The Angels Sang A Whiskey Lullaby

Gwynevere frowned when she returned and saw the herb still laying where she had left it, but decided to not press the issue any more. She wasn't going to force it on Aranea even though she was very clearly still very deeply in pain. She glanced up at Aranea at her words of apology, Gwyn giving her a quiet nod in response. She logically knew that was the case. The damage had been done from the drugs that Aranea had eaten before she was first brought here and clearly this was the repercussions from that. She was hopeful that perhaps with the right care she could have prevented any more damage from being done, but maybe that wasn't true. Maybe the damage had already been too severe for her to make a difference. That probably bothered her most, but seeing the dead pups didn't help either.

Gwynevere tried to focus on the task at hand when she noticed Aranea's contractions pick up once more, quickly picking up on the signs of them as the birthing continued. As dark and awful as this was, she really was learning a lot and she held on to that fact as one positive to take away from this whole event. She stood ready to either start cleaning the pups that emerged or to carry out another body, trying to not think too deeply about the fact that she really didn't know what to expect. She winced and looked away from Aranea as her pained groans grew into a gut wrenching scream just moments before another pup was born, quickly followed by a second. She started pulling away the umbilical sacks and goo that surrounded them, her ears against her head as she gently pulled the to the side and started trying to clear their mouths and noses so they could breathe. Neither one seemed to be doing well for various reasons and something about them still didn't smell quite right even though they were alive - at least for the moment.

The first one that had emerged, a boy that was struggling to breathe, went first. He seemed to suffocate before going completely still. Her chest squeezed with sorrow, but she tried to push past it long enough to focus on the little girl that was left. She knew that the last of the four pups was already dead so she didn't worry about hurrying back to Aranea's side and instead spent a good bit of time licking the pup's back and chest, coaxing the weak girl to keep breathing. However, after a few minutes of this the girl fell still as well and nothing that Gwyn tried seemed to help. She felt for a heart beat and found nothing. Her ears fell back against her head with grief and disappointment while she quietly picked up the pair of pups, carrying them outside without addressing it with Aranea. She couldn't make herself look at the smaller woman right now, the guilt of losing these two pups that they had been so hopeful that they would survive hurting her too much.

When she went outside she noticed that the space in the grass where she had left the first pup was now empty and when she glanced up she saw Ulric standing by a maple tree a few feet away, a hole by his feet. With a pained expression she brought him the next two, and looked at the ground as he gently picked each one up and placed them next to their sibling. "Those were the two that had been alive," she told him quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. She couldn't look at his face either, knowing that he had been holding on to that hope this whole time the same way she had. The Aegis was quiet for several moments and eventually she felt his nose on her cheek before he told her to go back to the castle. She looked at him with surprise for a moment before she nodded in agreement and turned around, giving the den a glance as she passed it. She went to wash herself off, the smell of the decomposing pup still heavy in her nose.

Gwynevere | Eilwen