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She was staying in her werewolf form for sure. If she stayed in this form she was able to fish easier, with a rod and a line, which meant that she'd be able to eat. Lately everything she ate came right back up...with the exception of fish. Maybe there was something in the fish that made it so that she could digest it easier. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She'd had the flu before, but usually she got over that pretty quickly.
Naniko was feeling a little weak, but other than that she felt up to a trip outside the territory. Today she was walking around the beach area, just off the old, cracked highway that ran through this portion of the lands. She'd wanted a bit of a walk to stretch her legs, to try and get the cramps out of them.
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[html] Conri had known even before he jumped in the water that he would have to fight his way to shore to survive. Unfortunately for him, with his sides screaming in pain, fighting to swim wasn't proving much of an option. He did what he could though, kicking and struggling forward to try and removed himself from the stream, but it easily proved a futile task and he was tired before he ever really got started. Finally, the small stream that he had jumped in to, carried his body away. Eventually the stream grew wider and the faint taste and smell of salt began to invade. The stream was connected to the ocean and, by the time Conri realized it, he was plummeted out into the open.
The smell was so strong that it almost burned his nostrils and the salty water quickly took up residence in his lungs, forcing his will to fight in to over drive. Through pain and exhaustion, the young Leader fought, using everything that he had to try and keep himself close to the shore but never quite making it far enough. It seemed like hours that he fought until, eventually, his limbs felt numb and his head heavy and his body just stopped. That was about the moment that a very lucky wave washed him ashore.
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She'd been feeling kind of bad lately, body-wise. Like something wasn't quite right with her. She didn't know exactly what it was, but something was definitely off. Naniko thought about this as she walked, rolling things over inside her head. Maybe she was getting sick. In that case she shouldn't have been going out on a walk, she should have been inside resting.
She could see something off in the distance, washed up on the shore...it looked like a dead animal. But what animals around here were that big? And the reddish color seemed really familiar. Her heart nearly stopped when she realized what the form was, her mind going completely blank for a few moments. She didn't know what to do! Of course she had her bag with her. The girl ran as fast as she could, breath tearing from her lungs in gasps. Had she even made it in time? She put her ear against his chest, felt his neck and his wrist. If she could feel his heartbeat...
There it was. Faint...but there. He looked horrible...but the most important thing she could do was make sure that he was breathing. She couldn't tell...Naniko put one fist onto his chest and put her other hand over it, pushing on his ribs.
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[html] It started as a faint buzzing, a sound that he could barely even hear. A short time passed and the sound slowly began to grow and change, no longer a buzz but something more that he couldn't place. Everything was dark, so it made it hard to figure out the sound, and the cold that felt like it was numbing him all over didn't help matters either. Then, rather suddenly, there it was. The ocean's waves crashing up against the shore. It was loud, roaring, and then he felt the pressure, warmth and pain and relief all at once.
His mouth opened up suddenly, coughing violently to rid the water from his throat and mouth. Another cough, then what sounded like a faint whine, and the jade eyes of the young Leader snapped open, only to squint back closed. The light poured in and burned his eyes, the pressure of whatever it was on his rids causing a painful sound to break away from him. Finally, able to open his eyes fully, he saw her there hovering over him, pushing on him. "Naniko?" It was a hoarse sound, sputtering once or twice only to cough again.
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It had to be fate, that she would just happen to be wandering here at this exact moment. That was how things had always been with them, though; they had some sort of a deep connection, one that extended over all of the territories. They'd grown up apart, but as soon as Conri had been old enough he had come to be with her. Maybe they were sensitive to each others' thoughts, or feelings.
Naniko stopped pushing on his chest as soon as the coughing started, trying to help him roll over onto his stomach. She was exhausted, having used the very last of her energy on her efforts to help him, and she collapsed over him, breathing heavily. She didn't understand why she wasn't able to do some of the things she could do before...lately she'd just been so tired to start with.
She buried her face in his fur, taking in his scent along with a few other, mixed smells. "Conri..I thought...I thought that you were..." She couldn't finish it. "What happened to you?!"
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[html] I totally left something for you in the Talents forum.
Once he was on his stomach, struggling to attempt to expel the water was a much easier task. He managed to cough once or twice more before she was against him, lifting his head to turn it toward her as best as he could. When she spoke his ears flattened, no matter how weak or tired he was at that moment. He didn't want to hear her say it or even know that she thought it, despite how close to true it could have been. Much to his relief, though, she didn't finish her words and instead moved on. What had happened? It took him a moment of laying there to bring the events back to his mind, huffing a quiet sigh beneath her.
"Inferni.." He managed quietly, shaking his head once at his own stupidity before laying it back against the ground. "There was a coyote at the borders, lingering there. He didn't smell strongly of Inferni, but the scent was still there, so I followed him." Conri paused a moment, struggling to catch his breath so he could continue. "Sure enough, right into Inferni he went. I made sure he couldn't see me, hung back a little, but then got a little closer. That was when Inferni's Leader showed up. I told him that if he expects us to respect their borders and leave them alone, that they needed to do the same...but he attacked me."
