OOC: Yay! Been waiting ages for this ^^, defiantly gona use Asty.
IC:

How long had he just been walking this same long dusty path? It was dark when he started wasnt it? Time simply slips away from you when youre thinking deeply. Of course, hed stayed in that tree for a while, so maybe he hadnt been walking that long at all? The kit sighed, resuming his gaze into the shattered canopy of daylight and shadow cast leaves above. It was difficult for him to recognize waking from dreaming anymore. If sleep wasnt dreamless, it would merely reflect life like a dusty old mirror. Resently though, the nightmears had been plauging him once again. Sleep did not come easely, more from his reluctance to wake up screaming then from actual lack of tiredness. No body can truly understand anothers plight. But then again, Astral never saw things in the same light as others. From his appearance alone, you could immediately tell there was something different with him. Being a runt, the fox was already quite small for his age and his degraded stature only added to his pathetic facade, eyes dulled like they had once shone but he hadnt slept for a long time. Yet his gray fur was rucked up and untidy, his hair arranged in a seemingly random stile, as someone would expect when they first awake. His ears twitched to the sound of bird song, following their flights from branch to branch, envying their naivety and freedom from the constrains of life. For one so young, depression seemed to hang over him like a dark thunder cloud, sending those around him to cover despite their vain attempts to help him.

He came to his spot, the reason he paced the empty paths, just to get to this spot. It was located atop a small bolder made hill, in the roots of an achent Reed Oke. Sitting in the hollow at its base, the kit lay back against the ruff bark and turned his attention to a point above him, to a scar in the canopy from an old fallen tree, just the right shape to see the clouds drift over head. As he watched and named the fuzzy shapes over head, it came to him just how long hed been out here. Sally would be more then a little worried by now. No matter how many times he wandered off into the forest at night, she always got worried, it pussled the kit no end.

A wimpering near by sudenly dragged his attention, someone was just up the path. The kit nearly leapt into the air, no one ever came out here, apart from Sally when she wanted to find him, and he always heard her before he saw her. Pressing his back to the trunk, the kit listened carefully to the whimpering, they sounded too light to be swat bots luring him. Slowly, he peeked over the top of one of the large roots, dashing back down quickly as he saw the other kit, fearing it was one of the kids from Knothole.. but no, wait, he didnt recognize this one.. and why was it crying?
Turning around, the boy poked his nose above the trunk line, watching the other kit with a damp curiosity. The stranger looked a little older then him, or maybe about the same age, though his age was difficult to tell at the best of times anyway.
The kit retreated back to his origanl sitting position, holding his ears down in hope of not being spotted, he hated having to talk to people he didn't know, he was never any good at first impressions.

OOC: You baited Rico to hard... You know he wouldn't let me pass this one over.

It was gone, the horrid whisperings of things only hell itself would dare utter to a creature seeking heaven, the manifested pain of burning and the rank smell of death. All gone. Alive or dead, he didn't know. It can back slowly, the trial on the hell planet, the fight to stay alive, his escape into what he thought was a portal home. Slowly and painfull it came back.

He could feel dampness on his fur, through what was left of his garments. Wet grass, not heated dusty rocks. Was it an illusion of heaven? Or had he really escaped? He lay there for some time enjoying the cool breeze and soft grass, not wanting to move for fear it would vanish. Then came a soft whimpering, it was nearby. It could have been another trick to lure him into lowering his defenses, but they'd be lax for some time now. Was it real?

He felt the grass with his hands for a few moments before putting pressure to them and lifting himself to a sitting position. The whimpering came again, this time his ears where alert enough to realize the pitch and tone was a cub. They'd tried this trick before, but it was to get him to let his guard down. And he'd been unconscious for some time now. Red visions were replaced with blackness and peace, he finally realized his eyes were still closed. He'd been afraid to open them, afraid it was all a trick.

Again a small whine came, his weakness, his eyes opened. Blinding light made him wince at first. Slowly his eyes adjusted and a smile spread over his face forest, trees, grass, everything that was not painful appeared around him. He'd made it.

Ahead of him was a bundle of jackets near a tree, where the muffled crying was coming from. He stood, and rather un-gracefully fell back to all fours. Thinking better of trying it again he simply crawled over and leaned against the tree by the whimpering jacket. Still not able to get his mouth to form words.

