[FIN] No good sin goes unpunished (Palia x Mana)

[Sergeant Sargent]

"Where is he?" Palia snarled through her teeth as she stalked along the boarder of the pride where she first met the fiery male, the father of her burden.

That son of a b***h, it was his fault her belly was swollen so much! She could feel his filthy spawn squirming and kicking inside her. Parasites! She would bite his d**k off when she got a hold of him if she wasn't in so much discomfort herself. Her discomfort had steadily worsened since she arrived at the boarder under the cover of darkness. A twinge of instinct awakened deep inside her animal brain. She sensed her time was nearing. This frightened her and her fear fed her anger. Much as she hated cubs, she did not want to leave them out here to die.

Now, at last, she had his scent. The extreme circumstances that brought her here aroused her dull memories of him. Mananakbo - that was the b*****d's name. Forcing herself on in spite of her discomfort, she chased down his scent to the source. When she finally spotted him she slowed to a brisk trot to spare herself the agony.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mananakbo's ears perked up, unconsciously registering the sound of a heavy-footed approach even before his brain made the connection. At the same time, his blue eyes were turning toward the source of the sound. Once his mind caught up with his body's instinctive actions, Mana recognized the fiery markings of a female cheetah he'd met some time ago while out patrolling. Theirs had been a brief meeting, but particularly enjoyable. He had been in a good mood for days following it. Ah, the joy of sex!

Now, however, he noted that Tesanya did not look as he remembered her in his mind's eye. For a few seconds he wondered if it was a case of someone looking significantly less attractive by the light of day, but he was certain he would have remembered if she had been so round when they met. If she had been, he would have assumed she was pregnant, and even if she'd been flirtatious he would not have responded as he did. Some cats had no qualms about taking pregnant females, but Mana was not one of them.

In another second Mana's mind made another connection, one which left him cold. Tesanya was pregnant, and she seemed to think the children were his, and so she was coming here to...what? Force him to do the stand-up thing and make an honest cheetah of her? That didn't seem like something she would want, based on his very brief acquaintance with her. But what did she want, then? As he pondered this he walked cautiously toward her to spare her some distance.

"Friend or foe?" he asked guardedly.  

[Sergeant Sargent]

'Tesanya' stopped to let Mana close the gap for her. She stood up straight and held her head high. Despite her problems she managed to keep her fur looking neat if not shiny through the night she spent searching for him. Only her mane looked out of place. She glared at him with eyes like pools of ice. "I don't know. I didn't come here to cause trouble."

Even now she couldn't deny her eyes. Somehow that b*****d still managed to look handsome and charming. His beauty only deepened her loathing. Sure, he had his fun, but he had it for free and left her to carry the spoils. After all the cheetahs she slept with he was the first to give her regrets so the fault had to lie with him. This never would have happened if not for his carelessness.
 

[Princess_Feylin]

Mana nodded and tried not to stare at Tesanya's bulging stomach. He didn't think it looked very comfortable, being so swollen, and although he was reasonably certain it came from pregnancy rather than extreme overeating, Mana knew better than to mention it. At least, not first. Women tended to become testy when people implied they might be pregnant, in his experience. Testiness was something Mana could do without.

"I'm glad to hear that. Otherwise I really would have to chase you off." He left unsaid that he didn't feel chasing encumbered females off was a pursuit worthy of his time or abilities. In defense of his pride, he would do and had done less savory things, but that didn't mean he took pleasure in all of them.

"I suppose the next question, then, is what you're doing here. I hadn't really expected to see you so soon." Or ever again, for that matter. Not that he would have turned her away if she had been interested in another evening like their last one, but he really hadn't thought she'd be back, and he'd been all right with that. Her presence now unnerved him.

"It's a pleasant surprise," he added, turning on a charming grin that he didn't quite feel. Something about all this was very, very extraordinary, and Mana got the feeling that in the end it would mean more work for him.  

[Sergeant Sargent]

A pleasant surprise? A deep, dark rumble rose in her throat, her lips twitched with want of violence but she knew better than to start a fight in her present condition. She shifted her weight as her growl faded out. Her cubs were kicking inside of her.

