After her conversation with the panda-faced boy, the Poisoner had been consumed with thoughts of foals. She had forgotten, momentarily, how much she loved and desired the idea of being a mother. When she and Ithrim had been together, in the years of youth and innocence found in the darkest of situations, they had dreamt of it happening in their future. One that would never occur. It had faded from her mind for a while, years even, until she had fallen in love with Ktulu. It wasn't anything she'd ever anticipated, but it wasn't something she'd ever change either. So maybe she'd noticed Brisa's foals at the herd meeting, and had felt the familiar stirring of longing. But it wasn't until her meeting with Locket that she'd realized that maybe...maybe she really did still want to be a mother.

It killed her to think that she could never have foals with Ktulu. She hadn't even thought of the Gods, but she knew that she should tell Ktulu. Honesty was the main foundation for any relationship, and foals were a big change. She should tell her, regardless of if it could be a possibility or not. Ktulu may not be able to give her foals, in her current mindset, but they needed to discuss Lakota's new desires sometime. And it was probably best to do it sooner than later.

Aodaun whined softly at her heels, rubbing against her legs like a feline as they walked. He may not understand her desires to be a mother, but he would support her regardless. Mares were weird, he decided, but it didn't mean he wouldn't stop being there for whatever Lakota desired to do. It was when they'd first entered the borders that she called out for her mate, sending Aodaun ahead to search out the Constrictor and her bear companion. She cocked a hip, a little nervous about the impending conversation, unable to hide it from showing on her deep sapphire features. Whatever happened, she hoped they would figure it out together.

The sky was just beginning to lighten with the telltale sign of morning and thus Ktulu's patrol was drawing to a close. She and Eytan had patrolled alone and were able to move at a much faster pace and cover nearly the entire length of the wall. During the night the Constrictor had encountered a small group of wolves that were skulking about the edges of the wall. A short battle had ensued in which she had killed one of the wolves and chased the others away. Eytan had dragged the wolf's carcass out of the Edge territory so when it began to rot it would not assault their sense of smell. She, however, was not without a few scratches, but the blood had already dried and provided a protective layer from flies and the like.

In just a few short minutes the next patrol would be setting out to begin their duties and they would cover what she had not managed to during her shift. Hopefully they would not encounter predators that were up to no good, but usually those hopes were in vain because Helovia was a landfill of predators of all sorts. A flash of white among the trees made Ktulu stop and stare, her body growing tense as she prepared herself for a fight. "Aoduan." Eytan grumbled in his bonded's mind, admonishing her for preparing herself to fight her mate's companion. How was she supposed to know when all she had seen was a flash of white?

Ktulu's head tilted. Where was Lakota?

"Follow." Eytan's caramel eyes found his bonded's crimson ones and together they set off at a quick pace after the polar bear. Behind her a twinkling trail of fireflies tried to play catch up while their brothers and sisters clung to the pale strands of Ktulu's mane and tail. She came upon Lakota suddenly and jerked to an ungraceful halt. The fireflies swirled around her like a group of angry wasps before settling back in her mane where they blinked on and off. "Is everything alright?" She asked, bloody gaze sweeping over her mate's feminine frame. "Why did you send Aoduan?"

However long she waits, she doesn't recall. There are more pressing matters prodding at her brain. It distracts her enough to not stop and think about the worry she could inflict on her mate, sending Aodaun out to fetch her while she remains at the borders. A mistake she commonly would never make, it's one that cuts down the time she waits for her beloved, idly standing amid the mists that help chase away the sweat-inducing rays outside of the shadows. Tallsun was never a season she particularly enjoyed, with her dark coat.

She was jerked from her thoughts when Aodaun gripped onto her consciousness and tugged. Clearly she had to have been deep in thought for him to have to reach her through such violent methods. Her sheepish apologeticness flooded through their bond, only inducing a snort from her bonded as he led Eytan and Ktulu back towards his bonded. Ktu worried. Think Kota in trouble. Lakota cursed softly under her breath as she realized what she'd done, but she couldn't reverse time and make it right. Instead, she remained where she was, cursing herself for worrying her mate with her absentmindedness.

