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 Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 10:20 am
A yawn escaped her as she sat and looked at what she needed to finish mending. She'd gotten precious little sleep in the nights before due to her stomach being a bit uncomfortable. Kalliope was with child and showing a small bump now so it was hard for her to get comfortable when sleeping. She gave a small hum and looked around for a moment before she spotted her familiar. The Keldari was curled up in someone's socks. One of the few that had holes and needed to be sewn up. Since Kalli couldn't do much dancing these days she had settled for doing other things to help out. They had discovered that she couldn't cook the hard way. She could help prepare a meal but if left to take care of the whole thing on her own, well, it was less than desirable. So sewing and other things had become what she took over. With yet another yawn she set down the shirt she was working on and looked around again, this time looking for her pillow. The oban dancer was thinking about laying down to rest for a bit to ease the back pain that was starting and catching up on some much needed sleep. "If Ouen was here I could sleep just fine." She mumbled to herself. Kalli had gotten into a habit of sleeping on the shifter in the time before he left on his trip. It was also before he left that they had made choices that led to her current condition.
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:08 pm
He rode hard the last few miles.
Shenandoah didn’t protest, and ran smoothly through the jungle. This land was familiar to the radaku, and he was as eager to cross it as his Shifter companion. They were so much alike that they probably felt the same way about it; eager to get home, but equally pleased to spend the time travelling, seeing all the familiar landmarks and smelling the scents of home. After a few months away in sun-baked and sea-swept Matori and Oba, it sure was good to be back!
Ouen had been regretting staying away as long as he had, anyway. After the showdown with Talin, he’d felt like the needed the time off to think… and the thinking had done him good, he was sure. He felt like he had more focus now, and greater determination to do right by those who had stood by him. In short… well, he felt like he’d grown up. Sure, he’d been a full-grown man when he left, but maybe in appearance only. He’d matured a little in his time with the bandits, but for the most part he had still been the same wild-eyed free-roaming jungle boy.
Heading back now, he felt the pull of responsibilities… and not it a bad way.
So he’d gotten to thinking that it might have been better if he’d done all the thinking and growing up a little quicker, so he could have gotten back to the camp -- and to Kalli -- sooner than this.
No use crying over spilled nectar, though. He arrived back at camp at an easy trot, and was pleased to see that many of the loyal bandits had stuck around. They greeted him with cheers and big pats on the back… until one of them took him aside, and with a knowing look on his face, suggested he go to his tent to see Kalli.
Ouen quirked an eyebrow, but did so without protest. To be honest, he’d been worried when he hadn’t seen her right away. He strode across camp to his tent and pulled aside the flap, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the dimness inside.
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:21 pm
She stretched and stood so that she could move around a little, her hands going to her back to knead the knots that had started to form there. Kalliope decided that it was best that she try to rest and so she made her way over to the bed. It was a mess of blankets and furs since she hadn't made it after a failed attempt at sleep but she grabbed edges here and there and soon made it more presentable. She heard some noise outside but left it alone. If it was important than someone would let her know. The bed was calling to her. Before she could climb in, however, the flap to the tent was pulled back and the light from the outside came in. With her back to the entrance she didn't see who it was. "Announcing yourself would be nice. We've been over this.." Kalli paused when she turned to see who it was. She was surprised to see a familiar face there. The small dancer had been ready to deliver a lecture on manners and now she was quiet. There was no hiding the fact that her body had changed. Not only had her belly gotten a little bigger but her chest had as well. "Ouen.." The shifter had impeccable timing. "Welcome back." Not the best way to greet someone but.. her hands went over her belly protectively as she looked to the side.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 2:38 pm
“Announcing yourself would be nice.” Kalli’s voice came from the darkness inside. Ouen barked a laugh.
“It is I, Ouen! King ‘o the bandits, lord o’ the borderlands. Good ‘nough?”
He could see the outlines of her body now, but did not yet notice any of the changes. Obvious as they were, his eyes were still unadjusted, and in any case, Kalli was a rather curvy woman. It was easy for someone who mistake the curve of her belly for the slope of her hip at a different angle -- at least, it was easy enough for Ouen, who never had been one for details. At best he could be observant on the battlefield, and most times he wasn’t even that lucky.
