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She was too old for this. Too old for all of this.

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She had left ‘Souls for Freetown nearly two months before to see if she could purchase or barter for a handful of animals to take to AniWaya. They had quite a few new animals courtesy of one Lili Lane, but the more they acquired, the more they could trade to the other packs for that which the tribe needed. In the end she had walked away with several two pigs, four goats, and a pair of cages containing three egg-laying fowl she had been told were called pheasants.

Of the new stock, the birds were the most exotic. They were normal to see in ‘Souls, but difficult to obtain without a bow or extreme good luck with a snare. But she had sampled the produce from them and found it delicious, and so she had traded a good fur for them.

The pigs and goats had been attained by trading some bits and baubles that she had had, and a few that she had obtained before leaving, from Halifax. Jewelry, coins, some medical items, herbs that an apothecary was running low on, they were all eligible to be used, and use them she did. The only things ineligible for barter were her horse and herself.

The latter was already in use, she had discovered not long after arriving at the port town. She had met with a fellow trader on the way to Freetown and been drawn to his lovely body and exotic accent. They had coupled in the cool early spring night. After Desi, the femme had assumed that she could no longer bear puppies. That had been nearly two years before. But her stomach had swelled after that night. She had spent some time in Freetown, and then gathered her stock and headed back to ‘Souls, back to AniWaya, herding the animals ahead of her with a long, straight stick and with Galilahi’s help.

In hindsight, perhaps she should have remained in Freetown, raised the offspring that resulted from yet another single night of desire, made sure that everything was well. Instead, the ebony woman had insisted on pressing forward, intent on making it back to her tribe before the end of summer so the animals could be accommodated for as well as so the child or children could be named as per AniWayan tradition.

Pressed on, even when she began having labor pains earlier than expected, tying the animals with rope when they proved too difficult to herd solely atop Gali instead of walking beside her. Thus the bunch made their slow trek toward the Halcyon Mountains, edging along the mountains until she encountered a new pack’s smell and then speeding around it to find the pass through the mountains.

But it was midway through the mountains that she had had to stop, ushering all the animals before her. As a pop up storm threatened to rock the mountains to their roots, Hanna’s second litter had entered the world, three strong, but two dead. The one remaining child was tiny, smaller than Desi had been, and less than a pound in weight. Hanna feared this meant she would not be long in joining her littermates, but the tiny pup persevered past when her mother would have expected her soul to pass. That had been two days ago.

Even two days later, Hanna still wondered.

She had exited the cave soon after the storm had passed, ears ringing with the intensity of the blasts of thunder, exhausted from the birthing despite the pups’ small size. The two that had not lived, both male, was wrapped with their sister in one warm cloth. She would have to hurry on to AniWaya, but she was resolved not to leave her offspring on the mountain if there were any way she could get them to her home, though she would settle for Dahlia’s cemetery if she were given permission to put them next to their cousins.

It now appeared that Hanna would not even make it as far as Dahlia de Mai, however. She was extremely weak, and it was only Galilahi who was keeping her upright. She had not eaten, having failed to bring enough rations for the delay of birth, and had not had occasion to search for clean water. While it had not been long enough for each thing individually to kill her, together they were taking their toll. She had stepped but a few yards away from the bottommost slope when she could not go further. She stumbled, had the sense to tie to a tree the ropes that were still clutched tightly in the hand that did not cradle her children, and then lay down, tucking her bundle near her body, before blacking out.

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complete muse death, i are sorry for wait D: have cookies for apology <3
1330 words

The storm had come out of nowhere and she had been utterly unprepared for it, blasted by gale force winds, drenched by torrential rain and frozen and bruised by icy hailstones. To make matters worse she had taken a wrong turning and now she was lost on the southern side of the mountains, at least she thought it was the southern side, 'screw it' she thought, she could be anywhere on the damn mountains and she could hardly tell up from down never mind left from right. The coywolf shivered with the cold and wrapped her arms around herself, if she didn't find a cave or someplace sheltered soon the woman wouldn't have to worry about ever finding her way back home.

Her luck changed however as through the blustery harsh weather she managed to make out the dark outline of a cave and hurried to get inside it. Once inside the shook the hail and rain from her coat, thankfully it hadn't seeped all the way through to her underfur and skin so she wouldn't freeze from it. Before the rain had come a fierce wind had struck up and so the back of the cave was filled with dead leaves and some branches that had been torn from trees. She moved further back and started a fire, huddling against the wall of the cave and watching the storm from the outside.

Three days the storm had ravaged this point of the mountains and Gemma felt herself weakening at the end of just the first day, there was nothing to do but wait, she didn't fancy her chances out there and knew she would get lost and all her chances of survival would disappear. Finally the three torturous days passed with excruciating slowness and at the end of it the she hybrid was shaking and fevered, teetering on the edge of hallucination from lack of water. The fire had died long ago and it had been just herself in the dark, dank cave. Now there was light from the entrance, a bird sung with gusto. She crawled outside and stood on wobbly legs that didn't feel like they would hold up for long.

All around her the landscape was devastated, trees flattened, wood splintered, several dead animals lay near her cave. A pair of rabbits drowned out of their home and a cougar that had obviously been going for the rabbits lay nearby its skull caved in by a flying rock. With a lot of effort the woman was able to drag all three bodies into her cave, it left her with black rings around the edges of her eyes that were moving with alarming quickness inwards. It was that moment when her first true stroke of luck happened, she found a small pond sized puddle of rainwater, causing in a natural bowl shape in the land. She fell to her knees and drank greedily until her stomach felt full and slushy, the water tasted clean and pure mixed with the taste of the earth, the black rings around her eyes disappeared and she found a new strength imbibing her.