Ktulu arrived promptly, moving to her side. As they glanced over one another, Lakota made a strangled sound and rushed to her mate, spotting the dried crimson darkening her coat with rust that was clearly blood. "What happened?" she gasped softly, angrily prodding at Ao mentally for not warning her about her mate's condition. It wasn't awful, but it was still an injury, and Lakota moved in a tight circle around Ktulu to catalog all of them. There wasn't much she could do, they were rather shallow and didn't need much attention aside cleansing in one of the springs. "They aren't too deep...you should clean them before you sleep, when the bugs aren't thick. Whatever left them, we don't want them getting infected. Tonight I'll put some chamomile on it, okay?" It was a little too easy to fall into her old medic mindset, sometimes. With a soft brush of her muzzle beneath one of the cuts, frowning softly, she finally focused on Ktulu's question.

"Everything's fine, I'm sorry. I wasn't really in my mind when I sent him." Shaking her head, she lifted her muzzle to tug gently at Ktulu's mane, lovingly so. "I ran into Locket, one of the old warriors? And we were talking...I was just wondering..." her courage failed her and she swallowed hard, trying to calm the queasy feeling in her stomach. She trusted Ktulu, with her own life, why was she so nervous about the topic?

It came out in a bit of a rush. "I was wondering what you think about foals? Having them...together?" She held her breath, heart pounding, and hoped she hadn't been foolish to want children with her mate who already had two of her own.

Ktulu shrugged off Lakota's concern for the scratches as if it were nothing, and really it was exactly that. Nothing. At the worst the 'wounds' were superficial. It did amuse her, however, that Lakota slipped so easily into her role as a medic. It was the reason that she always suggested that her mate take on a healing role. She was good at it and it seemed to come so naturally to her. That and she'd rather see Lakota healing warriors than out on the battlefield where she could be slain so much more easily. "Its nothing." She said in response to Lakota's question. "Just a couple of wolves trying to sneak past the wall." Her shoulders lifted in a manner similar to a shrug while Lakota continued to fuss over her.

Finally it was Lakota's turn to answer her question and Ktulu frowned. "Why did you send Aodaun? Why did you wait at the border?" Did she not like it in the Edge? Was she wanting to go elsewhere? 'Calm.' Eytan murmured, making Ktulu's frown ease just a little bit. The frown, however, became more present when Lakota mentioned Locket and foals almost in the same breath.

"Having them...together?"

Eytan and Ktulu looked at one another then at Lakota. The idea of more foals running around made Eytan giddy with excitement, but Ktulu knew how much work went into raising foals, protecting them, nurturing them. She had raised two and had thought she was done, but Lakota wanted foals of her own. "How do you propose we go about this?" She asked, suspicious that Lakota would suggest that Locket would sire the foals. The very idea of Locket even touching Lakota in any intimate way made the Constrictor's magic flare, the bear inside of her begging to break lose and look for the panda boy and destroy him.

"Fuckers," she hissed, for even though they were a rather common sight in Helovia, they had hurt her mate. Superficial though the wounds were, Lakota was adamant about applying the chamomile that night. The Poisoner had all the faith in the world that Ktulu could handle a pack of wolves on her own, but it didn't mean she could simply cease her worrying and clucking. It was part of her personality, to care for those she loved, the few in her flock that had wormed their way into her heart. Ktulu was most prominent on that list, due to the disappearance of her siblings from her life. Ktulu seemed to understand, at least, that the sapphire lass was calmer when she could fuss and worry to her liking. It was a comfort to her, and her mate never objected to it. Sighing softly over the fractured skin, she trailed beneath Ktulu's throat to face her properly for the impending conversation.

Wincing internally as Ktulu pushed the subject, she sighed softly and did not rise to the bait of a potential quarrel. "I'm sorry, Ktulu. I was too far into my own head to realize what it might imply." Whether it was her words or some intervention of Eytan- Lakota suspected it was by the actions of their bears that they'd managed to get together- Ktulu calmed enough to partially accept her reasoning and await the topic she'd mentioned.

Crimson orbs turned to Eytan, then back to Lakota, and suddenly her nerves were sparking like live wires all over again. Gods, had she made a mistake? Did Ktulu not want yet another foal not fully related to their siblings? Did she simply not want more foals at all? Lakota's heart trembled at the possibilities, despite her attempts to steel it for whatever reaction she may garner from her mate. Though, Ktulu proposed an obvious complication. The Poisoner flailed for a moment, as she hadn't quite worked that out herself, when Aodaun crowed in. Moon Lady! Lakota felt like bashing her head into the nearest tree. Why hadn't she thought of that?!

