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 Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:25 am
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V'rind was dying.
Of boredom. Two sevendays already she'd been stranded, resigned to bedrest on the insistence of the healers. It was a small mercy for her body, if not for her mind (or for anyone around her, really). The healers had made it very clear how dangerous a time this was. It was harder to keep warm, her body was taxed to the limit with...well, she didn't want to think about it, and now a flu had come creeping into the ranks of the riders of High Reaches. Isolation was demanded, and despite her fury at being kept from the sky, she had grudgingly agreed to it. Krahsujunth had infuriatingly taken the healers' side in the matter, refusing to let her tempt him into taking her anywhere.
But despite her and T'at's efforts, it seemed that her already-weakened system had been extra sensitive. She'd definitely caught something, though it hadn't been too bad. Enough to leave her sniffling and rasping, but she could have risen and walked about. If she wanted. She still had the strength to snap and swing at T'at any time he came near, so both of them were certain she'd be alright. Or rather, she would have been if a certain, woefully familiar rush of pain hadn't suddenly wrapped around her middle like a squeezing band, staggering her and leaving her even more breathless than the flu already had. "Shards and shells...!"
In an instant her blue, who'd been resting on Fianth's ledge across the bowl, had snapped to attention, mentally reaching out for T'at's brown, as well as the healers. It is time. His voice boomed. She labors. Go to her, or I will send you between myself. His icy head swung to press against his golden love's, torn between going or staying. He would be of no use at his own weyr, and her own rider had taken ill as well...For perhaps the first time in the blue's life, he felt his hearts begin to pound from fear, rather than anger or desire. A cold chill of foreboding came over him as he stared with gray-orange eyes across the bowl. By Faranth's own claws, let nothing happen to any of them.
Back in her bed, V'rind pulled herself to sitting, teeth clenched and snarling as the pain hit again. She was going to kill T'at when he got there.
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:37 am
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She'd been so irritable, as the day came closer, and with people falling ill left and right, T'at had to thank Faranth for his own strength. It meant that he didn't take ill easy, which left a little time to look after V'rind, when he wasn't on wing duty. Being a part of a weyr was still....strange to him, almost painful in its own way, and yet she was worth it. Ah, he was in love with her, and as foreign as the emotion was, he accepted it...if only because of his doting Brown. It was said Dragon that all but yelled in his mind the moment V'rind went in to labor. Breaking away from his work, he was instantly on his way to the ledge, leaping from dragon back to tumble on to the ledge. Dramatic. perhaps, but most of his concern and attention was on his weyrmate. Contractions. The little one was on their way.
Faranth help him, he wasn't ready to be a father.
It was with this thought that he moved to her side, touching her hand, and then her brow carefully, a small smile on his lips, "Before you even have to say it, I know you're going to kill me, this is all my fault, and you want to put your fist through my face." He restrained from reminding her that this was how they'd come to begin, the two of them bonded in her penchant for violence. "It will be alright." He had to believe that. The idea of losing V'rind....it had begun to hurt his heart almost as badly as the thought of losing Ness. Almost. When had he gotten so sentimental? He idly blamed her, in a good way. V'rind had softened him ever so. |
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:05 pm
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She whipped about in the bed in time to see T'at come literally tumbling into the weyr. His antics grated on her rapidly fraying nerves, but his expediency was...appreciated. Her jaw cracked open to spit her typical venom, but instead all that came out was a pained grunting rasp as another contraction hit her. She barely remembered the horror of her son's birth, but she thought that, maybe, it hadn't come on quite so quickly. His placating words needled her more than soothed, but she could tell he meant them. Shard the man. When had her heart become as soft as mashed tubers? She could see the man's worry and fear in his eyes, and that just made her angrier. Who'd given him permission to start caring about her like that? A beat later her heart melted—the hand that had meant to smack at him instead fisting in his shirt, clinging with a strange need she'd never let herself feel before.
The a*****e'd said he'd stay, and shard it but he'd kept his promise. Another rush of pain, and she shoved him away, fondness turning back to ire. The arrival of a healer, a midwife, distracted her from those complex feelings. The sooner this was over, the better. She sucked a breath as the next wave hit, the air catching in her irritated throat, leaving her coughing awkwardly as the midwife bustled about to prepare what she needed.
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Hours later, V'rind was exhausted. The labor had come on hard and fast, all the faster because it wasn't her first, the healer had unnecessarily informed them. The babe had yet to come though, leaving her in agony as her body pulsed without effect. Breathing had become harder, that light cough swiftly worsening until breathing made her throat burn and her vision swim. The midwife's comments had become more concerned, the checks on her progress more frequent. V'rind felt like she had scaled the Seven Spires each on foot, and the hardest part hadn't even come.
"You need to push, woman!" The healer's demand came floating to hear ears as if through a dream. Her first impulse was to snap that she was far too tired for that nonsense, but then, oh! Once she pushed it would be done and she could rest, couldn't she? Almost viciously her hand snapped out, finding T'at's arm and clamping down like a vice. Resisting the urge to grit her teeth (the pressure was like fire across her jaw and up to her temples), she set about bringing T'at's brat into the world.
Far too long later, she was sobbing, head swimming, when a tiny cry rent the air. The squall of a newborn, it made her gasp a laugh, worn and tired to the point of exhaustion. She was so ready to fall back in her bed, feel T'at replace the cool damp cloth on her fevered brow, and sleep. And so the jolt of pain from another surge around her middle left her weeping, head shaking, because she couldn't do it again. The healer begging her to push again, the horror of the words, "There's another, you have to keep going!" and realizing that her gasp had kicked off a bout of coughs that wouldn't stop...It was a nightmare. If she'd had the concept of hell, she would have thought she was in it.
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:46 pm
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Help his patience, and his arm. There was such pain from V'rind's grip, amazed at just how firm her grip was. He'd never seen this before, and watching her go through it was hard on him, making his heart hurt as he leaned over her. Kissing her head, he stayed by her through the entire thing. Faranth help him....Soon. Soon there would be their child. Soo- And that was when the squalling cry of a babe split the air, making his eyes go wide. He had to look in amazement at the beautiful child, moving, wriggling, and then he was able to hold the infant as the healer forced her to- wait....Another?! What did the healer MEAN another?! Oh Faranth be.....Now he had to sit here and watch....Shards and shells.....She looked like hell...."Almost there, love." |
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