they come like lions

As the last child came the sour scent of fear filled her own nose, hopefully more than masked by the antiseptic scent of healing herbs and the warm bitter scent of tea. Fuji's heart raced, constricting the back of her throat as she checked all the other vitals before carefully touching the extra 'eye' in the center of the boy's head. There was no reflex, and it was hard, and cool to the touch. While bile burned at the memory of what her mother had birthed, this was nothing like that. She relaxed visibly, smiling as she moved the pup closer to the new mother. “A crystal, nothing sinister...” some of the other pups had bumps on their skulls where horns would eventually erupt, two had smooth patches of scales and one had extra dew claws on his hind legs, but they all had all the necessary number of limbs and nobody had a cleft palate. They should all thrive.

She pottered about setting up medicines and leaving them in reach, marking them as teas of salves as she went quietly about her work until she was happy that they would have everything they needed. “Call if you need me, but for now I will leave you to rest. Call, if you need me.” She made towards the door, ready to get some rest of her own after catching that many pups.

“Speech”