Doom Babies Cometh

[Cait]

3076.03.14

For the past couple months Dalonia had been overly agitated and aggravated by the fact that she could hardly move let alone walk. She'd been having phantom contractions--or so the healers said--for the past couple of days and so she'd ignored the first twinges as she went about her business. She felt as big as Dalosk and half as stealthy as a three-legged runner. For the past few weeks as her discomfort grew, even the most fearless of her guards avoided her as much as possible despite the fact that she was technically on leave from her position until after the baby was born. Strictly speaking, the healers had told her to remain in bed as much as possible but anyone who knew the woman would know that it simply was impossible for her to stay put unless she broke her legs and was entirely incapable of walking in the slightest. Though given the size of her she wondered if she wasn't going to give birth to some giant that would split her open like an over ripe fruit.

It wasn't until her water broke than she paid any attention to the contractions and when she finally realized what was about to happen she went from being perpetually annoyed to livid. All at once the only thing she could think of was murdering T'kar; well at least any time a contraction struck. They were still several minutes apart though so she knew she had at least some time before that damn baby that seemed to be all elbows and knees would arrive. Naturally, having been stabbed, beaten and bloodied up more times than she could count, Dalonia had a higher pain tolerance than most and it came in particular handy as another contraction hit, though it still took her breath away.

Moving at a steady waddle, Dalonia set her sights on the Aeries and despite many attempts to tell Dalosk to bugger off, the Crimson wher squinted in the pre-dawn light, stubbornly refusing to leave his handler when she was so clearly in distress; even if she refused to acknowledge said distress. Thief and Pest were also worked up and had been since the first twinge earlier that night. Pest clung to Dalonia with his usual fervor while Thief hovered, humming softly in the back of his throat, eyes whirling with excitement and worry. "I'm not a hatchin' egg you daft twit!"

She had made it to the Aerie and was maybe three quarters of the way to her destination when an unholy contraction grabbed hold of her and even given her tolerance for pain, caused her to cry out and grab onto Dalosk's rough, blood colored hide for support. "Son of a..." She hissed as leaned into the wher's bulk. Pest began to chatter anxiously and Dalosk loomed over his handler, swinging his head about. He was half blind in the coming light and more than a little on edge with Dalonia being in pain. In fact he'd been nearly as agitated as Dalonia during the last trimester of the pregnancy, sometimes moreso.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Something was happening. Grappling with a half-sensed urgency, T’kar blinked. It took a couple tries, but finally his eyes focused. There was enough light to see by, but still…

This had better be good, he grumbled silently, rolling up and pulling on the closest pants.

Chittering, Star hovered in front of him.

“Wait! What?!” T’kar gaped at Star. Spinning around, while shoving his feet into boots, he glanced at his other three firelizards, equally agitated, firelizards. “Straps!” he snapped, flipping a hand towards Ancalanath’s sleeping form.

Ancalanath, up!

Wha-? Ancalanath opened his closest eye about half-way, rolling the facets so that he was clearly focused on his rider. Sensing the firelizards, he huffed out a breath and stood up, allowing them to fly around, draping straps into place and tightening them down, while T’kar flung on a flight jacket.

Aerie, so’s I can give Dalonia a hand.

The kids come today? For all that he wasn’t fond of Dalonia, though he was willing to admit her competent, Ancalanath was excited about meeting his rider’s children. As soon as T’kar was on his back, the RR Flame pushed off the ledge and blinked between, shaving prescious seconds off of their time to the Aerie.

The emerged out of between at just the right height for Ancalanath to backwing to a landing, and T’kar was sliding off his back and racing inside.

Ignoring anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way (though he at least dodged them, rather than bowling them over), T’kar raced down the hallways, led by Boot and Shadow, while Star and Wamarna popped into being over Dalonia to act as locators.

“What were you thinking, are you incabaple of asking for a little reasonable assistance?” T’kar snapped, catching Dalonia’s shoulders, back, and arms and starting to pull her away from her wher slightly, so that she could actually take another step.

[Cait]

Dalosk hissed as Ancalanath landed nearby and swung his wedged head around as the rider ran headlong towards them, snapping at the firelizards that appeared overhead. When the man came closer and snapped at his handler, the Crimson made a warning rattling sound just as Dalonia made a grunting sound. Sucking in a breath she let it out on a growl. “Yeah, and who exactly am I suppose ta ask? Shove off!”

As T’kar pulled her away from Dalosk, Dalonia tried to shove at him only to clench her teeth against a cry as another contraction rippled across her belly. She might be in pain and she might actually need help but she damn sure wasn’t going to ask for it now. Insufferable man! She had half a mind to cut off the instrument of all this misery then and there if she could see past the damn globe that had formed beneath her lungs and made it hard to move or breathe or cough without wetting herself. Yeah, she was going to kill him. A slow, torturous death that would leave him begging for mercy. “Don’t touch me!”

