Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was too good to be true, yet the situation met Olathe with biting irony. She had just had that conversation several days ago with Helaku about their...or her, rather, difficultly in becoming pregnant but now it didn't seem to matter. The days passed uneventually until she started to notice a change in health. At first, she had shrugged off slight, periodic ill sensations she felt when grazing and assumed the strengthened scent of her favorite lavendar and clover was due to spring coming along.

This thought, however, changed abruptly when she met with her sister earlier today. The meeting had been innocent enough, but even throughout the conversation, Lia continued to shoot the blue mare calculating looks and headtilts. It got to the point that Olathe had become increasingly self concious until she put her hoof down and demanded an explaination for such an examination.

"You've put on some weight," Lia had said quietly, her eyes gleaming mirthfully at such a proclaimation. Olathe furrowed her brow and side-stepped, giving her half-sister a slight scowl. A fine thing to point out, Olathe thought, until Lia followed the statement with a flurry of questions, all of which Olathe agreed with or answered yes to. It was then that Lia chuckled knowingly and admitted that she was pregnant...and that it was likely Olathe was too! The budgie-colored mare certainly trusted her sister in matters like this, since the tiger mare had been pregnant before, and was elated at the very real possibility. Oh, she HAD to tell Helaku!

So now the mare, just slightly more round in belly than she had been before when meeting up with her mate, briskly trotted towards Helaku's territory. Olathe tried to decide how best to go about this: should she be blunt or should she hint?

She, thankfully, didn't have to move too far into his territory without scenting him distinctly on the wind. It seemed as though he had seen her coming for as her head turned to seek him out, she saw him heading her way from the safety of the forest.

"Helaku!" she whinnied in reply, her expression a far cry from the somberness of their last meeting. Olathe looked positively elated. "I'm perfect. Just perfect."

How should I tell him? she thought, wondering if he was one of those highly observant types when it came to evaluating their mare's unspoken pregnancies.

"Oh, those berries...sometimes I can't help myself," she remarked smoothly, her muzzle crinkled impishly as she gave the curve of her side a stare. She had ballooned a little bit afterall. "They're quite good." It was obvious that she wasn't being entirely serious here.

"And I am what? Perfect? Round? Pregnant?....take your pick! You only get one guess!" She beamed up at him, her braids splaying messily down her neck and across her forehead as she lifted her head.

"I suppose I'll let your blanket guess slide," she said merrily, bobbing her head to confirm what he said, only to find it hampered by the braid tugging. She laughed and stomped a forehoof.

"Lia figured it out. She's so insightful when it comes to this sort of thing, I swear. I guess experience helps too." Olathe smiled sheepishly at that.

She snorted and tossed her head in mock surprise at Helaku's queries. "Well, maybe not perfect, but close enough," she said with a wink. "As for Lia, for as quiet as she can be, those eyes of hers don't miss much. How funny that she'd know before -I- knew!" Olathe looked slightly exasperated at that, but it was true. Experience clearly gave the tiger mare an advantage.

"Oh, and you'd never believe it, but she's pregnant too! We're both about the same amount along, though I think she shows a bit more because of how tiny she is. I don't think she's told her mate yet."

"Can you imagine how many foals are going to running around these lands here in time? My goodness...at least I'm sure I won't have to foalsit as often as I did last time for Lia. I'm sure her son Diallo will take that duty on gladly." She shrugged easily and peered down at her stomach again.

"I still can't believe it. Foals, Helaku. Finally!"

"What do you think Princess will say when you tell her?" she asked curiously. "I hope she won't be upset that her babysitter is...well...busy now." She grinned.

She chuckled at that, trying to remember if she had ever met this 'Princess' or not. If she had, her memory failed her, so she settled for a neutral smile.

"At least her children will have playmates then, perhaps. They can keep themselves occupied if they all happen to meet up."