(open) What are these miracles before me?

[Aveilthé]

It was a marvelous day today. For once in six months, there were very little cloud coverage. The sun was shining, and the Empress lifted her face to the sky and enjoyed the summer star warming up her fur. Even in the summer it was fairly lukewarm in the middle of the day, and cooled down during the night. And since Giaku was mostly a stone-filled territory, the cold was constant.

In her musings, she felt a pang in her gut that hurt her stomach greatly. She was unsure of what this meant, but passed it off as nothing more than cramps from her last meal. Which was outstandingly delicious, by the way...

The Empress sat upon a high rock, one of the highest points in Giaku, and observed the farlands. Giaku certainly turned out beautiful. Everything turned lush and green, except for Wabishii, whose ground was perpetually infertile. But it served as a decent training ground, thought she.

The pain returned. Lacrimosa doubled over, a paw clutching at her stomach. She looked down at her stomach. "Arrrgh... stop... please..." It hurt so badly that she couldn't help but plead for it to stop. Like that would work.

Should she get help? The pain was growing. But before she could howl for help from someone, she fell to her side, her legs suddenly too weak to stand properly.

"AAGGH!" she screamed, biting and gnashing her fangs until her tongue bled, but she didn't notice it. Suddenly, the pain stopped, allowing the Empress to scramble back to her feet. What the hell was that? She was scared, but something strange told her that she needed find shelter... any kind of shelter... immediately.

Heeding her gut instinct, Lacrimosa took to the air, her feet blazing with blue fire--the source of her flight. She possessed no wings. Soon, she found a nice cubby-hole at the side of a cliff. She landed at the mouth of the cave, and was pleased to find that it went far and deep inside and had dirt bedding. But it needed more comfort. Ambling off, she gathered dried leaves and made a nice bed for her to sleep on. Something also told her that... she needed to be alone. And when her work was complete, she stood back, wincing at the pain, and observed her handiwork.

"Alright... I suddenly feel tired."

She walked inside and plopped herself on her makeshift bed. It was quiet and warm in here. Sooo nice. Then... the pain returned. The Empress could not help herself; she squirmed and whimpered, making quite a racket. She was truly scared, and tried calling for her Emperor to come to her side and comfort her. It was when she noticed some blood on the ground did she truly start panicking. That was when she believed that she was going to die. She howled in urgency, knowing that Ammon had to be there.

[demin]

The Emperor did not have time to wonder where his mate had run off to. The damage from the war with Shinkou still had to be repaired, and overseen constantly. This duty was normally Lord Charon's, but he too had run off. 'Probably spending time with his whores again.' Ammon thought, shaking his head. Hours went by and the Emperor was growing increasingly bored just watching reconstruction and providing instructions every now and then. Finally, he saw the familiar sight of Charon lumbering back to Hatsuhi. Ammon strode up to him.
"Uncle, next time you feel the need to run off tell me beforehand so I can find an overseer to fill in for you." Ammon said in a hushed voice, a knowing smirk flitting across his muzzle.
"Apologies, Emperor. I'd have been back sooner, but they were a little more... resilient today."

Ammon had opened his mouth to respond, but a howl pierced through the sound of construction, bringing everything to a halt, the runes in Ammon's onyx eye flashed a bright scarlet. The noise sounded frantic, pained. The Emperor would recognize it anywhere, as would Charon. Ammon traded looks with the spiked Druin, and as if a silent message had been given, Charon returned to Hatsuhi to return to his duties while Ammon broke into a sprint toward the howl's source. Ammon had already put some distance between himself and the Towers, only barely hearing Charon bellow "Get back to work, slaves!"

Ammon's legs worked furiously, carrying the Ohm as fast as they possibly could, yet it was still far too slow for his liking. Many things passed through the Emperor's mind, none of them good. 'What happened, Lacri? Assassins? Traitors? The Canyon demons, had they emerged? Lacri, where are you?!' His thoughts grew increasingly desperate as more and more horrific scenarios played through them. After minutes that felt like years, he finally picked up his mate's scent, but mixed with the metallic tang of blood. He began to panic. 'No, Lacri! No!' Ammon came to a skidding halt, his metallic leg making a sort of screeching noise as they scraped against rocks buried beneath the soil. He had found the source of the howl, the scent of his mate and the blood. It was a cave that went deep into the side of a cliff. He was terrified to see what was inside, but his fear lessened slightly as he heard frantic breathing echoing from the cave. Lightly stepping up into the mouth of the cave, he spoke in a hushed tone, his eyes scanning through the darkness of the cave. His magical eye saw through it quite easily, and through it he saw a bright blue featureless outline of his mate.
"Lacri?"

