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Calling Sheska's face "pretty" was distortion of fact. She was gorgeous, thank you. Freyja could have matched her grace if only she'd allowed a good grooming or two. The weather and the winds were both enemies of beauty indeed.

As was Kondo, Sheska decided.

It was strange to her how idle hours suddenly seemed only a fleeting moment when at last the thing -- the lion -- you were waiting for arrived. She hoisted herself to all fours and marveled at the sight.

What kind of scandal was this?

Predictably, Kondo was at odds with himself. On one hand, every Viking lost a squabble or two; on the other, those lions weren't him. Freyja didn't know it and might have disagreed if she'd been made wise to it, but his absence the night and day before had been a blessing in disguise. He had time to take his frustrations out on thralls rather than his wife or her pet.

In a true Kondo fashion, so very pompous, he did not enter the den but rather loitered outside it and waited for her to find time in her busy schedule of doing absolutely nothing to come outside.

This was everything Meshindi wanted, to have his father as a captain and his dearest friend both literally and figuratively at his side. Why couldn't he find any joy in it? He looked askance at Gepeto more out of habit than any real intent to pass along his thoughts. How could he when he didn't know what to think himself?

Kondo had told them they were to go out on their first raid immediately, then brought them here for reasons he evidently didn't feel necessary to explain.

To say the least, it surprised Meshindi those reasons were two females.

There was no mistaking those cheek bones.

For once, even Freyja's face could not hide the swelling of emotion the males had brought. Those cheek bones. Though she had not seen him in years, and he had, for all intents and purposes, come to look like what you would call a man, the black male had his mother's softness to her face.

Freyja's eyes were icy when they landed on Kondo. There had to be a reason for this.

Not hesitating, Freyja easily pulled to all fours and swept from the den. Gepeto was not even glanced at, a figment of an imagination, assumed to be an unimportant pawn in Kondo's life and therefore Freyja's. She was v-lining for Meshindi, to look him straight in the eye and see if reality wavered.

It did not.

Freyja had fractions of seconds to decide how she was going to manage this information. Kondo's son. Her sister's son. Technically of blood relation, but it had been no secret to anyone that he had been a failure. Well, perhaps a secret to his mother who lie in the ground.

"Welcome home," she finally decided.

The interest that had been generated reached its peak when Kondo ran off his mouth, rattling on about whores and mates and the like. Why he had been brought to the reunion was beyond him, although that quip certainly got a rise out of the large brown lion-- if only briefly. And another question was posed as to why the viking felt the need to inform the lioness(') of his departure, although this was quickly justified by the loss of a duel Kondo had encountered only a short while ago. Meshindi had impressed upon him the captains brutality in all aspects of life-- but apparently, some things change. He met with a match he could not beat, and perhaps he found a similar disadvantage in the females.

He showed little interest in the exchanges soon after and, as was in his nature, became increasingly annoyed with the wait.

"When he has blistering wounds? Reavers have died of infection from less."

That was true. But from the mouth of his harridan wife it meant nothing. All the captain heard was the sound of her voice, an affront to the king of this den in and of itself. She should have bowed her head and thanked him for wasting his time, not mouthed off in the presence of other males.

"He could fall ill while we're gone," Kondo agreed. Not a good sign. The amendable tone did nothing but foreshadow something wicked. "But my reavers always make it back, sick or not. So."

Meshindi remembered hearing that himself.

So.

Sheska held her breath and choked on it after what Kondo said next, this time to her: "You'll wait by the borders for us to return, then when we do, you'll run to fetch a healer. And you won't move until then. Not an inch."

A thrall hovering by the border? How would she even get there without being accused of trying to escape?

So.

Freyja could hear the entire list of reasonings. They rattled off in her brain as unvocalized ramblings and the lioness' muzzle clamped shut. The damage, however, had already been done.

There was no room for rebuttal without risking further offense, and so the lioness tongue remained pressed against the roof of her mouth. She refused to look at either Kondo or Sheska, though her mind was already picking through how to deal with the problem.

"Be carful, Meshindi."

And, because of Gepeto's presence, she added. "May your claws strike like iron," for Kondo.

For a rather long, drawn out moment Gepeto gave the Captain a hard stare. It would be difficult to decipher his thought process, as the dull look gave no way of knowing for sure. However! It could be assumed that the lion took the Captain's words in strides, but had no intention of letting them be the last. Meshindi's careful warning went without regards, although the nudge seemed to stagger his breath momentarily. With a curl of his lips the male sneered, "Are we finished here?" Stepping back the way they had come through. "Have you warned them enough?" And to Kondo's female companion, "Satisfied?"

Due in part to his second wife's malcontent, Kondo was satisfied. With her retreat, with her words, sounding as if she'd kept them waiting when it had been he who approached her. He would wander to her when he wanted to and she would leave when he was done. This was true for more than conversation and the way his gaze stayed on her smaller frame as she and Sheska regressed into the den suggested to the watchful eyes of a certain nearby snake that it would be more than words he'd seek upon his return.

Meshindi turned and followed his father. He could hear the hushed voices of the females behind him and did his best to ignore them. It wasn't lost on him what had just happened and it hit him this was the least of his concerns.

Bloodshed was soon to be had.