The kits ears perked up very suddenly as a feeling washed though him, a cross between a stiff breeze and a cold ice cube being dropped down the back of his neck. Looking around in confusion for the feelings source, the youngling couldnt shake the unnerving sense of dread building in the back of his mind. Taking a deep breath, the kit once again peeped over the top of the root, gasping when he saw the rugged beaten fox that had appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. There were two of them!
Hiding once again, part of his mind screamed for him to just sneak away quietly and make a run back to knothole, back to his nice quiet safe room. But what if he was spotted?
Stay put he thought, safest if you stay put, they cant see you if you dont want them to... besides, this is 'your' spot. Why should you move because of them?

OoC: How can I resist this RP? Okay, new world, here I come!

BiC:

"EEEEEEEYAAAAAH!!!"

The scream ripped through the Great Forest like a knife.

"Push, Breech!"

"GODSDAMMIT I AM PUSHING, BURN!"

"You should have had it back at Knothole Hospital!" the ginger feline admonished the black feline who was halfway through labour.

"Those women... smug with their rings on their fingers... and their stupid husbands..." Breech gritted her teeth, "I'd rather... chew off my leg!"

Bernadette Loranski swallowed. She was not a doctor, a nurse or a midwife, but she was trying to help her cousin Bridget Loranski give birth in the middle of the forest.

She was seriously wishing she hadn't let herself be talked into it.

"Remember your breathing, and push!"

"****!" Breech screamed to the world.

A thunderous boom echoed through the forest as a small vehicle and its rider blasted through at breakneck speeds. As pitch black as the forest, the only sign of the vehicle's passing was the boom as it passed and the orange glow of its thrusters. The high-tech hoverbike looked like the spawn of a stealth fighter; black, light-absorbant, lacking a single right angle on its hull, and speedy as hell. Its rider piloted it expertly as it made its way towards a hidden village in the forest.

The pilot, anonymous in the concealing helmet, pushed the bike to its limit, going towards his destination with a feverish energy. He was eager to get home.

This is it. No more missions, I swear it. This is the last one. As soon as I get to Knothole, I'm going to crawl on my hands and knees to her and beg for forgiveness. If she doesn't rip my throat out, I'll go right to the Princess and hand her my resignation...

Underneath his helmet, he sighed, feeling guilty about words that he shouldn't have said in an argument that didn't have to happen before he left. But he would make things right, he promised. Following his resignation, he would be free to get his personal life in order, without having to worry about the world's concerns. He had done enough of that.

But as he noticed three still heat signatures on his helmet's HUD, he cursed his inability to just leave things be. Stupid and heroic acts must be programmed into his genetic code. He had to investigate. He slowed the bike and went into stealth mode, the engine sound reduced to a low hum as he neared the small cluster of people... Judging from the sizes, there was one adult there and two children.

Parking the bike, the pilot jumped off and quietly made his way towards the whimpering bundle, the crawling adult, and the kid that wanted to stay hidden, their heat signatures a bright orange-red against the blue of his helmet's infra-red vision.

"Hello?", he whispered.

The young dingo slapped her paws on her ears.
Her keen sense of hearing was badly damaged by the peicing scream that shredded through the forest.

It made her more agitated. She hadn't eaten for weeks, and was very hungry. She thought she could just shrug it off, but the pain of hunger was too much. She had spent the past few days searching in the damp soil for any scrap of food, but could find nothing.

Suddenly, she caught movement with her peripheral vision.
A tiny cub leaned against a tree, and there was another, older one behind a tree log.

The first thing she could think of was lunch, but when she saw the younger cub crying, she thought otherwise.
She didn't know weather to make head or tail of this situation.

What the heck is going on here? She thought.

"Push!" Burn repeated. The younger feline had little idea of what to do, only remembering that her cousin always had prefered to do things the hard way.

"SHUT UP, BURN!" Breech screamed, digging her claws into the tree behind her.

"Come on, Breech!" Burn tried to encourage her and remember something about childbirth from all the hospital television programmes she'd seen, "I can see its head!"

"Feels like I'm... trying to pass a bloody bowling ball!" Breech panted.