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The first thing that she felt was relief. As long as he was breathing, as long as his heart was beating strongly...she felet that he would make it. She had a lot of different herbs at home that she could use to try and help him, ones that would heal his cuts, punctures, and bruises. Was anything broken? She got off from on top of him at that thought; what if she was squishing some broken bones?
The next thing that she felt, as he replied, was anger. Anger at the coyotes for doing it and for starting everything, and then anger at Conri for him not having called her. She could have helped! As soon as that thought crossed her mind, though, she realized. She'd been sick the last week or so, stuck in the den. No wonder he hadn't called. "I...I should have been there too. Together, two would have been better" There was nothing they could do about it now, though. Except get back home. "Can you walk? I can try and help you. But I think we really, really need to get back home. Gabriel might be looking for you still. And once we're there I can really help you."
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[html] Warp speeeeeed to the houuuuse!
The stairs of the house had proved a strong foe, taking Conri quite a bit of time to get up them with as little pain as possible. Once he did, though, the rest of their journey was smooth sailing. He made it into the house, leaning against the wall, supported by Naniko, until the moment they reached the nearest piece of furniture. The young Leader eased himself to the couch, groaning and whining as he settled back into the plush cushions, one hand immediately coming down to hold his side. "My ribs.." He managed in a quiet groan. That only him assuming though, since that was where most of the pain was coming from.
"I had to jump into the water to get away.." He finally finished explaining, hoping that it would clear up the events that he had previously told her. "I shouldn't have gone.." In his head, though, he knew that he had made the right decision. Why had he gone? To make sure that his family was safe. To make sure that Inferni knew that they would not be pushed around. Staying and pushing the subject might not have been the wise choice, but Conri knew that he wasn't wrong for going there in the first place.
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Naniko wasn't sure how she thought of things. She didn't appreciate the fact that a coyote had been hanging around their borders, but as long as he hadn't come inside them, what was the big deal? It wouldn't have been enough of an incentive for her to leave the packlands and follow...
Plus, Conri leaving without her knowing about it, too...that wasn't good. If they'd wanted to, the entire rest of the clan could have come and taken Twilight Vale while he was gone. From now on, they would both have to spend a lot more time inside the lands. And this injury pretty much forced Conri to do so...it would be painful to do anything for him for a while. "Probably cracked. Here...take this for the pain. You can't do anything for ribs but wrap them up a little to make sure that you don't jar them. They'll grow back together. They snap easily, because they're so thin..." But surely he knew that too, from years of hunting.
She handed him the medicine, biting her lip. "No. You shouldn't have."
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[html] He could hear the sickening crack in his ribs the moment Gabriel had come down on him. Not once, but twice, and it was likely a sound that he wouldn't forget for a long time. Whining quietly, he reached his hand out of the medicine, even before she was ready to give it to him, rather hoping that it would bring some quick relief. Hearing that they would need to be bandaged, he inched his way forward, out away from the cushions so that either she or he could do it. Though, he supposed, it would be practically impossible for him to do with only one arm.
Once the medicine was in his hand he took it immediately, though the process of swallowing it was slow, almost stunned by her words. He had been assuming she would support his actions, but suddenly hearing that she did not almost took his breath away. Ears flattened for a moment, finally getting the medicine down, and he frowned. "I can't have what happened to my mother happen to you too.." He explained, dreading that thought more than anything in the world. Conri wouldn't put such actions past the coyotes, despite it all being his father's doing in the first place.
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"I'm not your mother, Conri...and I wouldn't leave you like she has. Like you left me. I don't mean...before. I mean when you went to Inferni. We're a pair, Conri, a team. If you go off and do things without telling me...I don't know. I don't know if you just don't trust me, or didn't want me getting hurt. But it hurts me more that you would go without a word. You could have died! If I hadn't found you, you might have! And that would have caused damage to not only me...but to our pack. We owe it to them to protect them, and I just don't know if you're thinking like a leader should be."
She didn't even know if she could look at him. She wanted him to understand how she felt so badly...but she hadn't thought about whether her words would hurt him. Or how much they would. Maybe he'd argue back...she didn't care. It wouldn't change how she felt about it, about him going off and heading into Inferni alone. "If you insisted on going...then I would have gone too. And only to talk." Talking seemed like nothing in this war...like words didn't mean much. But she knew how powerful they could be. And persuasive.
"I just mean that there were other alternatives. Better ones." She got out a roll of bandage, beginning to work on his ribs very carefully.
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[html] Her words caught him, one blow after another and, quite honestly, Conri wasn't sure if he had ever hurt so much before. Not even on the multiple occasions that his mother had just up and left him, not even after being gone from her for so long. "If I came all the way back here to find you I would have lost him.." He struggled to explain, to keep his voice quiet and under control, even though he so desperately wanted her to understand. "I needed to follow him, not run all the way here and then back and hope that he was still there." Because Conri hadn't ever been anywhere near Inferni and the only way for him to honestly confirm that the coyote was indeed an Inferni member was to see him go there with his own eyes.
