last words had really been a goodbye, but Cascade would further stall her departure. She'd listen, but Cas wouldn't discourage her any from again finding her way to his side. This pregnancy was scary, yes, but that wasn't all it was going to be. She knew how he felt about his kids, and she knew that he would be just as excited as her. She'd grown up in the last couple of years, she'd become much more aware of what she wanted from life. While she'd really gotten used to the idea of never bearing children this mistake was the absolute best in her growing list. The familiar smirk made it back to Cas's face and Rhythm would take in a deep breath before she spoke her last words. She was going to calm down and she was going to take this on like an adult. She couldn't live in fear, that wasn't the way to bring her children into the world no matter what the outcome was going to be. However much she wanted to spite the dark woman's words it seemed like she desired Valentine even more at this moment than she had yesterday even. She very much wanted to make some babies with him. "Always such good ideas Cascade, that's why you're my favorite Et Uxor." She'd say with a firm nod and a final goodbye in the form of her waving tail. She was going to go clean herself up and try to lure Valen back to the barn, maybe he'd reconsider holing up there for the season after all. -exit rhy unless stopped- ""