Hidden Tree Someday, you'll blow us all away [BWP]

@Sahalie Arcus' birthing thread! Special mention to @Draven and @Treyah cause siblings, but open to any CAD wolves in the event of a coyote. Please wait for the okay from either Sarah or I before posting c:

Ever since they’d left the Heights, Kino had been plagued with the knowledge he held. He’d spent many nights laying next to his mate, looking between her and the sky wondering how in the world he was going to tell her about Cas. Though the woman weren’t best friends, as far as he could tell anyways, Sahalie had a soft heart and had cared about their members. He knew that she would take the information hard, maybe as hard as he had, but he couldn’t be sure. This made him worry, especially given her state. They had to bed down in the area for the past few days, the woman far too bloated to move any further and had been having minor contractions.  He knew they were close to having the pups, or rather pup according to Hal, from what he had witnessed from Aponi and Speiden.

At that moment he was sitting outside of the den that Sahalie had found, hidden amongst the roots of an old burnt ash tree. The scent of a pack could be smelt on the wind, but he was too anxious about their situation to leave his mate who dwelled inside. He sighed, laying his head down on his massive paws. This wasn’t supposed to be this stressful, right?

(This post was last modified: Jun 05, 2018, 12:27 AM by Kino.)

They were so close to Charred Ash Draw, the last place she had seen her father... but he wasn't there. She hadn't needed to ask any of the wolves to know that. His scent was nowhere to be found as the skirted well around the borders. In the last few days she had been very deep in her own head and opted not to discuss any of this with Alastor. She didn't want him to ... worry so much about her. All they'd been doing was worrying about her—mostly because of infestation of coyotes—and she just wanted to focus on this the task ahead of her. The moment was coming closer and closer and her muscles seemed to be rehearsing for the real event, and there was just too much inside of her to talk to him about her father, to say "hey, this is where he is." Or should have been.

Instead she had simply changed course a bit, looking for the one place her father would always be: the place he was born. This would be as close as she could get, it appeared. And of course it was not easy finding a place named Hidden Tree, but Triell had described it enough times and given her a good enough idea where it might be. The forest probably looked now close enough as it did in her father's deepest memories, now that so many years had passed and the trees had grown and the underbrush had returned and the ash had been washed away by seasons of rain. Maybe the paths would be different, new, but the land was the same deep down.

There was no scents that would tell her that the tree she found was the Hidden Tree but she could feel it must be true. No one had used this tree in a long time, and it needed a lot of work to clear it all out, but once inside she could feel that it had once been the spacious origin of so many wolves before her. It would do for now.

"Yep, this is it," she said, steeling herself against the pain that gripped her once again.

The silver man’s auds flickered to the side as the voice of his mate filtered from the darkness inside the den. He moved to crawl in, elbows scrapping the dirt as he ducked. He still had to crouch inside, but he was still amazed by how spacious it was. Enough for a small pack, perhaps. They’d done a quick, quiet job of clearing it out once Hal had found it. They hadn’t been speaking much other than Kino’s occasional checking on her wellbeing. He felt powerless as she was clearly in pain, yet there was nothing he could do except sit by a watch.

“Do you need anything? Just...breathe I guess? Or maybe yell it all out?” he said, utterly unsure of what to do. “God, if Cas was here she’d be making fun of me for sure,” he mused, trying not to grimace.

She waited with gritted teeth for several, long moments—possibly minutes? she felt untethered from reality now—for the contraction to subside before she responded to him. To her surprise, when she opened her eyes she saw that he was in the den. She had never known there to be rules about birth, but this felt kind of... odd. Was he going to crouch here like a squished wolf watching her contort her body in pain indefinitely until she quite possibly shit herself? The idea was certainly uncomfortable. The advice he was giving her was honestly maddening. She was about to chew his ear off with some sort of quip like, "Really? I thought I might try and hold my breath the entire time." when he decided that this moment—when she was trying her best to relax after all her muscles had spent the last few minutes screaming at her—was the moment to mention Castel.

"What, you feeling a make-out session coming on? I'm sorry this isn't exactly—" She inhaled sharply, squeezing her eyes shut as the contraction took her by surprise. They were coming faster now, faster than she had expected certainly. The dark girl tried to settle down on the well-worn dirt floor but found that nothing would make her comfortable. She exhaled, "The most attractive I've ever been. And yeah I'm not really feeling in a licky mood."

Honestly she was trying to give birth to his god damn child and he was in the hole with her thinking about his first kiss. "Is there a reason you're bringing her up now?"

As soon as the words left his mouth he felt like the air had chilled around them. A sharp look was given his way and he ducked his head, shuffling back awkwardly. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the time to be making jokes. He’d just been trying to make the mood lighter, but maybe...Wait, she was mad that he’d mentioned Cas? Words whipped from her mouth, confirming his suspicions. Making out? What was she even talking about? Was she still angry at him for that? He’d thought they’d moven past it, but obviously not. A frown etched across his maw as she flinched into another contraction, his heard squeezing in his chest at seeing her in pain. Even if she was frustrating him, he still loved her with every part of him. It hurt him to see her hurting.

His frowns tightened as she mentioned that she wasn’t the most attractive she’d ever been, his teeth gritting together. She demanded the reason that he’d mentioned it and his tail gave an aggravated flick. Did she really think he was like that? That he was fantasizing over Castel, who he’d never even thought of being romantically involved in in the first place, while she was writhing in pain trying to give birth to their pups? Did he really seem that low, even with everything he’d been trying to do for her?

