I hope you don't mind me tracking, I am quite interested to see how this will go.

His voice mixed in with the usual noise of the forest, all sounding as if she were six feet underwater. Sinuses swollen, ears blocked, and the hot to cold fevers worsened as she lay against the frozen ground. With the sudden touch to her nose she flinched, holding her mouth shut and pulling her ears tight against her head. It was clear Kusa wasn't entirely aware of her surroundings,
"B-Black... I-I drowned in him, swallowed it... it wouldn't come b-back up again..." She stammered, eyes darting and never meeting his gaze. No way out. Restricted. Her expression sank further, brows dropping and eyes welling ready to break and she stretched to try again.

A garbled cry of anguish ripped from her throat as her body gave in and began to contract,
"I-I'm so sorry," she said as a sticky, black, tar-like substance trickled from her mouth into the grass, "My baby... he ki-... m-my..." she scrabbled at the earth not wanting to say it out loud, kicking Lothair in the process.

:c Kusa ~

The contraction of her muscles, the flinch, it did not cause him to withdraw his head. "Shh... hushh, it's alright.. I'm here." Her mumblings elicited from him immediate concern, though more so when her eyes danced about wildly in their sockets. It was only then that he drew his head back, confused as to what to make of her stammering. She seemed to fade, only to explode in an array of movement, an anguished cry ripping from her throat. Her apologies, her flailing movements, they sent him scrambling to his feet as they all struck him. He watched in horror, eyes wide and mouth agape, as the black ooze flowed from her mouth.

His eyes flashed to her belly, and the sheer horror of the situation struck him. He didn't know the details, only that whatever this ooze was, it had affected both Kusa and the child she harboured inside of her. He skirted around her, away from her flailing limbs. To the ground he knelt, laying himself with his chest and side beside her back. "Shh.. calm down, my dear.. calm down." He managed to hold himself together long enough to say that much, but her obvious peril was bearing down on his emotional wall, and was thoroughly succeeding at tearing it down.

Over her neck he draped his own, turning his head so that his muzzle was beside her cheek. "Can.. can you breathe, love? Please.. you need to breathe..," he managed to mumble. "I-I can't lose you both.. I can't.. lose you.. please.."

Akuji? The name was foreign to him, having yet to encounter the beast, or even learn of his dealings with other individuals. Oh, but the hunt would be on for him. There would be no impressive granite tablet for his corpse, nor his ashes. No name, nor origins, carved in golden calligraphy. Neither would it be buried among the hills of gravestones by the ruins as they had for countless more worthy. Forever, where it fell, would it rot. Her writhing caused his heart to ache. Was there nothing he could do? Despite her thrashing, he could only hold onto her tighter, more dearly so.

Her protests to his presence fell upon deaf ears, the wouldn't be heeded. Her cringed, his eyes shutting tightly. "No.. my dear. I won't leave you to suffer alone." Abandoning her now would be perhaps the greatest insult. "Together now... we'll do this together..," he murmured into her ear.

"S-Stop!" She bleated a timid warning, but now everything was coming hard and fast and her voice couldn't afford to be weak anymore.

Tiny... oh so tiny... it didn't linger long after all; her body wouldn't allow it to. Foreign, dead object rejected from it's only and last home. Retracting her legs in shock, she could feel it, clammy and damp at her heals. Not that she allowed Lothair to notice.
Though dead, her instinct rose to protect it.

"I said get out." The severity of her voice should have been enough to move him, but she wasn't known for being patient. It is known for mothers to somehow exercise extraordinary feats of strength when their child is in danger, and in this situation it was a grieving doe wanting to do what all does should do when their fawn is born.

Tucking her forelegs beneath her, she bolted upright to knock Lothair over.
"You're too close!" She barked, stamping her hooves and blocking him from what lay behind her,
"MOVE, LOTHAIR." Kusa struggled, but she managed to stand briefly on her hind legs and slam both her hooves just inches from Lothair's face. She was trembling and breathing heavily...