“I wasn’t sure ‘f you’d be waitin’ for me, to be honest. Wouldn’t have blamed you if you gone and moved on. But ‘s nice to see you, so I’m real glad you’re still here. I gotcha a couple’a things over in Matori an’ Oba an’ stuff. Oba’s a damn hot place, how the hell d’you folks deal with it? I mean, I know Jauhar it’s hot, but it’s different. ‘S wet here. There, ‘s as dry as bones.”
He slumped onto the blankets at her feet and got to rummaging through his bag. He didn’t really want to dwell on just how much he had worried that she’d be gone, so he chatted about his trip as he dug up the first of his trinkets, a red-and-white coral bracelet from the sea.
“D’you like it?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 7:50 pm
As he announced himself quite flamboyantly she rolled her eyes at him but chuckled. "I meant before you entered, but that works too." When he expressed his worry about whether or not she would still be at the camp waiting she arched a brow at him. It would be damned rude of her to leave now given she was carrying his child but she didn't say as much. Either he hadn't noticed her baby bump yet or refused to acknowledge it. His comment about the Oban heat made her laugh as she settled onto the bed, not wanting to stand since her back was bothering her. Kalliope watched him as he set to digging into his bag. "You didn't need to get me anything." However, when she saw the bracelet she gave a little gasp and reached for it. "Awe! The colors are so bright." And that it was made of coral was another thing she liked about it. "Mm, I do. Thank you Ouen. I'd kiss you but you'd have to come closer." Her tummy was in the way after all.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 6:50 am
“Don’t ‘cha be silly, that’s what you’s supposed to do when you travel -- bring back souvenirs an’ all that. Would’ve been rotten stingy of me not to. Anyway, these here things just made me think’a you. Like the colours on that there bracelet. I knew I needed me some time by my lonesome, an’ I think it done did me lotsa good, but there sure were times when I’d have rather just had you around with me. Even if it was just’ta sit an’ drink on a beach. ‘S nice there, we’s should go sometime.”
When she mentioned having to come closer, he finally looked up… and saw the round curve of her belly, the full sag of her breasts. And, being the jungle-boy that he was, he first thought she had gotten rather fat. But the sheer ridiculousness of this made him falter. Kalliope was always moving and dancing -- and the bandits hardly had any food, and certainly not the rich stuff that filled out a figure.
But that left him with only one other option… and didn’t look quite ready to process it in full.
“Uh… what… what happened to ya?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 7:50 pm
Hearing that the things made him think of her she smiled at him. Well that at least made it a little easier or her. Kalliope did like Ouen. Not just for his body either. She watched as he finally looked at her and took notice of everything. A brow arched at him as he seemed to be quiet for a while. When he opened his mouth and asked what happened to her she looked down at her belly then back at him. "Oh, there's a new cook in the camp." Kalli joked with him before she shifted and lay out on the bed. One pillow was used to cushion her tummy and she laughed at him. "I'm with child, Ouen." She didn't really think he was that dumb so she guess he was trying to ignore it. A fact that made her smile at him a bit ruefully. "You're the father but I'm not asking you to stop being.. well, you." Her hand gestured to everything around them. "I would like for you to uhm... I guess help me parent? You know.. all the things that a dad does." If they had a boy well then. Ouen would have to teach him the guy things. The Oban started to pick at the blankets and stared at her hand nervously. In the moment of having Ouen home she had also forgotten to mention that she had a new familiar. So the noise of the shifter's return woke Lissa from her slumber. The keldari slithered out of her basket slowly, flickering her tongue into the air to sniff at the male before she made her way past him to stretch out for the bed and her owner. Kalliope noticed her and gave a small gasp. "Ouen don't attack her. This is Lissa." Despite her fear of snakes she had gotten somewhat used to the keldari.
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Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 6:16 pm
“What, from the cook? What cook?”
Well, hell, there was a reason he wasn’t winning any prizes for brilliance, wasn’t he? She had mentioned a cook, and then she said she was carrying a child, and Ouen jammed the two together before giving himself half a chance to really think about what she was saying. Honestly, it wasn’t that he had forgotten exactly what they had gotten up to in the trees that one night before he left, but… well, it was a lot to process for a guy who had only just started thinking about this whole ‘responsibility’ thing.
