Thunder rumbled in the distance, the gray skies darkening the bluffs as Dusk fell. Helah was silent, just outside the cave on a wide expanse of rock- listening to the approaching storm, and to the world around her. Post having children, she had remained relatively close to the Hollows, to provide for them as she was required, yet now- they were beginning to emerge into the world. She made no move to bond with them, and found them more annoying than fleas most of the time- and yet, thus far she had allowed them to live.

How maternal of her.

She stretched out, her head held aloft over her paws as she looked down and around- curious to see who would be the one she interacted with today.

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A storm was coming, she could tell that much. Which was slightly annoying because she did so prefer going out at night where she had the cover of darkness and also when there was likely to be fewer others out and about to annoy her or otherwise get in her way.

Instead, she came to a halt in the middle of the path, her grunt of dismay mostly covered by the rumble of thunder overhead. "Well, isn't that a bitch," she commented. Then her gaze fell and she spotted Helah ahead, and immediately her grumpiness vanished, a rare, honest smile settling on her features instead.

"Well, look who it is! Her majesty herself," she said as she approached, offering an exaggerated bow to the heiress. "And how are the little hellspawns doing anyway?"

@Helah

She was sprawled out, when the other lioness approached. A slender brow arched in wry amusement, as @Arcania ♔ mocked a generous bow. Her words, made her snicker softly, and she cast a glance over her shoulders towards the cave behind her. "Either in their causing hell, or somewhere out and about raising it, I'm sure." She replied smoothly, and easily to the female. "You sure you don't want in on ruining your body to bring forth some hellspawn?" She said with a mocking smirk, as she studied her- not moving any, but leaving the wide cliff edge open, so that Arcania may sit or lay if she so desired.

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Her plans for going out and wrecking havoc now out the window, she was more than content to stretch out beside Helah. "As they should be," she commented. Look who their parents were, after all. She'd met Oleander once, way back when, and while he hadn't seemed like the brightest lion she'd ever met, he had at the very least been interesting and being part of the Dieudonne family surely meant his line had a penchant for chaos. She already knew Helah had one.

"You know, I've never really thought about it before," she commented. "Haven't exactly found anyone willing to father the little brats. But it wouldn't be the worst idea to have some sort of legacy. Else the X'uekai might well end with me." At least in these lands, so far as she knew. There had been others of her family passing through from time to time, but none had been here as long as she had.

@Helah

She smiles at @Arcania ♔ 's words, a slight curving of her lips as she nods. "They'll do well- or I'll know why." A subtle threat- of the chaos she expects her cubs to cause. She'd be only inclined to be interested in them if they were useful to her- causing chaos, causing problems.

As to the other female creating cubs, Helah makes a show of looking her over before smoothly saying. "If I could father cubs- I'd offer you my services." She said with a sly grin. "As it is..." She shrugs, but perhaps there was a promise there- a quiet offer.

"The X'uekai, is your family line?" She asks, though it seemed obvious- it was an invitation for her to tell her about them if she wished to do so.

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"If they ever need any ideas, or poisons for their work, just send them my way," Arcania offered. She had plenty of both and there weren't enough hours in the day to use them all. Better to let them be used, especially as she didn't have any little hellions of her own running around to do it.

"Now that would be ideal, wouldn't it," she commented. Helah was one of the few others she'd found that were similar to her, a rarity in a land of lions who she could at best tolerate or at worst openly aggravated her.

"Indeed, Renozuri X'uekai was my father, my mother was inconsequential. He had two wives, Icefang and Nikiri. I have multiple half siblings, and I'm certain at least a few of those have had children of their own, but I haven't seen any of them around here in years if I have at all," she replied. At this point she suspected her father had died at some point since she'd last seen him, given she'd been startled to even run into him in the boneyard in the first place. Icefang had been around briefly and perhaps was still creeping around the lands somewhere, but she hadn't seen her recently either. Such was the life of their family, it seemed.

@Helah

Helah wondered if any of the offspring would dally in the art of poisons. There were many ways that they could wreak havoc- many ways that they could be useful. The art of poisons was one for sharp minds and deft paws- the thrill of playing with something that could as easily kill the wielder, as the intended target was not for the weak. "I will keep that in mind. Perhaps one of them, will show some aptitude for it." She commented, her mind spinning as she considered them- and which one that may... well, she didn't know.

She shot @Arcania ♔ a wry grin, and chuckled softly at her words. Wouldn't that be a thing? The two lionesses to conceive cubs, without the help of a male. Not that Helah ever intended to carry another litter. That was not something she wanted to do to her body again.

Helah offers Arcaina the rare gift of her full attention as she speaks about her family. The names are nothing familiar to her, and yet, she wonders what it would be like to have family with names that she would care to remember. Helah herself remembered her mother, and the sisters and brother who had sneered at her when she was chased out- but they were inconsequential.

"I would think, perhaps finding a worthy suitor could be worth your time- if this is a family name you wish to preserve." Helah herself, didn't care much about hers. Maybe she should. "I'd offer the services of my husband, but I do not think that would go over well within the family of the Dieudonne." While Helah wasn't a monogamist, she also did not need to spit on the bed of the family she'd gone to bed with- literally, not when she would eventually rule somewhere within the land.

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If they were anything like their mother, Arcania suspected at least one of them would seek to learn the art of poisons. Or perhaps they would all take after their father. A pity, if they did. They'd be missing out on so much. Granted, she hadn't had nearly as much fun with her poisons as she potentially could have, but there was still time left to her.

"You make a good point. I shall have to keep a lookout for one. My childbearing years are rapidly dwindling, after all," she commented. Three more years, give or take, and then it would be far harder for her to bear children. Not that it was going to be a piece of cake if she had them right now, she was sure, but still. If she wanted to have someone to pass on her knowledge to, which she did, then she would have to hurry up. Or steal one of Helah's children, which while the woman didn't seem like she would mind, the Dieu might.

"Not big on sharing, are they?" she asked with a chuckle. She'd only met Oleander the once, but she supposed it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world to lay with him just for children, had it been an option. Honestly, ideally she would find someone like Helah just with the appropriate parts. She was tempted to ask if the woman had a brother.

@Helah

Helah considers the males she's met, and those she has been impressed by and those she found to be little more than wild dogs. She lets herself quietly consider them before she speaks again with a quiet sort of contemplation. "Finding someone with strength doesn't seem to be hard here. Intelligence is a whole other thing."

While hers had been a marriage A convenience that did not stop her from engaging in other activities with her rather unnatural proclivity towards violence and lustful acts. "A marriage that is opportunistic or a mating, I suppose... is worth considering." perhaps that was a hint given to the other about her own marriage, and she considered quietly any other potential alliances that could be made on the wedding bed.

"I do not believe the Dieu are inclined to polygamy. Which I find unfortunate, though what isn't known to them..."
@Arcania ♔

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Arcania offered a little groan of understanding and commiseration when Helah spoke of intelligence. "I suspect the women of the family got all the brain cells," she commented. She wasn't sure if Helah had any male cubs, but she hoped for the woman's sake that if she did they were at least reasonably intelligent.

"It is, presuming one can stand one's mate or they're tolerant of looking the other way," she agreed. Her own father had several wives and she herself was born of a tryst with another woman, so she saw no issue with it.

Arcania snorted softly. "Well, aren't they just asking for spouses to go missing under mysterious circumstances," she commented. Not that she was condoning that. No, no. She would never. "This is true, though. One's spouse and family certainly doesn't need to know everything about one's doings."

@Helah