Cublets!!!
When she woke, she could already tell something was different. For one, her mate had managed to slip out without her having been aware of his departure... or at least not being awake enough to remember it. By the feeling of the bed, he had been gone for a while. Long enough for the heat of his body to have faded. His scent was still fresh though, comforting, enticing, familiar. He had not been gone for more than a few hours.... Hours, it was amusing to think of herself using the Human time. It was enough to cause the corner of her lips to twitch. Zia moved into a very feline-like stretch before crawling off of the bed and onto the floor then slowly rising to her feet to stand up.
The darker than coal skinned creature gave a soft swallow, taking note of the fact that the taste of her own mouth was different to her. Then, to further proove to herself that there was a change, she nicked the tip of her thumb, just enough to let a couple of drops of blood to well up before she licked it clean. Yes, there was a difference there as well. She could feel a different kind of blood flowing through her body. Her own scent had shifted as well, getting a slight tint to it that she could not fully remember catching before but that struck a chort of memory far in the depths of her mind... Their time of soul mingling life creating mating had been a success... She needed to find Hank. He needed to know if the changes hadn't already been happening when he had still been in the bed.
There were only a few places where her mate could be, his pattern being one that was not too difficult to memorize. The healing area, that was where he would be. Zia slid into her coverings before padding out of the bedchambers, the main territorry and into the corridors then, after giving a last lick at the already dried nick on her thumb, she made her way through the man-made tunnels and towards the place that had the same scent as where her mate and herself had first met. A soft low pleased hum of a sound came from the back of her throat as she entered through the doors. She then glanced around until she spotted the powerful and irrisistable form of her blue furred mate.
She crept up slowly behind him, giving him a light bite on the shoulder before moving around in front of him without making the distance between them grow much more than a couple fingers width away. "Do you have poison, dried leaves, and something to make fire? You will need those things." She stated with a serious nod. That was what the Human tradition was according to the faeries in the entertainment prison... When there was to be a child, they produced sticks of poison and leaves then lit the ends of them with fire. She had no clue on why poison was needed but she assumed it was to kill off any evil spirits that may be planning on trying to harm the cubs... But then why did the males place those things into their mouths? Mayhaps to test their own strentgh? If they survived the poison, they knew they were fit to be the companion to the female and the protector of the young?
Something had changed in Zia. Hank sat at his desk nursing a cup of the tea he seemed to have developed such a strong and unexpected liking for ever since his bizarre mind meld with ………….. and pondered, as all men do at one time or another on the mysteries of the woman who shared his life.
Their relationship had always been so explosive right from the first moment they had met , not so much a case of ‘love at first sight’ as a ‘coup de foudre’ the lightening strike that the French understood so well, dramatic, life changing and edged with danger. Now though there was something else. Not something bad, far from it. A small stable core in the middle of the whirlwind! A look of peace and contentment in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before!
Take this morning for example. Normally when his work forced him from her bed his movements were met by grumbles and those small bites that indicated either her disapproval or something infinitely more distracting and which had already sent him running late through the corridors on more than one occasion. Not today though. Today she had slept as soundly as a child and just as contentedly, not even seeming to notice he was going.
Hank wasn’t one of those men who would leap to the conclusion that this was a sign that the magic was wearing off , passion replaced by a complacency that would somehow slide further downhill until it became indifference. No he wasn’t worried about that ever happening between them. But he had to admit he was intrigued.
He thought he could trace the changes back to that moment of unbridled and unparalleled passion they had shared some time previously. Never again would he scoff at Hemmingway. When they had made love he had felt not only the earth move but the whole universe dance a tango. Never in all the years of his existence had he even imagined that he could experience something so intense. In fact there had been moments when he had been sure that no one could feel such intermingled desire and fulfilment and survive. Swiftly followed by the realisation that he didn’t care, that if death was the price he had to pay than he would have paid it willingly and thanked her with his last breath!
