Two Eyes Cenote Shieldtail

Eset had awoken from a dream. It was a vision stronger and more vivid than any in memory. She dreamt of a child.

In the small hours of the morning she curls upon herself, stretching so her arms are wrapped fully about the haunches and her lips press into her belly. She kisses the warm dark skin there hopefully and blinks back teary disbelief. 

“Hey, you. I love you- whoever you are,” she murmurs into strands of velvet fur. Her mouth splits into a full-toothed grin. She had been given a precious memory that would last all her days.

No more beautiful thing had happened to Eset in all her life.

lmk if i'm assuming too much! i saw an opportunity for girl time >:D

it truly was amazing what a woman's body was capable of.
inji's figure had once been lithe and pristine, stilt-legged and shifty in the manner of the desert wolf. in pregnancy and while nursing, she had ballooned — and now she sank back down to a comfortable middling weight, still noticeably plump in some ways, but miraculously much the same as she had been before.
having now gone through it herself, she thought herself to have an eye for "the signs" — or at least she did after she noticed changes in eset.
it took all of her power not to be nosy and ask outright. but when she took an early-morning shift and slipped silently into the hebsut's chamber with the intention of straightening up, she cannot help but overhear the whispered words spoken to... nobody.
or, presumably nobody.
are you awake, eset? she murmurs, stopping mid-pelt-fold in order to crane her neck over her shoulder. she did not truly expect an answer.

she’s not showing any discernible signs of pregnancy that inji would know about at this point but we can say she heard her

A sigh exhales into her belly, one last nosing before she unfurls reluctantly from her moment with them. A word at this hour could only mean work, and it leads her to sit up in bed, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” There is immediacy in the ask. She glances from her room to the hallway where Inji stands. Thoughts of Machiavelli flit unbidden through her mind.

oh! oh, nothing, inji's eyes widen as she leaps away in surprise, her ears flattening. sorry, i-- i-t's just, ah;
what the hell was she going to say? i think one of us might be hallucinating? her jaw remains slack as she drifts fully into the room, making note of any mess that may need her attention.
was she crazy? maybe she was merely yearning for the days her own kids were newborns and projecting it onto the poor hebsut. she stands there like a fish out of water before deciding to glance around, as if checking for another presence.
i just, um, i heard you talking to somebody, she winces as she says it, as if it were some kind of accusation. a-are you okay?

Her dreamy eyes trail Inji as she turns about the room, lips bending with the furtive smile of all she knew to be true.

“... murmuring, in my sleep,” she explains away, and resists the compulsion to run a hand over her belly, just to feel again. When would she show? When would they stir? If she pressed her nose close, would she hear a heartbeat?

The coy had spent time around pregnant women, but could have never imagined it for herself. Soon she would need to explain it to the people of Muat-riya. Soon would come time to send word to Pharaoh about her condition. But for now, Eset curves into a blissful stretch, allowing all the excitement of possibility to fill her.

“You are up early,” she whispers to Inji, “I’ll help you,” and she near prances out of bed to join the fellahin.