[PRP] Um... these are not mine? (Skuld, Skadi)

[Annchen]

Skuld looked down at the two tiny cubs she was nursing, pondering the will of the Spirits and the way they always seemed to find new ways to throw her off balance lately. She had told no one when she realised she was pregnant, and since it had barely showed she didn't think anyone had guessed either. How would an old hag like her end up pregnant, hmm? Unfortunately she knew just how it had happened. She had made the mistake of thinking she was too old for this, and since she was so sure she wouldn't get home alive she had accepted comfort where she could get it.

But such pretty mistakes they were... Her daughter had a very young, almost flighty, spirit while her son seemed older and more grounded. But the colour of their pelts told her more than just the temper of their spirits. She licked her son on the top of his head to smooth down an errant tuft of fur. That particular shade of brown was one she had grown very familiar with. The Spirits worked in mysterious ways... That much was certain.

They didn't look quite like Skadi had done when she was just born, and while she wanted to think they looked just like little lion cubs she knew something was missing. Something like half a Spirit. She wondered if this was the Spirits punishing her for her lack of fate, or rewarding their father for his devotion. Perhaps a bit of both.

But unlike the lion she had met on her way back home these two would never know what life would have been like with a complete Spirit. Losing a part of it as an adult must be much more distressing than not having more than this from the start. They would make fine Sacrifices, these two, and hopefully make their parents and their pride proud, earning them that other half of a Spirit in their next life.  

[Pearlyblue]

Skadi plodded along, sniffing alternately the air and the ground and sometimes stopping to scrutinize her surroundings. The war was over and she was well within the borders of the Mizimu'Tungika, so her alertness did not come from any wariness of attack. No. She was looking for her aunt.

Ever since she had found Skuld out near the former Dhati lands, beaten and broken, she had started feeling warmer towards the old bat. Skuld was her only remaining family, after all, and so she had, somewhat awkwardly, begun to try to reconnect. The first step was to check in with the old Scryer a bit more often, so that's what she intended to do today. She paused and sniffed a particularly interesting spot on the ground thoroughly, her brow furrowing. It was Skuld's smell, but... something was different. And the old lady had acted a bit funny lately - yeah, weirder than usual. Not quite as weird as just before she disappeared, before the war, but still, definitely weird enough to give Skadi cause for worry.

Skadi looked up again, surveying her surroundings.
"Hello? Skuld? Are you here?" She called out, not quite able to keep the worry out of her voice despite her best efforts.  

[Annchen]

Skadi... Skuld flinched as she heard the familiar voice. While she was out of sight in this old and seldom used den she knew that Skadi would soon find her by following her nose. Or by using her ears since her cubs wouldn't stay quiet forever. She had hoped to be able to stay out of the way of everyone for a while, and after that... Let's face it, she hadn't exactly planned for this to happen and she didn't really have a plan now.

"In here," she said gruffly, curling up around her babies in an unconscious attempt to protect them. It wasn't likely that her niece would try to hurt them, but apparently Skuld had some mothering instincts lurking inside and they had started to kick in.  

[Pearlyblue]

Skadi's ears perked up at the sound of her Aunt's voice, and she breathed an inner sigh of relief. At least old Skuld wasn't dead, or too sick to talk. That strangeness about her scent really had had Skadi spooked for a while. The dark lioness plodded through some bushes, and found herself standing in front of a den. An old, abandoned and out-of-the-way den to be sure, but she hadn't expected there to find one here. Was this one of her aunts many funny scrying places?

Skadi huffed and set her expression to mild annoyance, before entering the hollow. That funny scent was definitely stronger here... in fact, it reminded her of something... Something she couldn't quite put her paw on right now.

"What are you doing in here," she began, as she spotted the dark form of her old aunt in the back of the den, but she abruptly froze on the spot as she noticed the tiny, light-coloured bundle of fur that cuddled up close to Skuld's body.

She noticed the other one when it moved, shifting its position slightly. Now she remembered what that smell was all about.

For a while, all she could do was stare, her jaw working as if trying to speak, but she couldn't find any words. In the end, all she managed to press out was a half-choked:

"What... what... what is this? What's going... on here?"  

[Annchen]

Skuld couldn't stop her ears from folding back slightly as her niece entered the den. This didn't look good at all, did it? There was no way to hide the cubs and she had a feeling Skadi wouldn't stay silent for long. The way she couldn't seem to find her words might have been comical to watch in another situation. She had to bite her tongue to avoid breaking out in a hysterical and entirely inappropriate laughter.

"What... what... what is this? What's going... on here?"

