Her flinch as she pulled her to him did not go unnoticed, but it was swept aside as she melted into him, and then forgotten as the egg’s hatching loomed before them. But the flinch created something in him— something ugly and something angry, looming and uncontrollable, and entirely undefined. But it was something for the Elephant to discover on another day.

He watched her haunches at she moved towards the egg, some sort of relief overwhelming his dread at breaking their embrace. But it was short-lived, as her cerulean gaze (now sitting deeper than before in her gaunt face) turned back to him, filled with tears. Her tears— they quietly and easily sizzled as they put out the caged, angry flames in his chest. How easily she returned there, how thoughtless and smoothly did she fit amid the enraged wreckage in his ribs.

Ears perk forward at words, head instinctively beginning to stretch out towards her; a front hoof lifted to bring him closer. But Mbwene’s alarmed squeak froze his limb— the egg, don’t go closer to it! A low, slow breath blew out his nostrils as he sought to control the need that was driving him towards her fragile, scarred body.

“I’m terrified I won’t be able to care for it either”, her words brought a slight frown to his tense face. “Rexanna, go to it,” his low voice was soft as he urged her, “Bond to it, it will help you, and,” his muzzle gestured toward Mbwene (who still stayed at his back legs), but his eyes never left hers, “You’ll be surprised how resilient companions are,” a corner of his mouth crooked up in a small, lopsided grin.

“What if he finds it? What will he do to it?” her whisper was nearly missed, and immediately the King’s ears tilt backwards at the fear that invaded her voice. His brow creased, grin wiped from his face as his lips parted to ask her who caused her voice to hush in fright— but his words were stolen (but not forgotten) by the bright, beady eyes that peered out from the egg.

The little creature’s face was based in black and white, small eyes and nose blinking against the sunlight and quivering with new breath. Its body was a furry, slick mess of variegated gold and black. The Elephant’s brows raised for, despite being rodent-like, the small creature was handsome.

A questioning half-trumpet came from Mbwene’s trunk, and the giant hesitantly tested himself. Relief. There was only one other’s shared thoughts in his mind. His half-grin returned, though it did not entirely reach his eyes because his thought were still centered on her fearful whisper. “It’s very handsome, Rex,” his voice was warm, however, as his sweeping strides brought him alongside her, looking down at the hatched egg, “We called that pattern marembo, in Dorobo,” his low words rumbled from his barrel while he watched her lower her muzzle to the newborn polecat.

Though his smile at seeing the kit brush Rexanna’s maw was genuine, it faded as he gently touched her shoulder with his muzzle, drawing her attention, before asking, “Rexanna, who is the ‘he’ you are afraid will find you and your companion?”

— My dear, but if I make the Pearly Gates

I’ll do my best to make a drawing of God and Lucifer,

a boy and girl,

An angel kissin’ on a sinner.