Forcing herself to keep walking, Dalonia did her best to breathe deeply, letting it out on hisses and growls that were echoed by Dalosk as he refused to leave her side. PEst was clinging to her chest which wasn’t helping matters and Thief was hovering and humming. Too much commotion.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Ancalanath ignored the Crimson wher, though Star and Wamarna both squawked and swooped higher when the wher’s jaws closed in their direction. They weren’t cowards, but they weren’t foolish, and their human was not yet present. They had no reason to face the snapping jaws of this creature yet.

T’kar ignored the Crimson wher. Ignored Dalonia’s first question too, since he considered the answer self-evident. He actually growled deep in his throat when Dalonia tried shoving him away. Infuriating woman! Couldn’t she tell he was trying to help? He was tempted, sorely tempted, to just pick her up and sharding carry her. He drew in a breath through flared nostrils. Calm. Or at the very least, less anger. He couldn’t afford to lose his temper, especially here and now.

He forced himself to be content walking along on the far side of her from Dalosk. Darkly, he suspected it was going to take both him and the wher to get her into the infirmary. The doors were already open ahead, courtesy of four firelizards dragging on them one at a time. Eyeing the stairs, T’kar made a silent vow to carry Dalonia up them if she seemed to be suffering even the slightest problem.

[Cait]

The one thing she could never, ever admit to T’kar or anyone else was that she was actually terrified to have this child. What kind of mother would she possibly make? She was violent and paranoid and nocturnal and she didn’t know how to be affectionate or nurturing. Of course she didn’t take into consideration that she’d trained an entire batch of wherlings who were now competent guards capable of protecting the weyr. Or that she’d managed to raise not only a wher but three firelizards--even if one had gotten killed by her brother. She didn’t take into account her protective instincts when it came to the weyrlings or even the aggravating man that shuffled along beside her. All she could see was her own childhood and that was the last thing she would want for any child.

Naturally, her fear turned into anger as so many emotions did with Dalonia, Whermaster of Rainbow Mist Weyr. As they neared the door, she spotted the stairs and groaned, the sound pitched into a keen that she promptly cut off as another contraction struck and caused her to hunch over her stomach and grab blindly for something to hold onto as she battled the pain. “Son of a ‘snake! Gah! Curse you and your dragon seed!”

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’kar wasn’t even waiting any longer. He didn’t even bother saying anything to Dalonia’s comment. It wasn’t worth the time it would take to say something in response. Well, that and there really wasn’t anything he could say. Catching the hand Dalonia was using to search for something to grab, he crouched and picked her up, carrying her up the stairs and quick stepping towards the Infirmary.

Star came swooping over, escorting a couple Lifewing riders.

“Where do you want her?” T’kar asked. They pointed, and he strode off in that direction, silently cursing the fact that women weighed more when pregnant.

[Cait]

Caught in the contraction, Dalonia was all but powerless to resist T’kar as he scooped her up. Instead her hand closed on his when he grabbed it with crushing force that wasn’t at all surprising coming from this particular woman. When the contraction passed, they were up the stairs with Lifewing riders hovering around and she was being carried. Growling, Dalonia reached over and pinched T’kar over the collar bone; hard. “I’m not a sack o’ tubers to be toss about. Put me down!”

She tried to squirm but wasn’t too successful and as the Lifewings eyed her strangely her ire only rose. She was in a fighting mood, she was in pain and intensely uncomfortable. If the process took too long she might even cut the damn babe out of her belly herself. Yup, she was going to murder T’kar Vitarias one inch at a time...and he had more than a few inches to murder.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’kar’s lips flipped away from his teeth, exposing them briefly when Dalonia’s hand closed on his with far more force than was strictly necessary. Not that it was surprising. This was Dalonia after all. He shot a glare at her when she pinched him, but he still didn’t put her down. It’d take all day to get there at the rate she’d been walking. As it was, it still took longer than he would have liked to get to the room. He had to turn side on to get both himself and Dalonia in the doorway.

Striding over to the bed, he set Dalonia into it. Gently, so gently, despite the internal voice that said he should just drop her and jump back.

[Cait]

As T’kar settled her on one of the beds with surprising gentleness, it was lost on Dalonia. With a hiss, she swatted at him and then winced as another contraction gripped her. Before long, the lifewing riders tried to shoo the Weyrleader away. Then the poking and prodding and growling and hissing began. When the actual birth began, hissing turned into moans and growling turned into shouting.

It was all that Dalonia could do to keep Dalosk at bay and as it was, Pest was keening while Thief was humming. A right loud mess.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T'kar winced when Dalonia's swat connected with the side of his face. Caught in the middle of stepping back, his head snapped sideways. He took another couple steps backward, giving his head a quick shake.

The Healers/lifewing riders moved in then, ushering T'kar out into the hall. Once there, T'kar leaned against the wall facing the door. All four of his firelizads managed to purchase on him -- Star and Wamarna on his shoulders, while Boot and Shadow were content to hang out on his back.

