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A dragoness of middle age wakes up in the early morning as light from the rising sun flows through the entrance to her cave. She gets up, groaning happily as she stretches; first her hind legs, then her front, then her back and wings. She walks over to the side of the bed opposite of hers and lightly nudges the silver and gray dragon who lays there, his muzzle facing away from the opening of the cave, and as she pulls her forest green muzzle back, his kind, sky blue eyes meet her own olive green ones. They smile.

"Good morning, my mate," the silver dragon whispers as he begins to lift his head to the level of hers, groaning as he works out the morning stiffness in his neck.

"Morning Relid," she replies, wrapping a paw around his side and pulling to help him stand up.

"How did you sleep last night, Crimsa, dear?" Relid asks his mate courteously, smiling warmly at her as she helps him to his feet.

"It was good; how about you?" Crimsa responds courteously, her eyes glancing along the sleek body of her lover just afterward. His form was perfect to her, he was muscular, his limbs bulging with defined muscles. His hind legs in particular looked as if they could easily crush the skull of a deer, and he knew how to press each of her buttons at just the right times. Crimsa shakes her head, shooing her love-stricken thoughts as she attempts to catch the tail end of her mate's reply.

Crimsa was so focused on trying to remember what her mate had said that she squeals in pain as most of the muscles in her abdomen suddenly contract simultaneously, startling her back into reality. She lays down carefully, with the assistance of her mate, and she digs her claws into the soft flesh of his paws as another contraction pushes on the egg that had been resting comfortably in her womb.

"Good, keep going love," Relid whispers, reassuring his mate that she was doing exactly as she needed to. He winces inwardly as Crimsa's claws dug into the soft flesh of his paw, but he manages to keep his voice steady, and his focus on comforting his mate.

Crimsa almost manages to whisper her reply, in the hoarse tone that always came out when she was in pain, but another contraction stops her words before they even leave her throat, instead replacing them with a cry of agony, which is cut short as she exhales what little breath she had gathered between contractions. Crimsa's eyes fill with tears, and her heaving breaths begin to speed up more than they already had as her entire efforts go into passing her egg. Her lungs spasm wildly, almost completely ineffective for exchanging oxygen, causing her mind to fog over. She nearly passes out as her view of the world begins to fill with dancing, shimmering lights and the sounds around her begin to fade.

Relid looks into his mate's eyes, horrified as he sees her nearly unable to breathe, her pupils dilate completely from not only pain, but also fear, as the life almost visibly begins to drain from her beautiful blue-green irises. Relid does everything in his power to move, to leap to his mate's rescue but his body refuses to respond. He finds himself rooted to the spot and tears begin to well up in his eyes as the realization that Crimsa may die here shakes him to the core.

Crimsa tried, she tried as hard as she could to breathe, to keep herself alive, but this mix of physical exertion and pain proved to be more than she could handle. Instead, she simply prays silently in her mind that her mate saw the fear in her eyes, and would come to help her. Her prayers are answered, not for the last time, as a surge of pain surges down her torso once again, this time, however, accompanied by a slight sound of dry grass being stepped upon. She sighs as best she can through her labored breaths, and she gives her mate one last look, one of motherly satisfaction, before her eyelids fall closed and she tumbles into a deep, dreamless sleep.

. . .

The sun begins to glow faintly through the entrance as Crimsa finds herself in bed once more, despite remembering just having woken up a few minutes ago. She looks around frantically for her mate, before she feels a familiar, soft pressure, that of her mate's paw on her chest. "Mate? What happened?" She asks quietly, her voice still hoarse and recovering from her screams of agony.

"You... you had a hard time passing the egg, and you nearly died," Relid replies solemnly, still not having recovered from the stress of seeing his mate dying before him. He had actually thought she was dead for a few hours, before he regained control of himself enough to check for vital signs, but he wasn't about to tell her that; she had already gone through enough stress, without adding her inevitable regret at having caused him such distress, and so he kept his maw shut.

