The Ghosts Will Dance! }{ [Bhu, I made my joice]

[nEwOL握敵]

Pryda - Allein

Stitch ->
It had been some time sense I'd walked these woods. This time I hadn't left though. The last few days, weeks, I wasn't sure, had been very exciting for me. They had been very scary at first, but that had quickly lifted once I'd realized I had never been in any real danger. This time I hadn't left by choice, I'd been collected. By the humans. I didn't recognize the faces but I'd remembered the scents. The humans. My humans. The ones who'd been in charge of the experiment that marked my creation. I didn't have words for how excited I was at the moment. I was thrilled to be back. Thrilled beyond words of any tongue. The feel of the dirt beneath my paws. The pins towering over me.

I had a slitely different appearance at the moment, but that would soon change. I would look my normal self again. My fur was trimmed down all over my body from where I'd been given a good trimming once I'd been collected, it would grow back out. And my fur was soft and fine past the degree it normally held as I'd been freshly bathed not that long ago, but human products. A dark green bandana was worn chiefly around my neck, I'd remove it soon enough. But there was one feature that was certain not to change very soon. The light bulge of my stomach where three creatures where growing inside me. I was pregnant. This was a feat I'd never have been able to accomplish on my own. But after my evaluation I'd begged and I'd begged and so eventually I'd been given what I wanted. The humans made me pregnant. I couldn't wait to tell my Nym about this. This was a glorious thing for me. I'd wanted pups for so long now, and I'd never been able to have them. Knowingly I'd still tried once or twice to no success. But now I finally had what I'd been wanting. I was ecstatic. This was really real. It was finally happening. I was finally going to be a mother. I believed with conviction that I'd do a good job. I'd do anything to keep them safe, even flea back to Carska if I had to. I knew that I'd not be well received, but was certain at least that I'd be safe for the night. I didn't want that, but I'd do anything to keep the pups inside of me safe.

Oh how he had to be worried, fretting his little black tail off as he did. I would end his suffering soon as I made my way toward the camp. I walked slowly. I wasn't past the point where I couldn't run a function properly, but I still didn't want to toss myself around too much. The excitement pulsed through me. I just hoped that Nym would be as accepting of this as I was. If not I don't know what I'd do with myself. I'd raise these creatures on my own if I had too, but I didn't want to. I wanted that man that I'd ripped free of the machine to partake in the adventure. Finally I stepped into the camp. Home. Home at last. Looking around, I let a bark into the air to call to my Nym. To hell with Bidziil, I'd deal with him later on this matter. I wanted to see my mate.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

I caught her scent drifting in through the outer edges of camp. I had not left camp for about a month now. I knew Theodora and I had very different ideas about packs. I was a micro-manager and she was more ‘what is what is’. This has left me in a whirlwind of being in everyone’s business, watching from a high perch to be sure there were no rules being broken. I had heard Brian complain to Moran once--apparently I had a great deal more rules than Bidziil had. No surprises there. Still, the man had left me in charge, with Theodora, therefore things would run on the terms of whomever is in charge for the moment. The woman could keep her eyes only on her students if she wishes--I would watch everyone else like a hawk.

But this was a different situation. When Rickalaru had first disappeared, it had hurt me. I assumed she ran off to Vea Apxn, unable to cope with the pack. When Bidziil had visited after a week of absence, I had nonchalantly asked if Rickalaru had been there. The man had looked sympathetic as he said no, and this bothered me. I was not Bidziil and I would never be him. It was only a matter of time before my former friend was replaced by the humans. If they knew of what he was doing, they were surely conjuring up some better Folami to lead us to victory as we speak. This in itself made my stomach flip. I wasn’t supposed to care that Rickalaru was gone, that Carska hated me, that Val didn’t trust me, or that Bidziil would surely be killed and replaced soon. It was wrong on so many levels. But, regrettably, it did upset me to some degree. Unlike Bidziil, however, I refused to give in. I went back to work and for a month now I had given my mate’s disappearance little more than a thought during the day. I could let it hurt at night, but in the sun I was still a Folami.