"You really can't guess?" She sneered and bellowed, "These are your cubs you stupid hog! I came all this way to give them to you!"

Her cyan eyes twinkled with tears that even she couldn't explain. What a brilliant tactic to gain his sympathy, if that had only been her motive. Her eyes burned with fear, hate and remorse, but mostly fear. In all her life she had never felt so frightened for so long and she never truly believed she could, she who prided herself on reckless courage. The sincerity of her own emotions burned her from the inside. Swallowing the ache in her throat, she waddled toward him and said in a voice stretched thin as spider's silk, "I don't have a lot of time. You have to take me to a birthing den right now!"  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mana was taken aback by the ferocity of Tesanya's reaction. Not too many females growled at him. Not seriously, anyway. Sometimes in play...but he got the impression that Tesanya would have ripped his throat out if she could have. He thanked the spirits that he was in a better condition to run than she was. It wasn't very courageous to run from an attack, but it was also not very courageous to fight a pregnant female. Particularly not when she claimed to be carrying his cubs.

His cubs. Those were some words he didn't like even to think. He had not planned to have cubs for seasons and seasons yet. There was always the possibility he'd sired some cubs in his past, but if that was so, the cubs' mothers had never come in search of him. Unlike Tesanya. She had found him, and she seemed to be partly in terror and part in fury. He thought he might prefer to deal with her terrified than furious, but neither one was idea. Ideal would be if she had never shown up at all.

"How do you know they're mine?" he wanted to ask, and almost did. After all, if Tesanya was as flirtatious with other males as she had been with him, it was entirely possible the cubs belonged to someone else entirely. He didn't want to be responsible for some other person's offspring. He didn't even want to be responsible for his own, truth be told. He didn't feel particularly paternal. He didn't ask though. He couldn't bring himself to make the unspoken implications that question would bring.

"All right. I'm not exactly prepared to bring people back to the pride, and usually there are blindfolds involved and vows of silence." He trailed off. "You don't care about any of that right now, I'm guessing. Come with me. And be as quiet as you can be."  

[Sergeant Sargent]

Mana didn't have to speak. She saw that distrustful look in his eyes and knew exactly what he meant to say. He was right, of course. There had been other males, but that stopped as soon as Tesanya became aware of her situation. Even if she knew one of those other males had fathered her cubs she still would have come to Mana because he had a pride. She simply chose Mana because he was the easiest to find.

Tesanya pushed herself to follow him toward the birthing den. Despite the state she was in, she refused to let him see her stumble. Her appearance was far more important than the discomfort she endured.

The den finally lay in her sights. Tesanya, now trailing at Mana's flank, breathed deeply and pressed on. As they came to the entrance she passed Mana into the den as a dark, thick liquid dribbled down the inside of her back legs. She started to circle the den, her breathing coming in quick, deep gasps, but a look of pure anguish flashed across her drawn face and her back legs suddenly went limp. With her back legs strewn across the floor her tense upper body slowly sank with them, resisting all the way.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mana didn't look over his shoulder at Tesanya as he led the way. He was truly less worried about her than he was about someone else in the pride - anyone else - discovering what he was doing and what he had done. Already he was wondering if it would be possible to keep an entire litter of cubs secret. Aiko hadn't managed it so well, but her litter had been large. Perhaps if Tesanya only had a few cubs?

Even as he thought that, Mana's innate arrogance told him that if he really was the father, there was no way the litter could be small. He was far too virile a young cheetah to be anything but extremely fertile, and he suspected Tesanya was much the same. They'd probably end up with eight cubs, and there was no way he could hide a litter that large. And although he had many reasons that he should hide any litter, it would be a challenge for him to bend his pride that way.

As he pondered secrecy and how he would deal with all this, Mana was not unaware of Tesanya's difficulties. The respect he felt for her was not grudging at all, but freely given. It made it just a little easier for him not to resent her for showing up like this and complicating his life ridiculously. He knew she was afraid, but she was bearing it bravely, in spite of what he was sure was near-crippling pain. He had memories of his own of bing in so much pain it was easier to crawl than walk, and he couldn't help admiring her.