Crimsa falls silent for many minutes, thinking to herself, struggling to remember anything that had happened after she had gone into labor. When she comes up empty, she decides to ask the other pressing question on her mind, "Love, is the egg still in one piece?" Crimsa winced at that thought, that this attempt had turned out exactly as the past two, where Crimsa's strong contractions had shattered the egg, killing the infant, and severely wounding her in her attempt to lay.

"Yes, not a single crack on it..." Relid smiles and leans to give his mate a kiss, but he is surprised when she, instead of accepting, pulls him onto her sideways, laughing triumphantly.

"Oh, love! My sweet Relid! Thank you!" Crimsa trills jubilantly and, despite her body's protesting, she starts wriggling with excitement, like a hatchling who had just learned to fly. "Please, help me up, let's go see!" She jumps down off the bed and lands, less than gracefully, on top of her mate, knocking him down with her. It takes a moment, but they extricate themselves from the pile and they get up, Crimsa leaning on Relid as he used a wing to help guide her unsteady steps.

Relid knew that he would not convince her that she needed rest before seeing the egg. He remembered her heartbreak each time he lead her to the crushed corpse of her would-be child, surrounded by the bloodied shards of its eggshell, parts of which had embedded themselves into her passage during birth. Even the second time, she insisted on seeing her dead child, and she did not give up until she was able to curl around its unmoving body and whisper her condolences to it; in spite of the fact that he knew that this would be different, because Crimsa had succeeded and her egg had survived, her insistence was a cruel reminder of their previous failures to bring new life into the world. Despite all of his inner torment, Relid stood up, wrapped a wing around his mate, and brought her to the small nest situated in the center of their room, on a slightly raised, carved stone dias. They had made that dias together, in preparation for their first child, who they had ended up burying under the lone tree that stood just outside their cave; even seeing it was still painful to him.

Crimsa's gut, too, wrenched at the thought of their first failure. She had been so upset by it that she almost killed herself when she found out; only the soothing voice of her mate had saved her, and now tears welled up in her eyes as she realized how foolish it would have been, to kill herself. She now realizes that, if she had taken that blade and shoved it through her chest with all her might, she would not now have this child- this child that would soon become the center of her life, and a source of great pride and happiness for both herself and her mate.

Relid noticed his lover's tears immediately, and he turned to lick them from her face, a gesture of condolence between him and his mate. There were others who would find such shows of affection disgusting, but this was how he knew best to calm her sadness, and, as he expected, it worked. Crimsa kissed him warmly almost immediately, the tears already drying from her stress-heightened temperature.

"Thank you, my dear," Crimsa murmurs to her mate, as she returns her attention to the white, grey-speckled egg before her. "Thank you for everything. This means the world to me."

Relid couldn't help but feel his face flushing at her thanks, even though he felt he had done nothing extraordinary. He had simply done what any male would have done- he gave give his loving, caring mate the beautiful gift of motherhood that she had always yearned for. To him, this was her achievement, and he was determined to appreciate it as such. "Love, there's nothing that I did that any other male wouldn't have..."

No sooner did Crimsa hear her mate's words, than did she start to chuckle quietly to herself, her entire frame shaking unsteadily as a result of the sudden movement and the postpartum exhaustion that still gripped her body. "L...Love... Don't be so modest. Not many males would try after the first failed birth, let alone the second. Most would either kill their lover out of grief, or leave her in search of a better mother to rear his children."

Relid shook his head, as if to deny her arguments, but somewhere deep down, he knew that they were all right, so he held his tongue and simply shook his head silently.

Crimsa knew immediately that she had made a point that he couldn't refute, and thusly, she didn't waste another moment on the subject. Instead, she gently picks up the egg and takes it to their bed, placing it near the center before laying down, curled around it as her instincts instructed; she knew that following her instincts was a waste of time, as their cave was warm enough to keep the unhatched baby alive inside its egg, but Crimsa found the compulsion impossible to resist after spending so long unable to cuddle her young after birth.

