Jaws constrict and roll; biting into my blistered, famished gum-line. Scorched deprivation fills my mouth with briny grit; dry thirst is a flaming rod, plunged down my parched esophagus. Every square inch of inflamed meat is seeping. Foamy pectorals and heaving lungs have long become labored with rapid, dizzying pants. Eyelids squint, bracing against that expectant suffering as my bloated waistline begins to choke; contractions are the living ocean beneath my skin. Swollen crests wash in continual, breathless, unfamiliar spurts. Pain fades…but it always returns. Like a bellowing furnace; becoming more severe and insistent. Those irritates began in the early morning hours…a high noon sun now peeks out from behind sparse grey/white clouds. Below us, white flecks catch the sunlight, glittering from their frothy, animated bed. These damp shoulders tingle, but their suffering is slight compared to the crippling spasms centered around my midsection and loins.
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“Aroooo!”
Eyelids jerk apart; hazy and unsettled as they emerge into the brisk reality. This frantic, panic-driven heart is cantering…and despite the wintry plunge in temperature, my sensitive points are mottle with cooling excretion. Velvet dials rotate, attentively working to disprove the existence of that dream-scape wail. Morning isn’t very far off, the ebony mistress yields to navy and surrenders her power...though that first hint of amber hasn’t appeared. Strained seconds of passive silence tick on. Mini me distends …eyeing my sharp, pulsing unease with pity, ‘just a dream.’ That dwarfish occupant chimes in as well, comforting me by stirring and pressing those tiny feet against the narrow cage.
Anxious ligaments soften...sluggishly, I pull forward, yawning over the threshold into the cold embrace of another calm morning. ‘Aroooo!’ Ears twitch…that previously mistaken dream howl shatters tranquility with a hard dose of authenticity. Numbed…brackish memories crawl from their graves. Undesired familiarity morphs my expression from lax to horrified. A second voice escalates, joining the first. Their mournful screams reignite dormant terror; red-rimmed eyes are transfixed. Wolves weren’t uncommon…they often preyed in our valley…but these voices weren’t their songs. Another response…edging closer. Hindquarters shiver while the echo of their encircling voices ring in my burning ears. Feathered arms extend halfway, surging anxiously from my clammy waist. A stiff rush of icy air closes in, but does nothing to ease my shock.
‘No…’ a plea, denial of their existence; a cry of utter helplessness.
This…this isn’t real…
Wake up…
Thawing from her frigid state, my subconscious snarls, ‘move!’ She takes a stab at the icy encasement, my naïve cocoon of rebuttal, ‘you can’t stay here!’ I hear her muffled logic…But the flesh is unwilling to heed me, these forelimbs are trapped and trembling. Noah…his name, the hum of it recoils. Noah…what starts as a hum, becomes a crescendo…irises sharpen from their stunned haze. Noah?! Disorientation yields into choking horror. He’d gone off sometime in the night; maybe even beyond the dish-shaped walls of our domain.
‘Crinkle, rustle, scratch...’ Tense muscles jerk, shivering as if cold. The baby nudges me…Maternal adrenaline ignites, unrealized fury drips into these frigid crevices. Ears plant themselves rearward, lips peel apart to brandish ivory teeth. Out comes…a honeyed, splattered face. Tiny bubbles of relief flood that taut surface, easing my aggression. The titan, my eagle. He’s safe…Forefeet leap into motion, closing our distance with jittery, inflated speed. “Noah!” My smoggy, northern breath spares precious seconds to verify his reality. Diving for that heap of silken flesh with hungry resolve. Meanwhile, their voices continue to rise; snarling until every fiber is singing, trembling.
‘There isn’t time!’
Optics tilt, searching to catch his clear blue gaze, “very bad,” those foredooming words send the root of my muzzle gesturing toward the canopy, “we go.” Pastel feathers unfurl, spreading to near full scope, “no time, no fight!” Their voices are close now… a series of excited yips and snarls reach a new height from that wood-side. Twenty feet away, on the left, the cover of our glade is ruptured by a massive, olive eyed fiend. Oversized paws sink cruelly into the forest soil; pausing just beyond the tree line. That demon is pungent and worn -- obviously male -- his caramel, dirt caked body is sloped and bristling. The high curl of his tail is pointed nearly straight up. Predator lips are crimped upward, frothed with hungry looking saliva. Wings flare from his heaving, growling waist
…He…he’s twice the size of what is considered normal.
Beside him, stepping from the ashen, knife-like shadows, a leopard. Her body is a sleek ebony, dappled and feminine. Those triangular, amber eyes are fixed in our direction. Between those grinning, cheshire cat jowls, she holds something in her mouth…irises narrow. A cord? Tracing the end leads me to find its connection upon a loose, tattered grey collar around the shoulders of her frothy canine. She cruelly jerks the end of his rope and that rusty wolf snaps his teeth, snarling in response.. His powerful neck extends, dual nails bite into the earth; those tawny, emotionless eyes settle upon my golden knight.
A tight, piercing howl rivets into the air – boiling my blood and driving all logic to the wayside.
Hindquarters lurch, forefeet churn into motion…
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Spasms increase…my innards are buckling into every contraction. These coiled feet are straining – rotating in vain to ease the agony. The bumpy horizon loam's, becoming more tangible…but would we arrive in time? “Noah…” When another crippling wave eases off, I dig into that final thread of strength and find my voice, “the child,” torrents brush my groan aside, threatening to overpower it, “it comes.” A hot burst of uncontrollable liquid streams over my thighs…we didn’t have long. Teeth clench, grinding with anticipation.
OC: Please allow Noah to post first <3
@Noah
