These Days - Nico
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"And if I seem to be afraid to live the life that I have made in song,
It's just that I've been losing so long."
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She wakes to an undeniable heat, a fire burning in her belly. Panting, she struggles to stand, but collapses under her own weight. She peers at the sky, clear as water, the moon full and bright above.
Ash half trots and half runs to her side, immediately seeing the expression of fear and discomfort on his mate's face. He is quick to flick a tail over her flank, but she growls and nips him away. He settles to tending to her face, giving reassuring licks.
After grueling hours, finally the first wriggling bundle is met with licks and whines. The pup is quiet, but squeals and kicks in blind protest at the attention. When the second emerges, his screams of fury pierce the calm, flailing and writhing in her paws, aimlessly nursing at her tail.
The calmer of the two squeals at his brother's fussing, but the squeals and wails of fury and protest melt into one as the female lays her heavy head to the ground. She knows the wet pool underneath her is not one of good tidings, but she feels cold and ever so tired. The last pup brought the life out of her.
Ash bites her ears, begging for her return. He howls, panicking and screaming for any help he can get. Whisper looks at the once clear sky, shivers shuddering through her body as she is met with a broken, cloudy expanse, with a mask of purple, whirling clouds against a scarlet dawn. The yellow sun pierces the horizon, peering through the dark mask.
Slowly, the world fades to black, and over the days she grows weaker and weaker. A sickness rakes through her body, maiming her irreparably. The strongest of poultices and salves barely scraped her from the murky depths of her fevers, terrors, and whimpers.
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Whisper wakes to those same eyes, that same mask, the same fiery scarlet dawn she had seen before illness gripped her. She yelps, jolting, only to realize it's Ash. He seems confused at first, but licks her head and wags his tail slightly. He is happy to see his mate well again.
Something shakes Whisper in the similarity of his face to the broken sky she had foreseen. It makes her scared..and terrified. She peers down at her pups, one of which already yelping softly and trying to open its eyes. It looks exactly like Ash, and what she had seen. She nudges the pup towards Ash, curling her tail around the smaller.
"What's wrong, Whisper? Our pups..they're beautiful!" He questions, wrapping a paw around the yipping bundle of energy.
She bares her teeth at Ash, a snarl rolling from her tongue.
"That pup is evil, Ash. You and that pup..I don't know.." She lets her sneer warp to sadness, and uncertainty. Fear.
Her mate's gaze softens, and he laps under her chin. "Hey..it's okay."
He can no longer read her worry, or her fear.
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"The following days pass, and a fellow she-wolf is found to be carrying pups. Whisper is uncertain, as there are more males in her pack than females. It's easy to say the father could be any of them. The female resembles the orange, blotchy sky she had seen on that fateful night. She hadn't seen or remembered Ash through the fever afterwards."
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"Ash." Whisper presses.
The smaller male licks his lips in submission, out of view of the pups.
"Whisper, I don't know what you saw, but it had nothing to do with me, our pups, or Ember. It was just the fever, you know that." Ash coos.
She snarls at him, "I knew it was you. I knew that pup was no good, and I knew it was you! I knew it from the moment I saw the sky.." Her voice trails off to a whimper. "Your loyalty was to me, Ash. It has been all this time...I don't understand how you could do this to me, or our pack." She fails to sound less broken than she is.
Ash says nothing, and they sit in silence for a long while. Whisper rasps further, after long thought. "I won't chase you from this pack. I don't know what I'll do with you, but someone needs to be there for her pups and for...him." She motions to the darker of the two pups she birthed.
"I don't want that cursed pup anywhere near me or my son. Or you, for that matter. I don't care what you do, but no more lies, and..." She sighs. "You will no longer be considered a mate of mine, Ash." Her voice breaks, and she cracks more.
Ash whines, trying to lick beneath her chin, but she turns and hobbles away to her den before he can. Everglade looks to his brother, then to his Father. Unsure of what to do, he hesitates, before following his mother.
Ash licks his lips, turning to Badger. "Come now. It's time I teach you to hunt." The shattered male calls, and they pad out into the uncertainty for a while.
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"As the days follow, Whisper grows closer to Everglade, the favored son. Ash and Badger tend to Ember, awaiting her pups. Whisper continues to ponder what conclusion she will come to, uncertain of the future or lives of her future offspring. She saw what scared her the most, and in it, she saw familiarity."
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"Ash." The female calls.
His ears perk, padding over with his tail wagging, Whisper allowing him to lick her jaw. She gives no reply.
"You will stay. No longer will you be a mate of mine, you will be the beta male of this pack, and a herbalist." She licks her lips.
Ash's gaze lowers, relief and yet, disappointment, flooding over him.
"Time, Ash. Seasons heal all breaks." She gives him a hopeful lick, limping away to her thoughts.
He hopes so.