Obliterated.

Lothair could do naught but hold onto her, there was little else he could offer in the situation. He dared not glance behind them as the strain became apparent on her body, then flooded with a relief. He was no expecting severity of her tone, even more so her following actions. The swiftness of her movements caused him to roll onto his side unexpectedly, and he did not have time right himself before her hooves came down mere inches from his muzzle. He stared at her, wide eyed, for just a moment before his legs scrambled beneath him. He stumbled backwards as he managed to get up, distancing himself a short distance away from the pair. He was at a loss for words, still in disbelief at the harshness of the doe's treatment. He had no prior experience with new mothers. Did they are behave this way? His eyes flickered down to the figure on the forest floor, shielded by the doe's legs.

Reply is bleh ;-;

Gotta be honest, all the sad faces in here are making me laugh xD

-

Her tail - held up in warning - fell back down ever so slowly when Lothair retreated. Some time passed where she just stood in silence, head angled so she could just about see the pile on the ground in her backwards gaze. When calm, she turned, still blocking his view. She wanted to be alone, but was too exhausted to push Lothair away further.

Kusa avoided looking directly upon it and cautiously stat down. Close, so that it was in her shadow.
Then, she looked.
Stared.
Took a deep breath and cried in her exhale, smiling.
Beautiful. She thought, beautiful, mine.

Her whole body trembled as she cleaned it dutifully... Slowly, delicately. Careful of its ears and tiny legs, tiny hooves, bright little tail... she could see so much of herself in it as well as Lothair. Her colours, but his eyes. Definitely his eyes. When the fawn was dry, she studied it, wanting desperately to commit the image of her child to memory so that it might overshadow the beast that took it from her. But, she could barely see it through tears, and the more she tried, the more frustrated and upset she became.
"No." She repeated this word in whispers, shutting her eyes and letting her head rock forward until her nose touched the dead child's cheek. She then moved to nuzzle the bridge of her nose under the chin and against its neck, able to do nothing but sob mournfully into its dark fur.

Kusa was already dehydrated from her sickness, and thus a point came where the tears stopped coming. Taking long breaths to calm herself, she gently caressed the fawn and spoke close to its ear,
"From the moment I knew you were there, I loved you."
One last look, and she stumbles to a stand.

"..."
There is hesitance in her movement as she began to walk away, but continued nontheless to Lothair. Her eyes caught his once before they were averted, not able to accept even the smallest gestures of kindness. Her appearance alone is soul-shattering before one could even try to comprehend the physical and mental trauma she has had to step away from.
"Lothair..."
Her voice is weak. She steps close and just touches his neck with her sodden nose before taking a few more steps forward to stop past his shoulder, looking out into what seemed like a colourless forest.
"Y-You may see your daughter."

Stalking..

So so so soooo sorry for the wait ;~;

He could hear the doe's foot steps, how heavy they appeared, dragging over the earth's surface in a blatant display of her heart break and exhaustion. "My baby..,"[/size] he muttered, almost breathlessly. He couldn't bring himself to move from her side, as if holding onto some vain hope that the child would utter a breathy sigh. What good am I?... What good am I? He thought to himself. Unable to keep even his life's blood, and it's bearer from harm. His ear did naught but flicker at her voice, the fatigue in her voice only adding the already weighted atmosphere. For moments, he simply remained where he was. The painful truth that this child, their child, would never utter a phrase, burdened his shoulders. There would be no childish ignorance, no bruises nor scrapes to kiss and make better.

Several minutes had passed before he gathered himself enough to heft himself to his feet. Without a word, he thrust the two tines that protruded out over his forehead into the ground beside the resting corpse. The act had begun slow, but soon increased into an almost viscious gouging. Frustrations, anger, and anxieties were all thrown forward. The hole was quick to grow, and to the equation Lothair added his hooves; pawing and fervently scraping out the loose soil. Earth and small fragments of rock were littered across his face, chest and legs by the time he was finished.