Once again, she was grateful for the willingness of the young man - He assisted her without question nor interference, and when the pregnant woman had swallowed the leaves Alaine allowed herself a quick moment of rest, rocking back on her heels and panting in quick shallow breaths to try and ease the racing of her heart. There was very little she could do until the time for birthing arrived, but wait and pray that Firefly was strong enough to do what had to be done.
Emerald eyes continued to assess the situation, how far into labor the creamy Fae was, the width of her birth-gates, the startled, fearful glaze of her eyes. Soon the herbs would kick in, once her stomach had dissolved them into the bloodstream, and the intense pain would begin to melt away. It was a cruel irony that the poisonous leaves would be what likely saved the once proud wolfess, whilst also taking away her last connections to what was happening inside her own body. The healer prayed to some unknown deity for patience and mercy as another hard contraction came, and set about to massaging the pregnant woman's thighs and lower abdomen to try and hurry the process along.
A cold drought of wintry air made her look up. Standing in the doorway, his shrouded figure cloaked by some unnameable emotion, stood their king. All the pieces seemed to slot into place - Of course, Jacquez was the father. Of course, it had been him to impregnate this suffering beauty. His ebony eyes, usually filled with haughty arrogance, swept the dirty trio with what Alaine could best describe as a hollowness. When he spoke, the healer left the discussion to the two men, once more centering her attention on the wounded soon-to-be-mother, soon-to-be-ex-mother.
There was a short dialog which Alaine refused to enter. Even if the king's frozen question had been directed at her, the young collie-woman refused to answer it, for she simply did not know. It was too close to estimate anything, and the balance of life and death was held precariously in the tension-thick air. When Firefly's own voice lifted, Alaine looked up at her sharply, ready to command that she concentrate on breathing, that she worry about the contraction, when-
The pup slid out into her waiting hands, slathered in blood, looking as grotesque as a being from another world. It wasn't breathing, and it's pulse was shallow. In the second that Alaine held it, it died, and that little beating heart fell still. A soft cry of mourning bubbled in her throat as the too-young mother cleaned it's face with quick swipes of her tongue, breathed into the little closed nostrils, praying for the flame of existence to flicker up in her palms again. The pup's body was beautiful, healthy-looking, but far too small to have been out in the world. There was nothing the healer could do for it.
She turned to Jacquez then, and wordlessly held the small creature out to him in a gesture that demanded he take it, that somebody, ANYBODY except for Firefly took the little corpse. There was no telling what the mother would do if her little dead baby was handed to her now, not when there was still more left to come, and so she held it just out of her view. Her eyes were cold and professionally still on the father's features, but darted quickly to Haven's to make sure that he had seen, that he knew the little bundle was lifeless.
Speak think walk
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