Hank smiled . He hadn’t died though, had he? Though maybe he had changed too. There was something in him. He could feel it. A humming along the nerves, a sensation on the skin like goosebumps, or static. An energy flowing through his veins that somehow balanced the calm that seemed to be settling upon his mate! The smile turned into a grin . Not that it was easy to spot.
Zia still had those spectacular and dramatic outbursts. In fact they were perhaps even more erratic than they had been before. Any little thing could set her off but still, despite that, Hank somehow sensed that there was a new stability forming beneath the surface. Maybe by committing so intensely to their union he had somehow overcome any last doubts she may have had about the depths of his feelings for her. He didn’t know. All he knew was that something had changed and his gut feeling told him it was for the better.
Hank rose and moved back to the work surface where he poured himself another cup of the fragrant brew. He didn’t realise how wrapped up in his thoughts he actually was till a nip on the shoulder told him that the object of his reflection had managed to catch him unawares almost making him spill the hot liquid over himself as she seemed to dance into sight. God she was beautiful, now as always, though there was a glow about her at that moment that caught his breath. Hank lost himself in her eyes, his face lighting up with her reflected brightness and waited for her to announce what had brought her to him. So it was hardly surprising her words when they came left him puzzled and confused
"Do you have poison, dried leaves, and something to make fire?” she asked him earnestly, driving home the importance of what she was saying by adding insistently “You will need those things." Hanks bafflement was plain to see though it was soon replaced by concern. Had he been wrong? Were the changes he had noticed in her not signs of growing contentment with their situation but rather the precursors of some strange disease that had now declared itself?
Setting down the cup Hank laid his hands on her shoulders and asked worriedly “Zia . Love. Why would I need poison? Is something the matter? Are you feeling all right?”
Re: Cublets!!!
She could see his confusion and surprise take physical form and as he rested his hands on her shoulders, she tilted her head to the side a bit confused by his reaction. She had already become a little confused when he had placed his drink down upon the table but his concern that he showed as he looked at her now was something she did not understand. Had she said it wrong? Those things were what were needed when the announcement of a change into the life of parenthood came, was it not?
“Zia . Love. Why would I need poison? Is something the matter? Are you feeling all right?” He asked her, making it clear that he did not understand... Or was it the illness that human females seemed to become stricken with after becoming with child that he worried about? Zia had never paid attention on when that illness arrived where the human females ran off at random moments to either curl up to themselves or to empty their stomachs. The whole thing never struck her interest very much even if it was enough of a break in normal pattern for her to take notice and to take small note of it.
"I do not know the purpose of the poison, I had planned on asking you what it is for." She told him, a bit confused by this point. Was the poison breathing not a part of Human customs? She had thought he would know for sure as he was born into the Human world and as he had spent his hole life around and submerged in the culture of the modern day. If he did not know then how was she supposed to have the answer herself? The had not had that custom back before her slumber and she had not been awake long enough to even try to desipher most of this modern time's strange rituals and customs.
"I was going to ask about if it was to ward away evil spirits or if it was some strange ritual which was a right of passage into fatherhood or if it were to strengthen you in some way where once your body fought off the poison it became stronger and leading you to be able to better protect your territorry." Zia said, her brows furrowing a little as she tried to figure out why he would not know what she was talking about still. "The faeries in the prison within our bedchamber had spoken of those 'sea-car' things as poison. Yet another time, when one of the faeries told a small male groups of them of becoming a father, they had all made appear those thick sticks made of wrapped poison leaves and lit one end with fire before breathing in the poison smoke and flashing their teeth as they endured the blackening of their lungs."
Re: Cublets!!!
His moment of pure reason didn’t last long but then it never did where this woman, his woman, named so by herself and no one else, was concerned. Instead, instinctively he readied himself, not to confront her strength with his own this time, but rather to protect her, even if he knew both in his heart and from experience that Zia needed no protection. Why then did this feeling rise in him as she grew near?
