Her world had somehow inexorably expanded and contracted all at once with Murtagh in her life. At last, she had achieved what she'd always wanted - a family to call her own, made from her own blood and love and dedication. Murtagh was everything she had ever needed and craved, and she looked down at him sometimes and was struck dumb by her all-encompassing love for him. All she wanted was for him to exceed her, to surge far beyond what little Lakota had managed with her pitiful life. Made all the less pitiful because she'd somehow brought him into the world. He was her redemption and salvation in one. And Ktulu, her fears unfounded, had fallen just as in love with the little spitfire they'd made together. They had triumphed over the tests of the Earth God, proven that they were fit to be together and have a child together. Both middle fingers raised to the skies they'd told anyone and everyone who sneered at them to go fuck themselves, and happily kept all prejudice and pain from the boundaries of their little trio of a family. 

Except family was something that was not clearly defined at times. Alleo had seemingly vanished, completely unaware of the fact that Lakota had a foal of her own, that he was an uncle. But what often nagged at her was the reminder that somewhere out there, Ktulu had a daughter of her own. She never brought it up, but the curiosity was nearly lethal for the Poisoner. Had something driven the two of them apart somehow? Or had Ranjiri simply grown old enough to find her own path? Lakota still remembered the little newborn foal, the one she'd given her protective amulet to. Did she still have it, she wondered? Even remember who it was that had given it to her? Or had she grown up always wondering where it had come from and why, and subsequently passed it down, an odd sort of legacy from an unknown benefactor?

Lakota had taken Murtagh on a cross country traveling adventure, never straying too terribly far and never into lands Lakota did not believe were safe for her little prince. The morning was crisp and hued with pinks across the desaturated drifts of snow where her babe lay sleeping curled up next to Aodaun. Lifting herself from the little snow nest they'd made together, she pressed her muzzle gently to the bear's head as he lifted it quizzically. Stay with him. I'm going for a walk. Let him play if he wishes, but don't stray. Ao rumbled happily in response, tightening his hold on the gangly colt, sharing his heat and soft fur with the little body with the absence of his mother. Be safe, Kota. Love you. Lakota smiled down at him, overwhelmed with love for the little pair of them, and trickled it down the thread of their link, no words needed as she let him feel her love flooding down upon his own emotions. 

It was far warmer the closer to the Heart she ventured, and she basked in the relief from the cold. Of petite frame, it was difficult at times for her to weather the harsher elements. Alleo always joked that she did so out of sheer stubborn will than actually being physically fit enough to keep warm. It brought a light smile to her face to remember him, staring down into the molten coals and flickering flames in the center of the rocky expanse. She'd return soon enough to fetch Murtagh if he were still asleep. No doubt he'd enjoy the heat jut as much as she. 

Lakota the Poisoner