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 Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:05 am
His tail thumped, grin upon his maw. "See? Everything will work out great, then." Well, more or less, right?
He gave a tremendous yawn then, and stretched languidly. "Think you'll have friends there?" He asked then; he'd been wondering about this, how many puppies there would be and what their lifestyle was like. Balios was always keen to learn about other wolves and their lifestyles.
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:03 pm
"Yeah they will." She confirmed with a nod of her head, though only time would tell if things would truly work out of not. "I think so, I heard there are quite a few pups up there. I'll get to train beside the Queen's daughters, which is pretty special from what mom says." It's not everyday the Queen has pups, and to be friends and train along with. And having pups around her age would certainly make the transition easier, so she hoped. "And no pesky brothers either." Guinevere teased him, poking him with a paw and flashing him a smile.
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:45 pm
"Does the Queen have any sons?" He asked, genuinely curious. He'd met his uncle, but he'd never heard about any other boys, and he wondered what their life would be like. "I mean...I guess you wouldn't really want to play with them either...but..." his brow furrowed. "What do THEY do?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 10:13 pm
"Mother says that the Queen has one son. Funny their family is the complete opposite of ours, they have five daughters and one son, and we have five sons and one daughter." It was somewhat fitting in Guinevere's mind, that the Queen of such a pack would have so many daughters. Daughters brought honor after all. "Who says I wouldn't want to play with them? I was joking you know."
Guinevere shifted her paws not really sure how to answer his question. She had thought Balios knew about things up there, maybe not in perfect detail, but wasn't it obvious with mothers dislike of males that boys didn't live perfect lives in Antianeira. Sighing she thought it was best to just tell him the truth, that was one of the rules of Antianeira, to always tell the truth. "Balios...I don't know how to tell you this, but Uncle Iosef and all the males of Antianeira are slaves to the sisters. They do most of the work, whatever the sisters tell him to do."
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:06 pm
"Slaves?" His brow furrowed. He was unfamiliar with the term, and -- having no idea what it meant, but feeling foolish for admitting that -- found himself caught in something of a quandry as to how to respond.
"So...they do, like...chores?" He was still a bit foggy on this. "So...they do chores all day," he attempted, growing bolder, "and the sisters, uh, train, all day?" His brow was so furrowed now that the V-marking of his forehead had grown substantially smaller and sharper. "...that doesn't sound so bad."
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:34 pm
"Yeah something like that." Guinevere wasn't sure exactly how to explain it better without completely insulting Balios for being of the lesser gender. But at the same time if she was to live in that pack, serve the queen and stand up to the ideals of the sisters, she would need to put her feelings aside. And yet, if she insulted her brother there was a chance to put an even bigger rift between her and him, and all her other brothers as well.
"Chores are just the beginning, they do all the grunt work. Things the sisters believe are too unimportant to do themselves." Then she looked away from Balios, unwilling to look him in the eyes when she said what was about to come out of her mouth next. "They are described as the dirt beneath the sisters paws, for the sisters walk upon the slaves as if they were nothing." She couldn't yet return her gaze to Balios, she would wait to see his reaction to this before looking at her brother once more.
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Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:46 am
"....Oh," he said, and his expression fell slightly. This was completely beyond his comprehension now. "That's not very nice," he said, tentatively. But, it did make sense of some things. Like why Mother could barely stand to look at him and his brothers. "But...why would they think that? Did the boys do something wrong?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:14 pm
"I...I don't know." Well she did somewhat know, but honestly now was not the time or the place to try to explain it. Soon enough mother would be around to start up the next round of preparation training. "I guess it's always been like that in the pack. It's the way it was founded and I don't think anything will change it." Sighing Guinevere looked at her paws for a moment and then back to Balios. "She may not show it well, but I know mother does love you, she loves all of you. It's just the way she was raised"
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:23 pm
"But...if we're just the dirt under her paws..." he started, now desperately trying to assimilate this new information. He looked back at Guinevere, very uncertainly, clearly feeling like he was missing something very important. "I don't really like dirt. Except sometimes when it gets wet, and then I like to play in the mud. But...I don't think that's what you meant?"
He had formed his own ideas of why Mother might not be very loving to her sons, but nothing he had fathomed was this simple or this....unfair. He had always assumed, as had Corinth, that their failing had been something they could make up for. This was a different idea, and one that Balios couldn't find a solution for. If the problem was solely one of gender...well, what could possibly be done?
And besides! She liked Father well enough, didn't she? ...or did she?
For the first time in his young life, Balios began to wonder if maybe Tantalus had been right all along, and his constant optimism wavered slightly.
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:12 pm
Now she was stumped. There was no real way of explaining things that would tell Balios how things were up north and why mother treated him the way she did. She had tried but even she wasn't one hundred percent about some of the things. Perhaps mother would explain it? No, that wasn't likely. But who then? Aha! Turning her eyes to Balios the small white pup smiled. "Ask father about it, he'll be able to tell you what it means better than I can." Plus she was running out of time to get back to training with mother, and if she was late, then Terreis would push her twice as hard as she already was. Which was something Guinevere didn't want to have happen.
"I need to get going. Mother doesn't like me being late for training." Standing she gave her already tired muscles a stretch. "We'll talk again later." Flashing him one final smile Guinevere padded off, hoping that she wasn't already late.
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:33 pm
"Okay," he said, brightening up a little. Father. Of course! Father would know. His tail wagged, pleased at this answer, however temporary it was.
"It was nice talking," he said, and meant it. Plenty of other pups -- especially young males -- would be bored at the prospect of sitting around for a chat, but Balios was strange in that respect. She'd certainly given him a lot to think about, at any rate. "Good luck with training!" He added, watching as she took off. She looked so exhausted!
Dirt under her paws or not, he still thought he'd gotten the better end of the deal.
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