Tuktu Hinterlands Oh heart doth broken

She coiled about her son, a python pulling its prey in close so that it could not escape, though he was willing and supple in her grasp, burying his face into the fur of her chest. She was certain he would hear the pace of her heartbeat quicken as she preened the fur along the top of his head and down toward his nape where she caught the distinct scent of one of the wolves who had cornered them before. The sour one. Why could she smell him on her son??

She did her best not to freeze or pull away when he admitted that he had been to see the Kingslend wolves. She did not approve of him going so far- especially not when their allignment with those wolves was unsettled and uneasy. What was it with her children, falling so amorously for wolves that their mother despised, so? So quick to love and easy to turn a blind eye to all the faults their mother could flush out with one blink of her honeyed gaze. The Rusalkans were vicious, proud, unpredicatable. The Kingslenders were egotistical, selfish, possibly inbred. While she did not like having to pin Quetzal down and discourage her obsession with mud, it was better than being enchanted by soft enemies. 

And while she knew Primrose was a sensitive child she indulged him, babied him, and pitied him for whatever it was that they had done to him. Part of her knew he was potentially over-reacting but she found it easier and more satisfying to engage him and sympathize with him. While she felt rage stirring within her like a haze of dark, boiling fog, she would need more to go off of than just a few of her son's many tears. "Sweet Prim," She said, to comfort and soothe her child, sweeping her tongue across his brow where worry creased it. It would take him some time to get his crying out, so she allowed him to do so- and rocked gently to and fro to help calm him. If she wanted Primrose to believe that mother knew what was best, she knew she would have to have his ear. And to get that, she would have to bear an ocean of tears. "Aww, my sweet Prim," She cooed, and allowed him time to relax until she finally felt he might be calm enough to talk without bursting into hysterics. 

"My baby boy...What did they do to you?"