In The Darkness, I Found The Light

He didn't want to move. He didn't want to breathe. Chimera didn't want to acknowledge the reality that a second litter of children would die on this damn island. The boy was dead, but another was on the way. The man wasn't blind to the pain that this would bring to Dalila at the loss of her child and to Aliana, who was being punched in the face with a reminder of her own loss. All of this... all of this was his fault.

The second pup began to make its way into the world and the women worked hard to make it so. Chimera pulled inward, becoming a ghost, a mere object in the room for Dalila to lean against as her body pushed and toiled to bring another dead child forth. He couldn't look. He didn't want to. The faster this was over with, the fast they could all accept the inevitable and he could... disappear for a while. Something other than this.

And then the most beautiful sound filled the room. The squeaks and squeals of a puppy with a very healthy set of lungs. The man's head jerked to the side and he stared down at the tiny mottled puppy grasped in Aliana's paws. Chimera's mouth parted in disbelief and, whereas before he didn't want to see, now he couldn't look away. She was beautiful and she looked very strong as she was placed beside her mother's belly. The hard tension that had held Chimera's muscles rigid relaxed and he leaned against Dalila's exhausted frame with more ease.

Aliana's departure was expected and he wanted nothing more than to go after her so that they could mourn together, but he owed it to Dalila to stay. He owed it to his new daughter to stay. Chimera nuzzled into the new mother's cheek and whispered softly, "I'll bury the boy... with the rest." They were hard words, but he needed her to know that she didn't have to worry. As Siren came to press herself against his neck, one foreleg moved out to pull his sister into his embrace. The world was a hard place and it showed them its harshness every day. They needed to band together. To stay strong. To support one another in sickness and in health. All of them.

"Chimera Klein"