Why Do You Care For Me

Viper hadn't acted nearly any different since Siren had told her she was pregnant. She still continued on with her physical work even when her whole body begged her not to. There were times that her body would just literally give out on her from exhaustion, not that she had even told anyone about. But it never stopped her from the next run, the next hunt, or whatever she needed to do. Her belly was round, very round. Either numbering a large litter or just large pups. But the fat and muscle along her spine and hips had thinned out from the runs and from not really eating properly while her self image had been so important to her. She did understand that with babies she would grow this way, but maybe she was just consistently lying to herself that she wouldn't. That if she kept running and not eating, she wouldn't get fat.

Luckily she was here on the island when a rippling pain started running along the underside of her belly. She only halted at first, ignoring the short and easy wave before going to move on again through the trees of the island. But as she took a few more steps, the pain became increasingly worse, to a point where she couldn't even stand anymore. Laying on the forest floor, she grit her teeth maybe mad at her body for giving in so easily to pain like she had never done before. But it had it's very clear reasons for doing so. She was in labor, while she thought maybe she'd just pop a baby out and bring it along for her patrol around the island.

As time passed she called for no one, eventually a pup had arrived on it's own to which she did actually acknowledge the presence of it. She bent up still in pain and laying mostly on her side, reaching for the still born little girl and pulling it closer to her with a strange gentle touch in her mouth. She knew it was dead, but she didn't show any signs of grief following the death of her child, she wasn't like any normal mother. But somehow she had that motherly instinct, with the fragility she considered handling the dead pup. The thought that maybe all of them dead hadn't crossed her mind yet.

"Viper"