How long had it been? How long? Time seemed like to pass so fast by him. He blinked, as he looked ahead. Where was he now? This area was far from home, but mattered it did not. His home.... it was gone now, and only memmories remained. Both good and painful. The red fox's eyes winced as he scratched the back of his head- his long maroon hair dangling to his shoulders.
"Where am I now?" he muttered as he examined the Great Conferius Forest around him. Great indeed. If he'd known he had ventured so far from his home he'd be suprised himself. But far was good. That way the destroyers wouldn't know of his existence. He shrugged the thought off his 15 year old mind.
Lucas looked around and could of sworn he heard something, like a whimpering. Then a distant scream of pain and anguish. Femine. No doubt. At least the fox wouldn't think of himself of a total outcast anymore. Around two years ago he was deaf, but the more he attempted to strengthen communication and other such things his hearing began to slowly heal. At the momment he was only impaired of hearing - but he had his hearing back- and it was one thing that kept him smiling.
His black-tipped ears twitched as another yell of anguish filled the air.
"What the?" he muttered out.
The fox blinked as he rubbed his silver amulet, which in it held a green orb. He quickily straightened hi sopen dark brown vest and brushed off his dark brown pants. His black boots kicking up leaves as he ran towards the screams of pain.

"Hello??" he called out as he ran. His brown eyes full of worry.

"You ok?" He heard hismelf say out loud. Feeling was finally returning to his frazzled nerves. He forced himself to roll over to get a view of the jacket covered cub, then tested his arm again. Reach over and pulling the jacket aside to look at the cub. He didn't look injured, just scared, the fox winced a little forcing out quietly, "Are ya hurt?" Even in his own weakened state the fox was still more worried about this strange kid than himself.

The cubs fur was a orange red with a single tail tipped with orange and yellow and his eyes were bright yellow. He trembled at the sight of all the stangers around him. He moved away from the fox that had spoken to him and hid behind the tree. As if he were trying to hide from all these eyes that were on him. He didn't like being around so many that he didn't know without his momma around.

A pained grunt came from the older fox as he lost his balance due to the youngster darting back. "Hey, I'm just tryin ta help. Eh... Oh man..." He trailed off collapsing onto the ground, his paw falling short of the cub's foot.

He didn't know what to do. His momma had always told him to be wary around strangers. "Momma..." he whimpered again looking down at the strange fox before him. He didn't know if he could trust him. He just seemingly appeared out of nowhere. If he had approached he would have heard him like he had heard the others. The one that was hiding behind the tree, the one on the machine and a few others.

The fox groaned and tried in vain to pull himself up, "Uhh, name's Rick, looks like you ain't the only one that needs some help." He swallowed and looked up and the cowering cub, seemed they both had their problems.

"Heh, well what do you know? Figures that I'd run into you again around lost children.", the helmeted figure said as he reached down, grabbed onto Rico's arm, and pulled him to his feet.

The rider of the hoverbike turned to the cowering figure of the young kit.

"Don't worry, little guy. I'm not going to hurt you. Is your mother around here somewhere?"

It seemed that wasn't the only hoverbike around the forest. A young woman with short purple hair rode his hoverbike at high speeds through the forest. She hadn't came much to the forest, knowing it was full of those silly furries but she didn't mind. It was a shortcut and she felt adventerous that day. She suddenly looked up to see a large tree coming up in her view, real fast. She knew turning was out of the question so before it hit, she jumped off and rolled along the ground, crashing through several bushes before rolling into a small clearing where two foxes and another hoverbike rider were gathered. She let her head fall back down, quite sore from her little excercise and she groaned.

The gray kit let out a sizeable yelp as he heard the rending explotion of something heavy and metal crashing into something nearby, clamping his hands over his ears and gritting his teath as part of the hover bike bounced past his spot. 'What the heck is going on today? Why is everyone sudenly intrested in 'my' spot!' he thought weirly, turning his atention back to the sky.
"Just ignore them, and they'll leave you alone" the kit muttered quietly, remembering what Sally had told him about dealing with bullies. It wasn't that he was afraid of eveyone, it was simply a case that experiance had taught him that people in general, especialy those about his age wern't exactly very nice. "Just ignore them, and they'll leave you alone" he repeated again.

It was a peaceful scene, the sun was shinning, the sky was blue and there was not a single cloud in the sky. The young feline smiled lightly to him self as he looked down upon the world from his high vantage point. He was in the air, flying no less. This wouldnt seem all the possible for the kitten to defy logic and the laws of physics to even do such a thing. Luckily for Craig such concepts didnt matter in the dreaming world. So he continued to sore through the open skies without a care in the world, letting the wind ruffle his black fur as it passed him by. The 10 year old was truly content in staying high above.