[Aveilthé]

The Empress's desperate song ebbed, replaced by uncontrollable whining and whimpering. But when she found the strength to pick up her quivering head, she saw something wriggle and squirm at her legs. She gasped, realization hitting her like a ton of rocks.

"Ammon," she whispered, feeling his presence. "Come look..."

It was way too sudden. She hadn't realized she was pregnant. She didn't even feel pregnant before now.

"Careful... lean your head down..."

A small, wet ball of white made it's first squeaks as it weakly crawled to Lacri's belly. She tilted her head as she saw her belly now bare, the blue scales having molted off of her. Through her pain, she hadn't even felt or seen them drop off. This enabled her to give milk, she realized. No wonder she couldn't tell she was pregnant!

"I am weak, Ammon. This is not easy. This time I need to be alone. Wait for me outside, I will call you when this is finished... I think another is coming..."

She rested her head down, her belly tightening again. Too weak to heed the crying white newborn pup for now, she concentrated on the new life trying to make it's way into the world...

[demin]

Ammon let out a huge sigh of relief at the sound of Lacrimosa's voice. He timidly stepped into the cave at his mate's request, expecting to see a bleeding wound or some other sort of bodily harm. He was wrong, but the sight still made it feel as if a large stone had been dropped into his stomach. Ammon watched the newborn white pup, deaf and blind, crawl to its mother's belly, mewling and squeaking the entire way in its search for mother's milk.

Giaku's Emperor was at a loss for words and simply stared and the wriggling ball of white fluff snuggling up to Lacrimosa, hardly able to believe that he had just become a father. He was brought out of his stupor by the Empress' voice, snapping his head to look at her.

"O-okay, Lacri... Just call if you need me..." he stammered, unable to keep himself from looking back to the tiny white pup at Lacrmosa's belly. Reluctantly, he turned and walked out of the cave, plopped to the earth, curled up, and stared out on the Giakun landscape, thoughts and emotions racing through his mind. He was terrified, nervous, content, overjoyed. Now all he could do was wait for his mate to call him back into the cave.

[Aveilthé]

Before long, Lacrimosa felt the pain ebb away again, and did not feel it return. She lifted her head, ears taut, eyes wide and glittering with tears. "Oh, my babies," she whispered with overwhelming happiness, kissing a struggling black one and the white one, and two black ones with silver stars on their foreheads. She pulled back, concerned, for she noticed that the two were not moving. Heavy-hearted, she understood them to be stillborns. "No... no, no, no... my poor little ones... I'm sorry..."

She gently lifted them one by one and put them aside. Later, she will have to bury them. But now she must look to the living.

"Ammon, you may come in now," she called again, dropping herself close to the newborns. She sighed happily, kissing them as they squeaked and crawled over each other for mother's milk. The white one sounded quieter, but the black one was definitely noisy. "Spunky little thing..."

[demin]

Waiting had always been a torture for Ammon, but now it was almost unbearable. Eventually he began pacing back and forth at the mouth of the cave, periodically peering back inside to make sure his mate and child were still there, as if he expected them to vanish. Occasionally he would hear the quiet whisperings of his mate mixed with the squeaks and whines of the newborns. When at last Lacrimosa had given him permission to reenter the birthing den he practically sprinted back in, eager to lay eyes on his children. He adjusted to the darkness and quickly found the two wriggling pups at Lacrimosa's belly, a smile breaking across his muzzle as he looked to the Empress.

The smile suddenly turned into a frown when he spotted two small crumpled bodies that had been put aside. Though he did not consider himself a follower of Etanus, he bowed his head and said a prayer for his pups who wouldn't have their chance at life. After, he lay down next to Lacrimosa, head on his paws, and watched his children. A chuckle escaped his throat as the noisy ebon furred pup accidentally flipped the white one on its back in its quest for milk. Ammon reached out one paw that could have held both pups with room to spare and gently flipped the white one back over. It quickly found a place on its mother's belly to suckle.

