Lion Head Mesa Amaryllis

So… perhaps she had never been in love. Perhaps she had only felt quite jilted in the new rush about the palace that had her loved ones occupied as of late.

But still!

She was an instrument of yearning, flowing with a ravenous desire for fulfillment she did not understand, craving affections.

“Mother— I’m dying!” The girl cries, flinging herself into @Toula’s stone room and collapsing dramatically over her parents’ bedfurs.

she thought she knew fear well—the dread that lingered in the pit of one’s belly before a task not only new, but terrible. it turned out she was only acquainted with it. whatever it was she had thought paled in comparison to what she felt in hearing her daughters words! 
Toula stood over her daughter, sniffing restlessly for any telltale signs of impending death. nothing, nothing that she could see—where does it hurt, my little love?