II - Don't Fret | The Endless Forest

Lay your head down child.
Warning for some mildly dark themes.

It had been a few hours since the stag had accidentally witnessed the birth of a pair of twins, deep within the endless forest. So many smiling onlookers gathered around that it piqued the cream males interest despite his usual aversion to crowds and social events. He cared very little for the actual concept; he did not know the doe or her mate and would only have roused from his sprawled, laying position if the chance to eat the remains of potential stillborn arose.

Not close enough to view any intimacies the large male started to reflect back on the numbing feeling of betrayal and disappointment from his own failed attempt at fatherhood. Unable to feel grief or mourning in a ‘normal’ way, Alabaster could only scowl deeply watching the new father in the distance nose at his newborns and feel envious.

He wanted his babies back, all the effort he’d gone through to get them and try and maintain them yet the failed to thrive in Embers care. Though he did openly blame the ashen stag for his mistakes, he also more secretly assumed that it was their age and lack of true natal care that had ended their lives so soon.

The male hardly moved when the others had dispersed from the event, but when he did he returned only to his den and nosed around it idly. Sort of glad for the solitude as he moved down towards the graves of his adopted children and lay upon the earth. There was no grief, no sadness but that all consuming feeling, like he was a jar full of a thick liquid akin to blood that was settled and felt heavy in his gut.

Deciding to work it off, the warlord pulled himself to his hooves and started to walk away from the den, past the idols and out further and further into the woods.

His strides were long and seeming with purpose, but there was little behind them. Perhaps he was just trying to clear his head, but knowing the blond stag it was probably more because he wasn’t sure what he was to do with himself.

What he wanted could not easily acquire, even the last time that he achieved his goal it was not anticipated or planned beforehand but more of an accidental incident that went against his usual personality would have dictated.

It must have been hours, through the night he walked and although added it to his mental map so he was sure on how to return, he had never walked this far east. Alabaster hardly looked up when the sun had started to peer through the clouds and instead recalled how he’d spent his days after the death of the first twins.

As if coincidence or some odd chance of fate by a cruel god, when the lammergeier did lift his red-hued eyes the first thing he saw was a pair of fawns, curled together at the base of a large tree partially hidden by an overgrown fern. The vulture stopped and dipped his head slightly, eyeing them.

With that he veered towards the nearest tree and slipped behind it, peering round slowly before the impulses that seemed so faint shuddered through his system like a lightning strike. A slight smirk played on the edges of his thin lips, and Alabaster leant back, slinking to a good vantage point where he remained.

-

Hunger gnawed at their stomachs like a dog on a bone. It'd been roughly two days since anyone had come to care for them, their adoptive mother seemingly nonexistent. The pale albino leaned close to his brother, lip quivering;

"I think they're gone Khons." He muttered, pale blues frantically seeking out the area around them for the familiar faces of their adoptive parents.

"I'm sure we'll be fine, they'll come back. You'll see." His brother muttered, his own eyes watching the ever darkening forest with an uneasy gaze. His ears twitching as the sound of hoof falls caught his attention.

They both snapped their heads towards the reoccurring stranger; a white stag that they'd seen meandering around earlier that day. He seemed to come and go just as any other passerby would so he hadn't drawn their attention till now. The twins glanced at each other before shrugging off the feeling of unease, surely this stranger wasn't purposefully watching them.

However, they would come to find out that they were in fact being watched. The pale stag had been lurking back and forth for hours, interest peaked by raging emotion as he moved between vantage points and observed them all afternoon. The need for replacement children was too much and these little frightened tid-bits were the perfect solution.

When the white fawn swallowed his fear and rose, legs slightly wobbly with youth, to confront the large male;

"Mister, have you seen our mother? She's grey with white bits." He questioned, voice high pitched from a mixture of emotion and youth.

With each step towards the male the melenoid brother's gut sank. This stranger was setting off alarm bells in his head, yet Ahmose was bold enough to ignore them out of hunger and need to see the two of them in safe loving arms. With a childish sound of exasperation, the black fawn rose to his hooves to prance after his brother, unwilling to allow anything bad to happen to him. Besides, he too was curious of the white male with shiny bits atop his head.

Fate was definitely smiling at the warlord for the children came right to him, as if pulled by a string. Attracted to his MANLY MAN nature, perhaps? Straitening his stance, he struck a pose he hoped was that of a strong fatherly figure, hoping to further soothe the clearly nervous children;

"I did see her. Down by the river on my way here.” The lammergeier purred, dipping his head to get closer to the fawns eyelevel; “"As she passed she told me that she was leaving, and wouldn’t be coming back here.”

Ahmose stopped not three feet in front of the male, pale face tilting so that his icy blues could bat up at him with the innocence that only children hold;

"She left? Why would she do that? We're her good boys." His lip quivered at the thought of being abandoned the haunting feeling of being alone consuming his innocent light, snuffing it in a matter of seconds. The fawn looked quite dejected and when large silent tears leaked from the corners of his eyes his brother joined him at his side, nosing the tears away the moment he noticed them.