Relid smiles and laughs at Crimsa's visage, that could only be described as feral contentment, before he leans in and gives her a soft kiss on the neck. "I will return with food, my love. You guard our little one, okay?" Relid turned toward the exit immediately. He was neither looking for, nor expecting an answer from his mate; he could see how utterly absorbed she was in tending to her egg, and so he didn't disturb her any further. He walked to the exit, spread his wings, and took flight into the midday sky to fetch food for not only his mate, but now their child.

. . .

Relid returns to the cave a few hours later, with the sun shining through the entrance rendering him invisible to anyone inside, the sun's blinding brightness preventing any shapes from being made out in that direction. The dragon drags his day's haul of two deer, and a large rabbit into the cave, placing the rabbit into a magically cooled box to preserve it. He then brings Crimsa her deer, at which point she crawls off of the bed, as a savage dragon would, staying only long enough to eat before she returns to guarding her egg. Relid chuckles as he lays down on the floor beside the bed, knowing that he would not win the fight for a spot on the bed; he falls asleep soon after, and dreams of fatherhood fill his time that night.

. . .

The next morning, Relid awakes suddenly, a slight stinging feeling coming from his side. He looks over towards his mate and his eyes immediately open wide, the last bit of his tiredness leaving him in an instant at the sight he now beholds. The egg that was at the center of Crimsa's curl is now cracked open, and a small forest green head wriggled through the hole in an attempt to free itself. Relid almost speaks, but he sees the look of utter absorption on Crimsa's face as she uses a clawed forepaw to gently pull the eggshell open from just under the hatchling's tiny head, so he decides that his congratulations could wait until the delicate process is finished.

When her assistance wasn't needed, Crimsa was content to just sit back and bask in the elation that this achievement brought her. However, when she was needed, something just flipped in her mind, and she expertly cut and cracked the egg to help her hatchling free itself from its confines. To her mind, there was no existence outside her curl, where her child struggled to extricate itself from its egg, as that was all that mattered in this moment.

Relid knew that this moment meant the world to the beast that lived within his mate, and that her wrath would be deadly if he were to interrupt it, so he kept a respectful distance and watched her working so seamlessly to assist their child in extricating itself from its egg.

It took less than an hour, but it felt like an eternity to both of them, although for completely different reasons. For Relid, the time was spent in eager suspense; he couldn't wait to touch his child with his own paws, to hold it close. He needed more than anything to spend time with his mate and child; the desire was a feral one, and he knew it, but that did nothing to lessen it. For Crimsa, the time was a blur of stress and careful observation. There was not a moment when she was able to think of anything other than making sure that her child hatched safely, and so her brain had nothing to spare for such trivial things as the passage of time or creating short-term memories. When the hatchling finally clambered free from its shell, both Crimsa and Relid sighed the breath they didn't know they were holding, and Crimsa proceeded to lick her hatchling clean of the remnants of its egg. She knocks the excess shell onto the floor, before pulling her child back into her curl; a moment later, she looks up at Relid, acknowledging his presence for the first time since her egg had started to hatch, and only to nod at him.

Relid understood the obscure gesture automatically, although he didn't quite understand how or why. He followed his gut, though, and strode forward, crawling onto the bed beside his mate; he couldn't help but give her tail a soft lick as he passed, and she seemed to appreciate the gesture, as she purred softly in response. He then wrapped himself around her and placed a wing over her side, ensuring that he would know if she tried to leave, or if something tried to get at her.

Neither of them knew what time it was when they fell asleep, but they awoke early the next morning to the sounds of birds singing their lovely songs. Relid slowly lifts his wing, and searches for his mate's beautiful olive green eyes; when he finds them, he smiles at the utter and complete love they hold for him. "Looks like someone is happy," He says, and his smile broadens as he sees her start to grin happily at him; he is not prepared, however, when she suddenly lurches forward and pulls him into a long, passionate kiss. She holds him there for a short while, and he has to catch his breath afterwards, but he can't help but smile again as he notices his mate laughing to herself.

