There was a growing tension between mother and daughter. Dock watched with frustration in the lines of her face and sorrow in her eyes as Oswin gave a hard snort, ears turned back, and marched off with no intention of returning to her mother if she called for her. It wasn’t the first time this sort of discussion had occurred and it wouldn’t be the last, either. Oswin was nearly a year old (my, how time flies) and she was growing antsy. In spite of Dock’s desperate need to keep her daughter close for fear of anything terrible happening to her, Oswin had retained an adventurous spirit. Trying to hold her back only seemed to make her want to leave even more, and the scary part was that it meant she’d do it on her terms rather than Dock’s. But Dock didn’t want to give her daughter permission to leave Luthien, let alone the Prairie.
She’d only been a year older than Oswin, after all, when she came face to face with the truth that monsters didn’t always have sharp teeth and a carnivorous appetite. If something of the same sort was to happen to Oswin, Dock wouldn’t know what to do with herself… and, of course, there was still the looming mystery as to where Nephilim was. She knew in her heart that he hadn’t left the islands completely. That would have been too easy… Oswin had heard their conversation, Dock knew she had, and she was a smart girl. What would Dock do if Oswin went looking for him?
A soft breath left her slowly as she dropped her head, pulling her eyes from Oswin’s retreating form. With any luck she’d cross paths with one of her siblings, grow distracted, and the friction between her and Dock would subside until she brought up the topic again. But what could distract Dock for the time being so that she didn’t drive herself mad with all the worries brewing in her head?
At that precise moment she felt a shift in her slightly swollen torso and, in spite of all her woe, could not help the smile that came to her mouth. “A lively one,” she murmured, tilting her head just slightly to run her gaze down her belly. This pregnancy was going differently than Oswin’s had. This child was active day and night, as if he or she could not wait to get out. It worried Dock that the child would be twice the adventurer that Oswin was. She could hardly handle her daughter, let alone two of her!
She sighed and turned her head back forward, only then catching sight of Valentine with the sunrise sky framed behind his silhouette. Without hesitation, Dock began to move to him, weaving around members of the herd to reach him. She would leave Oswin to pout and curse her mother for ‘restricting’ her and maybe one day she’d figure out how to tell her why she was so overbearing and cautious when it came to raising her.
Dock stayed quiet as she reached Valentine, bumping her muzzle affectionately to his neck and running it down his shoulder before she circled around him to stand by his side. Her gaze swept down to the frost covered Prairie bathed in the early morning light. “It’s a beautiful morning,” she said, softly breaking the silence, grunting just then as their unborn child shifted, “and your child is already awake.” Humor crept into her tone, smiling as she cast a sideways glance at Valentine, her heartbeat increasing as it always did for him.
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