birthing; Leiland, Wrynn, Hestoni, any.

[Hestoni]

press my nose up to the glass around your heart i should’ve known i was weaker from the start In the days and hours and minutes of the spring season (which thereby includes birthing season), the titan keeps a careful watch on his fire. He always does, but whenever she is with child he is more careful than normal. And this time he is, perhaps, even more careful – her extremely swollen womb is in the same formation it was during her first pregnancy, a sure sign of not just one child but two. They had failed parenting their first twin daughters, something that’s obvious in the chilly lack of eldest sisters among their tight little family. While Simeon, Shaharizi, Ea, and now the two coming are all close with their parents, Kaida and Noori are torn from the family. It is their own doing, the titan is sure – their job of parenting had been so off the point of perfection that a brutal shard of an ice-wall separated the twins from their parents, siblings, and each other. Each time spring comes around, the red titan is forced to reflect on how much they have improved since then, and how he should get back into the art of loving his children – even the two he hasn’t seen in years. Nonetheless, caring for his fire is his immediate job and he sees to it that she is comfortable and relatively happy in the months of her pregnancy. When she heads out for a border patrol (just mere hours before the contractions of labor and groans of birthing pains bring forth two children), he keeps close. Sometimes he knows she can sense his presence; other times he likes to fancy a daydream where she is unaware of his careful watching and caring. The ripples of labor grip her sides before she is finished with the patrol, but he sees the determination in her dragon eyes. And she doesn’t lie down until she is back in that secure thicket where she birthed every other child except their dear daughter of the afterlife. Always irked by the process and deliverance and weakness of birthing, the titan steps back into the shadows and waits anxiously for their children to be born. It is only when she swears loudly that he steps away and springs through into the thicket, eyes searching for whatever thing she would curse upon. The first thing his eyes land on is the older of the two – a bay roan identical to Ea with the exception of the dragon eyes. And then to the other child – a bay (none of their children have been bay so far, it just seems genetically incorrect) filly with eyes that shift and change into colors more beautiful and strange than the Jungle’s own kaleidoscope. “Scorch!” His voice broke the haze of anger suddenly curling over the thicket. “They’re beautiful! And look at her eyes!” The filly, having an imperceptible sense of emotional feeling already, began explaining how sorry she was, as if something had happened that she had done. But the innocence in her color-changing eyes proved she didn’t know what she was talking about. “Oh, miele,” the titan cooed softly, “you don’t have anything to be sorry about.”