“You’re the father.” She kept speaking, perhaps giving his stupidity the benefit of the doubt. “But I’m not asking you stop being… well, you.”
“Me?” Ouen gaped, pointing at himself as if there was some other ‘you’ around. Then he sat back and stared at her, at the soft curve of her belly and the gleam of her amber-coloured eyes. He wasn’t able to put any more proper sentences together, not until an odd-looking creature interrupted his stunned silence.
“Oh.” He said, clearing his throat and trying to drag his thoughts together. “Thass one’a those Yaeli critters, ain’t it? She’s pretty.”
He reached out to scratch at the back of his neck and looked back over at Kalli sheepishly, the keldari curling near her sitting form.
“I… c’mon, Kalli, of course I’ll help. I ain’t gonna just… just… y’know. Well. Leave. Look… thanks. Thanks for trustin’ me ‘nough to stick around an’... I’ll do my best by you.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 12:07 pm
His confusion about her jest made her want to laugh til she almost pee'd herself but biting her bottom lip was thankfully enough to keep her from doing so. Kalliope was about to say there was no new cook but figured she'd let him figure that one out on his own. Then there was silence. As Lissa curled up on the bed near her she looked at her crystal covered snake. "I think she is.. all I know is she likes my dancing too." The Oban shrugged her shoulders lightly. And then Ouen was speaking again. Lifting her eyes to look at him she tried to follow his broken sentence. It was as if he didn't know what to say and was simply spewing words. Kalli chuckled. "Mm, not by me, my sexy shifter, by the baby. They deserve your best." Honestly she wasn't so sure what she expected from Ouen in regards to her. A friendship, sure. Shared parenting, obviously. Anything more? Maybe? At the moment she was content to share his bed with him. Of course she did give him a small grin. "Besides, I couldn't wander off if I wanted to. Your merry band of bandits out there panic when I walk around without someone nearby. Afraid I'll fall or something." Ok, that was a stretch. Really it was only a few of the females and one or two of the males that worried but it felt like more than that to her. "I don't suppose I could ask for a favor?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 6:57 pm
By the baby.
Oh, Serin help him. The baby.
He lifted his hands to clutch at his face… not out of horror, or anything like that, but out of the sheer effort it took to process this new information. A baby. His baby. The whole idea of it was… bizarre. He supposed it shouldn’t be that bizarre. He knew what happened when men and women got tangled up in tree-tops. It had happened to his mother, hadn’t it? And his father clearly hadn’t been able to handle it.
Ouen used to dream that his dad was just a big old hero who just didn’t have time for family -- and he figured that was something they shared, because all he wanted to do was run free and forget everyone who held him back. In the last few months, that logic had begun to seem more and more selfish. But this… this was the final straw. There was no way he was going down that route. No damn way.
“The baby’ll get the best. Best I can do, I swear. I ain’t gonna be like my dad. I’ll be there for you. Both of you.”
He cracked a grin at her comment about his ‘merry band’ (quirking an eyebrow because he couldn’t imagine half of them as the fretting type no matter how hard he tried). It was nice to know that at least some of them were keeping an eye on Kalli, anyway. Not that she couldn’t mind herself or anything, just… well, this was kind of a rough place, far from any towns and close (for obvious reasons) to the haunt of many a bandit.
“What kinda favour?”
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 7:23 pm
She watched him clutch his face and again she wanted to laugh at him. His reaction to the whole thing was just.. entertaining to her. Not that it should have been. Still, she smiled fondly at him when he said that he would do the best he could. That was all that mattered. "Thank you." Then he asked what kind of favor she wanted. Kalli shifted slightly so that she could smile at him a bit more. "Well, I was hoping you would let me lay on you and get some sleep." She brought her hands up into a pleading position as she did her best to give him pouty eyes. She had enjoyed sleeping deeply next to him before he left. Now that her belly was starting to show she couldn't quite get comfortable enough to reach that level of sleep. So she was tired in the sense that she wasn't getting the quality of sleep that Ouen had spoiled her with before he left. "The baby makes it hard to get comfortable." Kalliope had tried pillows but they didn't work as well.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 7:07 am
"Hmph." He snorted. "I was expectin' a bit more challengin' of a favour. Last couple'a weeks all my 'favours' has been th'likes a' chasin' gangsters outta towns an' huntin' down theives an' the like. You sure you ain't got any bandits for me t'hunt?"
