[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/maxx/mo ... uncert.png[/imgleft]
It happened.

Against all odds, it managed to happen.

Soft Reflection was pregnant.

And so Mostly Water ran. Back and forth, back and forth, for days on end. With joy, with fear... All those emotions a father-to-be felt, she supposed.

Most importantly, she had to make sure the acha was comfortable. She had done her best, finding a dry, safe, warm little spot to hunker down... And she did her best to keep food available, often digging up hibernating toads and catching the occasional slow fish.

But she wanted to do one better, if she could.

As she ran through her feelings, she also searched for one of the legendary kin, who may help her make sure that their children would do well.

She felt it mattered more than ever in this frightful winter.

The snow crunched under her hooves, her breath puffed out before her as she pushed on.

@Ruriska

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ncert2.png[/imgleft] It was honestly ridiculous that the MotherFather expected him to work during winter. Watch Me hadn’t even bothered showing up to the winter market. He’d thrown a huge party instead and enjoyed the many pleasures his troupe had to offer.

With their help he had been keeping very warm.

But then he’d felt the call and he’d done his best to ignore it for a while. All this snow was a nuisance and he didn’t want to run or fly through any of it. Oh, how he tried to resist!

And yet here he was, on the wing, flapping his way along, searching for whoever it was that had dragged him out here.

He found her eventually and swooped in, landing on a branch just above her and dislodging the snow it had been holding. Then he screeched, a very unsongbird-like sound, to get her attention, his feathers puffed out.

She wasn’t even an Acha.

Ugh.

@Gl!tch~

A birdcall blared out above her, catching her attention. She paused, a clumsy movement, more like a careen to a stop.

The kiokote looked up at the bright-colored bird, and laughed.

"Hello, friend bird! I don't mean to trespass. I have eggs to protect as well. Let me just...find a different way to go."

Clearly she was too close to a nest, and didn't want to get pecked at for it.

She began to turn a different direction.

@Ruriska

“Tsk,” said the songbird, another strange sound for a songbird.

He swooped off the branch as she turned away, zooming past and cutting her off. He flapped wildly in place for a second and then changed forms, very suddenly a Kiokote.

Watch Me gave a beleaguered sigh.

“Someone is pregnant. I presume it’s you? That’s a terrible idea for winter.”

@Gl!tch~

She came to a hard stop, her only option besides maybe careening over herself at how quickly the small bird seemed to block her way.

Mostly Water then startled at seeing the bird suddenly no longer be, a same-colored kiokote in its place.

And he was scolding her. Somehow, before she even got a chance to introduce herself, she was making a bad first impression.

She shuffled her hooves in embarrassment. "It's not me...but the acha I love. There were flowers..." Her voice drifted quieter and quieter the more she tried to explain herself.

The big kiokote cleared her throat. She couldn't let things get too awkward! She was on a quest! "I wouldn't send her out in the cold like this! She's so dainty...fragile...cute... Ah-! But, um...you're one of the special kin that can...bless, aren't you? If that isn't too forward of me to ask that..."

Shuffle shuffle shuffle.

@Ruriska Hi it's been three months