A grand adventure is about to begin.

Orin Takekuro · 01-27-2011, 11:44 PM

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ooc Some of the details about how she realized she was pregnant are fuzzy and not so eloquent because Alaine and I are still working on that thread (due to my slowness). wc 1094

The secret was eating her up inside. Yes... it was literally eating her up inside! She had known since her friend Alaine visited from Cour des Miracles with an adorable little swelling belly of her own in tow beneath her crimson cloak. Orin was so excited and happy to see that Alaine would be having pups soon. The Takekuro woman fantasized about how in just a few months, after they are born and grow a little older, she would be able to visit Alaine and tell the puppies some of the many stories she knew. She would cart over books with pictures of adventures and glorious places and kings and empresses and captivate the little pups for hours. Maybe she could even teach them to read from the get-go, so they would grow up literate Luperci. Reading and writing was always much easier when you learned the skill as you grew, like Orin did. She hoped dearly that Alaine would let her do all of this... and she suspected the small Winters woman would, since the apothecary herself wanted to learn how to read and write, too.

Yet her day with Alaine had revealed another little secret. One Orin should have already known but did not have the age or experience behind her to have been keen on it. Not only was Alaine already a mother, and a mother-to-be again, but she was also a healer and herbalist. Alaine knew everything there was to know about the body (or so Orin thought) as well as healing and utilizing herbal poultices for optimum health. It was not long, on that day, before Orin revealed to Alaine the recent dramatic events that unfolded the week prior. Since then Orin had been in the most horrendous mood. She felt lethargic, depressed, and negative. At first she supposed it was natural and that the reason for her mood was Sky, the woman who attacked her, but the mood carried on well into the following weeks. Then, soon, the cloud colored woman found herself ill.

She had not told anyone in Cercatori about her illness for she did not know who to turn to. Sky had some medical abilities but she was the last person Orin wanted to see right now. And, well, with her mood muddling her every thought she did not feel outgoing enough to leave her bookstore and look for help. Instead she secluded herself inside – though she was receptive to friends who came over – and ate the few breads and cheeses she had in store.

She was hungry all the time. There was a while, in the beginning, where she would eat but could not keep most of her food down. Or she would be hungry but so nauseous she could not force herself to eat. She craved strange things, fruits she had never even tasted before that would never grow until summer. One day she had an uncanny urge to eat the snow, which only served to give her a chill. And this pattern of weirdness went on, and the little Takekuro woman lost even more weight beneath her winter coat, because she did not have access to the foods that could keep her healthy.

It was when she related her story and consequently told Alaine of her illness that the apothecary diagnosed her. It was so sudden and immediate. Alaine knew better, and knowing the story easily assumed Orin's problem, and then confirmed it.

Puppies... Orin thought as she walked across the open floor on the first story of her bookstore. Puppies. She was still trying to drive it home. In a few weeks, she was going to have puppies. Other people had puppies, not her. She wondered if it was a dream.

Yet if it was a dream, it was very realistic. The things that had been happening to her body... her mood... her declining health. She learned from Alaine the things she needed to do to keep healthy and give both herself and her puppies a fighting chance. Orin had been terrified of the notion at first, so she kept going about her business as she had for a couple more days. It was when she felt her body flush in fever that she decided she needed to face facts.

I feel like I'm living a part of a story... Like this isn't my world. Like someone is controlling it and I am just a piece in the puzzle. Could I really be about to have children? The thoughts raced through her mind. By now she had draped her satchel over her shoulder and had retrieved the sheepskin cloak, one of her only possessions that had made the trip from Florida. The cloak was around her small shoulders in a heartbeat and she pulled the hood over her head and low over her eyes. As she stepped out the chill of the afternoon bit her. It was a strange sensation, normally the cold did not bother Orin. She glances around but her eyes saw little through her daydreams. She went east.

It doesn't matter how I feel now, though, she continued inwardly. I knew, even before Alaine told me what was happening to me. I knew but I was too stupid to admit it. I should have done this earlier. There is no more time. They have no more time. If I chicken out I'm not hurting myself, I'm hurting them. I am not a pack wolf for nothing. I am not meant to lose my pups because I can not find food for myself. Her small hand slipped over her midsection and she pressed her palm gently onto her belly. It had not grown enough...

She kept her face shielded by the worn hood even as she stepped out of the foliage and into the little clearing. Her eyes spied Shawchert's hut up ahead and a strange electric pang zipped through her body. Was she really afraid of this? Was she frightened of talking to Shawchert? Or was she scared Sky was going to be there? Or was she just excited? Things would be better soon, right?

She took in a deep, shaky breath, and suddenly her feet stopped. She did not want to go over there. That is what started all of this in the first place. She had no way of knowing if he was home, and for a long while the ivory wolfess simply stood at the edge of the clearing, struck dumb by the torrent of emotion that threatened to shatter her calculated exterior.

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