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restless dreams — Zephyr Rill 
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Played by Alace who has 250 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Karina Baranski
Karina's birth thread-- it's late, so Bennet won't be playable for another week (apologies, Siki). Thread is AW and ready to go, but only @Kjors will be allowed in the den. I'm assuming @Lachesis's pups are with Karina nursing, but that can be ambiguous since Karina thinks they're just a hallucination. There are a couple small PP's in here (Lachesis and Kjors) and I'm happy to edit if need be.  

Her welcome back to Kingsfall had been sweet and joyous, more than anything she could have hoped.  No one had seemed the least bit surprised about her pregnancy or questioned her about the father—no doubt her mother had spread a discreet word to her subjects upon Karina’s arrival home.  The Mother did not allow her priestess to bask in her happiness for long however—a mere fortnight after the princess’s return tragedy struck the River, ripping away the King for good and all. Karina had not even realized the extent of her father’s sickness, and suspected Lachesis had kept it quiet so her packmates wouldn’t panic. He could have told me though. Karina had been his apprentice (albeit an absentee one) and she ought to have been helping the medic care for Maksim instead of skipping around Kingsfall in ignorant bliss. Now her father was dead, without ever having met his grandcubs—without even the chance to say goodbye.

Karina could not stand the guilt. She should have been at Maksim’s side every day for the last three months, and instead she had defied her parents’ explicit command to embark on a hopeless mission. She returned home pregnant and shamed... she hoped that Maksim had been sick enough to have been spared that bit of information. And so she punished herself, curling up in her den in Zephyr Rill to mourn alone. Ghosts and darkness were her only companions, and they were all she deserved. Occasionally Kjors would appear and curl around her, or press some food upon her, but he had long since given up on trying to make her speak. Karina ate only out of duty to the hatchlings in her womb, and every bite roiled her stomach, threatening to reappear. More often than Kjors, her companions were memories—and the more Karina sank into despair and went without sustenance, the more corporal these companions became.

The doe would not join Karina in the den (crawling underground was unnatural for deer) but occasionally poked her worried head down into the priestess’s chamber. After a few days, ghosts from the past had begun to visit her, to shake their heads and shame her with growls and frowns. Davin and his lost family had visited, and the heartbreak in his silver eyes as he gazed upon her distended belly was more than Karina could stand. She had chased those shades away with a growl. Minka and Tokino joined her every now and then, along with Kova.. they were more polite guests at least, attempting to sooth Karina with reassurances that Maksim had joined The Mother’s pack and was happy. She had also been visited by a lovely woman with the same sage green eyes as her mother.  Even Kisla’s two stillborn pups from last spring had appeared, squeaking and squirming as they suckled at her belly. The children had remained despite her growling dismissal, clearly too young to understand that she wished to be alone. Sometimes Lachesis would drop by and relieve her of their presence, looking more sallow and ghostly than the dead pups he ushered away.

The only ghost who had not yet dropped by was Maksim himself.. Perhaps he was awaiting the arrival of the living pups, his grandchildren. Karina’s milk had been flowing for almost half a moon now, but since then there had been no other sign of parturition. It had been long enough for the apprentice medic to know that something needed to be done to induce labor. She could not remember speaking the words aloud—at least to anyone living—but the correct herbs had appeared at the mouth of her den the evening before. As her contractions began, the whimpering echoing from her chamber no doubt signaled to the dwellers of Zephyr Rill that her time had come, but her snarls prevented any curious outsiders from intruding.