At first he thought she'd collapsed from pain within the den, but then he saw the thick, dark liquid smeared on the ground. Saw and smelled, really. He swallowed nervously, wondering if he dared fetch someone to assist with the birth. He wasn't personally acquainted with any of the healers or nannies who did this sort of thing, but he knew them by sight. Which meant they probably knew of him. It would be best if this was kept secret. He couldn't hide the cubs, but he might be able to hide the mother. Some things were more forbidden than others.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, hoping Tesanya would tell him No.  

[Sergeant Sargent]

Tesanya's breathing became more erratic. Her entire lower body felt as though it was coming apart in the jaws of crocodiles. She rolled onto her side in a vain attempt to relieve the intense pain, her paws sticking up in the air as her lower body quivered. She started to push, not because her instincts told her to push but because she wanted the pain to end. She wanted these goddamned parasites out.

She grit her teeth and tried not to scream. She prayed to the gods that she wouldn't scream.

"Mana... Mana this is all your faaaaaaaault!!"

Suddenly something started to emerge from her belly. Tesanya raised her hind legs and expelled the solid mass onto the floor. She managed to lift her head to look. The sight of the dark, blood covered mass sent a shiver of disgust through her. At first she swore it was dead. It looked more like a blob of inanimate meat and blood than something that was meant to be cute and fluffy. She threw back her head with tears staining her cheeks and let out a choked cry. What if they all came out dead!? She would kill Mana, she would kill him, yes, that was the only thing to do! It was all his ******** fault!

Somehow she found the courage to look again. Perhaps it was only the tears in her eyes. She blinked them away and licked the little blob's forehead. (It was the most disgusting thing she ever did.)

And the little blob mewed!

She snatched up the dark little protesting blob of fur and ooze and sat it down beside her. Although the licking of her rough tongue livened up the newborn she soon gave up on trying to make her presentable, for what she thought was more blood turned out to be the cub’s pelt. Only a few bright sparks of orange shone through. She left the first cub to suckle at her swollen tits (how ugly she had become!) and turned her attention to the second.

This cub took several minutes. At one point she had to stop to catch her breath. Pushing out her second was ten times more painful than her first, and when she finally saw the blob start to emerge she understood why. The little b*****d was coming out backwards. Tesanya writhed and snarled and bared her teeth to loudly curse Mana and all his horrid offspring. When she could stand it no longer she reached back and wrenched the wretched thing from her body. Within seconds the little hellion was crying like a banshee. Tesanya put it with the other one and muttered, “Oh, ******** shut up.”

Mana’s next brat came on the toes of the previous cub. Its birth was so quick and painless compared to the last that she almost didn’t notice when the little thing popped out. She licked it clean, sort of, and left it with the other two. This cub was much lighter in color than its siblings. ******** that.

She still hadn’t bothered to check any of the cub’s genders. After everything she went through delivering them, she could hardly wait to pass them off to the nearest feline with teets and make a break for the boarder.

The next two cubs were further up the birth canal. During her brief moment of rest, Tesanya did little more than breathe and glare at Mana, her tormenter. The mere sight of him looking so unblemished while her fur was bloody and matted made her want to swear off men all together. If she could stand she would have given serious consideration to castrating him here and now.

The final two cubs seemed to take even longer than the one who came out backwards, at least from Tesanya’s point of view. When she finished cleaning them off she saw that one of them was orange and brown where as the other was blue and white. The odd looking blue one probably came from Mana’s side.

Empty at last, Tesanya rested her head on her paws and glared up at Mana, tail tapping. She expected him to say something.

((OOC Note: The blue cub is Chi's other custom. As far as I know he hasn't arrived yet.))  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mana would have very much liked to cower. It wasn't that being shouted at or cursed or threatened was all that terrifying, given the position of the cheetah doing all that shouting, cursing, and threatening. That wasn't it at all. It was more that the sight of cubs being delivered was simply horrific. He felt sick to his stomach with a combination of guilt for putting Tesanye through this and out-and-out disgust at the copious amounts of insides he was seeing on the outside.

