Nimueh rolled about, her dream fully having her within its clutches. Or rather, in its embrace. Lev was there, at the birthing of her pups, hers and Murina‘s. He was speaking to her, responding to her mumbled and jumbled words of exhaustion with promises of something more, or rather not a promise, but a suggestion. His vocals were slow, slow and quiet, and she strained to hear what he was saying over the sound of her own heart beating. Murina was saying something too, but Nimueh was desperately trying to hear the promise, the suggestion. Only it wasn’t much of a sound, but if an image, and she squinted, trying to clear the fog that obscured it until finally it was cleared enough for her to make it out, and its fading words finally echoed, resonating in her mind.

‘There still could be something.’

That had been what he had said to her then, wasn’t it? Or had his words been something else entirely… She could not be sure. At the time, she was too overwhelmed by the fact that her body had successfully popped out healthy pups, and focused on recuperating to really take note of anything else. She remembered that one sentence, but she could not rely on her memory to decipher whether it was real or a dream. For everything else that she remembered was primal, instinct. She could recall Murina’s fear, her pain. She could remember the sudden feeling of emptiness without the weight of her pups within her, the sudden hunger, the craving for food… pheasant? And then there had been something else… Perhaps exactly that? Had there really been pheasant? But that was the extent of where reality commanded her dream. For whether or not the words were dream… This most certainly was. For past that one sensation, it had become something incredible. A shadow, a presence filled the void of the entrance and Nimueh smiled, looking up expectantly, knowing that it would be Lev coming to her. Only it was not Levi, but a giant beautiful colored bird that entered her den, larger than her slight frame by six, seven times over. All of its feathers were aflame, and it was hungry, searching for food. Nimueh stood, her limbs trembling, but she positioned herself over her pups, protecting them. Only then, she felt a sudden stimulation of her mammaries, a pain. She risked a glance down even as the phoenix blocking her exit screeched a warning, a battle cry, and Nimueh saw that instead of pups beneath her, there were pheasant chicks, nipping at her with their sharp little beaks, trying to steal her nutrients. The Iberianess screamed, her head whipping about as she searched for her own offspring. Absent was the logic that poultry and fowl did not ingest milk nor dairy of any sort…For the cave was empty and her pups lost, and Nimueh could not be more distraught. Incessant nips distracted her from the danger of the Phoenix but still the femme screamed for her offspring frantically, until the sudden bright light of the sun overhead blinded her. The phoenix expanded, standing to its full height, its wings breaking the walls of the den as easily as Nimueh would knock over an ant hill, and the rocks came crumbling down around her, and upon her, crushing her until she no longer could breathe.

Nimueh‘s shades shot open - daylight had indeed broken, but only just, and it was the first harsh rays of the sun that were streaming into her cave… Why could she not breathe though? The walls still stood, she was not crushed… But then she realize that there was a softness over her face - Koios Khur laid draped over her face, covering her snout and nares. Fighting to calm the panic in her chest, she swallowed and slowly pulled away so that Koi would fall gently to the ground, slipping inch by inch, not waking him even a bit. When she was clear of him, she inhaled sharply and held her breath once, using the focus to slow her galloping heart. What did her dream mean? Obviously, it spoke as to her fear of losing her pups… But there was something more to it. Why had Lev played such a significant role in the dream? Why had she been looking for him to enter? It was true that she did not remember most of the events surrounding the birth of her pups, her exhausted body giving in to delirium and delusion at the time… perhaps her mind was trying to remember exactly what both Nimueh and Lev had said to each other? The dream… It had recurred over and over again, each time slightly different, but this was the first time that she remembered that one sentence of his.

There still could be something.

It seemed like such a real memory, almost tangible. The lass had to know if it was true. But still, she had no explanation for the phoenix, for its anger, for the destruction of her den… She was left with more questions than answers, yet again. This was the last morning, she swore to herself, that she would let the dream go unanswered. Carefully, she untangled herself from the net of her babes, gently caressing each of them with a kiss to their foreheads before she slipped away from them. She had yet to tell Kershov of their existence, and was still uncertain when she would do that. Perhaps when it was more convenient, or when it would serve a purpose for them to exist. But for now, her purpose would be to seek out Lev… To ask him straight up what they had spoken of that night… What had transpired.

It had been a few weeks since her whelping, and she was for the most part recovered. The swelling of her tissues had finally began to abate, regressing to their normal soft, delicate state. Thusly, she was no longer sore in her nether regions, and it allowed her to travel a little faster than she previously would have… still, it was at a cautious trot that she navigated her way through the labyrinth and out of her pack. She needed to see where he was… And luckily, his path was not hard to find. He had not strayed far from her den recently, and today was no different. She found him in the dry plains just outside of her boundary, and she silently padded to his side.

“I find that I owe you a debt of gratitude, my dear knight, for keeping a watchful eye over the pack whilst I have been recovering from the pups. Had you been a dark soul, you could have easily stolen it from my grasp, or done one of any number of terrible things - murdered me or my pups, led it coup… but I must admit it is one more favor that I am now asking of you. What did… The night I gave birth to my heirs, my legacies, what was it that you and I said to each other? I find that my memory is hazy to say the least, and any sense of rejuvenation that sleep should normally allot is stolen from me by restless dreams, urging to help me remember.”

She took one more step closer to him and leaned against him. Despite the fact that the travel had not been a great distance, nor the pace quick of step, she already found herself tired… Only this time it was only a physical sense of tiredness, and not a mental one... this conservation would not be forgotten.