A New Squirrel

Ash is pacing quickly back and forth throughout the room, wringing her paws. She surprises herself at how quickly she's pacing, but she's clearly nervous.

Leon steps into the infirm to check on beasts here, it’s been a busy day as someone cut their paw on a knife cutting veggies and another fell down the stairs and broke an ankle, he sighs and checks some supplies and writes some quick notes as he looks over at Ash.

Ash catches sight of Leon and quickly rushes over to him, relief flooding her eyes, but there's still a hint of panic, "Leon! It's time. What should I do?!" Despite the slightly cryptic way she just announced she is going into labor, she hopes Leon knows what she means.

Leon blinks, he takes a big breath, "Ok, first thing is, least try and relax and be good to lay down, yes laying down is good as not good to stand right now"

Ash nods, but her eyes are still being slightly panicked. She starts taking deep breaths, trying to keep herself calm. She sits down on the edge of an unoccupied bed and frowns slightly as a light contraction goes through her lower back, "Are you sure lying down is the best thing to do?" She just wants to make sure she's doing this right.

Leon nods "Yes, it would be best I believe." He walks over to look at the herbs then stops yeah herbs don’t really work for this, he walks back over as a novice comes in he speaks "I need a small blanket and a clean cloth please.." The novice nods.

Ash nods again. She trusts Leon for the most part. She swings her legs up and over the side of the bed so she is now lying on her back and takes a few more deep breaths, wincing as a slightly harder contraction clenches into her back. She glances at Leon and asks in a slightly strained voice, "You have helped beasts give birth before, right?"

Leon doesn’t answer that right away, he has heard how but, he gives a small smile and asks, "Ok, how often is umm...pain coming?"

Ash frowns lightly when he does not answer the question and she's about to press him into an answer when she stops herself. Honestly, she'd rather not know considering if he hasn't, she'd probably be thrown into hysteria. She takes a deep breath and shrugs, "About ever nine, maybe eight minutes? Is that normal?" Maybe she being a tad overly cautious, but this IS her first time.

Leon thinks and nods "Believe so.." Ok is he a little worried, he looks around and frowns and looks back at her, "Ok, now let’s relax and try and breathe normal, birth is..a simple thing."

Ash nods for the third time and tries her best to breath as normal as possible. She raises an eyebrow, "It's simple? It hardly feels simple so far! Are you sure you've done this before?" She starting to breathe faster as she also gets a bit worried.

Leon sighs, "I am the Master Healer but..ok this is the first time I have done this, but not to worry"

Ash closes her eyes and takes a sharp breath as another contraction, this one being worse than the other two, wrenches through her. She takes a deep breath to calm herself and looks at Leon with mixed emotions flashing onto her face, "So you've never done this before? You do know what to do, right?" She forces her voice to be calm.

Leon stays calm and relaxed, best he can be,.."Yes, I make sure you and the baby are fine and that once its born your both healthy and ok, I know you breath calmly and when there is a urge to push, you would push and..the dibbun is born." He knows the basics, that is good.

Ash nods slowly. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about and that's good enough for her right now. A few minutes later she tenses up as another contraction squeezes into her back. Her breathing is more rapid and she looks quickly at Leon, "Is there any sort of herb or something that lessons pain?"

Leon remembers one "Raspberry leave.." He hurries to find some and finds a little, he don’t need much and mixes it with some water "This will help a little" He says and walks over to give her some. "And try not to breathe too fast"

Ash takes some of the mixture and shivers lightly, "That tastes...interesting." Then again, she really can't complain. She nods firmly at his breathing instructions, but just as she starts to breathe slower, a contraction clenches in her lower back and any thoughts of slow breathing leave. She groans quietly and squeezes her eyes shut, prepping for the next wave of pain.

Leon nods slowly, "Ok..so far so good. " He takes a pulse.

Flicktail walks by, and hears the voices. He stops looking over his left shoulder, his ears perked. At Leon's voice Flicktail enters in, ushering out a dibbun who had been following him. he pauses to wash his paws, as he's been taught when entering the abbey, before walking slowly toward Leon. He pauses looking at Ash. his wet black nose quivering slightly as his green eyes watch her with mild concern

Ash slowly opens her eyes and lets Leon takes her pulse, which is not all that slow. She sees Flicktail and offers a barley existent smile as for as a greeting goes and then a moment later another contraction goes through her back. She gives a half gasp, half groan and starts to pant lightly. Between breaths she asks to no one specifically, "Could I have some water?"

A few minutes late for her shift in the infirmary, Aeris hurries down the hallway towards the infirm, not aware of what's going on inside at the moment. She slows down a little bit as she comes near the doorway, her ears perking up at the sounds coming from within. She peeks her head around the door frame, peering in for a second before coming in entirely. "Ash?" she asks, a little confused, but realizing that it only makes sense, and she should have expected this, really. Nevertheless, she's a little bit shocked as she comes in, drawing as close to Leon and Ash as she feels is appropriate, which is still a fair distance away. She wrings her paws together a little nervously, but at her request hastens over to get a cup and fill it from a pitcher kept full in the infirmary. She gives it to Leon to give to the squirrel mother, not wanting to do so herself.

