The worst part was they didn’t even know. The cell was grimy, and the straw hadn’t been changed in days, and the only water available was what dripped in through the barred window at the top of the wall. The occupant of said cell crouched down on all fours panting and trying to focus through the pain. Of course it didn’t help that attached to her neck, arms and ankles were chains thick enough to hold a full grown grizzly bear, but given her current condition that was probably enough to hold her down. Especially since her captors had slashed the membranes of her wings as well.

The beautifully velvet grey-black fur of her inner wing membranes now sported a jagged off-black puckered line in a cross formation across each section between the wing-fingers. At the time it had been done, she’d very nearly bled to death due to her pregnancy.

This was why she was hunched over. Her kit had waited as long as she was going to wait, and freedom or not she was going to be born tonight. The process itself would have been easy if the mother had simply relaxed, but she just did not want to give birth over dirty straw in the bottom of a dank dungeon with not even so much as moonlight to welcome her kitling into the world. However, her body and kit had other ideas. Having been through it before she knew what to expect as the contractions became more than she could bear kneeling. Collapsing onto her side she felt the pressure between her legs build and her body push involuntarily.

Within moments the cub was out on the floor and struggling against a pulsing cord that entangled her tiny arms. The demon-esque mother gathered the small fox cub to her breast and as the child suckled ate the cord as instinct told her to. It was slightly disgusting for her conscious mind to fathom but her hunger and her instincts told her she would need the protein and nutrients from the afterbirth to survive with this cub until her mate got there.

She took the last of her clothing and bundled the babe in it, trying to keep her as warm as possible. She gazed up at the window, her chains rattled against the stone ground as she positioned herself to bathe in the gentle embrace of the moon as it broke through the rain clouds that had hung down over the earth all day.

“Hurry.” She whispered. “Hurry soon to save us. Save us, my loves, save your cub and me.”