Oh god! Hank was so used to having happiness snatched away from him that for a moment his heart stood still, forced into believing that somehow his relationship with her had once again bred catastrophe. Because there was that sense of portent about her! About them both, together; and it spoke of drastic change. Of lives overturned, as his had been when he had seen her for the first time. Her being calling his towards the unknown as his had called her to a home she had never thought to have.
It had all been too spectacular and too soon. Their love! Their mating! He should have known that somewhere along the line it would go wrong. Though he had been sure that if anyone had to pay the price of their union it would have been him, betrayed by his unstable mutation rather than any defection on Zia’s part. But what if he had been wrong? What if he had let himself be blinded to any risk she too ran in this relationship by his own love and desires?
Because it was there to be read, this fierce softening in her! Lord he had read it himself and even welcomed it ! But now there was talk of poison and fire and a look in her eyes that he couldn’t read, made up as it was with expectation and confusion. Was she truly sick then? Had she come to him with hopes of a cure only to find him lost when she had needed him to be her salvation. Hank felt himself stiffening as if preparing for a blow as he waited for the words that could save or damn him. And those that came left him as fraught as ever.
"I do not know the purpose of the poison, I had planned on asking you what it is for." Zia told him enigmatically. Hank could feel himself tense, all too aware suddenly her bizarre origins and his inability as a doctor to fully comprehend them. How could he successfully treat a child of time and space if she were to fall ill? If he were to make her ill! Hank tried to calm himself. Zia had mated , indeed had even conceived and given birth to a child before and come through the experience without harm….. Or had she? Hanks heart missed a beat. Had her long sleep been a direct consequence of that union? He didn’t know. Stupidly he hadn’t thought to ask, preferring to live in the vital glorious present rather than in a past they had not shared and which somehow now seemed devoid of all colour because of that.
“Oh please” he suddenly found himself praying. “Please don’t ask me to give her up” And yet he would if it would save her. He would give anything if it would save her. It would just rip his soul out to let her go. And so he steeled himself, waiting for the sword that fate always seemed to hold above his head to fall and cut away his hopes of happiness with it. Waiting for Zia’s words! Though he couldn’t bring himself to understand them when they came.
"I was going to ask about if it was to ward away evil spirits” she said, gazing at him with eyes that held none of the fear that gripped him, but rather a deep contentment that shone even through her evident lack of understanding. Now it was Hank’s turn to be lost, though this confusion was infinitely better than the certainty of doom that had hung on him seconds earlier.
Like a starving man he hung now on Zia’s every word willing them towards something, anything, that would allow them to stay together, “or if it was some strange ritual which was a right of passage into fatherhood “ And in a flash the world went silent! Oh surely on some level Zia continued to speak of poison and territories but that was all background noise compared to the one essential word that had passed her lips Fatherhood! Surely that was out of reach. Surely that was…………………;
Things fell into place. Things that as a doctor he should have noticed but which his mind had somehow refused to recognised. But then again! Even if they had talked about it . Wanted it! Even if Zia had managed somehow to take him envisage that such a thing was not only possible b ut desirable. As he had always wanted it to be! As if any children he fathered could be safe and happy in this world.! Ohhh! With her at his side they could be. For she was beautiful past all measure. And she saw a beauty in him that he had renounced long ago
So all her incomprehension of ‘fairies’ and sea cars “ and the whole unlikely yet all too logical explanation of the celebration this moment called for only made it all the more precious now that he understood finally and wonderously what was going on.
Hank had been prepared to lose everything. To have to renounce his love and now…… The feline mutant stopped Zia's words with a kiss and drew her into his arms. “Tell me again” he said softly though his tears fell unheeded and unchecked down his cheeks.."Tell me we are to have cublets you and I !
Re: Cublets!!!
He seemed at unease the whole time that she had been speaking to him of the ritual of the sea-car and what it might be for. Zia didn't understand why he would be upset or bothered by all of this. If anything, she had thought that he would be happy with how excited he had seemed the first time she had mentioned cubs. She had thought that he wanted them as much or even more than she did. Watchign his fur bristle some as she continued made her somewhat at unease. That was until his whole set of emotions seemed to change when she reached the part of telling him of her curiosity on if it was the right of passage. Then, his expression had changed and he seemed to be in deep thought.