The she coyote stroked her ever enlarging stomach and hoped that this lack of food and water for a few days had not hurt them, she would be devastated if she lost her 3rd litter like the first two. The whinny of a horse caught her attention, who the heck would be up here after that storm? Maybe they were stranded like herself? Whatever the situation Gemma made her way down the slope and came across an extremely strange procession of animals all tied with ropes and attached to a horse that was tied up as well. She could not see any sign of an owner yet, as the horse blocked her view but as she came around she gasped and moved forwards as fast as she dared on the uneven ground. The woman was passed out and her fur as night black as Gemma's was snowy white, complete opposites. Then the situation turned a whole lot worse as something wriggled and then a pup squeaked.

Now she began to panic, feeling the crush of her uselessness, pale hands gripped at her large ears and pulled as she fretted, she couldn't leave her here, they would both surely die and thier animals as well, but she didn't know how to get them uphill. Her breathing quickened and became harsh as the panic attack took hold, she paced back and forth mumbling to herself. It was the horse that snapped her out of her building freak out, he whinnied loudly at her with an expression on his equine face she could almost recognize as disdainful, he snorted and pawed at the ground, tossing his head up high. Her heart began to calm and her head function properly.

She apologised to the woman on the floor and then rummaged through the bags and packs strewn about the procession, coming across several skins. After a bit of work, thought and effort she had managed to made a very crude and basic shelter around her with the skins, tied up with ropes of vine from the nearby trees. After that she untied the horse and retied him near the woman so he could protect her if anything came along and from the look in his eyes she knew nothing would get past him and more than likely leave with a serious beating from the hooves that rang sharply against the rocky ground. She then set about leading the other animals that she had up the slope, she didn't know what they were, having never seen pigs or goats before in her life and they made strange noises.

She attached thier ropes and harnesses to several large boulders at the back of the cave, behind where she had sat for the storm, the bodies of the three dead storm victims still lay where she had thrown them. By this time it was almost midday, the sun was out and cheery as though happy to be back after the storm and the ground was beginning to dry up, although she herself was sweating furiously from hunger. By some miracle she managed to get the black woman up onto her horse, who assisted her by lowering himself down as far as possible and staying completely still, the tied the woman in place and took the pup from her, still wrapped in the blanket. Other than that she didn't open up the blanket to look at the pup or anything, knowing that if she did the woman might be angry with her and even reject the pup if it had her scent on it. The small bundle of life squirmed and squeaked pitifully weakly, its small size told her it couldn't be more than a few days old if that, which meant the woman hadn't been passed out long for the pup to still be alive.

Finally they were all in the cave, a festival of noise coming from the animals, Gemma set about using her feeble survival skills to slice off a rounded portion of the Cougars skin and fold it into a sack, she then went back to the pond she had found and filled it up, tieing it closed in case she fell over. On the way back more sticks and leaves were collected, a bigger pile than before and exhausted the white female staggered back into the cave. But even when she got back she could still not rest, it took her several tries to start up another fire, it was reluctant to take hold but her perseverance paid off and soon it was roaring away, the smoke curling upwards and then following the stone ceiling to the outside. She stared into the flames for a bit and then set about cutting up the cougar into eatable chunks of flesh in case the black woman was hungry, as she ate she snacked on it herself.

*Noms cookies merrily* I'm late too. I sorries.


Warmth. Then terror. Then, after unsealing her eyes, loathe though she was to do it, a lessening of that fear. The woman awoke to find herself in a cave, much like the one she had sheltered in through the storm. Her first instincts prompted her to search the ground immediately in front of her, looking for the bundle but she realized that for her to be where she was, the woman across the fire would have likely dragged her there somehow. Hanna shot bolt upright, her eyes wide and darting to and fro, looking for the fur bundle that held her tiny daughter.

She did not immediately see it, which alarmed her, but a second more thorough search of the small cave yielded what she sought. On hands and knees, Hanna crawled quickly around to where the bundle lay near the white femme. First and foremost on her mind, like any mother, was her child. She removed the girl from the fur and attached her to a teat, amazed that the little pup was not mewling with hunger. The child cared for, she turned to Gemma, an expression of thanks on her face.

"You saved us. How did you find us?" She looked with more attention to detail around the cave, taking in the presence of her mare and all the livestock with her. "And you even brought the animals. How could I ever thank you?"

Hanna was impressed. Not only was she, her child and her stock safe, but the woman had apparently procured food and liquid as well. In a similar situation, Hanna did not know that she could have done any better herself.

LOL totallt thought the horse was male XD

The warmth of the fire and the satisfying weight of food in her stomach once more had her drifting off slightly, her head lolling forwards only to jerk back slightly as she became more awake and then re sunk back into the depths of sleep. It was the scrabbling of the other woman that woke her up completely, and she handed over the bundle containing the infant to the night colored female, moving back a little to give them some space. The sounds of the cub suckling filled the silence broken only occasionally by one of the animals sorting, most of them had settles down now that they were out of danger.

She smiled tiredly at the woman as she thanked her, Gemma didn't really think that she had done that much really but the woman's gratitude made it apparent that she thought it was,

"I got lost in the storm in the mountains, I'd only just come out of it when I found your caravan of animals and yourself. I didn't really do that much, not really." The ivory female fiddled around with the water skin and handed it over, if she was suckling a pup then she'd need to keep hydrated, then as a second thought also handed over some of the meat as well,

"You should eat and drink, it will make you feel better."