Walk | Talk | Think
Her mind was caught somewhere between pain and desperation. The pups were coming, there was no denying that. With each passing moment the spasms in her middle would increase in their intensity, causing her at times to hunch over slightly inside the den and wait for their passing. Oh, how she wished there was another way! She had been fooled by the glamors of pregnancy, of motherhood, and nowhere in her knowledge did she ever recall a warning of this process. If she had, she might at least have reconsidered, if only for a moment. But more than the pain, she was worried. It would only be moments before they made their way into the world, and Bane was still not there. Of everyone available to her to seek solace from inside of her pack, it was him that she wished for most. He had been there to see the birth of his last litter with the wolf who had not even been his own mate; Tahlia was not going to forgive him if he should miss her own.
She heard a voice at the front of the den, its familiar sound causing her dark golden eyes, which had been closed against the troubling contractions, to open and stare at the silhouette of the woman peering in. "Loccian," she answered breathlessly, relieved to see her though she had not been the one she had called for. Why had it not occurred to her to call for the healer first? "They...they are coming," she informed her hastily from within the den, "I do not think they will wait." A shudder ran through her frame, a mixture of worry for the task at hand and for where her mate must have been.
But in what only felt like a moment's time, he was there. Through the smell of the herbs Loccian had brought - of which Tahlia was becoming increasingly curious of with the growing intensity of the pain she felt - she caught his scent, faint yet familiar and so desperately wanted, and saw part of his peppered grey figure as he positioned himself outside as well. A beckoning whine was issued toward the both of them before another spasm within her middle silenced her and caused her to huddle slightly in wait for its passing, though as was proving to be the habit it was stronger than the last. It was time. No more waiting. She caught her breath once it had passed, shifting about upon her side in the space of the den she had already chosen for the birthing, and lay in wait for the next one that would bring with it the first pup.
She had thought she could be mindful of those around her during the process, but no sooner had it begun she knew she had been wrong. All of her attention, all of her energy, went into the birthing. It was painful, wholly consuming, and immensely draining. She pushed and strained until the first was out and promptly took to the cleaning the babe in between the contractions, eliciting the first cries of their first child. Smiling tiredly already, Tahlia took only a small moment to admire the child, a pretty little girl still in need of much more cleaning, before the painful sense filled her again, causing her to momentarily ignore the pup in order to bring her sibling, unknowingly the last of the small litter, into the world. The intense contraction was over with the new arrival of the second pup, and as she had with the first Tahlia was quick to recover and begin cleaning the child. Another voice joined the first, and as they both cried she nudged them close to her side, encouraging them to nurse.
|