The excitement, she could almost feel it building up again in her mate and then came his arms around her as he kissed her. The kiss sent a tingle through her as it always seemed to do. “Tell me again...Tell me we are to have cublets you and I !" Tears, she knew what they were now and reached up to trace their trails questioningly with her fingertips. She then moved so she could groom the side of his face lightly with her tongue before she spoke.
"We are to have cublets... I do not know when they will come.. but they are here..." She replied, taking one of his hand in both of hers and directing it to her lower abdomen before placing it there so the palm rested on her skin. A couple of moments after, sh eleaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder as she wrapped her arms loosly around his waist. She felt tired, a bit drained of energy... But that was understandable as there were other lives that she was fueling besides her own. "But the poison sea-car... it is not needed?" She asked, confusion in her tone as she spoke softly into his ear.
"I will find you this traditional wrapping of leaves if you need me to. Just tell me of where it is harvested." She told him even as she nuzzled against him. Zia wanted everything to be right as she could not remember what had happened when Melantha had been made. She did not know if the lack of the ritual would cause harm on the new lives that were to come from her.
Edited by: The One Named Zia at: 5/8/07 1:15 pm
Re: Cublets!!!
Zia was warm in his arms, her tongue drawing its own path of pleasure over his face as he waited, hardly daring to believe that they would come, for the words that would change his life forever. But come they did and they were as glorious as he had always known they would be and as humbling. "We are to have cublets....”
Was this how Scott had felt when Jean had announced that she was pregnant. Hank didn’t think so. There had always been about the two of them an air of certainty that one day it would happen. No he suspected that the one who could best understand what he was feeling right now was Logan.Someone who like himself had never truly believed that he could have all the normal things in life, like love and children and a home and who had been overwhelmed when fate had given him all of that and more. Even if in his case it had been torn away again and in no little part by his own fault.
Hank wouldn’t let that happen though. This gift. this miracle he would hold close and keep safe. And love as much as any father had ever loved his child. Child.. or children? Hank reeled at the prospect. They had spoken of cublets but it had been an affectionate name for future offspring, hadnt it. Or had it in fact been something more. No sooner had the though crossed his mind than it was answered, leaving him once again breathless, and stunned by the true extent of his of his joy.
I do not know when they will come.. but they are here..." Zia said and Hank’s thoughts went whirling once again. They. Not him. Not her. They! It was almost too much to take in. He had gone from famine to abundance in such a short time , from having nothing in his life but his work and the school to this. Happiness. Fulfilment. A promise of clamour and chaos and sleepless nights that thrilled him to the core.
Eagerly he let her place his hand on her body willing himself to feel movement within, even though he knew it was impossible. It was too soon. But if he could not feel movement he could feel life. Or he thought he could. Maybe it was just imagination or wishful thinking but it seemed to him there was an energy there that he now sensed as if it called out to him telling him to wait. That it was coming. To him and Zia. And they had better be ready for it! As they would be.
Oh he had been ready for it all his adult life. He just hadn’t realised it till now. And Zia….. she was radiant with her own joy, a joy tempered only by fleeting concerns of improbable ceremonies that somehow held an importance to her that Hank didn’t fully understand though that in the end only made it all the more important that somehow he got them right "But the poison sea-car... it is not needed?" she asked worriedly "I will find you this traditional wrapping of leaves if you need me to. Just tell me of where it is harvested."
“I will smoke the cigars my love.. in fact I will smoke Logan’s best cigars. All of them if it makes you happy.” he told her with a laugh as he caught her up in his arms and swung her round. “I will do anything at all to make you happy and yet I fear I will never manage to bring you as much joy as you have brought me in this moment. Though I am willing to spend a lifetime trying!”
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