Lights of my Life [Birthing]

Paladin and Aurielle both encouraged her, and Red - Aurielle's mate, who she hadn't interacted with in particular since they both had such different duties to the pack, and so didn't know particularly well - gave her an encouraging smile as well when he slipped past her to go to his wife's head, so Viviane brightened and entered the alcove behind him. She listened intently while Paladin named the herbs they were prepared to use, and why they weren't using them yet, giving each a sniff when Paladin named each to memorize the scent of the tinctures, and giving Ime an apologetic smile for invading his space to do so. As they'd suggested, she moved close to Aurielle and carefully, oh so gently placed a paw on Aurielle's abdomen. Her eyes widened with the sudden shock when the surface of her alpha's side suddenly squeezed, and beneath it like a dolphin gliding just beneath the surface of the water something squirmed and slipped along under the skin and muscle. At first she jerked her paw back as though burned, but then a delighted grin slowly spread over her face. "Wow! Was that one of the pups?"

Movement at Aurielle's hind quarters pulled her part of her attention away, as she finally realized what Ayodele had been doing all the while. Oh, she was braiding the long hair to get it out of the way, to keep it out of all the... all the birthing stuff. She'd known that birthing could be a little messy, and she supposed that all that hair would really get in the way so braiding it made sense. But it would still get sort of messy for her, and messy for normal haired wolves too she thought. "If you don't mind me saying," she said with some hesitation, "Have you considered wrapping the base of your tail and down some with buckskin?" Though it might have been a little late in the game for her to have said something, wasn't it? Since the birthing could happen any time.