((CW for mild body horror and Recluse just in general having the ooze, plus idk birthing squickiness??))

Recluse was miserable as fuck. She woke up that evening or rather had been violently woken up by contractions. And then the dull ache of her head kicked in and Recluse blinked blearily doing her best to make herself focus as the world seemed to slide and shift around her. She felt like crap, and another contraction rolled through her body. Her nest of furs was wet with sweat and well... Her water had obviously broken, so the woman slowly rose to her paws and shuffled about furs, replacing her soiled ones with new ones and dragging the wet ones out of the den. A little bit of walking around would do her good, maybe even help to get the pups settled and ready for the birth. She had a feeling she was in for a long birth. She had swollen quite a bit more than the last birthing and the pups felt like they rested heavily on her pelvis. Being up and about felt like it put such a strain on her body. Today was particularly bad, her whole body ached and her vision never quite cleared, when she blinked it felt like there was resistance when she tried to re-open her eyes. The world seemed to come to her as if from underwater, the sounds all muffled. She lifted her head to see Galho approaching from wherever it was that he has slept during what could even be considered day. He landed on the ground before her and fixed her with a massive bulbous gaze. "Mistress- Are you alright?" He asked, his croaking voice clearly worried. "No Galho I am sick and the pups are coming, so I'm not alright." She responded croakily. She tossed the soiled fur away, wincing as her head pounded. "Mistress you have uh... Crystals on your eyes and ears..." Recluse paused, a thrill of sudden fear going through her. She slowly lifted a forepaw to rub at one of her eyes. A thrill of bone-deep pain lanced through her skull and Recluse let loose a cry of pain, struggling not to collapse onto her stomach, instead doubling over and fighting tears. As if in response to her movement she felt a bigger, stronger contraction than she'd felt before wrack through her body. Oh god, the pups were coming and faster than she'd expected. The woman let loose a very strained call for a healer, for anyone. Recluse managed to drag herself back into her den and onto the pile of furs and she tried to keep her breathing regular. Galho had taken wing to try and find her some help and Lilith, who had only just woken up herself, was slithering around the den in a sort of panicked rush. The woman was worried, so fucking worried. Some part of her was driving into pure panic. Was she dying? How was this possible. She glanced down at her paw and noticed that the one she'd used to rub at her eye was wet with a thick purple fluid, smeared across her paw and she stared for a moment, it reminded her so much of the crystal she'd found herself entranced with. A wave of revulsion rocked over her and she forced her eyes closed, she wanted to clean herself up but refused to lick her paw, she did not want to know what ingesting that fluid would do. Another contraction rolled through her body and Recluse gasped. The pups! Would they be alright? What if she died? She prayed someone would arrive soon. Her head throbbed and Recluse couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face as she dealt with more painful contractions and the fear for her children thrilled through her. Finally, finally, her body seemed ready to actually push these children out! The first child was going to kill her if whatever the fuck was making crystals grow out of her face and leak fucking ooze didn't. Recluse felt like she was being torn open and she couldn't stop the cries of pain that pulled from her lungs as her body did its damndest to push life into the world. Or well she hoped it was life. Recluse was drenched in sweat and  the purple fluid rolled down her face as it mingled with her sweat. Recluse could not have said how long it took, how long she pushed and screamed and cried before her daughter was born. Recluse was exhausted and her head was pounding, the blood pumping in her ears. Operating more on instinct than anything else the woman leaned towards the pup, already bigger than any of her other children had been. (No wonder she'd struggled so much and had felt like her unborn puppies had been grinding on her abdomen with the size of this child.) She licked the girl clean and managed to breathe a sigh of relief when she let loose a cry of life and her body shuddered with its first breath, tiny paws swimming along the furs as she cried out for her mother's milk. Recluse gently guided her daughter to her stomach with a hind paw and was given a brief moment of relative respite as she watched the small-spotted bundle suckled. But she was not done yet, her body shook as more contractions wracked her and it started all over again. This time the pain was less though as the second child slid into the world she noticed that he too was larger than even her largest of her older children. She leaned forward to clean up the pale spotted boy, his fur a pale pink shade in the dark of the den. She nudged him into place beside his bigger sister, who somehow looked so much bigger than even the new pup who was larger than her other children had been. The pink boy was followed up quickly by another pup so much more like her first litter. A mottled boy of white and black and she gently coaxed him to breathe with her gentle licks after she cleared his airways. She gently moved him to her stomach and made sure he had latched on properly without being shoved out by his much bigger siblings. The last push was the worst, worse even than the first of this litter, she panted and huffed and wiped her leaking face on her furs as much as possible and tried not to think she was going to look down and discover a whole ass crystal instead of a puppy but finally, finally the last puppy slipped free. Recluse leaned down to see a puppy, larger than his brother before him and gently cleaned him off. He had been born curled in on himself and Recluse had to gently nose him to stretch him out only to find... A second absolutely tiny pup had been grasped in the bigger boy's limbs, pressed into the white fur of the bigger pup's chest. She frantically moved to clean him up and held her breath as she waited... Was she too late, had she not gotten him breathing soon enough? Finally, the tiny little creature let loose a first cry, his paws kneading his bigger twin brother's chest. She gently got the two boys settled at her stomach and finally, finally, allowed herself to breathe a breath of relief. Her body had settled and though her head was still pounding, her eyes were tired and sore and her face was still just fucking leaking. Recluse felt happy. "Poisons" & Venoms

