attn:
@Yama backdating this to 12/31 also! after da meeting
There were some that were not yet sexually mature in their ranks; Hydra knew much of what she said went over their heads from her own experience alone. But still she required them there to hear her decree; let there be no doubt she had made it, by any. Now, though, Hydra had set herself aside to meet with those not of age, and even those that
were that had been there. Arcturus, she had promptly realized, had been gone.
Whether he heard her howl or not she could not be sure, but she was haunted with the terrible familiarity to the situation with their own mother. The day Amekaze had called and their father had ignored it—
He is not your father!
Indeed not; he was her brother. Amekaze's son, too. Hydra held onto faith for now, but wondered if she was bound to be disappointed by him again in her lifetime. Wondered if he would lie to her if he pursued anyone, even by accident in his not knowing. Really she could not fault him for that, but she would fault him for his lie—
These thoughts were fear given life! They ran rampant and Hydra was quick to realize this, irate by her own impending season. Faith. She had faith in him. Faith in him that at the very least, if he had erred he would be honest with her; but the season had not yet begun. It did not truly occur to her how the last season effected her mind then, but she stifled the echoes of it. She had her duty to fulfill.
And her duty now was to the young; Yama, too.
Yama would be entering her first season without their mother. Hydra would have to shepherd her in and out of her season; she would be there for her, by her side. It was her Hydra sought out again, following her scent-trail and wondering
how her mother had handled this. Yama was a decent enough guinea pig for her own children she supposed; she would just have to do her best, as she always would.
The matriarch turned her head in the direction Yama's voice sounded from; having hoped to come across her, her tail swayed as she adjusted her course to meet her. Her ears pricked as Yama came into her line of sight, and the Ostrega moved to nose the tawny she-wolf who would soon be girl no more.
Yama,
she greeted to start with. It was good to see her out and moving around; Hydra let her sister mourn but given the new season could hardly endure it anymore. Track with me,
she half-invited, tail still swaying. The Queen found it difficult to be idle, and the energy of all to come had her itching to be ever-moving.
A rabbit warren,
she informed, and if the rabbits that once lived there still do, post the famine. And if they moved, hopefully we can find where,
her tail waved. Hydra knew where the warren was at least... and they were heading in the right direction. Yama looked well, better than she had... it seemed she was on the road to recovery.
I wanted to also speak with you a bit more about heat, too, while we are together... I think this will be the first year you may come into it,
she thought aloud. It is... a different time. Typically a scent comes from it, but there is a new allure to men. You feel like a fire has lit within,
she recalled her own first heat, and you want to smother it... and the only satisfying way, that your mind tells you, is to breed. So I wanted to ask a favor of you. If you feel this way... come to me. I will protect you, as I always will,
she requested, her gaze having landed back to the path ahead only to return to her sister. Breeding begets children, and you do not yet have a mate to raise those children with,
she explained as she had in the meeting, but in far more words.
Hydra looked back to the path once more, but her attentions were for Yama. Unless... are there any men in your life yet, sister?
She drawled with much interest, voice warm as her gaze again fell to her. Likely not, given all of her time here and not elsewhere... but Hydra was interested in her sisters life, and was certain there was much she did not know of her that she dearly wished to.