He laughed at the pleading look on her face, and reached out to toy with a lock of her richly-coloured hair. "Sure, sure. What in the world d'you figure our baby will look like? I done seem some interestin'-lookin' hybrids in my time, but I ain't met none made from folks like us. I guess it's bound to be good-lookin' though, ain't it?"
Good-looking wasn't all it took to make it out in the world, but it couldn't hurt.
"I'm damned hungry, though. You want me to fetch ya somethin' to eat before we get to nappin'?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:49 am
So he wanted something more challenging? Kalliope lifted a brow at him as the corners of her mouth twitched. "Alright, how about you get your child to stop kicking my ribs." There was a small laugh from her before she moved her body yet again. She was trying to get comfortable but it was difficult to do with twins. The mentioning of what their child would look like made her think for a moment. Would they have her hair or his? Her eyes? And the crystals? What about body type? Ouen was fit. Tall and thin but fit. She was curvy. There were so many differences between her and him so what combo would the baby have? "I'm not sure but I hope they take after you." Wouldn't that be cute! As Ouen stated that he would lay with her after getting something to eat she nodded. Food did sound good and it was like he knew that she was hungry. So as he asked she looked at him fondly. "Mm, something to eat would be nice."
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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 7:19 pm
"If they's my child, I probably can't stop them from doin' anythin'. You's prolly better not wish for one who goes an' takes after me. Why, you'd only get a handful'o years to see 'im before he up and runs off!" He rolled his eyes, only half-joking. He'd do his best to raise a kid who didn't feel the need to run away to get some excitement in his or her life... but hell, there was no guarantee or anything, was there?
"Although I guess you's ain't the most obedient lady either, given that you's shacked up with some... ex-bandits. Anyway, I'll go see what's it that I can find for eatin', you stay put."
A few minutes later, he returned with some fruit, roasted nuts, a full flask of water and a thought on his mind. Well, he had lots of thoughts, actually -- lots of them spinning around wildly, as much as he tried to keep a grin on his face and go about his task -- but one thing was certain, and he had gravitated towards that certainty.
"My ma'll be happy, anyway. She likes kids. But what about yours' folks? You's gonna tell them anythin'?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:05 am
If. Kalli gave him a look on that one. Still, she seemed resigned to the fact that her ribs were a target. So she sighed and did her best to move into a more comfortable position for her and the baby. There wasn't much room in there though. At being told that she would likely only get a few years with the child before they up and ran off she frowned. Though, if that was how Ouen had been, and then also how she had been, it was more than likely going to happen. Not that she was by any means pleased with the idea. "I was more hoping they would take after you in looks." She managed to mumble before he escaped to find her some food. When he came back, wearing a grin, she blinked and tilted her head. "Should I ask what you're thinking?" The Oban dancer reached out for the fruit since the thought of the sweet juice made her mouth water. It wasn't until she was asked about telling her parents, her family, about the baby that she drew back and looked at her lap. Would she? That would mean going back to Oba. While that seemed like a long ways away she was practically only a stones throw away from the border. "Hmn, I hadn't thought about it. I was mostly concerned with making sure you knew." Beyond that she hadn't planned much of anything. No names had been thought up. Nothing had been bought for the baby. It was like she was hoping the whole thing would be on pause until she could speak with Ouen about it all. "You never talk about your mom but I'm glad to know she will be happy. I think mine would be as well." If not then.. well she just wouldn't speak to them ever again. "Do you have brothers and sisters?" She realized then that she knew little of Ouen beyond the "bandit" that she'd met and shared a bed with. Sure there were little things that had been shared between them but if he had never returned and the baby had grown up never knowing him she didn't know enough to give a good picture of who he was.
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