Snot Safer

[Meleth Darkshine]

On summer days, the trio might have gone outside the Palace and lounged about the clearings of the Royal Forest, acting as the subject of silent attentions to wary guards who had learned better than to tell the eldest of the three that she and her sons were safer indoors, or in their immediate company. It was not because they wished to anger her or doubted her ability to protect her children, of course, but because those armored and titled forces specifically stationed to the elven royal defence had always held respect and admiration for their Prince, and had grown a relatively unanimous liking to the shapeshifter he'd wed as well as their sons. It was a family that they were not only entrusted and sworn to defending, but that they wished to defend, and while it never went altogether unappreciated in this time of conflict and war, there was quite a show on that single day where they'd tried to dissuade the wild elf from her freedoms.

Thankfully, the Palace Guard would have no troubles or gut-wrenching nervousness on this day, as while snow and cold were never such problems for Meleth, her toddler boys, Artair and Thalion, were a bit less hardened to the elements – especially now as Thalion battled silently against the lad'ringwe, or the elven strain of the common cold.

So inside they stayed, Meleth never against spending the excess time with her cubs in spite of the responsibilities that had stacked against her in the past two decades, curled up together on she and Harliven's bed turned into a – finally justifiable! – fort. All of the drapes were pulled back from the windows, allowing in the blue-white light that came from the glittering and falling snow of the late afternoon, and so their little makeshift hideaway was illuminated by those already muffled rays of sunlight that could pierce through the fibres of the sheets and blankets.

Thalion was sleeping, of course, curled up and nestled in a huddle of pillows and a blanket at the head of the bed, while his mother lay near the foot of it in a relaxed and casual sprawl, and Artair at her side with his chin rested upon folded arms on her belly. Toys, wooden carvings of various animals, littered the bed and the prominent and wide smile that was fixed over Artair's face told that things were just winding down for the still awake pair.

"Iii wanna kiddy-face," he finally declared, shifting his position so that he was sitting upright and looking down expectantly at the jade-haired shapeshifter known as mother with wide bi-colored eyes. He frowned as he realized his folly in pronunciation and raised a small hand to his forehead and grimaced, hiding away the luminous pair that shared traits of both mother and father – one bright gold, the other a slightly darker amber. "Kit-tee face!"

Meleth grinned, eyes still closed, but her soul flinched. The 'kitty face' he spoke of was something she had never wished for her sons to see so young, the aggressive cougar spirit still far too vicious for their eyes. She would never hurt her loved ones, of course, but only in a physical sense. Mental scarring was her bigger concern.. Young boys weren't meant to see their mothers eating the faces of their enemies, regardless of form, and while the rest of her bestial spirits were content with eliminating threats and moving on, the mountain lion delighted in expressing it's rage when provoked, and there were times where she could not deny it.

In these times, who knew when such provocation would arise?

"Kitty-face is sleeping, darling, just like Thalion."

"But why?"

"Well," she began, contented to explain as long as it meant no arguments. She opened her eyes and shifted to prop herself up on an elbow, smiling patiently. "She's keeping Thalion company in his dreams. You wouldn't want him to be alone while he's sick, would you?"

"Mm, no," he admitted with a nod, brows furrowing in a way that always reminded Meleth of Harliven. "S'not safer to be all alone. All alone and against a thing."

The shapeshifter grinned and nodded in agreement, reaching up with a slender hand to toy with his thick black curls before he pulled away. Artair gathered his toys excitedly, but as carefully as possible, as if he were making every effort possible to not wake his younger brother, he rested those wooden carvings of his mother's forms on Thalion's pillows. The sparrow, the wolf, the bear, and just for good measure, the mountain lion too.