Never .Too. Late [Open]

[.Rabid Lycan.]

Gradually, the bubble of awkwardness that paralyzed her limbs began to deflate, and Frenzy began sliding in the direction of the pups. Shade was not so much the necessity when tiny newborns were squealing to the high heavens. I’ll get back to it in a minute… urrrrgh.
Frenzy bowed her maw, seizing the damp balloon between her fangs and crinkling her muzzle at the taste. But gagging, unfortunately, was not quite an option when there were pups involved. Mimicking Lust’s movements—professional? she wondered once again—an ebony male tumbled into the light. But she shifted hastily away, nearly toppling over herself, when another screech met the scorching air.
Pup number three entered the world, followed closely by numero cuatro.
Juno herself had completely devoured her stores of energy, hardly conscious by the delivery of the final body. At this, her body stiffened, as if hardly daring to believe that the labor had completed. But after internally checking and double-checking that no other life forms were buried in some dark alley of the womb, Juno appeared to collapse… well, more than she already had. Her muscles released all tension, surrendering to the exhaustion and malnourishment that highlighted her ribs and cheeks. Inert, only vaguely aware of the motion of suckling, she fell into a comatose-esque sleep.
By this point, Frenzy had backed off again, resuming her position as Head Umbrella. Pups, it would seem, were not encompassed in her zone of comfort. What the hell just happened, exactly? Her ears cocked toward the surrounding slopes, as if expecting another pregnant fae to tumble out of the sky.

[Destiny]

As if it were the calling for which Mother Nature had intended he exist, something he had failed to deal with in life for himself yet had found so natural more than once when aiding another brute's mate. He would have been a good mid-wife, a good father, had he the chance. But he had not. Instead, he had blindly followed Risika in as many of her endeavors as possible. Not because he enjoyed it, but because he had loved her, and pleasing her had brought him joy. Maybe the portion of Ashur that buzzed in his blood, the heat of 'kill, rip, shred, tear, betray, lie, steal, kill, kill, kill..' Was it in his genetic make-up to be brutal? Relentless?

Maybe. But if it was, he had also inherited all of Babylonia's motherly qualities. Speaking of which, he rather missed his mother. Hadn't Frenzy mentioned her earlier on? Maybe she had, and maybe she hadn't, but as his tongue rasped gently over the pelts of which-ever pups were nearest, he took a moment to speak. "Babylonia. Where does she lie these days?" He was distracted by a whimpering from the caramel male, and nudged the pup closer to Juno's belly. A moment after, he turned to the new mother herself, and pressed the wet moss to her muzzle. "Drink, dear. You will need all your strength, or the pups will die." Your milk could dry up.

[.Rabid Lycan.]

If she could have summoned the required energy to her limbs, Juno may have responded with a rather hyper-emotional “FUCK OFF AND LET ME SLEEP, I WAS JUST IN LABOR”. But, as it was, she barely managed to creak open her eyelids, and her ears just scarcely registered the patient lyrics that hovered just beyond her reach. Not that she was a very confrontational wolf to begin with, especially with the… circumstances. Where she was, who she was… ‘Juno’ itself was a mere mask for whatever distant life she had led before. But any distinctive thoughts, any dimples of definition in her memory… it was a solid blizzard. White out. Nothingness.
But evidently, she had just enough strength to accept the moist token from her anonymous caretaker. Semi-delirious perspective aside, this positive force had been the first sign of comfort since… since…
White out.
The shriveled pink of a parched tongue extended, and drank sparingly in a series of licks.

Throughout all of this, Frenzy slowly slumped into a sitting position, eyeing the duo with an almost suspicious flare. The fae didn’t look so hot, and the pups—well, they looked alright, but where were they going to go? Stay in this canyon? Frenzy looked about them skeptically, the imposing pillars of stone imprisoning the group from either side. Oh, yea—great place to raise kids. Teach them from birth the proper techniques of heat tolerance and how to fall to your death the fastest.
Then, a question roused her interest… or lack thereof. But she answered. “Babylonia’s left Assyria in charge to roam greener pastures, it would seem. Sumer has returned to us, though the ol’ traitor Euphrates is a bit more stuck up on the matter. It’s a shame, though—Babylonia took her new kids with her. Could’ve made a fine batch of playmates for this group, wouldn’t you say?” She nodded to the four squirming bodies, growing steadily more at ease with their presence.

Twin jewels, meanwhile, hungered from the slopes above. Each gem, their center pits narrowing with interest, flashed toward a certain flock at the gorge’s belly. Then, four limbs became twelve, and a trio of shapes began a quiet descent under the sun’s intense stare. At the tail strode a magnificently tall, onyx, and well-toned specimen, whose pale golden gaze failed to linger on any one shape in the distance. It drifted, like deadwood on the tide, with the rhythm of his lope, which included a rather wide step with every shift of his shoulders. In the lead pranced a more-than-eager beaver of a wolf, the mottled wheat, silver, and umber shades of his pelt ruffling with much more than wind. And between them advanced the leanest yet most wild figure of them all—his eyes stared, chunks of ice framed with velvet black, directly at their target. He knew exactly what he came here for.
I never wanted to hurt you… you’ll understand. Today, maybe—tomorrow, at the most. You’ll… know… and you’ll be happy.
It had been a rough voyage, for some of it, but it had been a necessary stage. And now, departing the final jagged ledge between the wall and the earth, the devil’s son assumed the lead.
“Remember the faces…”
“Yeah, yeah… whatever, Luce,” snorted the possibly hyperactive member. “You’d think we’d be idiots, they way he talks to us, eh?”
Vereor failed to answer as the troop made a deadline for the extremely belated baby shower beside the river. Two of them halted before they could formally approach, but the thin, blue-eyed leader of the gang slipped onward, his eyes deeply focused on the half-dead female.
The sight of pups, although somewhat hidden by the curve of her body and the protective shield of her accompanying party, tightened his chest… or something along those lines. His gaze moved frantically from body to body, and two sights settled most appealingly under his eye. A black one, and a white and red—the only female of the litter.
It then came to his attention that the other grown female was staring, and the defensive male probably was too. With an inaudible sigh, Lucifer drew up his skull and found Lust’s features. “Greetings. I...” He inched closer to Juno, eyes glassy and wide. “…Juno… how long has she been like this? Is she drinking? Are the pups alright?”
Frenzy didn’t seem to know how in hell to react, so he took another half-step forward, testing his boundaries. “We’re family… she’s been sick… well, obviously, I suppose. Wasn’t supposed to leave the den…”