She labored through the night, snarling at every shadow that darkened the mouth of her den—no ghost or living wolf was allowed to assist or comfort her, this was her punishment well deserved. The sun breaking over the horizon cast a dim light into her den, heralding the arrival of the dragon hatchlings. Hatchling after hatchling emerged from her womb, cold and lifeless. Karina licked and nudged each body dutifully before pushing the corpse to the mouth of the den for disposal. They weren’t survivors, Karina told herself, They weren’t dragons. When the final pup emerged as still as all the others, panic choked at the would-be mother. She licked vigorously at the child—a little girl, black as night—and cried tears of relief when the newborn let out a strained squeak. “My little dragon,” Karina cooed affectionately, voice barley a whisper. She nudged Kisla’s ghost-pups aside so the newest addition could have room to nurse, and then laid her weary head upon the cool soil of the den. Sleep came a mere instant later, plunging her into dreams harboring the same memories and ghosts that haunted her waking hours. 
(This post was last modified: May 30, 2016, 01:38 PM by Karina.)
   
 [Image: KjorinaB.png]   
 [Image: JeWBS4.png]
Played by Ace who has 347 posts.
Inactive Deceased
Kjors Sørenson

Any curious outsiders seemed to include Kjors Sørenson, despite the fact the den Karina had taken up residence in was his, despite the fact that the pups she gave birth to were his.  He said nothing, for lack of words to express himself, or simply lack of something to say, he was not sure.  So the grim dragon rested outside the mouth of the den, ears constantly pivoting as he consumed the sounds from inside and surveyed all the world out.  Even if he might not be allowed to see, to witness, he could defend as a dragon did jealously guard his hoard.

Sometime before dawn, the lifeless pups were pushed to the mouth of the den.  There were no words exchange – perhaps there was nothing to say at all.  Cold, they were lifeless from the start, and Kjors heart did still for one single moment as he looked them over.  Søren, for his father.  Urotho for the other.  And he gathered the two up gingerly in his mouth and departed from the rill, trekking swiftly through the night as a shadow.  He appeared at the Lavender Ethos without a sound.  As last year’s stillborns had been buried in the quiet shade, so too would his, that they would be free as were Kisla’s lost pups.

When he returned sometime later, still muddy and somber, he realized there was noise from inside the den.  This time, it was not the warning growls, but tiny pips and squeaks of – life?

“Karina?” he questioned, not quite willing to risk his muzzle again.  “May Ah--?”


to have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you
KJORS SØRENSON
to feel your weight in arms I'd never use
[Image: honeybadgerace.png]
Played by Alace who has 250 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Karina Baranski
Karina’s fur rose instinctively as she sensed an intruder at the den opening. Gathering her newborn close to her chest, she got so far as pulling her lips back into a silent snarl before she identified the voice. “Kjo? … Kjo!” she said with growing recognition, as if recalling a long lost memory. Kjors was not just a memory though, no ghost from the past here to haunt the River princess. This was her mentor and closest friend, the Mother’s paw and father of her child. Kjors had visited often over the last moon with food and gentle words for the mourning girl, but those memories felt distant and faded, like trying to remember a dream after waking. This moment felt more real than anything she had experienced since Maksim’s passing, and she welcomed Kjors into the den with the fervor of a lost lover.

Karina rushed to the man’s embrace, tucking her teary face into that familiar spot behind his shoulder. “She’s so beautiful..” Karina whispered as she held him close, “A dragon.” The new mother knew Kjors’s eye would be fixated on the spot in the back of the den where the dragon princess snuggled with her milk-siblings, and the both of them waited patiently as Kjors’s sight adjusted to the dim lighting. After a moment she pulled herself from Kjors’s embrace to allow him to approach his daughter, crystalline eyes twinkling above one of her rare smiles. Father and daughter were meeting for the first time, one dragon to another, and Karina wouldn’t have missed this moment for anything. “Will you name her?” Karina asked softly, knowing that whatever Kjors came up with would be perfect. 
   
 [Image: KjorinaB.png]   
 [Image: JeWBS4.png]
Played by Ace who has 347 posts.
Inactive Deceased
Kjors Sørenson
 

Of course he would name her!  What kind of question was that?

Kjors bit his tongue – was well aware it wasn’t right to treat any mother like that, no matter the frayed edges of his nerves.  He’d thought about this prior, of course.  Ideas of names.  Toyed around with his father’s name, but that just didn’t seem quite right, either.  There were so many ideas, but all at once, a single name bubbled to the surface.

