table © Alaine
ooc: Hey ya! :3 Wasn't sure what time of day it was, so I avoided that XD
wc: 500+
For a while now, Alaine had been stuck on cloud nine. It wasn't particularly comfortable - With ever passing day she could feel the tiny forms within her take shape, sucking away at her strength to sustain their own. Sometimes, she would get horrible cramps and nausea, as well as dizzying spells that left her reeling. But the Apothecary was content to ignore her own bad omens. She was pregnant. The world was right again.
It had only been a few weeks, and she was barely showing the signs of motherhood. So early on, it was hard to tell anything - The number of children, their size (she prayed to god that they would not be as large as her son, Caillen). Nobody else in the pack knew of her condition, and the collie-woman was content to keep it that way until she could no longer feasibly hide it. This was silly, of course. The Cour des Miracles pack, those of whom she had come to know as extended family, would no doubt take as much joy in the news as she herself had. But some strange and niggling doubt kept the lady sworn to secrecy. The only individual to know of her expectancy was the father, and he was a loner by nature; She didn't expect to see or hear from his again for a while.
Thus it was completely unexpected, the wavering howl that came to her on the breeze. It was clearly a female voice, strong and pure, accompanied by what could clearly be known as an equine. Had the pack been expecting visitors? There was no note of alarm in the howl, but Alaine still felt it as her duty to check on the health of the newcomers. Besides, the kingdom had been strangely quiet of late, and it would not surprise her if she was to be the first on the scene to welcome these strangers.
Out of habit more than necessity, Alaine pulled on her fingerless gloves and her healer's satchel. The small leather bag was stuffed to the brim with medical supplies, and she took it everywhere; One never knew when her talents might be required, and she had healed enough patients beyond her own pack to have developed quite a hear-say. Individuals sometimes came from other packs without healers to seek her aid, and if this was such an occasion, Alaine wanted to be prepared.
She headed to the border in Optime form. Since the knowledge of her pregnancy, she had not shifted, not wanting to put the unborns at risk with the transformation. It was a slower progress than if she'd been running on four legs, but the collie still got there in good time. She paused a fair distance from the strangers, observing them cautiously. There was an ivory female, her coat as white as snow - Alaine had only ever known one other white wolfess, but the memory was a good one. Behind her was another white lupus form, probably male, but from this distance it was difficult to tell. They were accompanied by the equine she had undoubtedly heard earlier; such beasts made her nervous. The were like giant prey, and she knew that the hard hooves they had could pummel any unwary canine into an early grave.
Walking into view, Alaine paused at a smaller distance, her head held high in dominance. It was not necessarily that she felt any need to show her status to the strangers, but that was simply how things were done when greeting non-packmembers at the border. If they showed submission and identified themselves to be friends not foe, then she would deal with them on an equal plane; Otherwise, she had no idea how she would be able to chase them off the land, her being so out-numbered.
"Hello!" Her accented tone carried across the land, "You are at the border of Cour des Miracles terrotiry. What is your business here?"
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