haziel does not take very much time at all to reach them after the howl that had called for the asteraian healer. the wolf, though, that appeared was blind and carried the strangest sort of sack that he had ever seen. “Excuse me.” the wolf says as he reaches the red giant’s den, his summoned status sparing ifrit the need to be defensive of the presumptive intrusion. can’t kill the help you called, after all, and he was not about to have waited for the blind creature only to insult him and find everlyse cold by morning.
he watches in keen dismay, not distraught as one might be watching a loved one fade but certainly more in concern than he often was for much larger quandaries as a female who might otherwise be replaced. he should not be so worried at all, save for that he felt wronged that death might steal this one which he had claimed and won rightfully through the strength of his teeth and claws.
and ifrit is most bemused by the work of the male, snuffling into plants and dried things that made no more sense to ifrit than stars or how many often named or categorized them. roots and leaves, some fresh and some drier, ifrit even dipping his head like a pup to sniff at some on the pelt as he keep a keen eye on haziel-- only there is a sound behind him coming towards the four chambered den that drew his lips up and turned him around to face out at a new arrival, bristling.
“Everlyse… Lyse… oh god, Lyse…”
“Hey, you’re the father, clean them up else they catch cold and follow their mother, keep them warm.”
but as the old wolf yet tends to his mate, he still faces down the she-wolf that had otherwise come uninvited and with nothing to identify her other than knowing the name of his mate and the ozone-scent of the asteraian plains.
“Four pups, Haziel. One’s fucking huge, two of ‘em would be average size but Lyse is little to start with… the last girl here, at least she looks like the last, she’s awful little. Two girls, two boys… the bigger girl isn’t making any noise but she looks like she’s breathing”
the female shook, her voice shuddering with whatever nerves she had used up getting to his home, his den, and faltering now that she had stopped short of what he established was her ultimate goal. everlyse. he had seen her now and then, most prominently at the hunt when he had met the exuberant female who had tugged at the cavity within him that was meant to be filled with a soul and was instead stone and not porous enough for her goodness to bleed through.
then the female looked at him, his hackles raised so that the red caught the moonlight and became silverlined as his mate was, “I’m her best damn friend, and I'm the steward of his pack.” the gesture towards haziel was marked, but he had yet a reason to let her pass, or to go to do as the medicine wolf bid, “We haven't met, but it’s going to take more than two of you to… fix this, and I'm here to help.” but it is not the nonsense talk of friendship -- nor the proclamation that he needs her, for he needs none as it has ever been so -- but what he knows of a stewards work. it does not occur to him that a steward is the head of the house, only that it’s tending to is the stewards duty -- and that duty might directly affect this circumstance.
and what moves him at last from barring the way of his den, keeping this outsider where she belonged (outside), is the voice of what was his growling. so he turns, and delya in turn rushes to the aid of the runt. “i will have your muzzle if you growl at him, little wolf. and then with what will you bite me with when you are frustrated and wish for another brawl.” it is kind and loving as he had ever been - offering these things she might not have wished these two to know.
it is about then that it seemed either words or instinct to survive got the better of his mate, as it is then that she murmured those two weakened words and ifrit stepped over the steward to settle behind his mate, wedged to the wall, lifting the other pups and lapping at them in the carelessly ruffian manner he had always from over his tiny mate’s tiring body. the healer does his job, the steward tending to hers, and he is within reach of them all if something were to go amiss. green eyes turn, then.
he fixes his gaze at the mouth of the den with idle attention paid to the healer and the steward, letting them do as they deemed necessary by their knowledge of their stations and keeping a mouthing muzzle near enough to stop another threat from impeding the work being done.
useful things, stewards and healers.
for all that one was blind and the other uninvited.
IFRIT
the bloody baron ; of solevion
male | 17 years | 39 inches | 200 pounds
brawler of the fantastic four | mate of everlyse
father of : vladimir, camilla, panzer, semele (x everlyse)
sire of : jehu (x eshek)
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