Everything I Ever Wanted

As the days ticked down closer and closer to Manea’s expected due date, Irilyth had been making more and more preparations for the arrival of her mistress’ first litter. The den had been mostly furnished by the time Manea had adopted her into her service, and Alastor had provided a few additional furs in the time since then, so all she had to do was make sure they had plenty of medicinal herbs on hand for the occasion. Plenty of meadowsweet and motherwort for the day of, a few trillium flowers she’d managed to find, and lots of alfalfa for once the little ones were here. As far as she could tell, they were all prepared to receive the new generation of Mendacium wolves.

On the day of, Irilyth had been busy organizing some more herbs she’d gathered earlier in the day and prepared to dry for long-term storage. She heard Manea shift in her bed chamber and watched the massive violet fae step past her to head outside, dipping her head to her Mistress before returning to her task. Not more than a minute later, however, she heard Manea come hurrying back into the den, going straight for the shelf of herbs and announcing the pups were coming. Iri's ears pricked up and she spun around to look at her Mistress with wide raspberry red eyes. It was time! Wordlessly, Irilyth rushed over to the herb supply and gathered some more meadowsweet, some motherwort, and one of the trillium flowers. She could get more if she needed, but she wanted to keep the more powerful painkillers to a minimum, if possible.

Coming into the bed chamber beside her masters, Irilyth laid out the herbs beside the bed of furs and got herself sorted before turning to Manea. She could see the muscles around her midsection contract in time with her labor and nodded. Although she had never performed a birthing on her own, she had assisted in one once and learned all she could from other healers. She could do this. The caramel-blonde fae took a steadying breath, then took a stem of motherwort leaves and gave it to Manea. "This should help keep the contractions even and easy," she explained, her lyrics soft and calm as always despite her nervousness.

A tiny paw pressed to her belly, feeling around through clenching muscles until she felt the forms of the two massive pups squirming around inside her womb. A smile spread across her lips and she looked up to Manea with shining eyes. "They're getting into position. It won't be long now." Stepping around toward Manea's end to prepare to receive the puppies, she looked up to her Mistress and said, "Start your breathing. Slow and steady. Try to time exhales with your contractions, and if you need more painkillers, let me know." Her smile widened in a flash of pearly white teeth. "Congratulations, Mistress Manea, you're about to be a mother!"

"Irilyth"