In a way, that was odd. Mana hunted as much and as well as the next cheetah. Better, if anyone was to ask him and had time to hear him boast. But the sheer amount of blood and gore and internal juices here had his stomach churning and roiling as if he was actually sympathetically going through birthing spasms with Tesanya. He was not, of course. His gut merely clenched whenever he saw something he didn't want to see, but made himself look at, and eventually all that gut-clenching became its own form of excruciating torment.

He made the decision to never, ever be present at a birth ever again. Not even a command from Nyoka would cause him to do so, he vowed. Spirits, but this was a foul business. And its products were so...unappealing looking. He might have helped with them nevertheless, since he did know cubs tended to get their own little sacs of slime when they were born which needed to be licked away, but Tesanye seemed to be taking care of all that. He was glad. No doubt she would have torn ribbons from his hide if he came close enough.

Just the same, he was pleased to see first one healthy cub and then another born, in spite of the obvious agony it put Tesanya through. The third cub, very pale, startled him a little. He had not expected to produce anything that pale. In the Mizimu, such a cub would have been a sacrifice. He thought the orange and brown one which came later might have been able to become a warrior. The first two cubs would have been totally acceptable, with the first going to the Claw and the other to the Heart. He wasn't among the Mizimu, he reminded himself.

That last cub bothered him. Something about it. How limp it was. He wasn't one hundred percent certain it was even alive. He wouldn't think about that now. That was the future, and he couldn't really make himself divide his attention between the present and the future at the moment.

"They're mine," he said. It was the first thing which came to mind after about a thousand repetitions of various apologies. "I'm sorry."  

[Sergeant Sargent]

Tesanya also noticed that the last cub made less of a fuss than the others. She was simply too exhausted to pay it any extra attention.

"You're not sorry," she said. Her voice was flat and stony. There was no arguing with that tone. She sighed quietly. "I'm going to take a nap now. In the mean time, I want you to find a nanny to look after your cubs once I leave. If you truly are sorry then it's the least you can do."

She knew better than to believe that a male, especially a male like Mana, could raise a litter of cubs on his own. There was more to being a mother than the ability to produce milk. Mana lacked that caring, motherly instinct, and so did she.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Mana looked at Tesanya and tried not to marvel too obviously at her strength. He wasn't one of those cheetahs who found motherhood beautiful or got warm, fuzzy feelings watching cubs nurse, but he could recognize strength and bravery. Tesanya had it in spades, and he admired that about her.

He even wanted to smile when she told him he wasn't sorry. She happened to be wrong on that count, though he was sorry for different things, perhaps, than she meant for him to regret. He didn't regret having sex with her, honestly. He didn't really even regret that it had resulted in cubs, if he was being brutally honest. He only regretted that she had returned to drop the blame and the cubs on him. He might have been angry with her for it, too, but the fact of the matter was that he couldn't help admiring her even now.

"I would have done that anyway," he muttered. "But I'll do it now, if you wish."

He stepped toward the entrance to the birthing den, casting a speculative glance at that last cub. He'd see what was to be done about it later. If it hadn't moved by the time he returned, he would have to assume it was dead, or too weak to survive, and dispose of it. He couldn't have Nyoka learning that he'd fathered a cub which couldn't survive on its own. She put too much faith in bloodlines. Mana put his faith in the spirits though, and going by that, his cubs would turn out well.  

[Sergeant Sargent]

After Mana left Tesanya turned her weary eyes on her cubs. His cubs. She scolded herself for that momentary lapse in thought, blamed it on fatigue. Their names and their future place in the pride would be up to Mana and whatever nanny he chose to raise them.

They would be great. She felt it in her heart. Tesanya was always one to trust her heart, it never let her down. Though they were not her's the fact that they shared her blood would see to their greatness.

She closed her eyes and went to sleep.

((Fin~ GO RP UR CUBBINS!!1!))