No one expects an
angelto set the world on
fireHover for Text
Fell is not the same half-feral wolf-pup she had fallen in love with anymore, and she is not the perpetually anxious girl she'd been back then either. When the world was new and fresh, lacking in the perspective gained by lived experiences, the thought of bearing anyone a child outside of her partner had seemed like a betrayal of the highest kind. Even when she'd been a few years wiser and no longer
technically Fell's in any tangible way, carrying Amalia after a night under the stars with the Hill's King had felt like a betrayal. Not just of Fell, but of her self and of her children.
How could she dare carry another baby when she'd walked away from Rethe, sobbing on the shores of the Bay to search for answers. Answers she'd taken, harbored, and then done nothing with, because ultimately, the answers to the questions she'd wanted to ask were not the sort of answers one could seek from the world. Those answers came from inside of you - from a place of truth that only you could access. And she had known the answers to those questions before she'd ever left, but the conflict of what she knew in her heart to be true about her partner, and the way the world was telling her to feel about his past were so incongruous that she'd left, promising herself that she would make it right somehow. That she'd make Fell pay for a crime she remained uncertain had ever been committed the way he'd been accused of.
Except the only one she'd made pay for any of it were her own family.
The wait between her confession and his reaction is painful, but she does not rush him despite the way her anxious heart wishes her to. When he finally nods, and then nods in response to her suggestion, some deep fear inside of her lets go and she drags in a shaky breath. Her eyes fall closed as his soft muzzle presses against her temple and she watches him move toward Ivo with adoration shining in her eyes.
Ivo isn't quite sure what to make of his mother's confession. The way she talks about Amalia is confusing to him, given that she is really the only sibling he knows. She is family, so why is she speaking about her like she might not belong here with them? His mother mentioned that he had other siblings, but had refused to elaborate while they were beneath Nyimara's rule and the knowledge had eventually gone to the wayside.
He watches the two of them, brow furrowed, but does not yet grasp all the intricacies of the situation. What he knows, however, is that his mother is asking him to stay behind with this strange stallion - his father - while she goes to bring Amalia here. Why Amalia couldn't have come with them in the first place and saved Ivo from this, he doesn't understand.
Suddenly, the dark stallion darts toward him and tugs at his mane, sending Ivo scurrying a few steps backward in alarm, dark ears tucked into the tangle of his floppy mane. His gaze flicks to the black stallion apprehensively before returning to his mother, not wanting to be parted from her. Far from enabling his clinginess, however, she nods encouragingly and then turns away. The yearling prances in place for a moment, his face a novel of indecision before he finally decides to obey both of his parents and lunges after his father at a stilted, awkward gait.
Ivo can speak, of course, but he finds he has not the slightest idea of what to say, and so he rushes forward to join the black stallion. Their shoulders were likely to brush with how close he crowds as they race through the unfamiliar territory, his gaze and attention constantly pulled in different directions by the scenery around them.