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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2018 2:31:30 GMT -5
There was so much blood, far too much. Lily's cries of pain resonated in Wolf's very bones. Was it supposed to take this long for the first kit to come? It was taking too long, he was sure of it. He'd never experienced a birth before, he didn't know, but he did. Something in him just knew. Something was very, very wrong. It was so dark... hadn't it been light out when she'd started? He was trying to stay calm, for her, trying not to panic, rasping his tongue between her ears now and again, the only real comfort her could offer. She wasn't even lifting her head anymore, just crying out and panting and struggling.
A sharp cry and she shifted slightly, trying to reach her firstborn, but she was too weak. She couldn't even turn to see if it was a tom or a she-cat. “Wolf... Wolf, please...,” she mewed in a strained whisper.
He stood from her side and instinct took over when he saw the kit at her tail, licking until it cried out, strong lungs, healthy. The purr that rumbled in his throat filled their den as he looked down at the tiny scrap of fur, “Lily... a she-kit. We have a daughter, Lily!” He gently picked the kit up by the scruff to bring her around so her mother could see her, setting her down in front of Lily's muzzle, “Look. I'm so proud of you. Look at her.”
Lily's eyes were glazed and it seemed a massive effort for her to focus on the kit. A soft, pained smile crossed her muzzle, “My....” She managed the slightest of nuzzles into the kit's soft fur before her eyes closed, “I can't.... Wolf.... I'm... I'm sorry....I....”
He had leaned in, his ear nearly at her muzzle, to hear the words she was barely able to breathe, and so he heard the final sigh that left her before she stilled, her flanks falling one last time with her exhaled breath. “Lily... Lily!” He nudged her soft cheek, his voice rising in panic, “Lily... Lily no... we... there are more of them. You have to... you can't....” The kit squealed and Wolf sat heavily, his strength suddenly leaving him as reality began to set in. He leaned down to press his nose into his mate's fur, still warm with the life she'd left behind, “Lily... come back.... She needs you. I need you.”
He buried his face in her fur for a long moment, until his daughter squealed again, squirming toward the scent of milk. Milk. No. “Lily! Lily come back! Please! I can't... I can't lose all of you....” His daughter was going to starve. His mate was dead and his daughter was going to starve to death without her. No. No, no, no!
Moving mechanically, he stood, picked up his newborn daughter, and fled the den. His paws carried him up. Up and up. His daughter cried out several times in protest, but he couldn't stop. If he stopped, she would die. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't fail her. Lily had given her to him, she was the only thing he had, he couldn't lose her.
The Clans may very well kill them as look at them, but the Tribe? They didn't seem to care about borders and territories. Maybe they would help? They were his only hope. They had to help. He burst upon the oasis with the moon high in the sky and was instantly challenged by the guard on duty, a gray tom who blocked his path. He set his daughter down gently between his paws, “Please. I need help. My mate is.... She....” He choked on the words and looked down at his only kit, the single tiny innocent life his mate had died to bring into this world, “My daughter needs milk. Please, we don't have anywhere else to go. Do you have a nursing queen who would have her? I'll do anything, please... please save her.” Taxx (the NPC guard I used was Storm, I figured you could have him come get Skyteller in your post~) neversky
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Post by Taxx on Aug 5, 2018 16:04:05 GMT -5
Teller of the Mountain Sky Curled in a ball, Skyteller had been dozing, nose tucked under his tail as he slept, twitching paws and ears indicating a dream. Amber eyes snapped open, however, when a paw prodded his shoulder, and he lifted his head to blink at Storm. “There’s a tom with a small kit outside,” the cave-guard informed him. “Asking for help. The mother may not have made it.”
Pushing himself to his paws, Skyteller followed Storm back to the mouth of the cave, his ears twisting forward at the sound of mewling. The tom standing there looked distraught, and the kit at his paws- it was so small, and still damp. Had it only just been born? There was no time, just now, to exchange pleasantries, and Skyteller couldn’t turn away the two, not when the kit’s life rested on his hospitality. “Come with me,” he urged. “One of our kit-mothers has recently given birth, I will ask if she’ll take in your kit.”