“Sorry, Jesus, I was just trying to lighten the mood. There’s obviously not much else I can do, but if you want I’ll just sit back and shut up,” he grumbled, scooting back so that only the tip of his muzzle was at the entrance to the den. “And for the record, Hal, you don’t have to worry about her. She passed away,” he said, unintentionally bluntly. He knew it was mean and uncalled for at the moment, but what else was he supposed to do? He was trying his damned best for them, trying to be a good mate and worried everyday about being a good father. She just kept digging and digging and no matter was he did anymore it didn’t feel like he was doing enough. She was never happy with it.

Sahalie had assumed that there were a few times in life where there might be no consequences for the things she said: the death of a loved one, severe pain, or labor. Alastor usually took her moods in stride regardless. But this was not the case now. He reacted as if she had struck him, and she took a deep rattling breath and tried to keep her eyes from rolling up into the back of her head. She couldn't deal with this right now, him if he was going to act like this in the middle of her giving birth. What came first was squeezing out the child they chose to have. Dealing with anything on top of that was just too much. She could barely hear her own thoughts over the deep, slowly building pain let alone think of a response that wasn't just clenching her teeth harder.

This all made it much harder to process what he was saying to her. At first she only recognized the words as some cruel jab. Several moments passed before things started to sink in—don't have to worry about who?—and she realized what he was trying to say to her. Now. Of all times, now. She took another deep, shaky breath and closed her eyes.

"Get out," she hissed as another contraction stole all the air from her lungs and thoughts from her head, even though Alastor was barely in the den at all. Maybe it was better that he told her now. It was so much harder to feel sad or feel anything at all when she could only feel herself being ripped in two.

Storm clouds were coming.

There is a deer carcass being picked over by three coyotes. They spot you and become territorial of their kill.

Kino couldn’t help the bitterness he felt. Hell, he felt bitter about being bitter. Their child was being born and they couldn’t even hold themselves together enough to be happy about it? What was happening to them? His chest felt strained, then she hissed at him to get out and it made it all the worse.

The silver male backed out further to sit a few feet from the entrance, forced to listened to her labored panting and breathing instead of supporting her like he should do. Like he’d been trying to do. And the scent of coyote overwhelmed him and his gaze turned to follow the trail. Coyotes, three of them, crouched over a carcass and snarling angrily at him.

He stood, backing himself closer to the entrance of the den and peeling back his lips to reveal rows of sharp teeth. His tail flagged over his back, hackles rising as he growled in warning. There was no running this time, nothing that they could do about it. And with their previous encounter with the mongrels he knew he wouldn’t make it out of the fight unscathed, but he’d protect his family. Even if he and Hal weren’t on good terms at the moment. Even though she drove him crazy. He loved her, and he loved the life she was bringing into the world. Nothing else was as important, nothing. So he lowered his head, auds laid back and tail lashing prepared to fight.

Treyah was getting larger by the day, not that that was a thought that Draven was likely to share with the woman carrying his children. But, the bigger she got the more time the man spent imagining what the life growing within her would be like. Quiet like Sachiel and him, or outgoing and charming like their mother? Occasionally he thought they might turn out like the other members of the pack, angry and vengeful like Kerberos and when those thoughts came he found himself having to leave. The jealousy he felt threatened to strangle him but he could never voice this to the female alpha as it wasn’t his place.

In a strange way maybe it was good that Draven had become so jealous and protective of Treyah late in her pregnancy. If he had not been wandering trying to clear his head and walk off the sick knot in his stomach he never would have come across the familiar scent trail. His brother was nearby, and that was curious enough as he logically should be nowhere near here, what was more interesting was the heavy scent of milk that mingled with Sahalie’s trail. So maybe she had decided love wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.

Draven’s pace had been quick but certainly not urgent as he had followed behind their trail. That is until he got closer and the smell of birth filled the nearby air, worse still was the heavy scent of vermin. Coyotes. Dark bristles stood upon his spine as his green eyes landed on their mangy forms. A snarl on his muzzle and muscles bunching beneath his pelt he barely registered his brother’s large platinum form behind the enemy. They had to get them away from here.

He left without protest. Which was typical for him. She was too exhausted to care, and pretty sure she was supposed to be alone for what would come next. At the reaches of her consciousness she heard Alastor snarl and wondered vaguely what it was all about. Was he just grumbling and stewing in his frustrations at her? Probably. There wasn't any more time to worry about it now, though, as the next contraction came on sooner than she had been expecting. They were so close together now and she was sure that this was it, each next push would bring her closer—it closer, whatever it was. The pain was so incredible she could barely feel it anymore, and no matter how deeply she breathed she felt like there was no air in her lungs. Darkness crept along the edges of her vision.

She was just so exhausted.

Biting down on her foreleg was all she could do to keep herself from giving up. Anything to stay awake and feel some sort of new pain. Thunder rumbled over head.

— — —

Her daughter was nestled against her, clean and mewling like an angry cougar. Sahalie was at the end of her tether now, and no longer cared about the old anxiety that feeding time brought about. It just happened. It was natural this time. She sighed, curling her whole body around her only child and whispering, "Welcome to the world, little one." In response the cub squeaked. With it all over—as far as Sahalie knew—there was nothing to keep herself awake anymore.

"Alastor?" she called quietly, imagining that he was just outside. "Al?"