MOTHERS SACRIFICE.

The words that the seemingly older woman spoke reminded Eris of her mentor, Ezra, and a small smile flickered on her jaws as she looked at her. When she had passed through Valhalla... why hadn't she stayed? Pushing the thought away, she tried to remind herself that there was a reason for everything, good and bad. "Vahallans are wolves of honor." She murmured lightly. It was true, it did add up to everything she had heard about them thus far. Wolves of honor.

The next questions from the other healer, made her pause. 'Then why do you allow it to happen? Or do they not give Healers the proper respect owed to them?' She would let the other woman finish, but her mind froze on that first sentence. "Have you met Isardis by chance? I doubt his own queen can sway his mind once it's made up." She commented, her voice light. "Respect? Ha, I've already been reminded that I'm nothing more than a mure 'curerer'." The words were tinged with a bitter edge. The woman went on to talk about the pack being a healers children, and she nodded slowly, eating the herbs the other had pushed towards her.

"You can say what you will about Isardis, but the wolves under him are perhaps the only reason I haven't left. I don't agree with what he does, but those under him aren't guilty of his decisions, and they need me." Light words were tinged with slight wines of pain, as her contractions grew closer together, her body working to expel the life from her belly. Her head laying back to rest on the ground, she pushed her first bundle of life into the world. The pup was huge, it felt as if it's body was thrice her own, and ripping her into shreds. The agony. She could smell blood, and as she moved to inspect her pup, she realized something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Nosing it rather urgently, her teeth clipped the sack containing her pup, her tounge reaching out to caress it, cleaning the fluid from it's face.

Hues of gray and brown colored the pup, markings unique to it, but it wasn't breathing, it wasn't even moving. A heartbroken whine escaped her jaws, as she nosed it again. Not again...