Dragoncrest Cliffs watch those words rise with a smoke

@Thuringwethil I remember somewhere in the con haze and bad wifi that you wanted a new thread so. <3

Drageda was on edge.

Tirgatao always had a sixth-sense for this sort of thing—everyone's emotions were elevated. Between the Nereides meeting, Heda's fall, and the two pregnant woman due to give birth in mere days, there was a lot of hustle and bustle in and among the clan. Tirgatao herself had little time to prepare for the children that would, inevitably, be swept up beneath her busom as she entertained and educated them with tales of Seageda or expectations the clan had for them. Their parents, of course, would do most of the work but she was prepared to act as their teacher and mentor nonetheless. Her title was not for the adults alone.

But today, a cloudless but seasonably warm day, Tirgatao found time to sit down and enjoy the soon-to-be rare moment of peace and quiet. She lay beside the great lake, not far from where Portia and Wildfire had chosen to claim their dens, and stared out at the glassy surface of the water. A few ducks paddled by just out of reach of her predatory jaws, but her stomach was full from some scavanged meat off an older deer kill. No, she was glad for the quiet. Soon it would be filled with squaling children, and cooing mothers; snarls of sleepless parents, and concerned whines of subordinates.

But she envied them. Soon, her heat would come, and it would go, just as it always had. She harbored no disillusions about bearing her own young, and had already planned on sequestering herself away from any temptation until it passed. Still, there was something bitter that lodged itself in her throat every time birthing season came about. Tirgatao was always a happy observer of children growing up, becoming adults and being successful, but she'd never known the pride that came from rearing her own flesh and blood.

With a sigh she lay her chin upon her outstretched paws and lay her ears back against her ruff.