12-03-2018, 08:31 AM
The sun rises ever higher in the east, shortening the impossibly long shadows of the distant trees and illuminating the mountains along the horizon. The largest is the mountain, a looming reminder of the changes in our world. The world outside these brilliant pampas spins on, and yet I remain here. A permanent vacation, I have told myself, though from time to time I feel nearly trapped. Never more so than when I pace the border, my homeland a few impossible strides away.
It is easy to forget that now, standing in the warm spring sun with my child at my feet and mate at my side.
I had not felt my best this pregnancy, nauseous and bloated and surely looking like a hippopotamus, but Wolfbane had not left my side. There were other things he attended to, of course, as a king should, but I had never felt like less of a priority. How he does that I cannot fathom, but I have done my best to show my own devotion. Only once, when I was heaving the contents of my stomach onto a lovely bed of poppies for the third time that morning, had I regretted my choice. Yet now, looking down at the sleeping Pteron and feeling Wolfbane's soft touches against my own, I know it had not been in vane.
This is what my mother had wanted for me: a devoted husband and family of my own. This is what I had wanted for me.
When he mentions Sylva, I am too content to mind (perhaps later I will think to remind them who is the subkingdom) and then I am distracted entirely by the offer he makes, the question he asks with that familiar smirk.
"Of course," I reply with a smile of my own - though softer and more satisfied than his. "Nothing would make me happier." Pteron shifts at our feet, easily dreaming as children do, and a "But..." slips out just before I glance back up at my husband.
"You must give me something in exchange." How demanding I must sound, I think to myself, but my blue-grey eyes are narrowed in withheld amusement. I reach out to Bane, pressing my lips against the smooth golden plane of his cheek and feeling the rising heat that never really leaves me in his presence. "I want another one. Another baby. Maybe a girl this time."
@[Wolfbane]
It is easy to forget that now, standing in the warm spring sun with my child at my feet and mate at my side.
I had not felt my best this pregnancy, nauseous and bloated and surely looking like a hippopotamus, but Wolfbane had not left my side. There were other things he attended to, of course, as a king should, but I had never felt like less of a priority. How he does that I cannot fathom, but I have done my best to show my own devotion. Only once, when I was heaving the contents of my stomach onto a lovely bed of poppies for the third time that morning, had I regretted my choice. Yet now, looking down at the sleeping Pteron and feeling Wolfbane's soft touches against my own, I know it had not been in vane.
This is what my mother had wanted for me: a devoted husband and family of my own. This is what I had wanted for me.
When he mentions Sylva, I am too content to mind (perhaps later I will think to remind them who is the subkingdom) and then I am distracted entirely by the offer he makes, the question he asks with that familiar smirk.
"Of course," I reply with a smile of my own - though softer and more satisfied than his. "Nothing would make me happier." Pteron shifts at our feet, easily dreaming as children do, and a "But..." slips out just before I glance back up at my husband.
"You must give me something in exchange." How demanding I must sound, I think to myself, but my blue-grey eyes are narrowed in withheld amusement. I reach out to Bane, pressing my lips against the smooth golden plane of his cheek and feeling the rising heat that never really leaves me in his presence. "I want another one. Another baby. Maybe a girl this time."
@[Wolfbane]
