The Finders and all characters not previously owned and found in their company are copyright to each of their players. Elfquest and its concept is a registered trademark, and its logos, characters, situations and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of WaRP Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. However, there are no trademarked Elfquest characters found in this story.
There is nothing quite as soothing to a sore body as sitting on a submerged rock with cool water flowing all around. Duskwhisper sighed with contentment and placed a slender hand on her swollen belly.
**Soon, little one,** she sent to the kit within. **Soon, we will meet face to face. I am in a position to know, being not only your mother, but a healer as well.**
As if in reply, Duskwhisper felt her senses flooded with the most basic of sendings—raw emotion. The child in her womb let her know this way that he was happy and healthy.
Smiling, the chieftess swam to the bank of the river and eased herself out. She wrung her hair out and wrapped a soft, supple, elk skin around her body. A familiar mind brushed against hers as if searching, then latched on tightly.
**Rahl, where are you?** Smokeweaver sent with a trace of panic.
**Down by the river, Eyr,** Duskwhisper calmly replied as she began passing a wooden comb Wisedove had shaped for her through her wet hair.
**You’re alone, aren’t you?** the storyteller chided like a mother, then continued without waiting for an answer. **What have I said to you about that? In your condition, you should have someone with you at all times, especially since Jade seems to be up to her old tricks again!**
Duskwhisper laughed, but out loud and in reply send. It was just so cute the way her soul sister had been fawning over her the last few moon cycles. **You worry too much, Eyr,** she chuckled. **I needed some alone time with the kit, and I could get that with soul sister Mother Bird hovering over me at all times.**
**I’m serious, ‘Whisper! This isn’t a laughing matter! Now, get your tail back to the holt right now!**
Her laughter continuing, Duskwhisper toweled herself off. **Who’s the chieftess, here?** she asked rhetorically. **All right, all right, I’m coming. Just let me get dressed.**
**All right, just hurry. I worry about you.**
**As if that wasn’t obvious.**
Duskwhisper pulled the loose tunic Windweaver and Snowstreak had collaborated on to make for her over her head and smoothed it over her bulging midsection.
“I’ll tell you, little one,” she said out loud as she gazed at her reflection in a stiller part of the river, “you certainly have changed my shape.”
With that, she rose unsteadily to her feet and headed home.
** **
“What took you?” Smokeweaver demanded upon Duskwhisper’s return. “I was afraid something had happened to you!”
“I would have sent if I was in any kind of trouble,” the younger of the two calmly replied. She felt like she was constantly calming Smokeweaver down these days. “And, it’s such a nice day out, that I decided to take the long way home.”
“You could have told me, ‘Whisper! You…” Then, Smokeweaver looked at her soul sister and how happy, healthy and relaxed she seemed. “You’re right. I shouldn’t worry so much. After all, you’re a healer, and the chieftess. You know what you’re doing.”
Smiling, the emerald-eyed soon-to-be mother hugged her best friend. “You finally understand.”
“Oh, there you are, Chieftess.”
Duskwhisper looked up to see Teean, her soft, almost hollow smile in place.
“What is it, Teean?”
“Rayen is looking for you.”
Duskwhisper exchanged a meaningful look with Smokeweaver. She hadn’t stopped having trouble with him since the Recognition.
“Maybe he wants to apologize,” the cook said quietly. Duskwhisper shook her head and turned back to the silver-haired messenger.
“Where is he?”
“I last saw him heading for the river,” Teean replied. Duskwhisper nodded and left the two maidens.
“What do you supposed it’s about?” Smokeweaver asked.
“I wouldn’t know,” Teean replied, “but I don’t think it’s going to be good.”
** **
Longrunner heel-sat by the fire pit where Smokeweaver had some rabbits and grouse roasting in a clay dome of her own invention. The dome had a hole in the top to let the smoke and steam out, but it allowed the food inside to be cooked on all sides at once. When it was ready, she would have Crystal open one side of it (Crystal had shaped it from the very earth to Smokeweaver’s specifications—she had said it was good practice for magic and attention span, and Duskwhisper agreed), and would remove the meat with a large, flat wooden shovel.
