EVERLAST - FIVE - NO ANYTHING

The high heat above had begun to wear her down as she moves. Pale gray paws, save the two that were coated in white, graze the ground as she walks with a stilted movement until she finds a spot that is somewhat shady. It seemed summer would be coming sooner than anticipated; she had grown larger later than expected. Not that she had really expected this but it was a side effect of the unfortunate happenings that had occurred to her. Everlast should rail against the curse that had been laid upon her since birth; she should cry and scream and fight the forces of fate with all she had except she didn't have anything. What was the point? This was the pattern of her life and she could only roll with the punches. It had been her fault, they said, that this had happened. She had left the safety of the pack and in doing so had set herself up for the moment she had been cornered, alone, by the rogue male. It hadn't been painful - not really. Just uncomfortable. Nothing like the way her paw had ached and hurt after her father had bit it when she had tried to join in the play with him and her brothers. No, his bite had left a scar on her left front paw, and she had screamed for a time at the pain until he told her to shut up. It wasn't bad, he said, and if she couldn't handle that then it was clear she wasn't ever going to be good enough.

That had shut her up.

But Everlast knew. You will always be cursed with the knowledge that in all things you will be last. I did not want a daughter and I do not want you. Be thankful I have spared you. So he had named her Everlast and that was that. The beginning of the end of her good fortune.

A ripple in her belly stuns her panting breath into a gasped silence as she buckles beneath the heavy weight of her belly. She has grown thin in the last few weeks as she traveled, chased from her pack when it became clear she carried a new generation of unwanteds. The rippling sensation became pressure and pain and she managed to lift herself halfway up so that her rump was in the air as it happened. It was.. an awkward position, but it relieved only a little of her pain as she tried to stand, teeth clenching on a loud groan as her body began an age-old process for birth. Over and over it happened and over and over her groans grew louder. Until, as the first pup slipped out, she screamed in a breathy manner, gasping when the pup plopped to the ground and she sunk down beside it. She licked it slowly, in awe at it's tiny figure as it began to move slowly, and then it began again.

She cried. She wasn't built for this. The pain was excruciating but then again wasn't that to be expected? It was her life, after all. Twice more she went through this until three pups lay between her exhausted legs, unable to shift to clean them for a moment as she took the moment to catch her breath and blink her steel gray eyes free of tears.