For the first time in any of her many, many pregnancies, she finds herself resenting the parasite child in her womb. She finds herself wishing that the budding life in her belly would just disappear, so she can enjoy the memory of her most recent tryst without the crushing guilt that comes with it. Without having to do this.

But she can't let it show. He can't know her shame. Despite the pain and the hate that rages inside, she schools her face into its usual lopsided grin, and huffs a breath of air in greeting to him.

By her side, Dominus tenses as he spies the grey creature next to Tembovu. "Prey. Prey. NOMS." The lion's instincts, bred into him from his savannah-roaming cousins, tell him that this elephant calf is precisely the sort of animal he should be hunting. His claws unsheathe and caress the soil, whilst his tail lashes behind him in a hunger-induced frenzy. His excitement pulses in Nyx's mind, momentarily distracting her from her own problems - and not in a way she wants. This is the last thing she needs, to have to control her companion when her mind needs to be fully focused on the task ahead. The silver cannot allow herself to be sidetracked, when the web she's about to spin will require every ounce of her guile.

She moves firmly forwards and blocks Dominus off with her foreleg before he can even think about advancing on the elephant calf. He hisses, leaning every way around her leg to fix his piercing gaze on the young, tasty-looking creature, but Nyx stands firm. She grins at the stallion's words, although it doesn't reach her eyes. "Ooh, you know you love it." She flashes him a wink, even as Dominus begins to whine hungrily beside her. "Is that your companion?" A stupid question, perhaps, as why else would a stunted elephant be walking alongside him, but it's a way to break the ice.

"It's good to see you again." This, at least, is the truth; she's missed her handsome monarch, his quick wit, his ability to take her banter and give it right back. She wishes she could just enjoy his company, ask how he is getting along with his wife, discuss the warrior situation in the Edge. But she can't. Her fruity loins have seen to that.

"There is something I must ask of you." On slides the mask; she throws her face into a nervous frown, as though about to ask a question she's dreaded for days. She adds just a dash of anxious submission with a slightly bowed head, and rounds it off with an awkward shuffle from hoof to hoof, still careful to keep Dominus coralled away from the grey calf. "Last time I was in Helovia, I lived here in the Edge with my father, Nato. When he disappeared, I left Helovia in search of him, without success." This part is the truth; it had torn her apart when her beloved sire disappeared. She had searched high and low for him, but found nothing. "Dominus was hunting just past the Threshold when he saw somebody with my father's markings. He tracked the male for some time, but lost him in a thick forest." Her face is inscrutable, her body language as relaxed as she can make it. "I owe it to my father to try and find him, Tembovu. Now, you know as well as I that I'm the sort of woman who asks forgiveness rather than permission, but you deserve better than for me to just disappear without warning. It would not be fitting of me as your General to just up and leave, so I'm asking if you will send me on a mission to hunt my father down, so I still feel like I'm being remotely useful. Believe me when I say it would be worth your while to have him as a warrior of your herd - I didn't just pull my fighting talent out of my ass, after all." She manages a wink, a hint of her old humour.

It soon fades. "What do you say?"

It's worrying how simple it is for the lie to slip free, as easy as breathing. She hates herself for it.