EEEEEEEYAAAAAH!

GODSDAMMIT! I AM PUSHING, BURN!

Craig soon started to wobble a bit as the smile on his face soon faded. What was going on? He wondered silently to himself as he steadied himself off. When all seemed safe the kitten soon found himself plummeting down toward ground.

********!
Craig awoke from his mid-day nap, groggy at first as he rubbing the sleep from his eyes and slowly sat up. He was on a bed of broken twigs and grass, in some hollowed out portion of a large tree. The young feline then crawled out of bed and toward the opening, poking his head out to try and locate the source of the disturbance.

SHUT UP BURN!

Craigs ears pushed up against his skull as he shot a glance down toward the ground. There! It was two cats, both of them at the base of the tree; the tree in which he had been living in for the past several months. One was in great pain, obviously, but for reasons unknown to the kitten. And the other one, this Burn person, didnt seem to know what she was doing and kept saying something about pushing. This confused Craig as he leaned further out of the hole in the side of the tree. What was going on? he wondered silently to himself. So he stayed there and continued to observe silently from his high vantage point.

Bowling ball? he quirked a brow at the comment, which only seemed to confuse him more so then he already was.

ooc: good greif there's a lot of young'ns in this Rp Thats... what, five so far? Six if you count the one on his/her way in

"I... wish... James... was... here!" Breech panted.

"So do I," muttered Burn, "He might know something about childbirth..."

"EEEEEAAAAARRRRGHCRAP!!!" Breech screamed again.

"Hello?"

"Oh... gods!" Breech panted.

Burn looked up at the fox, "Are you James?" she asked hopefully.

"NO HE ISN'T YOU GIMBOID!" Breech screamed at her.

Lucas blinked.

Burn pulled a large towel out of a backpack and lay it on the forest floor carefully, then a large plastic bag, "Right, do you know anything about childbirth?" she asked hopefully.

"WOULD HE BE HERE IF HE DID?!" Breech screamed at her, and pushed again. She wasn't regretting coming out into the forest as soon as her waters had broken with her incompetant slag of a cousin. She'd passed that stage of regret about three hours ago.

Burn returned her attention to Breech, then stopped and looked up into the tree. A kitten was looking down at the pair of them, with unabridged interest.

"Uh, Breech?"

"WHAT?!" Breech shouted, and burst into tears.

"Uh... nothing important."

Breech continued to strain, paying little attention to the two onlookers, while Burn tried to get a careful grip on the head of the emerging baby.

"Least I know where I am..." The fox muttered leaning heavily on the bike, "Ugh... Remind me to thank Kenji for a lovely weekend."

The cub folded his ears back against his skull. He was unsure about these two, and the screams and explosions echoing in the forest didn't help. "Momma..." he sniffled. "Momma led them away... Momma said she'd come back..." he said as little tears formed in his eyes.

OOC: ahh crap, ok, I'm confused, tornadot's charactor crash near Rico, Serori and james? or did she crash near Breech? Cus I just wrot my last post as though she just landed in our clearing.

ooc: she said that she landed where two foxes were (Rico and James) and a hover bike (James' ride.) so yes i would think she landed near Rico, Froggy, and I, Ast. I just forgot to add that. @.@ I'm not awake yet so bare with me.

ooc: Np, I know what you meen, I feel like that 24/7 ^^

Lucas winced. This was child-birth he'd seen his mother do it to his baby sister three years earlier. But he wasn't entirely sure how to help. He just put his hand on one of her shoulders and tried to calm her.
"Calm down, and just push. Nothing more, nothing less..." he whispered as he bit his lip. He hoped the cat would be alright.

"Calm..." he muttered.

It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, the fox always went completely soft when it came to kids in distress. But the fox's response to the cub's whining was slightly more harsh than he remembered, "First time's always the worst, kid. It'll get easier next time."

The cub didn't really know what the older fox meant by that by he didn't like the way it was said. "Momma's just lost... we never been in the forest before..."

The hoverbike pilot placed one hand on Rico's shoulder and squeezed painfully hard.

"Maybe we should a bit more sympathetic to the kid, hmm?", he whispered harshly.

He moved away from the other fox and looked at the other downed rider.

