Oak Tree Bend this gut feeling I'm trying to get off me

Speaking with Aesire…? A Freudian slip, surely. Perhaps the furphy was actually true? Was this a guilty conscience? She could mean no other but Speiden, but how similar was this situation to the one she must have been in last year? But then she had the Argyris alpha to care for her. Now, she had a daughter to assist her with the raising of the pup. Pups? Kyna’s mouth twisted to one side as she realized she probably would be responsible for assisting with her siblings.

The switch in names was discarded as the young girl considered the more eminent matters, kneading her paws into the earth below. She might have pressed about their plans – where would they den if she was allowed to stay in Oak Tree Bend? Would they look for the father? And what would they do if Speiden threw them out, mother and daughter both? Where would they go, how far could Aponi travel while pregnant? The youth had a thousand questions on the tip of her tongue, and she got not one out.

But we can be a family.

The words rang between her ears, through her skull. What are we now? she wanted to demand, but that was no way to get anything out of the silver woman. So Kyna only say, and let the words sink in. “I suppose we might,” she intoned, promising herself to nothing, casting away no opportunity. “We will see what time brings. When the pups come.”

If nothing else, Kyna told herself, she’d not become the stone cold bitch that Celedine was, nor the ghost Takis became.

The blue eyes watched as the words rang across the ground between them, picking up every detail on her daughter's face. The expression was unclear, some kind of burning demand and... indecision? The words she spoke rang true with the lack of decision, I suppose we might. Aponi felt anger boil within her belly but for once she held her tongue, held back from lashing out at her daughter for being so dismissive. The heirs of the plateau had treated the blonde girl as if she were invisible at best and now it seemed as if the Argyris pup would do the same.

Brows furrowed deeply for a moment as Aponi realized she truly has no idea who the wolf who stood in front of her was anymore. Long gone was her daughter who had been so close with her, instead here stood a quasi stranger. Aquila blood running through her veins but perhaps the only thing that had in common. When had this gap between them grown so cavernous?

Silver brows smoothed as the Aquila sighed, exhausted seeping through her bones and hormones surging within her blood. Breaking her glance with the wolf in front of her Aponi blinked in the direction of the den they typically shared. It suddenly seemed less than inviting and impossibly small. Instead she walked the few steps and laid next the entrance, settling her head on her paws. Without glancing up she mumbled, "It's late now, there's nothing else we can do until Spieden returns." This time she used the correct name, unaware that she had ever made the mistake before. Within a few minutes she was asleep, her body giving into the exhaustion this conversation and her pregnancy had left her with.

A torrent of emotion blinked across Aponi’s face, too quickly for her daughter to read in full. It was there, and then it was gone. The silver woman had always been difficult to read, but before, she was young, did not understand the complexity of the situation, of her mother. With the death of Phineas, she had seen so much more of the world, had been forced to scramble up such a steep learning curve – and she did, in the end, she’d climbed right up to the summit, and yet there was so much more she did not know.

Whatever it was her mother was expecting, that answer was not it.

Her mouth twisted again as she tried to swallow down the bubble of hurt. Disappointment. Frustration.

She did not want to name each and every color swirling around such an ugly painting, and only watched as Aponi settled down in front of their shared den. It gave Kyna pause – did she lay with her mother, or was this dismissal? If she were to leave, would her dam take insult? But she could not stand here indecisive forever – so with a soft sigh, she stepped forward. Heavy footfalls crunched in the snow as she circled once, twice, and settled down next to Aponi. She would stay. For now.

Fade.