Pride: Exhibition
#19 of Pride
Lathera finds her labor is not a moment of quiet shame, but lewdly put on display for the amusement of others.
Lathera's teeth clanged against the edges of the cage as her forepaws slammed up against the opening in a desperate bid to wedge them into the narrow opening. Her hind legs strained and scrabbled against the smooth bottom of the cage while she wrapped her teeth around one of the iron bars. The metallic taste stung her tongue while she tried to chew and batter her way uselessly past them. Saliva built up along her maw until it drooled down over inside of the bars and she could feel the bridge of her muzzle starting to bruise as she twisted and threw her head into the movement. It was an act of desperation and one that made her paws ache as the scales were yanked back out of place as she waged her one sided battle.
The men who carried the cage dismissed her attempts and somehow managed to keep the entire thing level while she threw her weight forward over and over again. She hissed and snapped threats as she used the physical exercise to try and forget the cramping pains of her stomach. Every bruise and ripped scale let her forget the rippling contractions of her stomach. Her hind legs bunched up slightly as she felt the muscles tense down again and she was forced to drop back to all fours. Her legs shook beneath her as she dropped her head and felt a sharp pain along her upper jaw. The taste of blood mingled with the metallic taste of her prison and she spat out dark thick blood onto the ground. She'd managed to break a tooth.
It didn't matter. She didn't care. She did care she was being taken somewhere in the midst of her labor and it wasn't towards the stable. She had a fleeting glimpse of wide open door ways and marble floors as they continued up a set of stairs. Her only experience with the inside world only made her desperation grow as she threw herself against the cage doors again and snapped her teeth against them in an attempt to make them give. The closely set barbs bit around her forelegs as she dropped her paws down and tried to hook over the edges. Her breathing came harsh in her own ears as she twisted her head violently and was rewarded only with the wet cracking sound of a tooth that crumbled under her continued efforts. She didn't care.
"You'll be here to conduct the labor, of course. They're far too precious to risk it stepping on the kits or eating them or something else distasteful."
Sean sat across from Tintalia with his eyes widened and a sense of disbelief overcoming the polite mask he'd fixed his face in. He knew the words coming out of her mouth and could even make sense of them, but his mind refused to fully comprehend what she was suggesting. He sat his glass down against the table with a click that made several heads in the crowded room turn. He didn't give a damn about the so called 'lords' and 'ladies' that had come to grace the garden party. They likely had only come to share rumors and boasts about how the war was going now that the King had engaged soldiers to cast back Jathos and his gathered tribes. He'd only come because Tintalia had taken her attempts to seduce him to new levels.
She constantly chased after him and he had been hard pressed to avoid her. He'd only managed it a handful of times by spending the night in Ishtar's pen or by spending time in the filthy pens the dracine were given. Her attempts lately had involved inviting him to social occasions and using Rogeth to lure him along. He'd come to tea so many times that he felt as if he were going to be steeped in it, but this was the first event that he'd come to out in the gardens. He'd thought that the lady had been taken with a whim on throwing something with a theme, something that wouldn't have surprised him in the least bit. Tintalia had been all too happy of throwing that notion to the dogs as soon as he'd taken a seat.
"That poor beast is going to have a hard enough time of it! Why on earth would you move her out here just to watch?" He felt a pang of dim guilt. It had been a long time since he'd bothered checking on the dracine female. Though in his defense, he'd had other problems on his mind.
"Obviously because it will be entertaining." Tintalia's smile grew a bit more, "And because she's my property."
"That's cruel." He felt his stomach turn nauseously and glanced at the tables in the midst of the garden. "Your guests won't stomach such a sight as 'entertainment'! Send after some minstrels or dancer and they'll appreciate it much more!"
The evening sky had started to darken, but scented candles had been placed on the crisp linen tables. The scent of jasmine and lavender was thick on the air as he tried to measure how many people had arrived to the party. There were certainly enough of them that he felt himself pale. None of the parties Tintalia threw were ever 'small', but this one ranged to the edges of the garden and towards the walls. He could see the flickering candles wavering on well dressed faces and people wrapped in avid conversation. The only place that was bare of a table or anything else was a large smooth spot that looked as if it had once held a statue. Torches had been lit around the area to make it stand out in the forming darkness.
"It will happen one way or another, so it might as well happen where we can enjoy the sight." Tintalia's voice sounded almost smug. "Go and see to your beast, it's being brought in and looks none to happy."
Lathera froze from her attempts to break free of her imprisonment and stared at the garden that the men carried her into. The darkness was punctuated with candle light and the brightest point of a clearing set into the middle. She twisted her lips up in a snarling hiss and pushed herself back against the cage as she recognized movement behind the candles. It wasn't just the movement of more handlers awaiting her, but people who were seated at the tables and turned to view her entrance with interest. Her heart gave a lurch at the amount of people that she could make out in the faint candlelight. What did they want of her? They surely couldn't expect her to 'perform' with her body being wracked with the first pangs of labor!
