Willow Ridge the chariot

this will be closed for just @Hagar at least for the moment <3

She was den bound the last few days it felt.

Too tired and round to make good effort on any task. Her appetite seemed to constantly come and go while sleeping seemed a better option for most things. Whatever care Ra wished to provide though, Niamh happily accepted. Along with the company of her husband when he was not busy elsewhere.

She lived with the comfort of knowing neither would surely be far when she was this far.

Yet when she had woke that morning it had been with a painful start. For all the witness and the knowledge in the world count not have prepared her to physically experience it. Especially as the sun seemed to move across the sky and she still felt the pain with no rewards. Only the knowledge that it must be soon. It had to be soon.

"Bearkissed,"

She did not mean to but his nickname was a pained hiss between gritted teeth. Whoever had grown inside her had certainly adopted the strength of her bear-built husband though it felt.

(This post was last modified: May 29, 2023, 01:31 AM by Niamh. Edit Reason: wow typos )

Hagar was doing his best to care for the family he'd already had along with Niamh and their unborn children, while also striving to form this semblance of a pack back into something more solid. It tired him, but it was work he took joy in all the same. Still, it hadn't been enough.

Iseldir has been missing for nearly a full moon now, and his father had yet been unable to find any sign of what had become of him. The distance between himself and Avella seemed to be growing again, a wider chasm than ever before, and on top of it all, completely unbeknownst to the wolf, something malignant was growing inside of him, wedged between his lungs and heart. Hagar's new start was wilting, but she had yet to waver.

Hagar had been protecting the mouth of her birthing den when he heard his epithet breathed out. He practically melted into the space, curling around Niamh readily. If she wanted him out he would oblige, but his heart wished to be right alongside her for this. His smallteeth began to groom the familiar curves of her thin face, wordless reassurance.

(This post was last modified: May 28, 2023, 10:25 PM by Hagar.)

He was there, around her at once.

A beacon of strength and warmth. Their children would know this in their first breaths here. Perhaps it was odd, but Niamh could not imagine going through this all alone, in a hushed dark den.

She breathed, slow but strained, in rhythm with the soothing touches he offered in these trying times.

Yet she knew that none of this could begin without one other. One who had given her nearly as much support in being here as Hagar had. One who had walked with her through each step of her sudden whirlwind life. "Ra," She exhaled the name as she leaned her shoulders back into her Bearkissed. "She should be here..."

Would her husband protest?

Would he find it all too much for what was bound to already be a messy ordeal?

(This post was last modified: May 29, 2023, 01:39 AM by Niamh.)

adopt my brother!

note: mentions of fortune telling and magic are purely a belief system.

Hagar paused in his doting as his wife asked for her friend, considering how best to make this wish come true. He wanted to only go so far from Niamh as to howl for Ra, but he vividly remembered the blood soaking the woman's chin the last time she had rushed to answer his call. Finding another to guide her was a gamble, could just lengthen his time away from his laboring mate, and so it felt best he that he would be the one to locate and accompany the seer back, even if every fiber of him wished to stay right where he was instead.

He placed a fond kiss upon her crown, and began to rise. Many words crowded his mind, of how much he adored her, of how swiftly he'd wish to make the trip, that if she needed him and he wasn't here- Hagar let out a low chuff instead, pressed his forehead to hers one final moment, and then departed.

Popping back up out of the ground, he took off after @Rashina's scent, praying all the while that he missed nothing.

(This post was last modified: May 30, 2023, 02:12 AM by Ryder.)

Ra came. She could feel the change in the air and when she closed her eyes she was blood and water, the liquids or before birth and there after. She moved as quickly as her blindness would allow, and with bundles of herbs as much as her jaws could carry. Ra had insisted that Niamh's birthing den and Ra's filled with treatments should not be far from one another. Ra hadn't used herbs but for only herself since Torbine, so the both of them happened to have both needed new dens.

Ahead, the scent of Hagar, but not only this- his steps, his breath, his heart racing in his chest. The Seer stops, settling down her bundle. "Carry the herbs, allow me to hold your tail and I will follow your steps." She did not think he would give back rejection as they both were aware time was of the essence. Naimh meant everything to the both of them now.

In seconds, a flash of tail fur is whisked by her face and Ra seizes a good hold. Hager is mindful to walk a trail that needed not step over fallen limb or scattering of rocks and only once does Ra trip though keeps herself upright and keeps moving, if only by yanking on Hagar's tail to rebalance herself! Swiftly, they come to Naimh once more and Ra releases her hold and opal colored eyes blindly burn through the shadows of the den. "I am here, Niamh."

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

i painted your room at midnight

SO THAT I WOULD KNOW
YESTERDAY IS OVER.

Could there be euphoria in pain?

All at once she understood why women seemed to bring children to the earth each year, again and again. No matter how terrible it looked and sounded. Just like the new life she would bring, something in her was new too. That she would be blessed as a mother tonight in the safety of her priestess and husband. This was a union. Forged in blood, sweat and tears.

Time rolled endlessly in her blinding pain until voices pierced like arrows.

"Come!" Her voice was a demand, a cry, a plea. She wished for Hagar to be back along her spine, to shelter her through this terrible grand storm that hailed upon her. "Here, here," She might guide them both as well as she could in her hovelled motions through it all. If her husband would station her back, she would settle Ra before her at once. As if Niamh worshipped at her paws in these blood spilt moments.

"It is time."

No force of nature or divine could keep the child at bay any longer.

adopt my brother!

note: mentions of fortune telling and magic are purely a belief system.

Thankfully, the Archer was exactly where they'd needed her to be. Hagar located her swiftly, and didn't need to use words to communicate the occasion nor its accompanying urgency. Obliging her instructions, the only thing that mitigated his speed was consideration for Ra's delicate limbs. His mind was thoroughly on Niamh, but he was still present, patient whenever the other wolf needed further support.

She slips past him to peer into the den, and he hesitates behind, unsure of his wife's preference until her hears her voice call out to him and every fiber of his being then answered. He took his place alongside her, the space choked with too many bodies but he didn't care. It was the support she not only wanted, but deserved. Hagar's heavy skull rested beside her neck, a solid presence through whatever might come. Hopefully the same easy, healthy birth that Avella had experienced...

Niamh beckons and both wolves act quickly to the places which they were needed. Hagar, along the length of her backside, to sooth the heat her brow with adoring affection. Ra, to come sit down at her front, front paws moved to find and place them over Niamh's own. Ra breathes deeply in and out slow and repeats.

When Niamh would begin to deliver, Ra would whisper comforting words of faith. Ra prays quietly to the Gods of Old "Goddess Moon, guide our path in the dark. Sun, give us strength in your light. Mother Earth, may we have health in your nourishment. Water, cleanse our spirits to make them whole."

They were not from the same places and perhaps did not worship the same gods (or perhaps any in Hagar's case) but knew that Niamh prayed and believed, even if she favored others over Ra's own. Their faith is what had brought them together.

(This post was last modified: Jul 02, 2023, 04:19 AM by Rashina.)

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

time-skipping some through the delivery! let me know if not okay :)

It was not easy, but she did not suffer long.

One child came into the world, strong and healthy.

Yet Niamh felt the weight and the exhaustion of it all. A toll taken on her smaller frame, as she nestled wearily against the bulk of her husband. The child at her breast. Ra at her front.

The world aligned in the den and yet she could not bear the weight of it all for now.

Only a tired little sound that hummed through her throat to beckon them to look, to see the life that had come earth side at last.

adopt my brother!

note: mentions of fortune telling and magic are purely a belief system.