"NO! STOP! PLEASE!" Fangs sunk into her neck as she screamed, her crumpled body on the ground being lifted and dragged towards the edge of the water. She was dropped into the waves, the tide lapping at her chest as her legs sought refuge under her very pregnant belly. 'Get up!' He yelled at her, snarling as he reached to grab her neck again.

A princess by birth and blood, she was kidnapped by this man for what she was sure was punishment for her adventurous nature. This man had been holding on to her long enough to force himself upon her at the first sign of her heat, albeit slightly late. He hardly cared for her and despite her condition, frequently had his way with her. She was broken beyond physically, but being forced to swim the ocean while morbidly pregnant was a death sentence. She would most certainly drown.

Not only that, she'd been feeling ill all morning. Of course he didn't listen and only punished her when she spoke out about her condition, leading them to now when she felt like she was going to throw up from the stress and pain building in her lower belly. Fangs sunk into her neck again to pick her up, but it wasn't that pain that caused her to scream, not entirely anyway. The pressure building was becoming too much and had she not been in the water, the strange mild release would've been evident of her water breaking. Early.

"Speech!"

Code © Skelle 2022

His heart hurt with Bowen’s return to the Hallows, he missed seeing her cream and caramel features everyday. He missed her voice, he missed her warmth, he missed her. And returning to life in Abaven without Rhyme was hard. He hadn’t really made his presence known, but Poem had likely told everyone or they’d smelled him, he didn’t know. He couldn’t even hardly look in the eye of his family, so mismatched paws carried him away from Abaven’s border. His mind everywhere but home as grief held him.

It was only the screaming and yelling that could pull him out of his daze. Despite everything he was the same Haiku. The same boy that would throw himself into danger when someone was in trouble. He moved without thinking, but the less he thought about things the better off he was.

They were out on the beach, nearly in the serf. A massive man with his jaws around the throat of a heavily pregnant woman. Part of him believed it wasn’t his place, but he couldn’t stand by and no nothing when she was screaming like that. She was in pain, and he wasn’t sure it was only the man that was mishandling her. ”Hey! Let her go!” Haiku yelled as he burst forward to apprehend the man.

The scream as her water broke only forced his fangs deeper into her neck as he heaved her up. She was slowly being pulled into the water deeper until they were interrupted by another yelling. Venus could only somewhat hear the voice yelling, but she was quickly dropped in the deeper water after she felt the man snarl around her bleeding flesh. Despite the pain she scrambled to keep her heavy self above the water but struggled. Her captor hardly seemed to care as he moved off towards the voice on the beach.

Gasping for air Venus tried to paddle towards the shore and although the waves were helping propel her forward, they were also pushing her under with her weight. Through her tears she tried to get back to safety on the shore, or at least to where she could stand. It was only once she felt her toes scrape the sand that she heard her captors voice─ "Mind your own business."

"Speech!"

Code © Skelle 2022

The massive man dropped the girl into the waves as he turned around to face Haiku. His voice was gruff and menacing but Haiku didn’t think about anything but the helpless woman. She was obviously struggling to keep her head above the water, Haiku didn’t realize the full scope of her condition at that point. He was more concerned with getting her to dry land, and away from the unyielding jaws of the man before him. He could see her blood stain the sea and his heart leapt into his throat.

He tried not to think of Bowen as he put himself in harms way for someone who needed it. This wasn’t right, and Haiku knew it, especially as the vivid pelted girl was abandoned to drown as he became the man’s focus. Hackles raised along his back and his quill like whiskers flared. ”I’m making it my business.” He spoke much more confidently than he felt, but as he saw the girl reach the sand bar he moved. Without hesitation he leapt at the nameless man with ferocity that didn’t often show through. He wasn’t going to let him hurt her again.