I had come to accept by now that chances are I would never see the woman again, so naturally it did bring a smile forward when I caught her scent faint on the breeze--faint, but fresh. I approached Theodora and dismissed myself for a short while, curious enough to go investigate what my mate had been up to for a month. It hadn’t taken long to find her--her fur was cut, she smelled clean, and her belly was swollen slightly. A grin crossed my maw--the girl had been with the human lords. There was no disgrace in that. “Rickalaru, you lucky thing, you’ve been with the humans this whole time? I thought you had run off, or been killed by a rouge.” Moving forward, I aimed to push my snout into her cheek. The sweet smell of the human’s artificial scents were on her. I had never been given a bath by my humans, but some of the other dogs in the facility had trainers that actually truly cared for them, so they received them and I had come to enjoy the scent of freshness in that time.

I pulled away, smile falling slightly as my face curved into an expression of careful curiosity. Bidziil had come back from the humans scarred and broken--they had beaten him and branded him within an inch of his life. It didn’t seem such a thing had happened to my mate, so what had been done to her? “Am I at liberty to ask what the humans took you in for?”

[nEwOL握敵]

When he appeared, my heart accelerated. A perk in my ears and tail betrayed this. For better or for worse, Nym was my mate now, I loved a part of him, a beautiful and charming part that he reserved for me. When he stepped forward and pressed his snout against the side of my face, I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed in his scent. Then I pressed the side of my face against his, and in this moment of closeness I whispered into his ear. "I've missed you. I thought about you alot." I used soft and easy words. Not putting too much emotion into them. I knew how upset and cross he'd be with me if I ever appeared so weak that I couldn't live without him. Finally he spoke to me, issuing a fair enough question. I knew that attention to detail would be of a level of importance here.

Finally opening my eyes again and meeting his gaze head on, I allowed a small smile to settle on my face. I was pregnant, joy was about it for my range of emotions at the moment. "Fear not, for no ill fate has come to me, yet, Love. I am and was contently safe for the time being." With a deep breath, I set out to explain to him what had transpired. "First, know that it wasn't any humans that took me, it was my humans. Inarakk told me once that your aware of how the five of us came to be. Of our Riddles in the Dark. They where simply making sure that their work had made the necessary adjustments." My voice suddenly became quite stern and my face defiant. It was as a display of how strong I'd become as an individual. "To make sure that I was still just as deadly without my siblings." I had Sound to thank for that.

I wasn't by all rights and intents the Folami that the humans had asked for. And they had no one but themselves to thank for that. I was something Different. Something, in my opinion, better. Moving closer, a warmth began to radiate from me as I again whispered into his ear. "And in return for my display of good hunting, they entertained a want of mine." A chuckle escaped my maw. "Though I must admit they made me beg for it." I selected to leave out how intrigued they'd been at my wolf like habit of ripping out my kill's heart first, and eating it before anything else. Not out of omission, no. I just simply deemed it an unimportant detail. No, right now I just hoped he'd be excited about it. I'd understand if he was a tad put off by it, but as long as he was over all okay with the fact that I had pups growing inside me, I'd be fine.

Please, Nym. Be my mate first for a change. Just a little, every now and then, that's all I was asking for.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

Was it wrong that I pushed closer with her contact, stealing the warmth that only she could light in me? I failed to find the words to admit I missed her, too. I was still a work in progress--I had many of my own demands that I continued to battle each day. But Rickalaru knew me by now, the tense need in my muscles told what words could not. I had hidden behind my mask to conceal that my mind was not entirely on the pack. Perhaps I had even entertained going to hunt for the woman. It had been fear of what I would find that kept me from searching. Death was one thing, a heart heals after such a thing. It was terror that I would find that she didn’t want to be found anymore that kept me from sending out the search parties I knew Bidziil would allow. The brute was not a friend of mine anymore, I had seen to that the moment I attacked his daughter and brutally scarred her deeper than the skin. But he respected love and maybe, somewhere under that casual hate, there was some respect for me, too. I had, after all, admitted my mateship to him, rather than letting pride hide it. Perhaps he wouldn’t ever forgive me, but the brute would not hold me back from something he found so important.

