Blacktail Deer Plateau Closer to the sun

Pied flinched when Kisu called her selfish. She winced again when he talked of their pups being slaughtered. She looked up and saw the burning in his eyes. "No, I don't know," she agreed softly, "and I know that—" But her mate didn't give her any chance to respond. He once again implied that she was self-centered, then exited the den without another word.

Her eyes burned after him. "Kisu," she said to herself, "when did you become such an ass?" Pied knew she didn't really mean it—the hormones were making her very heated and emotional—but she still disagreed with Kisu's notion that she was being selfish. She was concerned about her pups and her personal integrity. And she'd said they could discuss it, in any case.

What started as a quiet muttering turned into a sigh as her eyes cast about the den. Why was it that the moments meant to be the best in life were always getting tainted like this? Pied's mind flew back to that night on the beach. Kisu had also berated her then. Rather than speak to her civilly, he always seemed to talk down to her, like a bratty child. When did our relationship turn into this? the Tau wondered dismally.

"We'll discuss it," she said aloud to herself, "together, later." She tried to sound reassuring. Pied did hope they could take their time to respectively cool off and then reconvene and come to an agreement. Right now, though, it seemed Kisu didn't like her much and she certainly didn't like him. This isn't how I want my marriage to be... she thought inwardly before quashing that thought, curling into a ball and trying to clear her mind of any- and everything.