Hushed Willows just resting my head

The last cold snap of winter — or what Olive sincerely hoped was the last cold snap of winter — kept her mostly in her den and by her wife’s warm and lovely side. The den was more spacious than usual, despite her general unwillingness to be boxed in and covered up, and the reason why there was more space than usual made her a little sad. Though Séamus and Eleuthera had told her for many months that they wished to travel the world, just as she had when she was their age, the mother hen within her refused to think that such a thing might actually happen.

However, Olive decided, if they were going to go galavant across continents and come to rule many kingdoms — at least they were together, and together they would be safe, even in this type of brutal cold.

Sometimes, amongst the living, breathing pile of Seabreeze and Ibis and Okeanos, her awareness surrounding the lack of her natural born children became too keen and she found herself wandering the willows, crooning and wanting and wishing for more cubs to fill her hearth and home. Elysium, as a concept, was built around children and the midwife found herself wondering what she was doing with her time without growing them, raising them, or educating them. Lily was almost mid-term in her pregnancy, but even that seemed too far in the future to suit her.

Olive walked around the hushed willows in a very similar state, feeling vaguely surprised when she happened upon one of the seraphim with whom she was not so familiar. “Silas,” she greeted, almost sheepishly for having become the pack leader who did not know her co-members. “Are you busy?”