"These woods are lovely, dark and deep.. through the shadows are where I creep.." The words come in a lilting tone as I traipse ever so silently through the spring-ridden woodland. Whatever had gotten into Malikye during the previous season was now resulting in illegitimately conceived offspring quite soon. It was entirely unexpected and yet I should have known that it was to come from meeting him once again; he had been denied of such a pleasure in the year before so he was taking his chance while he still had it. I cannot blame him for acting on his instinctual whims.

And still.. the fact of knowing that I am to bear children from this beast of which I know very little of brings a sense of anxiety into my being for once in a very long time.

I had only ever imagined my personal future and prospective offspring to come from none other than the loins of my emotionally decaying lover. One who is now nothing more than a bag of bones rotting in the back of my fucked up mind. I shake my head and suddenly the strangest urge overwhelms my being. It is something I have never felt before and yet I instinctively know what needs to be done.

Dusk is now beginning to wash the world in an array of darkened hues as I trot briskly toward the hollow in which I had made my own, carved from the hands of time into the largest of trees and diving deep into the earth to provide the darkest of cover when needed. Surrounding the tree is a wall of brier bushes and poison ivy - a lost cause to many but a fortress only to myself. I delve deep into the burrow and slowly lay myself down into the darkest corner so that the process may begin and yet I am kept waiting for what seems like an eternity.

As if grace has finally been bestowed upon me, the hour came when the first contraction hit and it was at least half an hour later before the first signs of movement were detected. I endured the stabbing pains in my lower abdomen until I finally felt a rush of relief at the release of my first and only whelp. A son. My slender muzzle is brought toward him so that I may consume his protective sac and allow him to breathe new life into his lungs. His markings are reminiscent of those in my lineage before me and yet muddled with others that I am unsure of. Surely from Malikye's side.

It has not been an utterly torturous process and yet there is an immense amount of blood pooling at my hindquarters, only then do I realize what damage the little devil has truly done. The adrenaline and sheer instinct from the push had caused me to become blind to my injury and now as it all dies down is when the pain really begins to sink in deep. Nuzzling my little boy to my side, I quickly find peace in the near silence that now engulfs us both, the muffled sounds of cricket songs beginning to play just outside of the den. I wince with each small movement but there is little that I can do other than to lick at the wound every now and then before settling down to rest.

for malikye // mistress of the wood // goddess of scourge // bound by none