"I found these here," she said, and then closed her mouth with an audible click of teeth. It did sound rather stupid when she heard herself say it, but she had a habit of speaking in half truths or 'not quite lies' when under pressure. She had cleaned herself and her cubs, so technically there wasn't any incriminating evidence around. Except for the two half spirited cubs currently nursing from her. Obviously not hers. Ahem.  

[Pearlyblue]

"You... found them." Skadi sounded like she was trying to make that make sense in her head, and took a few more steps forward as if to get a better look at the two tiny cubs. Indeed it would have been nice to believe that her crazy old aunt had just happened to walk by, heard some tiny whimpers and found these two cubs just lying around, but Skadi couldn't deny what her nose was telling her.

Also, it didn't take more than a cursory glance to see the family resemblance. The white cub had Skuld's blue spots, no ifs, ands or buts about it, and the dark one...

"Are you serious?!" Skadi hissed, more confused than angry and with a bewildered scowl on her face. "That one looks like you, and this one even has grandfather's stripes, just like me!"

There was something else about the two cubs, too. Something she couldn't quite put her paw on just yet... But didn't they look... a bit... unusual?  

[Annchen]

An unexpected sense of pride swelled inside her as Skadi pointed out the family resemblance. The Spirits might have done this to punish her, but the cubs triggered all kinds of confusing and not entirely unpleasant feelings.

It was true that her little girl had her marks and that the boy resembled her father... Perhaps she should have named him after Ymir after all, but it just didn't seem right. It was strange how the names had seemed to come to her as soon as she saw her children. They might just have one spirit to share between them, but the half-spirits seemed very determined. A good sign, she hoped.

"This one is Urd," she said and gave her daughters head a lick, "And the boy is named Ilo."

She paused for a while, meeting Skadi's gaze without wavering. Strange feelings of joy, pride and a hint of sadness mingled in her chest.

"It's... complicated," was the only explanation she offered before turning away.
 

[Pearlyblue]

As she was introduced to the cubs, Skadi edged a little bit closer. Close enough to take a more careful sniff at them. And a more careful look. She glanced between her Aunt and the little ones, still trying to accept that this old, old, OLD lady had managed to have cubs.

Not that Skadi had ever seen old Skuld showing any special preference to any one guy. But someone must have fathered these cubs. Who and when...?

Suddenly another bolt clicked into place inside Skadi's head. "Com... complicated? Complicated, huh?" She took yet another step forward and tried to catch her Aunt's eyes again. "They are half-spirited, aren't they? Oh sacred spirits, auntie, are you... did you... was it..." She took a deep breath, her head almost spinning from the shock and surprise of it all, enough for her not to notice that she had used the word 'Auntie' for the first time in a long while. She knew an unspirited hybrid boy who had been spending some unsupervised time with her aunt. In fact, didn't that hybrid boy have just those cheek spots that the dark cub had...?

"Dumanla?!" Skadi plopped down into a sitting position, mind reeling too much to stay on all fours any longer. "But... but... but... he's almost younger than me... And he's a hybrid! That shouldn't even be possible!"  

[Annchen]

Skuld cursed her tongue, but couldn't help but feel a little bit proud over her niece. She had always known the girl was sharp, and it was evident that there was no fooling Skadi about this. Unfortunately. The rest of the pride wouldn't be easier to fool and Skuld wasn't sure what to do.

There would probably be a lot of talk, unless she unloaded the cubs on the nearest available minder pretending she had found them somewhere. But they had the obvious family resemblance and there might be even more talk if she did that. Some might even suspect that her niece had been the one who had made the little slip. No, she couldn't do that.

"A spirit must have blessed me with them," she said, but didn't meet Skadi's eyes, "Could have happened that way, couldn't it? But it can't have been a very strong one since they had to share a spirit between them."

There, she had admitted that they were half spirited. And it might be a somewhat plausible explanation to some of the pride members that were a little less... ah... talented at thinking. It wasn't a story she expected Skadi to swallow, but old habits died hard. It probably wouldn't kill her to give a straight answer to something, but you never knew.  

[Pearlyblue]

At Skuld's (unsurprisingly) vague reply, Skadi's demeanor lost all traces of shock, as her face twisted into a wry expression and the rest of her body slipped into a profoundly resigned slump. For a moment, she said nothing, merely stared at her aunt with one eyebrow raised and her maw firmly shut. After a moment, she sighed and flicked her ears.

"Yeah, of course. That must have been what happened." There was no real mockery in her tone, just tired resignation, and she even tried to smile - though it came out quite lopsided - as she continued: "Lucky you, huh? They... the spirits must have... wanted something special out of you, to bless you like this, um... at this stage in life. Um. Or something. I guess."