Flicktail looks confused "What' happening? Was Ash injured?' his tail wraps around himself. He slowly walks around and gets some cool water..but pauses to look at the healers to see if it is ok to give to her

Leon nods, he gets the water and gives it to Ash, "Small..sips, ok and relax and..this should go fine" He mutters "Hopefully"

Ash turns her head toward Aeris, smiling ever so slightly in greeting. She registers the tentative way Aeris carries herself, but does not comment on it. When Flicktail asks the question she takes a deep breath, preparing to answer, "I'm having a baby." Her voice is near a whisper, so it may be hard to hear. She props her head up on one arm and nods her thanks to Leon as he gives her the water. She frowns when Leon mutters , "Hopefully', but stops herself from asking what he means. Chances are, she doesn't want to know. She takes a smallish sip, though it turns out to be more of a gulp, which causes her to cough. She lays wearily back down on the pillow and holds the cup out, expecting someone will take it.

Flicktail blink blinks at what Ash says, and then his eyes roll up in his head and the white fox faints dead away...falling backwards across an empty bed ...the fox is out cold.

Leon nods to a novice to get the cup, he looks at Flicktail and sighs, "Wonderful..." He looks at Ash, "Ok..normal breaths..pains closer?"

Rowan walking in the room he raises a brow seeing his adopted father sleeping on one of the beds. "Flicktail sleeping on the job again? I'll give him a good wack of the rudder and wake him up for you if you want. He doesn't notice Ash yet and her larger belly.

Aeris leans in and takes the cup from Ash, setting it aside. As she's walking back towards the bed from putting the cup away she jumps a little as Flick just passes out. "What the..." she mutters, but is more focused on Ash at this point. She doesn't really have anything worth saying, but asks Leon, "Anythin' I kin do to help, mate? Or just keep out of tha way?" she turns to acknowledge Rowan's entrance, possibly recognizing him as none of her brother's Rangers. Either way, she hopes he'll deal with the unconscious fox.

Leon says, "Just keep her calm, she needs to be calm and it will go more smoothly"

Ash smiles faintly as Aeris takes the cup, and says in a quiet voice, "Thanks." She then looks wide eyed at Flicktail’s fallen form and gasps out, "Is he okay?" She nods slowly as Leon asks her if the pains are closer, "More or less, yes." She tries again to calm her breathing, but it's still rapid. She sees Rowan enter, but does not say anything for the moment. She cries out as another contraction comes, this one being worse than the others. She clenches her fists and takes quick, deep breathes.

Flicktail murmurs..trembling a bit, but otherwise his normally active tail is slack... he will come around slowly....but for now the fox's tongue loll's he's obviously never seen this before

The otteress moves close enough to crouch beside Ash's bed, rubbing her ears anxiously. "Yer going to be fine, dear, jus' fine." Aeris says, trying her best to be encouraging and calming like Leon suggested to her. She lays her paw on the bedside, offering it if Ash wants to take it, even though honestly they don't know each other all that well.

Rowan turns quickly as he hears Ash cry out. His rudder also hits Flicktail in the noggin quite hard even if he didn't meen to. "Are you hurt?!" He held his paws in worry at Ash.

Leon gets a clean cloth and blanket, they will be needed and a wet cloth for the squirrels forehead.

Ash cries out again as another contraction grips her back. In the middle of it, she grips Aeris's proffered paw just for something to hold onto and squeezes it maybe a little harder then she may have meant to. Once the contraction has passed she takes deep breaths, not bothering to try and slow them. She doesn't answer Rowan, figuring someone else will tell him.

Flicktail oophs as he is hit with the rudder and his eyes flicks, he sits up "Wah...Oh...me tummy feels all topsy turvey...wot...Ash said something bout...Dibbuns then the whole world went all..swirly...Rowan? Son...wot you doing here?" he rubs his head "You injured?"

Aeris grimaces just a little as her paw is clenched in a vise-like grip, but then again, she asked for it when she offered her paw. She just squeezes back a little bit, muttering, "Everything's gonna be jus' fine. Yer going ta be alright, okay?" she doesn't know how much affect her words have, but the least she can do is try to encourage Ash.

Rowan as he hears Flicktail’s words he quickly covers up the fresh whip mark on his shoulder "Aye, I'm fine, There’s a female rat with a whip who is robbing beasts and might have a male hamster hostage."

Leon keeps an eye on Ash, keeping track of when pain happens, "Calm...slow breaths"

Ash is soaked in sweat by now and she is to weary to answer Aeris, though she does hear the otteress speak and smiles faintly. At this time, her water has broken and the baby is crowned. A mere four minutes later, the baby has been born.

Flicktail's ears perk and he smiles "Oh MY! I must ring the bells! New life" the fox bolts for the door, so he doesn't feel queasy and to ring the abbey bells

As the child is born, Aeris smiles happily, squeezing Ash's paw back now, but not too hard. "See? Told ya you'd be jus' fine. Ya did it." she says, not sure how else to phrase things.

Leon makes sure both the mother and child are ok and then gets some rest. He has had a long day.