"Ahmose. Don't cry, we'll be okay. We'll be fine, mother -will- come back." He assured him, casting a glance at the stag, a silent plea to help them before his own sides wracked with sobs. They didn't want to be alone in the big scary forest without someone to love them.

Pathetic. Alabaster’s steady, fatherly stare (one he’d referenced from his own father figure many times) only softened as he leant forwards and touched gently at their faces, each in turn, before running his nose and mouth over their foreheads;

“Shhhh~” he crooned gently, pausing to lick away their tears “-don’t worry. I will look after you.”

The two sobbing children could only look up at him, their faces creased as they struggled to stop the tears already coming no matter how much Alabaster nuzzled and touched at them comfortingly. Standing back up and nodding slowly;

“Come. I’ll be your daddy and I promise I won’t ever abandon you.”

-

Tucking the two new babies into the den and nosing them over and over, each in turn whether they protested to him or not, the lammergeier towered over them for a moment before carefully laying the weight of his chest upon their tiny frames, tucking the tired offspring under his thick fur and churring to them throatily like a broody hen. They were triggering what little nurturing he had, and once it started it poured out of him heavily.

Pulling his long neck around his own body protectively he cocooned them, feeling the numbness fade through his chest and down his legs as if he was being cleansed by the lightly struggling bodies adjusting themselves under him. Alabaster wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, perhaps he had fallen asleep during that time, but something roused his attention:

Familiar hooffall, he recognised Embers gait easily and raised his head. His own gaze was odd, a mixture of glee and excitement but heavily tainted by just how unnatural those emotions were to him. The ashen stag slowed down when he caught sight of the other’s face, he knew immediately that something was wrong.

“Ember,” Came the soft and still very elated purr; “Ember come look.”

With that the warlord got to his hooves very slowly, revealing the mismatched infants beneath his frame that let out a couple of irritated or displeased noises from the once semi-suffocating warmth and comfort receding from them.

“These are mine. I got them for us. They’re mine.” Conflicting himself in the same sentence yet the strangely somewhat-affectionate stare moved down to the two fawns, now peering silently at the newcomer.

Ember didn’t have much time to think about how foreign Alabasters tone of voice was. As he moved forward timidly, he was met with the faces of two small fawns huddled together underneath the large stag. ‘Oh god no’ was his first thought as he took a step back. Alabaster had spoken about getting more fawns but Ember never imagined it would happen so quickly. He wasn’t ready for this, he knew he wasn’t ready for this and it was already too much for him. However, if he faulted now then who knew what the larger male would do.

He took a deep breath and slowly started moving forward again, eyes fixed on the fawns. The buck would never ask where these fawns came from, just like he never asked about the origins of the previous twins.

“Th...” his words seemed to get stuck momentarily as he tried saying something positive; “They’re beautiful” he heard himself say, trying to sound as happy as possible. Ember never looked up at Alabaster, he was afraid that the other would notice how uneasy he really was.

A sinking feeling began to swell inside him as the thought of more fawns began to finally sink in. The fear and loss of the previous fawns soon came back to him after weeks of slow recovery, physically and mentally. However, he knew there was no getting out of this, there was no choice in this matter.

“Do they...have names?” he said as he looked at the fawns one at a time, taking in their features properly.

"I’m Ah-“

The albino child opened his mouth to speak, but Alabaster immediately cut him off;

“No. We’re going to be their parents, so we will give them new names. Their old parents abandoned them cruelly and I don’t think they should be reminded of it”

Curious eyes stared up at the tall, cream stag who chose not to look at them, instead fixing Ember with a hard to read expression;

“You can name the black one. I have already named the white male Kalidas.”

Ahmose stared in absolute confusion, he had to take a new name because his new daddy, this graceful and kind creature had given it to him to cleanse him, but it was so unfamiliar and he did not wholly understand why.

Khons however turned to stare at Ember, carefully pulling himself to his slender dark legs and venturing closer to the ashen male, sniffing cautiously before glancing back as Alabaster slowly lay back down, catching the newly renamed Kalidas between his forelegs and grooming his head roughly.

“R-Rameses?” Ember murmured, using his knowledge of Alabasters love for Egyptian things (from the name he had chosen for their daughter originally) to make his choice, glancing between his large mate and the soft dark skinned face that had turned back to peer up at him. Such an innocent little creature yet so many reminders of what happened before brought up a sickly knotting feeling in his throat and chest.

“Good.” Alabaster agreed, and the smaller stag relaxed that he wasn’t going to be reprimanded for making the wrong choice, instead he moved a little closer to the older male and kept his head down as the warlord spoke again;

”Oh my little poet, my little prince.”

-
OOC So I always wanted to take another crack at Ally's baby plot since hes unlikely to make any biological babies. So hey guys. Look. Babies. Cute ones amirighte?
Al is a weeglo uvu
You can click the names under the credits there to go to the bio's.

Writing by Jacklo, Nazzard and LostInTheEcho.
Coding by Nazzard.
Alabaster / Ember / Rameses / Kalidas