“Hello, ‘Runner,” she smiled.
“Smells great,” he said, flashing her a grin. “What’d you do to it?”
“I marinated it overnight in crushed apples and dreamberry juice. It will make it sweet and tender, and the heat will take the potency right out of the dreamberries.”
“Too bad,” Longrunner’s grin widened., and he took her hand and gently licked and sucked on her fingertip. “Mmm… seasoned Smokeweaver,” he commented slyly.
Giggling, Smokeweaver pulled her hand away. “Perhaps later tonight, I’ll let you taste the rest of me. But for now, could you let the others know it’s almost ready?”
“If you’re my reward, then certainly! Just about everyone’s in sending range, but I haven’t seen Duskwhisper or Rayen all day. Do you know where they are?”
“They’re not back yet?” A note of concern entered Smokeweaver’s voice.
“Back from what?”
“Rayen wanted to talk to ‘Whisper earlier today. I thought they’d be done talking by now.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find them.”
Longrunner nuzzled Smokeweaver’s neck a moment, then made a quick open-send that the food was almost done and headed off in the direction his Lovemate indicated.
As he walked, he opened his mind, searching for the familiar feel of Duskwhisper’s. When he reached the river, he found no one there. He looked at the sky, which showed over the running water through the breaks in the trees and saw that the light was beginning to fade. Concern rising, he began to send, and even call, his friend’s and her Recognized’s name.
“Duskwhisper? Rayen? Where are you?!”
He turned around, getting ready to look somewhere else when he saw a flash of red among the green of the leaves, and made out the form of his friend sitting high in the branches of a tall spruce.
**’Whisper, come down from there,** he sent. **It’s almost dinnertime. In fact, the others have probably already begun. Smokeweaver marinated the meat in crushed apples and dreamberry juice.** When Duskwhisper failed to answer, his brows drew together in a worried frown. **’Whisper, are you okay?**
Again, no answer, so Longrunner began to climb up to her. He wasn’t as nimble as she was in the trees, so he was certain that it took him longer to reach her then it took her to get up there in the first place, even in her condition. When he finally got to her branch, he sat down facing her, straddling the limb. Her head was turned away, but even so, he could see that her expression was set and her gaze was unfocussed.
“Hey, ‘Whisper, why weren’t you acknowledging my sendings? Where’s Rayen?”
“Gone,” she said simply. Her voice was dry and sounded like it come from a great depth inside her.
“What?”
“He’s gone,” she repeated. “He left. Good riddance.”
“Duskwhisper! Oh, no! I’m so sorry!”
“I’m not.”
Longrunner stopped. It was odd to hear her talking in such short, brusque, almost monotone phrases.
“’Whisper, this isn’t like you. Come on. Let’s go and get some food in you.”
“Not hungry.”
“Don’t talk like that! You have to eat! For the baby!”
He pressed his hand against her belly, was rewarded with a small kick, and suddenly, she screwed her face up into an expression of utter misery and began sobbing.
“’Whisper! Oh. ‘Whisper, I’m sorry! If it was something I said, I’m doubly so!”
Duskwhisper leaned forward and fell into Longrunner’s arms, shaking with sobs. “It’s over, ‘Runner. I couldn’t keep the vow I made to myself so long ago,” she wept. “You remember it, right? I tried persuading him to stay, time and time again over the past two turns, figuring that we could eventually fall in love because of the piece of soul we share, and because of the kit, but it was no use. My Recognized was not my One, and I just don’t know what to do.”
“Ssh… ssh… Duskwhisper, it’s okay.” He gently rocked her back and forth, tenderly stroking her hair. “If you’re worried about your kit not having a father, I’ll be it if you want.”
The healer was silent a long time as her tears slowed to a stop, just leaning against her friend for support. Finally, she sat up slowly and wiped the tear tracks off her cheeks.