Image by Hagon

Firefly Shoppe- Recluse

The sickness deepens... You get a blinding headache as if something is trying to grow through your skull.

Your attention blurs and refocuses. IT feels as if you are in a dream as you find yourself alone in the mist. Fireflies gather and light the way to a table with a figure waiting behind it. On the table lay three items, with their prices beside them. "Choose w̶̢̧͉̥̻̟͈͙̽̉̆̿̈͒͋̓̇̍͌̇̎͠͝ì̵̢̝̄͐́͆̓̚ṣ̶̛͙̟͎̤̞̤͎̹̙̭̪͔̓̐̾̂͆̄͆͌̈̈́̏̚͜͝͠ȩ̴͔̱̗̜̾̉̀̓̀͆͛̊̂̍̕̚̚̚ͅl̵̢̦̲̼̠̖̜̺̮̜̺͋̈́y̴̧̨̧̪̗̥̘͇̾͑͗͜͠, and only choose o̷͕̭̊̃̌̊̏̀ņ̸̼͚͉͔̒͐̊e̵̮̯͛̔̀̑͜," the figure says, looming over the table as his eyes seem to peer into your soul. Are they... moving? "If you can afford it, that is. Beware, however, for there are many d̷̡̯͉̎̊̈́͐͠á̴̬̪̣̝̞̅̀̈́̄ṉ̸̢̠̤̹̥̙̜͋͆̚g̷̛͍̹̣̬̙͖̝̘̃̈e̷͓͕̖͓̝̤̿͐͐͜͠ŗ̵̤͚͔̟̹̳̽̒͝ş̸̛͓͔̩̥̦͛̊̈̾̐̒̓ ̴̺͔̃̇̆ahead." He does not seem like he's in the negotiating mood...


I̵̜̖͎͓͒̑̕n̸͓̗̘̫͉̗̻͐̔̿̊͆̋͝v̵̦̹̠͉̖̼̮̎̌͆ȩ̸͕̦͔̳̩̈́͜n̶͍̝̙̯̣̹̫̩͋t̶̟͈̟̲̜̙̣̋̿̓̆̅͊͝͝ŏ̶̼͊r̶̖͎̙͔̥͎͙͈̊̍͝͠y̴̧͔̭͒͆̉̕͝:

• Shrink Potion- 1 /
  This bottle is shaped like a pear and within it swirls a sparkly gold liquid. The label shows a crudely drawn image of two wolves of vastly different sizes, with a green checkmark over the smallest one.
  
• Potion of Perception- 3 /
  This bottle of silvery liquid has a pair of glasses etched onto it… whatever that means.
  
• Equalizer- 3 /
  A small bag in which you can see two sickeningly green cookies, on the bag is a small tag with instructions: “Afore the eve of war, when the outcome is yet to be drawn eat one biscuit and leave the other for your opponent and all battlefields shall be made equal.”
  

Recluse whined in pain as her head throbbed harder she closed her eyes for a moment, fighting a wave of pain and nausea. Gods where were her healers? She'd never forgive them if she died right here! She opened her eyes again and the world shifted, blurry and darkening like the last moments of real conciousness before sleep. Recluse tried to force herself awake, tried to cry out but her body did not respond and then in a moment she was gone from her den, the little lives she'd been nursing were gone and a thrill of panic went through her. Though she it did not feel like reality the woman was overtaken by a deep instinctual fear and desperation. She rose slowly to her paws and padded gingerly over to the table, the voice spoke and Recluse cast only a single glance over the items before her. Instead she stared deep into the strange figure's "eyes", feeling her pain and the fear for her children crashing over her. "Please I just want to go back, I just want my children." She felt tears prickling at her eyes, which stung more than they ever had when she'd cried before fucking crystals had started growing from her eyes. "They need me..." She was somehow so certain she would die here and in turn her children would never survive without her. "Poisons" & Venoms

Image by Hagon

Firefly Shoppe- Recluse

The cloaked figure seems almost sympathetic for a second. "A mother's love is an admirable thing, Recluse. Don't worry, I won't keep you any longer," he says hurriedly as he disappears and she finds herself back in reality, with the cloaked man and his goods gone from her sight.