She looked down at the two little cubs again. One bright, one dark, both with that oh-so-telltale blue in their marks. Half-spirited. But still... so tiny. So helpless. The smell of motherhood that permeated the den, and the tiny little sounds made by the two cubs as they moved, fed, breathed, was speaking to something embedded so deeply into Skadi's spine that she really was quite helpless to resist it. Her face softened a little and she cocked her head to the side a bit, trying to supress a weird urge to clean them - it was quite obviously not needed right now.

"So, um..." Skadi ventured, without looking up at Skuld. "What are you going to do now?"  

[Annchen]

Skuld at least had the decency to feel ashamed as Skadi played along with her tall tale. It was easy to fall into old comfortable habits when everything else was new and confusing. The old Scryer was threading unfamiliar ground and she was afraid. Perhaps a bit of honesty was called for after all.

"You know who the father is," she said quietly, avoiding eye contact, "And I don't know if it's a blessing or something else, but I know people will talk."

Usually she didn't care if others talked about her, but right now she felt more than a little bit vulnerable. She hadn't talked much to Duma after the war ended, mostly because they had both been busy. She had focused on her recovery and he had his duties as a Scout. That position in itself wasn't a bad one for a spiritless member of the pride, and now he had half spirited cubs. The Spirits approved of him, it seemed. She wasn't sure they approved of her, and quite honestly she was afraid to ask.  

[Pearlyblue]

It wasn't that she hadn't heard the apprehension, the unusual nervousness in her old aunt's voice, but Skadi really couldn't help letting out a long, amused snort at Skuld's words.

"Seriously," she chuckled, looking up at Skuld through her pale blue bangs - honestly without any intention to be insensitive, even though she rather was. "Since when do you care if people talk about you?"

Her aunt's honestly actually made Skadi feel more talkative, for some reason or other. She straightened up and motioned emphatically at the two (cute!) little cubs with one paw, speaking up again before her aunt could respond:

"So they're half-spirited, so what? It happens, and I honestly don't think you'll lose your rank over it. 'Sides, Dumanla is a very distinguished spiritless, quite the asset to the pride, I hear." She shrugged, still looking at the squirmy little babies. "Maybe the spirits just saw fit to use you to honor him. I mean, think about it. Why else would they let you have a litter so late in your life? Right?"

Feeling kind of clever, Skadi looked into her aunt's eyes again, quite unable to keep a grin off her face this time.  

[Annchen]

She was being silly and she knew it, because Skadi was right. In any other situation she wouldn't have cared that people would talk, if anything she would be pleased if she managed to upset the more sensitive members of the pride. She used to do it for sports for crying out loud! But this was different for some reason, and her emotions seemed to have a life on their own. It was her babies that would be talked about, and they couldn't help how they came to be.

"I think you might be right," she confessed. Of course it didn't have to be about her, why would it be? The spirits might have sent her out to get Dumanla to join their cause, or to reward him for something from before they met. Or after for that matter... He had been very kind to her.

"Do you want to wash one of them," she asked. Not because they were dirty, but because she wanted her cubs to know their cousin, and her to know them.  

[Pearlyblue]

"'Course I'm right!" Skadi began, quite gleefully, before her aunt's gentle suggestion managed to sink in, and she suddenly began stuttering. She quickly shut her mouth, to stop making silly "Erh, um, durh, hrm" -noises, and merely sat and observed the two tiny little cubs for a moment.

Something in the far back of her spine was screaming "Can I? Really?! Oh pleeease, pleasepleaseplease pleeeeease!" but the rest of her was trying really hard to make that voice shut the hell up.

And, annoyingly, she felt her temperature rise under her skin.

Skadi cleared her throat, still unable to look away from the squeaky little things, and made a vague gesture with her shoulders.

"I don't... Hrm... I'm not very... good with cubs..." WHY was she feeling so EMBARRASSED all of a sudden? and why was she hoping that old Skuld would insist? There was a terrible itch right between Skadi's eyes, but it was also far deeper than her skin. All she knew was that there was no way, no how that she could ever look her aunt (or anyone else) in the eye right now.  

[Annchen]

"Of course not," Skuld said gruffly, "You've never learned how to. I cleaned you when you were just a tiny cub."

It wasn't very nice to play the guilt card, but doing so was almost second nature to her. It was just the way she talked. She had a feeling it would be different with these cubs, however. They were hers, just like Skadi had been at least a little bit her own cub when she was smaller. She cared about the well being of all the young of the pride of course, but in a much vaguer sense. The bond of family... It was something else. Another kind of connection.

Skuld gave her daughter another lick on top of her head and gently nudged her towards Skadi. The cubs were both too small to do much more than to wiggle a little, and she wasn't even sure they could hear yet. Still, an introduction seemed to be in order.

"Now Urd," she said gently, "This is your cousin."