“Bennet,” he rumbled, ears flipping forward. “Her name’s Bennet.  Bennet Kjorson.”

He didn’t miss a beat – that the girl was a she instead of a he mattered little to him.  All of his children would wear his name, just as he so wore Søren’s like a badge of honor.  Whether or not Bennet would be the one and only mattered little to him – she was his, and all at once he knew he belonged to the little wet mass of fur tucked safely at Karina’s side.

Now allowed to approach his daughter, the swarthy male wriggled slowly into the tight space, careful not to disturb his baby girl, nor her two milk-siblings settled so nicely on either side.  After a moment, he leaned forward just enough, nudging Bennet with his nose ever so gently before leaning back.  “Y’alright?” he asked the new mother.  “Y’need anythin’?”


to have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you
KJORS SØRENSON
to feel your weight in arms I'd never use
[Image: honeybadgerace.png]
Played by Staff who has 4,816 posts.
There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity
Played by Alace who has 250 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Karina Baranski
It only made sense for Kjors to determine the new dragon’s name. Why, if Karina had to choose the poor child would just end up named after one of her very small number of friends and family. Kjors on the other paw was much better traveled, had seen more than Karina could ever hope and met vast numbers of wolves. He would have a much broader array of names to pick from, and he would know the perfect thing for a budding dragon.

Kjors spoke Bennet’s new name with certainty, and the new mother’s heart swelled to hear him claim the girl with the surname. Kjorson.  As stultifying as it was, she had been holding onto a tiny, nagging worry that after the birth Kjors would turn away from her and the children, asserting that they were a mistake, or worse—that they weren’t his to begin with. Everything had happened so fast after all.. the details blurred in Karina’s mind. Mother above, she needed sleep. She needed food. She needed to take better care of herself! She had a child to care for now..

..More than one child, it would seem. The truth of the situation washed over Karina in a wave of clarity. She had been dismissing the twins’ presence as simply hallucination, or ghostly haunting, but with Bennet snuggled between the two of them Karina could see that they were just as alive as her daughter. And bigger... they were young, but they weren’t brand- newborn.

Karina bit her lip, knowing what that must mean. Naia.. No wonder her psyche had shied from the truth, insisting the little milky bundles were figments of her own imagination. It was too much pain, too much death.  In a matter of one moon her perfect home had shattered. What must Kisla be going through? Karina felt a sudden longing for her mother’s presence bubbling up. She wanted her mom to hold her, and for the two of them to laugh and cry--perhaps all at once, sharing the pain and joy of the moment.

A tear slid down Karina’s cheek, but if it was for Naia, her father, or even her mother Karina couldn’t say. ”You alright?” Kjors asked, and the girl shook her head. “I don’t know. I feel so..” Karina’s throat was raw as she spoke, and her speech weak. “Naia’s cubs.” She said, changing the subject after giving up on trying to put words to the sinking, drowning, yet soaring feeling in her chest. Karina did not phrase it as a question; she knew who the twins belonged to just as well as she knew Bennet was her own. “Do you know their names?” The question emerged sounding more weary than she intended.

Just as she finished speaking the question, she realized that was not what she had truly wanted to ask. She had a question about names, but not the ones belonging to the ghostly pups.  That information could wait for another day, when she had a chance to speak to Lachesis about it all... The foster pups were far too young to respond to a name anyway.  Karina’s real question was much deeper, much more imperative. “Kjo, do you know..” Do you know MY name? Am I even a Baranski anymore, after this?   “Kjo,” she repeated, starting her question over, “Am I..? --Can I.. be.. a Sorenson?” Her azure gaze held Kjors's golden eye hopefully, almost imploringly. Did he see her as fitting enough to take on his name-- the name of his father? Was she fitting enough to be Kjors's mate?  
(This post was last modified: Nov 07, 2016, 06:14 PM by Karina.)
   
 [Image: KjorinaB.png]   
 [Image: JeWBS4.png]