[B] It's a Moray [ Artful / Real Big Fish ]

[Maxx]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]

Artful had been alternating between sauntering (ambling) about very slowly and lying down with lots of mildly disgusted and pitiful sighing and moaning. She supposed she was looking for that esoteric ‘blessing.’ Could she be blessed to reduce her burden? Or was it only for the children? She wasn’t really listening the last time she asked someone but she had thanked them with dignity and sultry gratefulness and wandered away.

By this point she was beyond the threshold of tolerating the whole song and dance of batting her lashes and being sexy. The tedium of being with child was truly taking its toll today. Would she ever do the deed again, she wondered, currently in a lying-down-making-pitiful-noises jag by a riverbank.

Well, that buck was very pretty.

( @Scaramouche Fandango thank you aaa)

[Scaramouche Fandango]

There was a part of Fish that wanted to snap at whomever was kicking up that awful racket, but the kinder, gentler part of her reminded her that nobody threw themselves down in the mud like that if something wasn’t horribly wrong. She swam downstream towards the source of the sorrowful symphony. The Kimeti doe was… perhaps mourning something? Fish wasn’t a mind-reader. Fish-finder, yes. Water-whisperer, probably. But why this doe was so despondent, she didn’t know. Head rising from the water, algae dripping from her horns, she rose to have a good look at the doe.

“You seem like your world is ending. What’s the matter?”

@Maxx

[Maxx]

“Everything is swollen,” she moaned, slowly stretching her head out towards the direction of the voice, seeking sympathy.

“So swollen. Whatever’s going on in there feels like parasites.”

@Scaramouche Fandango

[Scaramouche Fandango]

“Well, the good news is that it’s pregnancy, not really parasites. Probably. There’s ways to tell if you’ve acquired a parasitic worm or something.” Fish wasn’t going to ask the poor dear about them- it’d be an affront to her dignity. She wanted to let her keep what she had left of it.

Hauling herself out of the water, she looked the doe over. “Chin up, ducky! You’re in the end stages. Got to soldier on, before the little wrigglers pop out! When was the last time you ate? Let me catch you something- you’re in no state to be fishing or hunting yourself.” It was true. Normally, Fish liked to see what parents-to-be were like in the stream, but this doe was just about ready to pop.

@Maxx

[Maxx]

She let her craned head flop down upon the ground, her eyes turned up to regard the emerged totoma.

"That's helpful," Artful sighed, "that means they'll evacuate sometime, with less damage than a parasitic worm.

"I assume...I hope so," and it got a little baleful again, for she did not like hearing them called 'wrigglers.'

"Yes, it's been a while since I've eaten," her eyes rolled back up to the skies, "but - oh, it's so ungrateful of me, but I do so dislike fish."

(It was ungrateful. The totoma had clearly been in the water, fishing.)

"Perhaps, instead, it would be better to leave me, to pop them out sometime."

(So ungrateful.)

@Scaramouche Fandango

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Fish blinked, once, twice, and then a third time. She must have heard wrong- surely this miserable creature hadn’t just said that she didn’t like fish. Theirs was a world of mud and water. From the littlest minnows to the greatest of the ocean-dwellers, fish were everywhere. They could be the safest option, the meal that got you through. Even if you didn’t like catching them, eating them was a whole different story.

This doe clearly had something wrong with her. Perhaps it WAS a parasite. Or perhaps the late stages of pregnancy were making her crazy. “Ah, but you need fish! Protein and calcium, lots of lovely little bones to crunch in there. It’ll make you strong, make the pregnancy easier. Make your kids big and strong- don’t you want that for them?”

@Maxx

[Maxx]

"Just so wet and slimy inside and out," she sighed, "and those itty little bones sticking in your cheeks and your throat."

Artful shuddered in a wiggle on the ground.

"Perhaps if you bless me instead, I won't die of not eating fish.

"Oh and the children of course."

She did notice the eyes were glowing very strongly. Perhaps she should push her luck before she lost favour of this soggy, fish-loving Legendary.

@Scaramouche Fandango (SO UNGRATEFUL SHE IS)

[Scaramouche Fandango]

“I was going to do that anyways, but since you asked…” Fish had never met somebody she understood less. The audacity of not liking fish was just… how? How had she survived this long? The slime was one of the best parts! She almost pitied her, unable to partake in the delightful experience of slurping an eel! “May your children grow up to have a broad curiosity about the world and to always be able to find suitable food. Whatever they will be, they will not be picky eaters.”

She thought about leaving it there, but as pity and petty tangled for control, she felt like the doe needed both a blessing and a parting shot. Legendaries blessed for hardiness, for boons and benefits- but nobody, not even the Motherfather, ever said they had to be nice.

“You know, you yourself are rather wet and slimy outside right now, given that you’re in the mud like you are. You have much in common with a fish. Think on that!” she boomed, before sliding backwards into the water, taking her shuppy shape. With her paws in the water, she remained a golden-eyed fish, staring at the doe with a shark’s glowing, glassy gaze.

[Maxx]

Artful took the Legendary's justified scolding with some form of...well, not grace, for indeed she was lying in the muck being very wet and slimy. She rolled over very slowly, mildly aware of the glint of glowing eyes on the water as she stretched her legs out. That definitely saved her the trouble of thinking of something she wanted for her children, besides them being Out.

"Thank you kindly," she said with her limbs in the air, childish yet prim, "but I still don't like fish."

END