Storm remained at the entrance, resuming his guard duty, as Skyteller led the strange tom further into the cave, to one of the she-cats who had a single, sturdy-looking tom kit nursing at her belly. “Moth,” the Healer began, flicking his tail at the loner, “This kit needs care. Will you take it in, alongside your own?”
A moment’s hesitation, as the kit-mother eyed the stranger, but the continued cries of the young kit softened her gaze soon enough and she nodded. “I can do that- one more won’t be much more work. Poor little thing.”
@zen |
made by redox of gs
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2018 11:43:32 GMT -5
The guard hadn't seemed hostile, had told him to wait there a moment while he fetched some cat named Skyteller. The waiting seemed to drag on far longer than it really was, with his kit mewling for her mother. Wolf wasn't sure just how much more of it his heart could take. He bent, laving his tongue over the kit in some attempt to comfort her, breathing in her soft scent, “It will be all right....” He hoped the first words he spoke to his daughter were not a lie, and were not the last.
Finally the guard reappeared, with a second cat, who immediately told him to follow. Wolf didn't waste time, picking his daughter back up in his jaws and hurrying after the other tom as the guard took up his post once more. He was led over to a she-cat with her own kit, and Wolf instinctively paused a short distance away as Skyteller approached her. You didn't just go up to a strange she-cat who didn't know you, who had young kits. That was a good way to get clawed.
Skyteller spoke lowly, asking if the she-cat would be willing to take on another, and the she-cat's gaze turned to him for a moment consideringly. His daughter cried once more and the she-cat gave her assent. A tremble of relief shuddered through him and he stepped forward cautiously, hesitating for only a moment before relinquishing his daughter to queen's side, where she quickly crawled up next to the she-cat's own tom kit and finally found the milk she'd been crying for.
Taking a step back, he watched her for a moment and dipped his head low as he forced his gaze away from his daughter and to the queen who was saving her, “Thank you... thank you so much. You're saving her life. I can never repay you enough.” A lump of emotion caught in his throat and he closed his eyes tightly, She's going to live, Lily. She's safe. He took a step back and looked from the she-cat to 'Skyteller'. “What... what happens now? If... if you want me to leave...,” his ears twitched back and he glanced at his daughter once more, “I only want her to live, to be safe, to thrive.... If you'll have mercy on her but you don't want me, I'll leave. I'll never come back.” There was deep pain in his voice even as he said it, thought of never seeing her again, “I'll do whatever you want.”
But he couldn't just give in without trying to stay with her, “But... but if you'll have me... I'll serve you well. I owe you so much.... If you let me stay, I'll hunt, I'll help provide for her, for everyone, I'll... I'll help protect this place.” He gazed down at his daughter, her pretty fur so much like her mother's already, “She's all I have... please, if you let me stay, I'll do anything. I don't... I don't know how to live in a group like this... but I can learn.” If his daughter was going to be raised here, grow up here, make friends with these cats and see them as her family, how could he ever tear her away to live the life of a loner? And why would he want to? If they could both stay here with the Tribe, he would never have to send her off on her own, to find her own life. He never wanted to leave her, not ever. They could stay together here... if he could stay. Taxx
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Post by Taxx on Aug 10, 2018 19:04:32 GMT -5
Teller of the Mountain Sky Relief bloomed on the tom's face as Moth agreed, and in a moment the little she-kit was nestled alongside Gray Sky of Dawn, nursing hungrily. A rush of words came from the stranger, thanking the kit-mother for taking his kit in, and she dipped her head in acknowledgement before curling up again, beginning to groom the young kit.
Skyteller's gaze flicked back to the tom and he blinked at the offer- that he would go, if asked, but everything from his tone to his constant glances toward his kit spoke loud and clear that he didn't want to.