“No, ‘Runner,” she said quietly. “No, it’s okay. I don’t want to compromise you by putting you in that role. It’s enough that you’re my undying friend. It’s enough that you offered. Besides,” she let a wry, half-smile shine through her gloomy expression, “you’ll have a family of your own some day. You can’t keep Smokeweaver barren forever.”
Blushing slightly and relieved to see her cracking a joke, her turned back to the serious topic. “Are you sure? It wouldn’t be a problem for me, really.”
“Yes, Longrunner. Thank you. Let’s go get something to eat.”
:My offer will be open for as long as you need it to be,” Longrunner replied, wrapping an arm around her. “Now, hold on tight! We’re taking the quick way down!”
With that, he hoisted her off the branch and swung, one-armed, down to the ground.
** **
“Excellent, as usual, ‘Weaver,” Duskwhisper smiled, licking the tips of her fingers off.
“Oh, yes!” Summerstream agreed. “That was superb! Did I taste dreamberries?”
“All of the flavor, none of the kick,” the cook nodded.
“But the kick is the best part!” Jrean joked.
“I think it was ingenious,” Wisedove smiled. “How did you come to the conclusion that is would work that way?”
“Experimentation, really. An accident, even. I left a skin of dreamberry juice by the fire one night, and when I drank from it the next day, it seemed… flat.”
“Well, the flavor is marvelous,” Snowstreak said quietly. “I’m not fond of the juice when it’s fresh, so this is an interesting change.”
“Having you out and about is an interesting change any day,” Duskwhisper teased.
Laughing, Smokeweaver turned to her, and noticed a large, wet stain spreading on Duskwhisper’s pants. “Did you spill something?” she asked her soul sister.
“No, I—“ the redhead began, but was cut short by a sharp pain. “—Whoa! My goodness, it’s time!”
“Everyone, giver her room,” Wisedove took charge. “Chieftess, do you want to do this out here or in your den, because either one can be done.”
“It’s such a nice night,” Duskwhisper replied, panting slightly from her sudden effort. “Bring me some soft furs, and I’ll have him out here.”
“Momma, what’s going on?” young Dak asked, floating two or three finger-widths above the ground to see better.
“Duskwhisper is having her baby. You’ll have a new friend soon,” Imberglow answered.
“Oh, boy!” Dak crowed, and managed to shakily push himself another hand-span higher.
Longrunner tenderly took Duskwhisper’s hands. “Feel free to squeeze every time you have a—OOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!—contraction,” he finished sheepishly as her grip loosened.
“I’ve got some extra furs and blanket!” Skygem chirped, floating down from her den. Longrunner lifted Duskwhisper while Smokeweaver and Twittersong laid the soft, full skins down where she had been.
“Comfortable?” Smokeweaver asked as her Lovemate set her best friend down again.
“Quite. Thank you.”
The meal became somewhat of a party that night, but as it grew later, Duskwhisper sent her tribe to bed, bit by bit, until only Smokeweaver, Longrunner and Wisedove remained by her side, and only them because they refused to sleep until the child was out. The moons rose and fell before the birth was done.
“Congratulations, Healer. You have a healthy boy,” Wisedove said softy, placing the squirming bundle to his mother’s breast.
“What’s his name?” Smokeweaver asked, touching the infant’s soft, warm silver hair.
The chieftess looked down at her newborn son, who took a moment from his nursing to regard her with large, blue-green eyes.
“Tarn,” she replied, in reverence to those unending pools of eyes. She caressed his soft, round cheek with one finger. “His name is Tarn.”
She felt another basic send, similar to the one she’d felt earlier that day by the river, touch her mind, giving her a feeling of recognition. **I know you,** it seemed to say.
**Welcome to the world, little Tarn,** his mother tenderly sent back.
** **
Far distant from that place of simple joy and overflowing love, Rayen traveled north, never looking back, never to return.
** **
TBC…