Coconut Grove standing so incredibly still, i become invisible to the eye

A fiercely exultant growl rumbled within Lotte’s breast as Hemlock rushed forward and nestled against her, slender muzzle arcing up to tug at one small, bearlike ear. She leaned down to make it easier for her petitely-fashioned wife. “Calling me a liar, liekkikukka?” she questioned, a thread of genuine hurt twining through her velvety alto. “I forbid you from questioning my judgment.” Her tone was playful, lightly mocking, but the nip she bestowed upon one burnished shoulder was sharp enough to pinch. “I do not have to do anything I do not wish to,” she reminded her mate more seriously, with a spirited toss of her head. “I say you are beautiful because you are, no matter what you may think of yourself. Your judgment of yourself is often poor. I see things more clearly.”

Lotte’s tone was, okay, a little smug in this dream of Hemlock’s, but the wise woman’s perception of her mate couldn’t be truer. She was smug — and bossy, and bullheaded…

Anyway, “I remember that!” Lotte crowed, and if she had been able to, she would have clapped. As it was, a great belly-laugh rollicked from her smiling maw. “You and I have both had terrible luck when it comes to pregnancy and logistics,” she chuckled, refusing to acknowledge aloud that her death had caused great problems for Hemlock. Guilt stabbed at her, and she savored its bite, but she did not speak of it — she was here to comfort, not be comforted. “I hope your next patient is more…stationary. Who is your next patient?”

She smiled fondly at mention of Eirlys, but her love for her second daughter was quieter; she had never really been close with the girl. Both she and Eirlys had been waiting for something to happen — some momentous event that would cause them to cleave together — but even when things in the family had started to crumble, mother and daughter had remained islands without any real connection aside from their shared blood.