Crimsa grins at her mate, pulls him into a long kiss, and, when she breaks away, starts laughing with a childlike joy that she hadn't felt in years. She knew why she felt this way, but she tried her best not to think of it and ruin the moment; she just laughed at the lovestricken countenance that her mate wore until the elation wore off and she was able to speak without ruining their enjoyment. "So, should we name her?" Crimsa lays her head back down on the side of her mate's chest, enjoying the slow rise and fall of each one of his breaths.

Relid coos quietly to his love, vocalizing his contentment with her laying there, head resting on his chest. He then thinks for a moment before responding to her question, "I think it would be nice to give our daughter a name, but I think you should have the honor of choosing what it shall be." Relid grins triumphantly as a look of realization begins to spread across his mate's face, and she frowns pointedly at him.

Crimsa, despite her growing annoyance with her mate insisting that this wasn't a shared victory, thinks for a moment. She had long ago narrowed it down to two choices for both a son and a daughter and she now only had the female names to choose from, but she couldn't bring herself to make a choice between Crystalia, and Athena. She had no specific logic that narrowed her choices down to these two names in particular, she just couldn't think of any she liked the sound of better than these, so she lifted her head and took a deep breath before she spoke to her mate, "Crystalia, or Athena?" She smiled immediately when she noticed that her mate was slightly off put by the suddenness of her request for his opinion; she hoped that he would see the kindness in her expression, and that he would grow more relaxed.

Relid had no way of knowing what his Mate was thinking, and when she spat out two random names, he had no clue about how to respond, so he just lay there, slack-jawed and stunned into stupid silence. He couldn't think, and he was about to lose it when Crimsa smiled warmly at him, and drew him back from the verge of panic. He thought for a moment, then he looked over the hatchling's head, neck, and tail, which was all he could see with the way his mate was curled around their child, then he thought for a moment more. "Crystalia. I like it," he announced softly, after a short period of silence.

Crimsa practically purred with delight, her tail wrapping around Relid's on its own volition as she leaned harder against him. She quickly released the hatchling from her curl before she passed the child to Relid, who held onto his drowsy daughter with a gentle, but firm grip that meant he would be hard pressed to accidentally let go and drop her.

Relid couldn't help but keep smiling wider after he had his daughter in his grasp, and he soon found himself unable to stop laughing happily, which quickly had his mate glaring at him with a bemused look on her face.

Crimsa scrunched her eyes, giving her mate a confused glance before his laughter hit her, and she then understood immediately what he found so funny. He wasn't laughing at anything, he was laughing because his joy was too great for him to express in any other way. Now that she looked back, Crimsa could see herself having had the same reaction when she first held her daughter, if it weren't for the instincts that drove her to protect the hatchling for hours on end until her wings dried, and she was sleeping contently. After a few minutes, Crimsa couldn't help but laugh alongside her mate and she got to laughing hard enough that she almost passed out. She was only saved when Relid noticed her predicament and lashed out at her with his tail, shocking her from her laughter, although he was unable to help with the painful hiccups that resulted from her hysterical laughter.

Relid stopped laughing after a minute or two, and then it took a few seconds for him to realize that Crimsa was still laughing so hard that she could hardly breathe, and so he panicked slightly. He knew he wasn't good under pressure, but something told him to trust his gut and startle her, so he acted on impulse and did the first thing that crossed his mind. He lashed at her with his tail, straining to move as quickly as he did, but he managed it, and his half-hearted plan worked, and Relid managed to startle his mate out of her laughter. After he was relatively sure that she was okay, Relid decided to explain himself to his mate, "I'm so sorry... I just couldn't help but laugh. It's been so long, but it was worth every second... every heartbreak. Just to hold her..."

Crimsa smiles at her mate, between her hiccups, of course, and she sighs, waiting for the spasms to stop before she tries to speak. "Oh dear... thank you so much, love. And there's no need to be sorry," she dips her head and moves it forward, lightly bumping the tip of his snout with hers before continuing where she had left off, "I haven't laughed like that in a long time. I needed it." Crimsa gently kisses her mate's cheek before returning her attention to her hatchling and she adjusts her position to put Crystalia in the middle of both of their curls, so she had a warm body on either side of her as all three drift off to sleep.