Oak Tree Bend sugar, how you get so fly?

When Aponi had finally decided that she could ignore her problem any longer and had to tell Spieden that she was with child herself she had found the woman was gone. Off with Sahalie in search of their allies the mountain for some business of the pack. The thought made her teeth clench as she remembered that white hag and how long her muscles had ached after everything transpired. Still she had kept her silence about the displeasure the alliance brought her, it was not her pack after all. This in itself displeased the woman and she longed to reclaim the mountain with followers of her own.

This particular goal would have to be set on hold for the imminent future if her change in scent told her anything. The morning was just cresting, casting the world in a pink light as the silver woman made her way towards her den. She slept throughout the day and was active mostly at night so the sunrise was her signal it was time to retire. Exhaustion was setting into her body and the blue eyes felt heavy lidded as a yawn slipped through her jaws.

It was this deep inhale that brought the scent of the alpha. Changing course in a hope to catch her by herself she squinted through the early morning light, the fog heavy and blurring anything more than a few feet ahead of her. Peering through the haze she called, "Spieden?"

Through the mist draped forest she half expected to see a fin or fluke cutting through the fog, every play of the faint morning sunlight becoming an illusion of a glint of a darkened eye, or the flash of sharp, pearlescent teeth. That morning she had awoken with a start, sure that she was moments away from drowning, limbs tangled in thick kelp as she was pulled deeper and deeper into the dark. She could practically still taste the brine on the back of her tongue, her ears still ringing from the voice that had filled her ears like crashing waves.

While her body craved rest from her mountain journey, she could sleep not a moment longer. The den was too confined, she needed the sky above her head, but as luck would have it the Spectral Woods had hid the heavens in its oppressive grey shroud. Still, it was fresh air and just feeling the soil beneath her paws put some distance between imagination and reality.

Spieden jolted slightly as she heard her name called through the woods, only realizing after that it was only Aponi. Again the sort of sinking feeling that nobody ever just wanted to talk to her, only coming to her for some sort of problem. She didn't usually mind so much, that was what she was there for. But after such a trip and a night of tossing and turning she was really just bone tired and still trying to set herself straight.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Spieden headed towards the voice with a heavy, plodding tread. "I'm here," She called, pressing through the foliage until she was close enough to see the grey-draped woman. "Something the matter?" She asked, silvered brows lifted in concern. Only after the words left her mouth did the other female's change in scent hit her like a wall. Oh, was all she could think as a sort of puzzled expression pulled over her scarred face.

Spieden's voice reached her before the alpha woman came into view. She lumbered through the mist and foliage until standing before her with eyebrows raised and voice laced with concern. It was the puzzled look that followed that let Aponi know that she knew. Hormones raged inside her as she tried to figure out how she really felt. Guilty, shamed, embarrassed, defensive, protective. In the end it was a mix of the three as the Aquila's face twisted into an unreadable expression. Was something wrong? Lots of things were wrong, the pregnancy that shouldn't have been able to be conceived so late into her heat, the words she had exchanged with @Kyna about it, Samuel Lyall.That bastard.

Not for the first time in her life Aponi struggled to accept her responsibility in it all, she had thought her fertility had faded so late in her heat, she had thought she was fine. Samuel had known, he had known enough to tell her not to come looking. None of it mattered now as the Eastern prince had disappeared and now she was left with the consequences. Once again the protectiveness of the unborn growing within her stirred as the mother dipped her head, "Spieden I....I've made a mistake." She had said the words out loud to her daughter but now they felt strange and bitter in her mouth. This litter was hers, not hers and someone else's, just hers. They may have been conceived as a mistake but she would make sure they knew what they deserved in the world, what their family deserved.

"A mistake..." Spieden said dryly, scarred ears folding with an inward wince. She didn't have to ask what kind of mistake, with the scent of it as plain as the fog on the air between them. She new the grey woman already had a daughter, and couldn't help but wonder where her father was. And then, who was the father of this brood? A sort of morbid curiosity struck her, but she didn't have the heart to ask; what if it was the same man she'd run into? Her stomach twisted uneasily at the thought.

Everyone had lost their damned minds, Spieden was sure of it, herself included. Mistakes happened, and she couldn't feel too judgmental having made the same exact error as Aponi had. It was understandable. The thought that anyone would do this to themselves purposefully was a perspective Spieden never had and still did not get. She was still praying to whatever entity that was listening that any pregnancy of her own was a phantom one, though by her dreams she could only assume the gods were laughing at her own misfortune. Could she never get a break?

"Well, you're not the only one," Spieden said with a snort that could have been a laugh.