Dalonia started shouting. T'kar winced, face twisting. That sounded awful. He leaned forward, eyes fixed on the door between him and Dalonia. He didn't move though. Healers knew way more about this than he did. He had to trust them to know.

Will I be able to meet them?

Of course. It'd be ridiculous to suppose otherwise!

[Cait]

It felt like time was barely trickling by. Contracts came closer and closer together and then they were telling her to push. She told them a few things too; namely where they could shove any number of things. With every bellow and push, a rattling growl echoed through the halls from a particular Crimson wher. At one point during the commotion, little Pest popped into the air in front of T'kar with a clearly distressed creel and without much in the way of grace or hesitation, made room for himself on the man, heedless of any protests from his own fair.

After what felt like eternity but was actually a little over an hour there was a brief period of silence followed by the cry of an enraged newborn. Shortly after that all hell broke loose. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S ANOTHER ONE?!"

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN, THERE CAN'T BE TWO! YER CRACKED IN TH' HEAD!"

"THEN CHECK AGAIN, I'M TELLIN' YA THERE'S ONLY ONE!"

"Get back in that bed, right now!" This was accompanied by the sound of a brief struggle before Dalonia cried out.

"CURSE YOU AND THE SEED THAT SPAWNED YOU, DRAGONRIDER! SHARDIN' TWO!" The healers tried to make the wherhandler as comfortable as possible but quite frankly a few of them were scared to get within more than a few feet of the woman, especially as she glared bloody murder at the healer prodding at her belly and making sure the second child was in the proper position.

About ten minutes later Dalonia was instructed to push once more and soon there was another infant wail and as the healer fussed over the second child, Dalonia sunk back into the pile of pillows that had been propped behind her, redfaced, sweaty, exhausted and terrified. She hadn't known what she was going to do with one child and now she had two. Two! With no energy to fight it, tears welled up and spilled over as the healers helped to clean her up. When they moved to offer her the infants Dalonia stared wide-eyed and alarmed at the tiny human creatures. One of the other healers stepped out to allow T'kar in once Dalonia was cleaned and settled.

"A son and a daughter, wherhandler."

At first she started shaking her head slowly but it sped up as they settled the babes in her arms. Crackdust and shards, what was she supposed to do with them? Scared to either drop them or hold them too tight and convinced that she would do something horribly wrong, Dalonia looked up as T'kar entered the room and her chin quivered. She was too exhausted to hide her abject terror with anger. Her eyes spilled over again and the healer in charge shooed the helpers out to give the couple parents some privacy for what was obviously an emotional situation.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

After an eternity of bellows, shouts, and growls reverberating through the halls courtesy of Dalosk, Dalonia’s Moonlight — and why on Pern had she named the poor firelizard “Pest”? — popped out of between and nosed in, pushing Shadow out of the way. Shadow and Boot both retaliated by flapping at the newcomer.

T’kar sighed. Reaching out, he brought his arm up under the little Moonlight, providing a perch. “Behave,” he told his firelizards. “You all already have spots.”

It was back to the waiting then. Waiting, broken by interminable shouting, the most memorable of which involved curses being heaped on him and his father. He was tempted to laugh. Given the handful of things he’d gathered about his blood-father, he really didn’t have any objection to the man suffering a curse or two.

A second infant’s wail joined the general noise, then the Healer was out of the way and T’kar was stepping back into the room. Other healers were leaving, but T’kar’s eyes fixed on the little human creatures nestled in Dalonia’s arms. They were rather small and kind of wrinkly… He didn’t remember if his sisters had looked like that. Driven by some impulse, he knelt by the side of the bed, reaching out to touch one of the little babies on the head. There was a small amount of dark hair on both infants’ heads. He was grinning, and Star and Boot were reaching out to touch the babies with their noses.

“Avonia,” T’kar breathed, rubbing the girl’s forehead. “and Vakaral,” he added, rubbing the little boy’s forehead.

[Cait]

Dalonia watched through misty eyes as T'kar came into the room but he wasn't looking at her, he only had eyes for the little creatures in her arms. When he knelt at the side of the bed, the wherhandler only just resisted the urge to shove the infants at him and run; mainly because she was so exhausted she could barely move. ONly Thief seemed to protest when Star and Boot inspected the babies, hissing at the two from his perch at the head of the bed but otherwise not moving to chase them off. Dalonia watched, as if from afar as T'kar named the infants, reaching out to touch their heads.

They were so small!

Tears spilled over and Dalonia turned her face away from the weyrleader so he couldn't see. She felt far too vulnerable and weak at the moment to be able to handle any of this; T'kar, the children...it was too much. She wasn't mother material, she shouldn't get attached, she should just hand them off to the creche but even at that thought something inside her, that part that compelled her to throw herself at a threat to anyone and anything she considered hers, to destroy any threat...no, she wasn't the right sort to be a mother. But the thought of anything happening to the tiny humans in her arms made her want to kill. What was she supposed to do? She was Senior Wherhandler, she couldn't protect the entire weyr with two infants latched onto her breasts!

The tears came hot and silent.