Ankyra Sound gatorwine

old milk? sobeille scoffed, flicking her tail at yura’s face as they descended. she imagined there were many worse scents lingering here — stale fish and crusted guppy puke being among them — but she did not call attention to such things.

stepping down with practiced ease into the chamber, sobeille stood back and waited for yura to navigate the stony lip before continuing. just past the flowstone columns, near the moonpool’s glittering surface, sat the pelts procured by yura all those weeks ago. wrestling within those pelts were three cubs which sobeille regarded with a strange coolness.

she’d been so eager to be rid of them, those weeks she’d grown fat and sick. pregnancy hadn’t agreed with her — and the subsequent stress and grief ran her gaunt. birthing them had been no cakewalk either; they’d caused her significant pain, and even a week later sobeille found it difficult to look past the insult they’d done to her mind and body.

but they were hers — so distinctly sobeillian; they’d come from her blood and bones, just as she’d come from her maman’s, and this softened some of the rigid misgiving stirring in her spine.

treepie’s scent lingered in the cavern, coupled with an odor of fresh blood. abruptly brought back to the present, sobeille’s gaze flickered to where she thought she detected treepie’s silhouette, then back to yura.

she might like dis cave better. sobeille remarked, motioning to the pool where she was certain the seal could have made its escape. treepie, dis be yura. sobeille called into the shadows, tail swaying as she turned back to the three grubs nestled in furs. an’ yura, dis be your nieces. she stepped back, allowing space for yura to inspect the young if she so wished — her attachment to the cubs had yet to become fiercely protective. as if in afterthought, she tacked on and one nephew. sobeille was irritated by her womb; why could it not produce three daughters? the only thing that softened her disappointment was the fact that the boy was darkly reminiscent of her blood, and surrounded by two sisters besides. it was better than three boys,l: perhaps marinette had visions for him not yet clear to his mother.