Spieden's words were dry when they reached her ears, causing the woman's body to tense in unease. Her chin remained respectfully down though the blue eyes glanced upwards to try and read the expression on the alpha's face. It wasn't what she expected, there was no anger just some kind of twisted curiosity. Lifting herself from her lowered position slowly Aponi's brow furrowed, what was this other woman possibly so curious about? Instead of breaking the silence the mother just nodded once in response to her own repeated statement, a mistake. Again the thought of it twisted her stomach, these were hers, they may have been conceived in ignorance but they would not be raised as mistakes. They would be raised as Aquila's with no threat of their pride being diluted by soft sires.

Spieden's words and snort were the ones to break the silence and this time it was the silver fae who could feel curiosity seeping through her. Unsure of how to approach the subject but dying to know the answer she hesitated before responding, "Have you told Sahalie?" The question caused the scene with Kyna to flash through her mind and she internally winced. The two had never bonded properly since she had left and now it would seem that this would finally break them. Aponi was not sure how to feel about this, on one paw she was often disappointed in the blonde daughter and how soft she was but the other brought a bitter taste to her mouth. She had sworn she would never become Naira and yet that is exactly what she had turned into.

Spieden looked at Aponi as if a second head had sprouted from the grey woman's shoulders, a sort of unsettled confusion shifting across her grizzled features. "No," She said slowly, almost hesitant to answer. To be honest, the prospect of telling Sahalie hadn't even crossed her mind before Aponi brought it up. Just thinking about it she could feel the disappointment, the confusion, the questions that would erupt from the Tainn girl. Oh, the questions were enough to stop the idea in it's tracks. The questions themselves were never so bad, but the uncomfortable answers or evasive lies that she would have to spit out like the bitterest medicine weren't a pleasant thought. And once the answers came to light, she wouldn't be able to bear the disappointment the girl would surely feel in her.

"She'll figure it out, she's a sharp girl." She said at last with a sigh, not entirely convinced by her own words, but hoping that by loosing the idea into the world it would become a self fulfilling prophecy. Somehow Sahalie had figured out she wasn't her mother before Spieden had even breathed a word of it, perhaps this too would work itself out beforehand.

"Why? Did you tell Kyna yet?" Spieden asked with silvered brows lifted.

The silver brows furrowed as Spieden suddenly sprouted a look of confusion and disbelief. Had she somehow misread the pairs relationship? Sahalie had certainly relied on the alpha throughout the chaos that had been the pack meeting and had been overly concerned the night Aponi had seen them together. The knitting on her forehead deepened as the alpha released one word slowly into the air. They smoothed quickly when she followed with an explanation, the woman had quickly composed herself when she realized the older wolf didn't plan on telling her at all.

Nodding once silently as a non-verbal communication that the Aquila would keep her own mouth shut on the matters when speaking to the Tainn girl she glanced away. Aponi would never say the words aloud but she often wished that her own daughter were more like her friend. The pack seemed to gravitate towards the pup and she spoke with fire when she needed to, and not fire spit only from emotion like @Kyna but the girl had the experience to back it up. Being a relative newcomer she didn't know much of what had befallen the pack before their joining but she knew enough to know that the Tainn had to have grown up tough.

Clearing her throat from the unwanted guilt that was crushing it the blue eyes sought out the woman before her. It wasn't often she felt guilty, practically never even, but this particular subject hit the sore spot. All she wanted was to love her daughter the way that she had longed to be loved by @Naira but perhaps her imagined neglect had not taught her how. Once more guilt built in her stomach at Spieden's words, "I...spoke with her yes. She did not take the news kindly." This was all the information she volunteered, unsure of what else the alpha wanted to know.

Spieden nodded at Aponi's answer. Fair enough. While Spieden had no younger siblings, being of the last litter herself, she could imagine how having little brothers or sisters on the way might be upsetting. She herself wasn't sure how Sahalie would react to the news, and their relationship being of the non-traditional sort made it even harder to tell, she couldn't even hazard a guess either way. But she was steeling herself for the worst of reactions. At least Sahalie and Kyna seemed to be playmates of sorts, perhaps with someone to commiserate it wouldn't be so bad. That is, if Kyna and her mother would even choose to remain.

"So what are you going to do?" Spieden asked. "Will you stay? Go? It's up to you." Her face was open, she was not overly invested in either decision that might come from the silvery woman. Spieden wasn't one for propriety, and thought it made little sense to evict members that were otherwise in good standing. She was a leader, not a dictator. If her laissez faire attitude would come back to bite her in the ass later, it would be a bridge she would cross if she got to it. She would leave the decision to rest upon Aponi.