"Are you ok? Can you stand?"

Riku nodded, while still on the ground. "Yea, I'm sort of okay. Took a good tumble there but I'm okay," She said. She pulled off her broken helmet and tossed it to the side. "Name's Riku."

"Ah... ah... YEEEAAARRRGH!!!" Breech screamed again. It didn't seem that such a loud sound could come from such a petite frame.

Another lasso of pain gripped her hips.

Lucas was suddenly aware of a small hand squeezing his own tightly. Claws dug into his paw, drawing some blood. He was a part of this now; he'd made himself a part of it.

"Just a couple more good pushes, Breech!" Burn enthusd, "Come on, I've never seen a woman give birth for real before!"

"GYAAAAAAAAAH!" Breech screamed, lying down flat on the grass and pushing harder than ever.

The rider offered a hand.

"Mine's James.", he said as he pulled Riku to her feet, "You had a nasty spill there. Piloting one of those things at night is dangerous you know..."

Suddenly, he froze. He turned and looked in a direction behind him. He slipped the biker helmet off his head to reveal a dark-oranged furred fox with blue green eyes. His ears twitched, picking up on some faint sound. He turned back around and handed Riku his helmet.

"Can you hold onto this for me? I'll be right back, I just need to check something out..."

He turned and started jogging in that direction, his ears rotating like little radar dishes, searching for that sound again. He heard it...it sounded like a scream of pain. More trouble? Maybe it was the little kit's mother. But then he heard it again, and the voice sounded awfully familiar... His eyes widened and his jog speed up into a run.

"Breech?!", he shouted down the path.

Riku nodded and took the helmet. She could hear the screams but she could hear them like the young woman was right next to her. She sighed and looked to the other foxes. "So uh...what's up?" She asked.

"WSTFRIG!" Breech screamed, a difficult feat.

She let go of Lucas' paw and started hitting the ground, crying out again.

"Breech?!"

"Huh?" she panted, her claws retracting, "J-James?"

Burn looked up at the fox who burst into the clearing and raised an eyebrow, "You're James?" she said, "Wow, Breech chose a looker for once-"

James ignored her and went straight to Breech.

"James!" Breech gasped.

James didn't know the feline with Breech, although there was an uncanny resemblance between the two...introductions would have to wait, though. It didn't take the fox long to figure out what was going on. He dropped to his knees beside Breech and took her paw in his, squeezing it tightly, reassuringly.

"It's alright, Breech. I'm here..."

Breech was giving birth. But in the middle of the forest? Why wasn't she in the hospital? Was it because of him? It was too late to do anything about it... He was afraid to move her, so he just kept holding her paw, hoping that his presence would help.

"I'm sorry, Breech. I should have been here. It was stupid of me to go. I'm resigning as soon as I get to Knothole.", he said all in a rush. He was scared. An understandable reaction to your mate writing on the ground and screaming in agony.

"Its going to be alright, Breech. Just keep breathing and push. Look into my eyes and stay with me here..."

Breech looked up at James obediently. She knew why she wasn't in Knothole hospital. But no... not now...

She strained again, she pushed and grunted and squeezed and screamed, and just when she thought she was going to turn inside out from pain, her body parted and a head thrust its way into existance.

Burn supported the child's head in her paws, while Breech pushed again. First one shiulder wriggled its way free, then the other, and suddenly the child slithered out into her arms, trailing a black umbilical cord.

Some string and a claw cut later, Burn was holding it upside down by a leg. She gave it a slap on the back, to open the mouth and let it know what the world had in store for it.

Then she handed it to the panting Breech.

It was (flips coin) a girl. Claws like a cat, tail like a fox. Teeth and nose pointed like a dog, fur red and tabby.

A cat-dog. A little baby Skoffin.

Breech panted some more and cradled it in her arms, trying to think of a name before she could pass out. She was just so exausted.

James chuckled softly and caressed Breech's cheek lovingly.

"Its alright. You did good, Breech."

The fox looked down at his daughter with watery eyes, tears of happiness beginning to stream down his furry cheeks.He smiled down at her widely, and nuzzled her gently.

"Hi there, little girl. I'm your daddy..."

He looked up at the other feline that had helped Breech out.

"Thank you, uh...", he said, searching and failing to find her name.

He shook his head and laid down beside Breech, cuddling their child between them.