She didn't find any comfort in the fact that the people gathered were fully clothed. It would be all too easy to imagine they might just be waiting for her and others of her kind to start their foul games. The cramping of her stomach muscles grew more intense as she let out a muffled cry that sounded terribly loud in the silence. Her entire body tensed up and she spread her jaws to pant roughly. The panting didn't take away the pain, but added to it as she sucked cold air in past her broken tooth and the exposed nerve. It was too late regret attacking the bars, but the added torment of her aching jaws and her bruised paws made her cringe back against the bars behind her. Her tail curled between her legs and she let out a low hissing whine.
"Bring her out into the center." A female voice called out and Lathera twisted her head to try and focus in on the sound.
The cage heaved forward and to her humiliation the tilting made her lose her grip. She went sliding across it as her stomach muscles contracted again and forced a painful whimper from her throat. Her stomach felt as if it were wrapped around her backbone as the pups inside of her shifted. It made her arch her back up awkwardly as she imagined she could feel the paws pushing and digging in against the tender protective layer of her uterus. The eyes of the gathered people seemed locked on her as her cage was dropped down onto the smooth rock with a jostling shake that sent her banging against the back of the bars. She rolled her eyes up and twisted her lips back in a wordless snarl of fury and humiliation at the people who leaned forward as if they wanted a better view.
Sean stood to one side of the cage and looked down at the beast that was curled back in one corner and wrapped around her swollen middle. He could see her ribs rise and fall with steady breaths that were only occasionally interrupted with hisses from her contractions. He resolutely forced his mind away from the fact that she was laboring under young that technically he had placed there. It was a fact that made him uneasily aware of his own confused and humiliated emotions. It took every part of his willpower to push his thoughts away instead of lingered on them. He kept his face a blank mask as he watched Tintalia raise up from the table that had been seated at and give him a slow feline smile. Damn the woman.
"I believe our entertainment has arrived." Her voice was edged with a smug purr that grated on him as he turned his back to her and considered the laboring animal that had been placed in his care. "The birth of our highest hopes rest within this creature and as Sean has had such success with their sire, it is fitting he be there for the birth."
Sean stiffened slightly at that comment and forced himself to crouch down before he could betray his own emotions. "Captain, open the cage so that Sean can better help the creature."
"Lady! There are no guide poles or restraints!" Sean twisted his body around as he protested the command. "Let nature take its course."
Tintalia settled herself back into her chair and tilted her head to one side with a lingering smile. "I think it best you take an active role. The pups aren't to be risked. They are far too valuable. I think it will be to concerned with its labor to attempt any actions against you and this is a chance to prove your merit."
Sean's jaw tightened as he struggled to hold back the reply he wanted to give her. Tintalia's brand of sadism had grown rather then decreased over the past few weeks. Ishtar had ceased making his presence known when he had to attend to her and Sean encouraged it. The beast had taken on a disliking for her that boded no good if she should ever find herself near his cage. He stared down at the cage and swallowed as he looked at one of the powerful paws that ended in finger length talons. The midnight blue creature was sprawled on her side with her breath rising and falling rapidly. Her stomach was distended from her gravid state, but he knew enough about the beasts to know that she was pressing the bounds of what was normal for her kind. Poor beast.
He stepped back as one of the men walked forward and he held back his words of caution as the cage latch was undone and dropped. The protect bars removed entirely as he kept himself tense and ready to bolt at the least twitch she might give.
Lathera felt another wave of pain rush through her loins as she dropped to her side and tried to control her pained breathing. The sounds of people beyond the walls of her cage sounded horribly loud, but were strangely mangled as she heard two voices raise up. She couldn't concentrate on what they were saying. Not when her stomach felt as if the muscles were growing tense enough that they were threatening to tear apart. She curled herself forward and nearly tucked her muzzle down against her swollen stomach as she tried to control her breathing. Her muzzle was pushed right up against the scales as she tried to vainly lick the cramping muscles for some relief.
There was no doubt that she was well beyond any pregnancy she could have thought of. Her scales had been forced apart lewdly to bare the softer under scales to the naked eye. The way that her stomach cramped up made her shudder from nose to tail as she lost her sense of outrage and had it replaced with fear on what was going to happen. The pups were large, far larger than any egg. Her body could only conceivably birth something safely of a certain size. She forced her muzzle away from her stomach and glared out from the bars to see the legs of the tables that had been ringed around the cage. And they would just watch as she bled her life out trying to give birth to young they had forced upon her.
Her thoughts were cut short as a rough hand wrapped round the middle of her tail and she was suddenly hauled backwards. Lathera hissed out and her claws scraped against the bottom of the cage as she was dragged out of it and onto the stones. She almost twisted around to latch her jaws around the wrist, but the pain made her vision go grey and she let out a high pitched whining cry. Her entire spine ached as she twisted about and kicked back her hind legs blindly.
