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The perverse part of Lessia that reveled in competition felt, for a moment, like matching Growl's grand meat-gesture with one of her own. After all, just because she wasn't a giant and was recovering from an injury did NOT make her an invalid, and she fully intended to pull her own weight on this suicidal journey. But common sense was a much stronger thing, and Lessia was forced to concede to herself that pulling her own weight was probably enough an undertaking without trying to schlep along a deer limb. Still, a girl could dream!

Tossing the last meaty femur up on Growl's back for good measure, Lessia gave the little clearing a through once-over as she listened to Growl's assessment of the trip ahead, then started off at the same measured pace. A week's walk...well, while it was hardly the best thing for her to hear, it was far from the worst; she'd have a week to thoroughly stretch her limbs, extra time to heal as well as to fight off any lingering traces of muscle atrophy. She'd been diligent in her exercises, and Growl had proved a much better practice partner than any of the area's hapless trees. No, if she had any muscle tightness, it was not due to lack of care and effort on her part!

Still, a week's travel meant a week's brooding, if she allowed herself that weakness. Narrowing her eyes again, she firmly resolved to pass on the brooding; there would be enough to worry about when they actually found Growl's mother. And then...

And then, Growl was clearly ahead of her. Still thinking about the looming threat of the bearwalker, it took a few long moments for her to realize why Growl had suddenly asked such an extraordinary question. Her first reaction had been to stare at him blankly; after all, who had time to think about kids when contemplating a life or death adventure? But a few seconds in, she remembered the reason FOR the life and death venture; of course, Growl was optimistically looking towards the future, a future that, also optimistically, included his siblings. Fair enough.

"Kids? Well, it depends on your definition of hard, I guess. I was the oldest, but Pascale and Anthone were only minutes younger than me, so I didn't really do a lot of 'raising'...and then I'd already left home by the time the three younger ones were born. But knowing Mom and Daddy, they put a lot of care into them, same as us. As far as I know, we were a rough and tumble set of kids; I'd like to think that's universal," she said, flashing Growl a wide grin. She hadn't really thought about it before, but she rather liked the idea of kids being full of energy! "You have to feed them, keep them safe, teach them about the world...keep them from falling into things if they're really dangerous, let them fall into things to learn from if they're not..." Pausing, she frowned, the conversation suddenly driving her long absence into focus. She hadn't even told her parents about the battle with the Kalona; rather than worry them, she'd simply sent word back through one of the various forest familiars that she'd be MIA for awhile.

'Awhile' was turning into a very long time, indeed.

Half to herself, half to Growl, she mused, "Maybe if we make it through this, we could stop and visit my parents. They've raised six kids, I'm sure they'd have better advice for us." Or would it still be too soon? A lot had changed since she'd last been home; there were some ugly things that would have to be dealt with, should she find herself back in that region. But to see her parents again...

Lessia supposed she ought to be surprised at Growl's admission that he barely knew more than the basics; perhaps if she was just meeting him for the first time, she would have been. But even back in their first meeting, he had displayed a startling lack of regard for 'basic' social niceties. Whatever else there was to say about Growl, he was a stallion who had his own way of doing things; that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, whatever he thought about his own knowledge base.

But she was prevented from remarking on that subject by the realization that she had, in fact, made a Freudian slip. She might not have noticed; it might not have registered at all, had Growl not caught it and remarked on it. He wasn't pushy; he wasn't teasing, or needling, or being obnoxious, he was just being...Growl-ish. But the fact he was being Growl about it made the faux pas a lot more complicated; suddenly, she found herself dithering!

"You know I'm...that is...I didn't mean...I'm not necessarily...rather, I only meant..." Realizing she was digging herself into an even deeper hole, she clamped her jaws shut and stalked ahead of Growl, the better to hide her suddenly flaming face. Us, she'd said, us! Us as in, she and he, but in what context? Friends, obviously, but was it such a friendly thing to 'us' like that? The word had been an accident, but the thoughts behind it....she really HAD meant 'us' in her thoughts. She had naturally inserted herself into the picture, assuming that she would play a role in handling the as-yet unknown children. Why had she done that?

It was a lot to think about, unleashed by one slip of the tongue. And she, for one of very few times in her life, didn't know what to say. So she simply kept up her rapid-fire pace, with only one immediate problem: she didn't know where they were going!

Lessia's power-walking had served its purpose; she had put a respectable distance between Growl and herself, therefore giving herself time to gather herself and return to her normal color. But it wasn't so great a distance that she couldn't hear every word Growl was saying, along with every inflection. For a stallion who doubted his own understanding of more than 'the basics' in life, he sure could be eloquent when he wanted to be! Once again, she found herself thrown for a loop, facing something she hadn't anticipated and didn't know how to address. Growl was a lovely friend, obviously, but this was something completely different than her relationship with Seyx.

Clearly, she would have a lot of processing to do....but not now. Until this skinwalker thing was dealt with, she wasn't going to worry about nebulous uncertainties.

Besides that, her leg was starting to protest the rapid pace. Accordingly, she slowed to a stop, stretching out the sore limb and allowing Growl to catch up. As he closed the distance, she gave him a somewhat awkward smile, but quickly followed up with all that she was going to say on the subject...for now: "Well, we can worry about us versus me and you later, maybe. But I'd rather focus on the possible death we're staring down, without splitting my attention." And when she put it that way, it all sounded so positive and happy. "At any rate, we're in on this suicide mission together." That was safe, right?

If Lessia had any inkling of what Growl was thinking as he walked behind her, she...well, it's difficult to say what she would have done. Lessia had been born into a family who never shied away from love, physical or otherwise, but she herself had never felt compelled to live that life. Her grandfathers on both sides, old cronies since before her mother had been born, loved lust for lust's sake. Her parents had a passionate relationship with one another, but there had been others before they found each other. Her family loved the beautiful, albeit in different manifestations.

And all her life, Lessia had been...different. She had never considered herself particularly attractive, but had almost taken pains to makes herself LESS so. She allowed her thick hair to tangle, took little care of her coat, collected bumps and bruises and scars with reckless abandon. She was hardly a traditional vision of beauty, and had never seemed to care. She had lived a life of fun and enthusiasm, but it was, by her families standards, solitary. She had had friends, but they had been just that: friends.

So really, for the time being it was just as well Growl kept his thoughts to himself!

At Growl's comment as he caught up with her, Lessia responded with an extremely unladylike snort. "You can try to break my leg, Growl, but you're right; the attempt wouldn't go well for you. But thanks for the concern," she said, shaking out the sore limb before adding, "we can keep going for now, though. I'd rather take advantage of all the daylight we can before we have to stop; I just need to slow it down a bit, that's all."

And then she'd be fine, and they could continue on their happy little suicide mission.