He went down again between the rushing off of his old quasi-nemisis and the added injury to his already crippled swordarm, the fox fell. Catching himself with his good hand and rolling unto his back breathing painfully adding his his earlier comment about the cyborgs, "But I wish they did."

He calmed himself down blocking the new found pain out like he had the rest before finally speaking again still on his back holding his arm. "Riku, was it? Careful of that other fox, you can't trust him." He rolled back unto his side after a minute or two and used his left arm to force himself to a sitting position. He breathed heavily, as if the ordeal had already tired him out. "Hey kid, you said someone was after you and your mother." He paused till the the cub made eye contact with him, "Who?"

"Bernadette," said the ginger feline, "But people call me Burn." She smirked. If there had been any doubt previous to now that the two felines were not related, this dispelled it. Nobody but a Loranski could make a smirk look pleased to see you.

Breech expressed an expletive that had been out of use for nearly 700 years, and finally decided on a name for the damp bundle of fur in her arms.

"Dinah," she said.

'Dinah' opened a small mouth very wide and started to cry. Breech just smiled again, and started breastfeeding.

"I never want to have children, ever ever ever again," she said, well aware that she'd said those words before, some years previously.

The cub shook his head gently. "I donno... they were tall and shiney and talked funny..."

OOC: I said ok to a non-graphic birth scene. You're pushing it again showing off your coconuts. Keep yer shirt on. o.-

Rico popped his neck, "I'm tall. Shiney? Watcha mean? Some other race er somethin'?"

Luke leaned aganist a nearby tree, holding his bleeding hand in which Breech had grasped onto earleir during birth of Dinah. Dinah, thats what she named her right? Luke beleived so. The red fox sighed as he retrieved a peice of cloth - one of his wristbands and tied it around his bleeding hand to stop the bleeding. It indeed did stop, and the one-tailed kitsune sighed in relief. He turned to look at James - he looked fammilar. But he couldn't place it. Then again Luke was focused on other matters in his mind.

"Eh.." he sighed.

Riku didn't try to talk to the younger fox. She doubted she'd be of any help. She toyed with the helmet in her hand and sighed. "What is a kid like you doing way out here anyway? What kind of parents do you have?"

Breech looked up at Luke, "Thankyou," she said quietly, cradling Dinah in her arms, "And sorry for hurting your hand."

Creeping to the edge of the tree root, the weedy cub peeked around into the clearing, watching the overlander and elder fox helping the kit. They were distracted, now was his chance to slip away. Spotting his exit, the bushes on the other side of the clearing, the kit cleched what little mussle he had and preparied to make a dash for it as quietly as he could manage.

James sighed and continued snuggling with Breech and the newest member of their familly. He felt emotionally drained after all that...although he thought it was safe to assume that Breech was even more so.

He looked up at Burn and wondered how exactly she was related to Breech. He knew all her siblings were dead, so she couldn't be a sister. He figured Breech would introduce them later, after she had recovered.

He looked over and behind him at the other young fox that had joined them and smiled.

"Thanks a lot to you too."

He closed his eyes and took a few deep, cleansing breaths. They would probably have to stay there for some time until Breech was ready to move again. He was eager to get back to Knothole. He wanted to see Tails again and introduce him to his sister. He wanted to see Sally so he could finally be free of his guardsman duty.

But it could wait.

(Hey, Rico, you DO realize that just about everyone in Knothole is naked, right? Its a nudist colony! )

Breech sighed and tried to stand. She wanted to sleep forever, but she couldn't sleep here.

"We... have to get back," she said, struggling to her feet.

OOC: Currently nudity is against the rules in the RP Guild. The moderators have no control over these rules and to alleviate the issue you need to contact the RP guild administrator, Samanfur. Thank you for posting on the SHQ MB! ~Rico

James helped Breech to her feet and held onto her as they started walking towards Knothole. He felt bad about leaving that kit in the forest...but then, he wasn't needed there. There were others around him more than willing to help out. The guardsman could worry about that later.

OoC: Yes, and when we get back to Knothole we'll tell Sonic to put some clothes on.

BiC:
Breech leant on James heavily; he was carrying her, and she was carrying Dinah, who had just finished feeding and was curled up in her mother's arms.

"I've never had a chance to be a real mother before," said Breech, "I... I still don't know if I'll be any good at it."