"Damn it! Let her go! You're going to make her break something!" A snapping voice barely penetrated her pained thoughts, but it was enough that the hand dropped her tail and left her to lay on the ground. "Easy... easy... easy... there's a good girl, there's a strong girl.."
The man's voice was familiar, but it wasn't something that made her concentrate on figuring out who it was. It was enough that his tone was soft and soothing. Despite her own annoyance at being talked to like an animal, she couldn't help but to start relaxing as a gentle hand smoothed its way down along her side. The steady drone of his voice helped to block out the soft murmured voice of the people who watched her. It didn't take away her knowledge on them, but she didn't shun away any reprieve she could get as her body was throbbing with pain. Her tongue lolled out as the hand pressed against the curve of her jaw and smoothed down along the underside. She let the pressure lower her head down towards the ground as her entire body seized up with a shuddering contraction.
Her hind legs kicked against the ground as the weight against her neck shifted and she felt the man pushing against her chest as his hand dropped down to run along her stomach. Lathera lifted her head and snapped open an eye in protest as the finger pushed upwards against her swollen belly. She found herself staring at the familiar features of the man who had outraged her before. Her mind fumbled for the name and lost it as the fingers pushed upwards. She could feel the shifting in her stomach as the pups were shifted about. Her muscles tensed down tightly in reaction and a whistling cry spilled past her muzzle and she curled her toes slightly and arched her back up.
Sean tried to keep his anger from showing, but it was hard when the guard hauled the female out by the tail and spilled her onto the ground. The legs scrabbled and his sharp eyes picked out the muscles of her stomach rippling with a contraction. He wasn't a stranger to beasts in labor, though he hadn't been around many recently. She should have been in her cage with enough nesting material to be comfortable. Tossing her out on display in the midst of a garden party was worse then distasteful, it was dangerous. She could try to run without any restraints or savage the pups when they were birthed or any number of things. All for the sake of entertainment in the hands of an egomaniacal woman who looked at this as if it were a grand joke.
He gently pressed his fingers against the curve of her stomach and felt the compact bodies there. He was more versed in how to aid a farm beast then a dracine with strange hybridized pups. He closed his eyes and forced himself to ignore the people that watched and made soft comments, and instead he concentrated on what his fingers were feeling. The stomach was swollen far too large to be safe, but at least he could feel the outline of the pups. They were shifted properly from what he could feel and he was able to trace one of them down along the line of the strained belly scales. At least the female remained quiet under his hands save for her rasping breaths and the clawing of her paws against the ground as the muscles contracted along her stomach.
"I doubt the beast needs to be coddled." Tintalia's voice was drawling and amused as he moved his shoulder down to force the writhing beast to hold down.
He flicked his eyes up at the woman who watched him with just as much amusement showing on her face. His seat had been taken up by someone he didn't recognize, but he didn't have long to brood over the situation. The writhing dracine let out a hissing cry and twisted her body up so that he had to push his entire body over her scaled form. Her weight was pinned beneath him and he had a moment of panic when he saw her head rising up towards him. He pushed his forearm down and finally let out a short curse.
"Damnit! GET THE ROPES! She's going to break free!" He snarled towards the guards as he struggled to keep her teeth from snapping near his face.
Lathera twisted and contorted herself as she felt the pangs twisting along her stomach. Her jaws spread open wide and she found herself snapping them down on a broad bit of rope. Her teeth cut into it while she tried to twist away from it with a loud snarl. She could barely grip her jaws down against the rope before her head was yanked brutally back. The pain in her lower stomach barely registered as she felt a moment of panic as coils of rough rope twisted around her paws and yanked them forward before she could protest. Her eyes bulged slightly in fear while the crude muzzle wrapped around her jaws and more rope twisted itself around her lower ankles. Even her attempts to kick free didn't do more than jerk the ropes tighter about her limbs.
The weight of the man behind her came down harder as her stomach twisted and she curled forward as much as she could in reaction. The sight of people watching her, the painful bite of the ropes digging against her scales, even the pressure of the body over her chest and stomach faded away as her entire form shuddered. Her lips twisted back in an animalistic sound of anger and pain as her hind legs were jerked backwards and forcibly parted. The movement twisted her hips and forced her to roll onto her back so the man on her side was pushed off. It was an ungainly position, especially with the weight of her gravid stomach pressing down against the rest of her form. Her jaws hissed out a constant rush of sound as a voice rose up even past her pain and anger.
"Excellent, a much better view for all around." The female's words sent a chill down Lathera's back. "To the birth of our greatest hopes."
The murmur of answering voices rumbled around her, but by then it was too late to do more than feel a pang of humiliation. The first pup was on its way.