yey 4 babies. mel can come if she wants, otherwise we OOCly assume larkspur shows up later or somethin'.

It was night when the woman was jarred awake, a terrible pain in her. She had cried out, and Molca was at her side in an instant, bringing to her a shallow bowl of water. The sable hybrid gritted her teeth and shoved the slave aside, the water dish clattering to the floor, spilling its contents across the ground. The heat and her size had given Eris over to sleeping beneath the stars these past few nights, but now she wished she had crawled into the underground hole serving as her usual den. Her yellow-green eyes peered at it fiercely, and she dragged herself forward on her arms, her legs made useless by the quivering leftover of the contraction that had jerked her awake.

They're coming, she muttered to the coyote slave, who had collected herself quickly enough after the shove. Molca now leaned forward to help Eris best she could in getting to the den, though the slave was more nattering fly than actual help. The Auxiliary clambered her way beneath the dirt, the going stopping entirely as she waited for another contraction to pass. These were different -- sharp and stabbing unmercifully, rather unlike how she remembered Pandemic and his sisters. It wasn't as if that had been a breeze, but this was entirely different. She started forward again, arriving in the relative cool of the underground den just in time for another wave of pain to strike.

Should I get Larkspur? Molca asked, hesitating in the entrance to the cave. She would not enter until Eris bid her, but the woman's instinct to serve had driven her this far, still clutching the emptied water dish. No. Come here, the sable hybrid rasped, clutching her hand toward the slave-girl. Something is wrong, she said, the last word turning to a moan as she pounded a fist into the dirt. The smaller coyote scurried forward as best she could, more mobile than her larger owner in the den, and hesitated by the coal woman's side, her tawny fingers anxiously working the air. What should I do? she asked.

How should I fucking know? the elder hybrid snapped, gritting her teeth once more. The pain was coming to her in faster waves now, and she was rather dimly aware of wetness between her legs. Help me down, the hybrid added, now thinking of something for the slave to do. Her hand clutched at Molca's arm, and the Optime woman laid down, able to stretch out somewhat well in the den. She could not have lifted her arms above her head without touching the wall, but her legs were at least straightened now, and this seemed to numb some of that awful pain. Stay, the sable woman said, her voice growling with pain. Her hand reached for Molca's arm and gripped it, so hard the slave-girl could not keep from wincing.

∗ ∗ ∗

When it was done, the coyote woman was dimly aware of five bodies, tiny and helpless and curled close to her. Molca had gone to fetch water or food or Larkspur or something -- she was gone. As the hybrid woman peered down at her children, her head still drowned in pain and now with the added burden of exhaustion, she squinted. Four dark shapes and one nearly pale as snow, save for the ashen smudges upon her fur. The coyote looked at them, her body still dully thudding, and drew one toward her. It was wrong -- where her flesh should have been whole and complete was a hole, twisted bits of what Eris knew to be innards poking from the hole. The child was alive, however -- squealing and mewling, it proclaimed its life to its mother, despite the gaping obscenity in its belly.

She was reminded of Aether, the sibling of Pandemic and Salvia and Wretch who had never breathed true air, but this one was alive. She clutched the child close, holding it to her chest and prompting it to drink of her with its siblings. Gored as it seemed to be, it was strong, and the girl's tiny life would not be extinguished here in this underground den unless Eris chose it to be. The thought made her lift one coal lip in a grimace. The child was hers, and she would not spill its blood.

worst post ever

The wolf clutched her broken child, holding it tightly to her chest. The girl's movements and noises were normal, but there was no denying the hole in her belly, the imperfection that had touched her tiny body. The coal hybrid's ears were pressed back, and she leaned into the dirt wall, curling herself to the smallest possible size around her children, the broken one clutched closest to her.

The shuffling noises came from the outside world, and the hybrid curled tighter around her children, rolling to her side so her back would be presented to the door. Larkspur was here. He would see, he would know. He would have no mercy for the child. Even Eris knew -- there was no salvation for it. Her chartreuse eyes had not focused on that hole in her since first sighting it; she could not stand to look upon it.

The rest murmured their tiny yips and whines and wriggled against her, tiny and warm things that had come from her very body. They were her life, her blood, her flesh. She sighed a shuddering sort of noise, listening with increasing dread to the shuffle and movement outside of her den.

OOC Ending: Lark tells Eris to burn the baby that's all "HNNNNGH" with a hole in its belly; Eris refuses; Larkspur storms off all "STUPID WOMAN Y U CURSE US" and the end. C: