Northstar Vale Brick and mortar as thick as scripture

The young Clay responded by asking if Vespera was referring to his mother, well who else, she thought sarcastically to herself, "of course," the Duchess gave a small nod to him. The dark woman had many questions for him but felt it was best to keep them to herself for now, but they were buzzing through her head like why was he away from Easthollow? Why was he scared like that? Does Valette know he is here?

Her stomach felt like it was twisting, but not from the pups that were resting within her womb, but a sort of empathetic wave that was now coursing within her.

Thankfully, Yuudai complied and threw his head up and broke the sky with his summoning howl, and while the sound echoed through the valley like an ominous melody, she turned back to Clay with a brief reassuring glance before she would turn her head back to see who would answer this howl. Hopefully, it wouldn't be Takeshi, from what she heard from Yuudai the male sounded like a foul creature, and since Reiko wasn't here, her heart raced thinking that was what the poor Clay was going to get. However, her ears would perk with interest but there was a bit of concern in her mind as moments later, an inflated Ibis came heaving up the mountain.

The Queen was pregnant as well but looked like she was just about to burst and soon pups were going to be flying out of her any moment, so the Duchess politely took a step back towards Yuudai to give her some space. Ibis cast a quick glance at the samurai and the cloaked woman, Vespera gave a quick apologetic glance at the Queen since it must have been a chore to get up here, "oh Jesus..." She whispered to Yuudai as the pregnant Queen now gave her attention to the Easthollow male. 

Ibis was understandably a bit irritable when she spoke to him, it reminded Vespera how she used to act when approaching strangers. The cloaked woman felt as though the swollen Ibis was interrogating him instead of inviting him which worried the dark woman a bit but she had respect for Ibis so she silently shoved her concerns in the back of her mind. Clay stated that he seemed refuge and start a new which struck a chord with the Duchess and those same questions that she had popped up in her head again.

She looked to Yuudai, then to Ibis, the Queen would be the judge here today, and she was hoping that her current mood wouldn't sway her evaluation or else Vespera might have to persuade the moody teenager.