A gift had been given to my mate, a gift from the humans. I pulled away in surprise, curiosity plain on my face. I wracked my brain to find what she had wanted most and came up empty. I only stared at her a moment before the slight plumpness of her stomach reached my eyesight as the altered scent reached my glands. Stepping back, the curiosity fled, replaced by uncertainty. “T-the humans allowed you natural pups?” It was clear my tone held a hint of disbelief. In all my training they had spoken harshly of those dogs born in the wild. Had Rickalaru been wrong about being steral and was now making excuses for her mistake? Had she lied to get what she wanted from me? I eyed her with a hint of harshness for a moment before blinking away the cruel accusations. I trusted her and if she said this was a human blessing, then fuck, I would have to get off my high horse and deal with it. Times had changed everywhere, after all. With each generation of any species beliefs and practices change. Rickalaru’s facility had been much different than mine, afterall--it had fight tradition since the beginning. Why did I expect more of it now?

“Well,” What could I say that would not result in upsetting her? This was delicate, after all. I could not lie to my mate, but I did not have the right to show her how completely unwanted this was. Or maybe it wasn’t as undesired as I had always thought. The unease in my stomach had shifted as I thought back to the royal puppies, and the training I had given the children. To Val. “You know,” I smiled. It was a rugged, unsure smile, but still sincere, “I think that is really cool. We shan’t disappoint your humans. Our children will be the one natural born Folami litter that they can be proud of.” I paused a moment, self-consciousness winning out. “If I may have the honor of playing Father to stand beside their beautiful Mother?”

[nEwOL握敵]

Uncertainty seemed to course through him for a moment. I was prepared for this so I merely remained calm in order to reassure him. He looked at me questioningly for a long moment, and so with a tender lick on the edge of his nose, I provided him with what he was looking for. "Yes, Nym. I have been given this." The exact words where still sharp and clear in my mind, and thinking about them and the context in which they'd been presented to me cause a few memories to flash across my mind. A training course long forgotten by time now, on it five Folami standing shoulder to shoulder. Blinking away the memory, I returned to my mate with a soft smile.

I was no fool. Nym was much better then what he used to be, much more. But he was not yet used to it. Finding the balance within himself between being an officer and being a man was something we where still working for. I could see the uncertainty in him. This was against what he'd known for so long. But I believed in him. Our species was no more resistant to the adaptation of time as any other, we where far to advanced in intelligence for that. He was just as aware of that as I. Most of us where.

Finally he came around. An uneasy smile spread his face. He was still uncertain, but it appeared he was willing to try despite that. When the words fell from his lips, I nearly wanted to jump for join, like a weight had been lifted from me. Weather or not he'd want anything to do with these pups had secretly been a worry of mine all along, as it was all quite sudden, I'd admit. But then the question that followed caused my sense of logic to kick in, and I actually took a moment to pause and consider.

I wanted this. I wanted Nym to father them. I wanted to have someone standing beside me for this, I'd forged on my own with so many things already. But was this smart? Was he ready? The deep thought echoed through my eyes for a moment as I looked intently at him. How would the responsibility of father ship sit on him. How would it change him? These where my pups, and I wanted them safe. Did I truly have the ability to trust him in that with all of my heart? Finally after a few long moments of consideration, I leaned forward and nuzzled him tenderly, all the thought and concern melting away from me and being replaced by affection. Finally into his ear I whispered my words. "Your come far already. Who am I to deny you this previlage? You chose to love me. I'm sure you'll do the same for them." Finally I placed my snout on his shoulder, content in a manor I'd not felt in a long time. I was glad to finally be home. It hadn't been found. It had been made so.