Guilty stared, eyes wide, at the words.

She was...also...pretty?

She'd never thought that she'd hear these words directed at herself. It was usually curses, invectives, screaming...so much screaming...

(Here, Guilty would like to again disclaim that she didn't do it. She didn't do any of it.)

But for this beautiful doe to tell her that she was...also...pretty...

There was a lump in her throat, this time not from biting off more flesh than she could chew (again, she didn't do it).

"You really are," she sighed, "the nicest kin I've ever met."

@Ruriska

Was this... love?

The thought rose unbidden in her mind and refused to leave. She’d always considered love an abstract unobtainable concept.

She was devoted to the MotherFather. She respected her father.

But she didn’t love them.

And yet... just looking at this normal, pretty doe who in turn also thought she was normal and pretty and also nice, well, her chest felt a little bit strange. Heavy and fluttery.

As romance blossomed in her cold and murderous heart, Fear The Old Blood did something very new.

She smiled.

@Jun

The pretty doe's teeth were sharp - far sharper than hers.

Must be genetics.

There was a tint to them that suggested they might, like her horns, be stained with blood.

It was hard to tell, being that it was dark, and the water they were in also being possibly stained with blood and reflecting off everything.

Either way, it was beautiful. It was the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen.

She was the most beautiful doe she'd ever seen.

Guilty also smiled.

@Ruriska

When the doe smiled back, Old Blood’s heart skipped a beat.

She decided then and there that she didn’t need to kill this doe today. Or perhaps even never. This was clearly a special case. The Motherfather had sent her a companion, someone to witness Fear’s hard work and sacrifice.

And there could be so much more blood spilled with another set of hooves.

“Will you... stay with me?” She asked slowly, her eyes wide and hopeful.

@Jun

Guilty wasn't thinking about the future. She wasn't thinking about the past. She wasn't thinking about all the blood she didn't know Old Blood was thinking she could help spill. (Which would be a problem 'cos she didn't do anything amirite)

She was thinking, as she watched the luminous red eyes widen and shine, that the nicest kin was also absolutely the cutest kin she'd ever met.

"Yes," she said, without hesitation.

"Yes," she said, "of course."

This normal doe was the nicest, prettiest, and cutest doe she'd ever seen. There could be no downside.

Dear Reader END