Welcome to Gaia! ::

Spring warmed and bloomed.

As the winds grew less bitter with cold, the lusher portions of Ayr became green again, and flowers sprinkled the long, rolling grasses of the great valleys and hills. Even in the harsher portions, where the rocky stacks of earth clawed for the sky like great teeth, patches of life pushed their way out stubbornly: tufts of green here and there tucked between the rock cliffs and cracks; vibrant blossoms, and long growing vines in some instances. Game became plentiful again, and in the later portion of the season, Detraeus hunted often, bringing in meat and furs, salting and storing or selling what they couldn’t eat and making use of the rest.

Well before Zaeyn’s arrival, his room was ready: winter furs aplenty on hold and tucked away into the cupboards, and crib stocked with the airier blankets he would need at first. The house was made safe for a child again, all small or dangerous objects well out of reach—though he wouldn’t be mobile for several months, it still seemed a worthwhile endeavor.

Weeks before the planned delivery date, Casseth, Lithian, and their daughters arrived as a ‘just in case’ precaution, though it turned out to be unnecessary. On arrival, Lithian assured both Detraeus and Araceli that the pregnancy was progressing exactly as it should, Zaeyn still healthy and growing, and he provided daily updates in the mornings when he checked on her.

When the ‘normal’ date drew ever nearer, Detraeus found himself especially restless, expecting at any moment that things would be underway. Their first two had come nearly a month early, after all. This boy, though, seemed content to take his allotted time for all its worth.

Lithian did not stray far. After having handled more deliveries at this point than he cared to remember — not only for his own daughters and his friends, but patients of various paths in the past — he knew better than to do a lot of things, including leaving the mother out of earshot. So it was that when Araceli called out, he was moving though she had not even managed to finish his name. He made it to her, supporting her at the elbow and waist.

“Alright, we’ve got this, you’re alright—you could have called before coming all the way down,” Lithian said. “How are you feeling?” He pushed out with his magic as he spoke, assessing her physical state and the pulsing contractions of her muscles, and soothing them while trying not to disrupt the process. “Do we need to get you back up the stairs? If he’s ready, we should have you to a bed.”

Behind him, Detraeus stood rigid, well beyond ‘ready’ as his gaze flicked from Lithian’s points of contact with his mate to Araceli herself. Despite the instinct to move between her and the dovaa man, though, he held himself at bay, restraining his input to a stiff tail lash and rigid attentiveness.

Lithian watched her, listening, and nodded as she finished. “We’ll get you to bed. I’d have expected him any day, and it seems…” Bracing her, he began helping her up, making no comment as Detraeus immediately moved to her opposite side to do the same, “…this little boy wanted to be right on time.” He gave her a smile. “I would not want to count all problems as avoided until the process is over, but…you truly are doing very well. Abronaxus may be giving you an easy time as recompense for the process you were put through for your first two…”

At Ara’s opposite side, Detraeus grunted. Despite being worlds better in terms of nerves than with Ataya and Akara — when every moment was another petrifying unknown — he still felt rigidly on edge, and no matter what Lithian said, would be so until the boy was safely delivered.

They did make it uneventfully up the steps, though, and into their bedroom. Lithian set Araceli up, making sure she was as comfortable as could be hoped for and promising that if it was another false alarm, they would bring her anything she needed, but cautioning that, even if so, she should try to remain upstairs just in case.

It couldn’t be long at this point.

Zaeyn Doryu came into the world in the early afternoon, in the first days of summer, healthy, loud, and about as generally ‘normal’ by all accounts as could possibly be expected of a hybrid child. He was paler than his brother and sister, inheriting a uniform, light, gray-lavender skin tone and the large, wide violet eyes of a dovaa youth. He sported spotty, gray scale-patches down the left half of his body, and the smallest of fleshy nubs on his forehead as though horns had started to come, but never quite made it.

Lithian, after cleaning and swaddling the child and handing him Araceli’s way, told her that there would be no way to know whether or not said lumps would ever fully develop into horns or not, but that there was no infection or danger there at the moment. Detraeus, for his part, could not have been more wildly relieved on all accounts. His mate was healthy. His child was healthy. The process, for all the potential of catastrophe, could not have gone more smoothly, and when he was first offered the boy to hold, he felt his breath lodge itself in his throat, thick as anything physical.

“My boy…” he murmured aloud. ‘My second boy,’ a niggling part of him added. His gaze flit to Araceli, and he leaned over, brushing his lips to her temple, and then her own lips, and lingering there. “He is perfect, sky princess…” ‘It is every relief to see you through it safe.’ “I could not possibly have asked for more.”

In his arms, Zaeyn stirred, lavender eyes wide and curious as they took in his new, alien surroundings.

Detraeus glanced up as Casseth walked in, feeling an unexpected swell of pride, though he couldn’t have placed why, precisely—other than the child in his arms, and the chance for the single closest friend he had had over the years to see him. In his arms, Zaeyn shifted, making a small burble of sound, and Detraeus adjusted him, watching Casseth as he approached.

There was, to Detraeus’ surprise as much as anything else, a splinter of possessiveness that surged at the request. A single moment where his grip tightened the barest fraction and he felt himself hold the boy in his arms the smallest big tighter to himself—but it passed, for Casseth was his friend. His closest friend, aside from his mate, and though Zaeyn was a tiny new addition to his life, there were few places where he would trust the child would be safer than in Casseth’s arms.

So, with a grunt of acknowledgement, he adjusted his grip again, and carefully lifted him out towards his friend. Zae, for his part, fussed. Being suspended midair, after all, without the comfort of a protective body, was an unwanted adventure after all he’d just been through.

A splinter of feeling worked through Detraeus as he watched Casseth take Zaeyn into his arms. It had been long—nearly twenty full years since they had last had children, and yet, it did not feel nearly so strange as he might have expected. Less strange, even, then the first time, and when Zae was passed back into his hold, he cradled him with a swelling sense of contentment. This time, he would do better. He knew better what to expect, and would use that appropriately. That was the promise he made to himself, leaning down and touching a kiss to Zaeyn’s forehead.

Across the bed, Lithian met his mate’s gaze, smiling. Then, after a reach and a touch with a pulse of magic to assure himself Araceli was indeed well, he pulled back, taking a step away from the bed and towards the door. He notched his head, encouraging his mate to follow.

Precious as these moments were, in time, they were best spent between the parents themselves, and Lithian and Casseth had things to discuss.