"Relax," Skyteller purred, flicking his tail to beckon the tom to follow again, leaving Moth to settle back into the sleep she'd been woken from. "I promise you, nobody will make you leave. Your kit is here, and we would never force a father to leave his kin in the paws of strangers. We will care for her, and you can stay- perhaps if later you wish to leave with her, you may. The mountains are dangerous, though. I'm surprised, but glad, that you made it here without an owl or Demon finding you."
Settling into the short tunnel of his alcove, Skyteller flashed a glance over the tom. "Now that your kit is being cared for, we can talk. My name is Skyteller, Healer of the Tribe, and the one who met you is Storm, a cave guard. May I know your name?"
@zen |
made by redox of gs
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 14:43:05 GMT -5
His worries seemed for naught. Skyteller kindly told him to relax and beckoned him away, and Wolf realized that it was the middle of the night and they had likely woken the she-cat that was now nursing his daughter. He dipped his head to her in gratitude once more and followed the tom away to let her get back to sleep, with a final glance at his daughter, nursing now. Alive.
Skyteller spoke up once they'd left the queen behind, and the relief he felt at the tom's words, at the fact that his daughter would live and he would not be forced to leave her, made him suddenly weak. He sat heavily, feeling a bit numb with all that had happened, his emotions overwhelmed. Skyteller expressed his surprise that he had managed to make it to the Tribe without being attacked by a predator. Wolf's ears flicked dismissively, “I've lived around the mountains my entire life, I know the dangers.”
The tom then introduced himself, and the guard that had met him initially. Storm. A pang in his chest as the name brought back memories of his sister had him silent for a moment, until Skyteller's name sank in. What a strange name. And while cave-guard was pretty self explanatory, “Healer...? You know about herbs and stuff? I took you for a leader of some sort.... Is that-” He cut himself off. Skyteller had asked him his name and instead he was about to bombard the tom with questions of his own. If he was staying, there would be plenty of time for his questions to be answered. “Sorry... my name's Wolf. My....” He realized he hadn't even named his daughter yet. “My daughter... doesn't have a name... I don't....” He didn't even know where to begin. His mind just blanked. What would Lily have named her? Lily....
A fresh wave of pain crashed over him, now that keeping his daughter alive was no longer his most pressing concern, and he lowered to his belly and suppressed the wail that tried to claw its way out of his throat, coming out as a bit of a strangled moan instead, “My mate.... The kitting went wrong... so wrong....” Taxx
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Post by Taxx on Aug 14, 2018 9:51:24 GMT -5
Teller of the Mountain Sky Clearly, Skyteller had eased the worry of a father who feared being forced to leave his daughter behind- what cat would do that to another? Well, some, surely, but not Skyteller and the Tribe. Not without good reason, at least.
He knew the mountains, and the dangers it held? Of course the Tribe weren’t the only ones who chose to live here: they were simply the only large group. Smaller family units weren't uncommon, and Skyteller could only assume that such was what this tom and his kit had come from. And they couldn't have been all that far away- close enough to seek the Tribe out for the help the she-kit had needed.
"I am the leader," Skyteller answered, settling into a comfortable sprawl with his tail lazily swishing over the stone ground. "I am Healer, which is what we call our leader and interpreter of signs from our ancestors. There is no harm in your curiosity, but as you will be staying, there will be time to answer those questions later, Wolf.” He wasn’t quite sure how to comment on the lack of his daughter’s name, but Wolf carried on himself a moment later, his pained explanation painting an all-too-vivid picture.
“May our ancestors guide them,” he murmured, his gaze returning to where Moth lay curled around the two kits. “My deepest condolences for your loss. It’s a hard burden to bear… but here, you won’t have to do so alone. Most of us have experienced great loss, and we will understand your own.” He glanced away, staring quietly for a moment into a darker corner of the cave where the to-bes slept, and then heaved a sigh before speaking again, his voice quieter. “Will you need help, come morning?”
@zen |
made by redox of gs
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