Sighing contentedly, he spoke, his gaze never leaving the pups.
"How long you think 'til loudmouth there starts climbing on Charon?"

[Aveilthé]

What a miraculous happenstance, thought Lacri in her private mind, watching her children with tired and bleary-eyed pale demon eyes. What she hadn't thought possible, became possible. She had thought she was barren, when it was simply hard for her to become pregnant. A huge, goofy smile spread across her face the moment Ammon rushed in.

"Be careful, co zula." She didn't have to worry; she trusted her mate explicitly. "Unbelievable, isn't it? I had no idea I was pregnant."

The shock had long since worn off, only replaced with a surging emotion that she knew to be love for them. "You're a daddy!" she exclaimed, her tail flopped around, suggesting a happy, albeit weak wag of her tail. When her mate commented on the loud noise the black one was making, she chuckled feebly. "Not long now. He might even enjoy being a jungle-gym, he just doesn't show it. It'll make good training grounds for the wee ones." She sighed, tired, but spoke what was on her mind anyway. "I will need help from some mothers in Giaku. I know nothing about caring for pups..." Except what instinct gave her, of course. And that was that no matter what, she knew she would always love them, and the fact that without question, she will die for them.

"What about names?"

[demin]

The thought of the Dominus of Giaku, Ammon's second-in-command, being a plaything for pups amused the Emperor to no end. Now that all the panic and excitement was over, and the calm and contentment finally set in, the realization that he was a father again hit him like a ton of bricks. How was he supposed to be a father? Lacrimosa voiced her concerns about not knowing how to raise pups, suggesting she seek aid from mothers in Giaku. He, too, didn't know the first thing of raising children. His mother abandoned him after he'd lost his wings and leg, and the closest he ever had to a father was Charon. That, however, was the relationship between master and slave, a favored and well-treated slave, but a slave nonetheless.
"We'll manage something," Was all he could think of to say, having no real response to give. He was relieved when she switched the subject to naming the newborn pups.

Ammon wracked his thoughts for ideas for names. He thought of the two pups that never lived, and how the little black pup constantly called out and whined. It was absurd to think that this newborn pup was singing in remembrance of its dead siblings at such an early time in the little thing's life, but Ammon liked notion.
"The black one... how do you like 'Dirge?'"

[Aveilthé]

Dirge. At first, Lacrimosa thought it sounded too hard-sounding. But when she tried it out on her tongue, she was surprised to find how much it suited the black pup. "Dirge..." Oh yes. "It is a good, strong name for one with such strong lungs." She gazed proudly at the black pup, and then looked to Dirge's brother. "And the white one..." She fell silent, taking some time to contemplate. "I like Ammunae. It rings familiarity, for he looks a lot like his father." Only... something was a bit off. The pup brought back a memory from the recesses of her mind. Her sister is albino, and so was their father. "It runs in the family, and now our son..."

[demin]

A small sense of satisfaction welled up in the Ohm little black pup let out one little yelp as if acknowledging and accepting her name, before returning to its mother's breast to feed. Then the white pup was given its name.
"Ammunae..." He said to himself, trailing off. It was a good name, he thought. He liked the way it rolled off the tongue, and not at all because it was so similar to his own, surely.

Ammon's eyes stayed glued to his children, particularly on the newly dubbed Ammunae. He noticed little nubs marching in a straight line down the youngling's spine, surely a sign of the Druin in him. The pure white fur and pale scales on his belly put a tinge of fear in the Emperor. Albinism was seen as something of a bad omen in the Empire, especially during Endymion's lifetime. The Enemy of the World's actions had ingrained upon the populace of the Empire that those afflicted with white fur, pale flesh, and red eyes were bound to commit great evils. And now the Emperor and Empress had a child with such a curse. Lacrimoas had apparently been thinking along the same lines, and voiced her concern. However, Ammon wanted today, if only today, to be a time of joy and peace for the royal family. He didn't answer, and instead sidled up closer to his mate. The little white pup seemed to grow tired of suckling and gave a big yawn before cuddling up to his mother and falling fast asleep. Ammon thought to himself, 'How could this little ball of fur grow to be another Endymion?'