If anything, the first part was far less hurtful than anything else that she said. His jaw hung open and his gaze lingered on her face for a moment before he finally had to turn away. Moving his hand away from his stomach, he used it as leverage to push himself up from the couch, stumbling partially across the room with a painful whine. When he reached the door he turned to her, almost desperate. "Because I went there looking for a fight right? Because all I ever want to do is fight." He turned away then, hand on the knob of the door, torn between leaving and staying. It was obvious that he couldn't keep his voice down any longer. "Just like with my dad that day, huh? I went all the way there just to kill him. That's all I know, right? Just like dad." His voice trailed off to a quiet whine even before the words were finished, resting on the brink of tears.
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What had happened to them? Naniko cared a lot about him...about what he did. And had done. He'd just made things worse for the pack and had gotten himself hurt in the process! What good had any of his little idea done for anybody? None. And even right now it was still wreaking havoc, breaking the tranquility between the Andromeda and Perseus.
"Why did you even need to follow him in the first place? To find out if he was from Inferni...you should have been able to smell it on him. Or why don't we just assume that /all/ coyotes are from there? Because if this is what you have to do to find out, then I don't even want to know!" It didn't even matter if the coyote was from Inferni. "Did they come inside our borders? Breach our lands? If they didn't, then you should have just turned around and tried to forget about them."
There were some differences between her and Conri, in the way that they handled some things...and it was becoming starkingly obvious now. "If you think you're going to be like your father, then maybe you should just go. I thought you were better than that...so very different from him that you would never, ever compare yourself to him."
"You know what? You need to buck up and admit it when you do something stupid. Because this was SO stupid of you!" He neared the door and she watched him, eyes narrowing, one hand going unconciously to rest on her abdomen. "Go. I know how to take care of myself, Conri. And I can raise my children alone."
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[html] "Then why would you think I went looking for a fight?!" He spun back around suddenly, fighting the tears that threatened to take him. "You think I want to fight with them, to put you all in danger?" Would she honestly think that of him? "If he didn't seem suspicious I wouldn't have trailed him, if he didn't smell the slightest bit like Inferni, I wouldn't have gone! I couldn't be sure because it was so faint!" He was practically shouting, though it wasn't anger that had taken him, it was a desperate wish for her to understand. "What if they're scouting our borders? What if they're looking for a weak spot or somewhere to get in that will take us a while to notice them?" Could she not just see it from his eyes? "Look at me Naniko! I'm a fucking cripple! How am I supposed to protect everyone if I don't have time to plan?!" And it was true, Conri had only been able to see himself as a cripple, and now more than ever.
"If wanting to protect you is stupid then call me stupid all you want.. I don't care, because that's all I was trying to do!" Her hand against her stomach hadn't caught his attention and he was about to do exactly what she wanted him to. He turned to leave, only to be stunned by the words that finally came. Her children? Unsure if he heard right, Conri turned back, jade gaze falling immediately to her stomach, to her hand there, and all the desperation and anger washed out from him in that very moment. "Children?" It came out as a whisper, afraid that if he spoke to loudly it simply wouldn't be true. Suddenly, Conri dropped, knees hitting hard on the floor, right in front of her. His hand reached out to lay just over top of hers, half on her hand and half on her stomach, and his head tilted up to stare at her through tear filled eyes. "We have children?"
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"I was so afraid when I saw you like that" She admitted, putting her other hand over his. "I've never seen you so close...to death. When you came back before it made me so happy...I couldn't believe it. And to think that I might have lost you just because you suspected that someone was coming around from Inferni..." She trailed off, swallowing. "I didn't mean it. What I said about your mother. I'm so sorry. I just...I don't know if I could handle you going away again."
"We will have children. Sometime in the next few months." She answered quietly.
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[html] "No.." He said quietly after she spoke, shaking his head very gently. "No. I'm sorry Naniko.." He didn't want her to find him like that. "I'm sorry I got so upset too." But that didn't matter now, not to him. Fingers traced small patterns against her hand as she shuffled forward on his knees, finally coming close enough to press his nose lightly against her abdomen. "When did you find out?" He asked quietly, his words slightly muffled. He placed a few gentle licks there before finally sliding his muzzle across her stomach, pressed an ear to her belly in curious wonder.
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"I didn't realize until early yesterday. And I guess my belly is getting a bit bigger..." She looked down at it. It was sticking out quite a bit..she wasn't sure how she could have not noticed it before. "I thought I was bloated, or something. I wonder how many there'll be." She wanted a big family...a huge one. They would have a good environment, growing up amongst family. She wanted for her pups what her own family had never given her.
"You think you're ready for them?" After their blowout... "I think I am."
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[html] Conri spent a few more short moments admiring her stomach, which he hadn't noticed the size difference in and, even if he had, he likely wouldn't have pointed it out! Placing one more small kiss there, he lifted a knee then, bracing his foot against the ground to help him stand. It was a slow process, one which he groaned through the entire time until he was fully up. Finally, placing his hand carefully on Naniko's arm, he nuzzled her. "I think we're both ready.." He really did.
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