"Well...perhaps we could ask the Gods? Would you even be partial to having them with me?" Her voice became both guarded and quiet, trying not to reveal how closely she held the topic to her heart and how easily Ktulu could completely destroy her with a wrong answer. "I'd carry them, or at least I would want to. I merely..." it was hard for her to speak so boldly of such sensitive things. She wasn't meant for the mushy and the heartfelt. Staring at the forest floor her eyebrows pinched and her mouth faltered into a quivering, unhappy line of nostalgia. "I merely want to be a better mother than my own. I have always wanted foals, and I cannot imagine loving any other aside from you. I don't believe I could even temporarily use a stallion," she wrinkled her nares at that, horrified to imagine practically borrowing a stallion's steed whom she had no romantic attachment with. "I know you have Hototo and Ranjiri...I won't be disappointed if you do not desire more."

Liar, Aodaun scoffed in her head. She happily ignored him.

Ktulu waited for Lakota to answer her question about why she had decided to stay near the borders and send her bear to find her. Obviously, with the way she winced, she had not thought about the number of things that it could have meant. First and foremost in Ktulu's mind was that Lakota had not liked their new home and was leaving, followed by the possibility that she was laying somewhere injured and dying. "Please don't do that again." Her voice was quiet but her gaze was unwavering as she looked at her mate. "I don't like worrying." She didn't like being scared either and for the little bit of time that she had followed Aodaun she had been scared.

The subject of foals did nothing to ease her worry because she knew that there was no way she would be able to give Lakota the children that she desired. A stallion would have to intervene and the very idea of it made Ktulu's irrationally upset. If Lakota wanted to use another stallion to sire her children she would have to do it without Ktulu's consent and without her knowledge until after the deed was done because if she knew when it was going to happen she would not be able to promise that the stallion would go uninjured. Her train of thought came to a screeching halt when Lakota brought up the Gods and the mare could have slapped herself for not thinking about them. "I think the better question would be if the gods would be willing to go against nature and allow us to have them." She said, brushing off Lakota's doubts about Ktulu not wanting children with her. Of course she wouldn't mind them, she just hadn't thought the conversation would come up so soon.

"I'd carry them, or at least I would want to. I merely... I merely want to be a better mother than my own. I have always wanted foals, and I cannot imagine loving any other aside from you. I don't believe I could even temporarily use a stallion, I know you have Hototo and Ranjiri...I won't be disappointed if you do not desire more."

"You do know that you're not a good liar, don't you?" Ktulu asked, crimson eyes narrowing as Lakota claimed that she wouldn't be disappointed if she didn't want foals. "I know you well enough to know when you're lying. You would be disappointed if I said no." Her tail flicked and she looked up to the sky, sighing as she did so. "Foals are a lot of responsibility.." 'Make relationship stronger.' Eytan chimed in. "Yes." Ktulu murmured as her gaze fell to the grizzly. "They do." Ktulu could feel the giddiness bubbling in Eytan's furry body at the thought of more foals. Whatever maternal instinct she lacked was made up for in Eytan. Finally Ktulu nodded her head and looked back at Lakota. "I won't deny you what you want." She said. "If you want foals then we will have them on way or another."

Despite it being an honest mistake, Lakota shouldered the worry as if Ktulu were still her queen, nodding solemnly but with a sincerity of apology in the depths of her violet gaze. It had been foolish, but it lay in the past, no matter how recent. There was no point in attempting to continue apologizing when it was not in her nature. She had spoken what she'd needed, Ktulu had forgiven her, there was nothing else to be said or done on the matter. There were other far more pressing topics on Lakota's mind in that moment, after all. One that seemed to inspire tension in Ktulu's frame as she spoke, not out of disagreement- Lakota knew her mate too well to come to such an inaccurate conclusion- but from what Lakota could tell...was it jealousy? Worry? Hatred? It seemed to be a mixture, and while Lakota could not read her mate's thoughts she most definitely wished she could in that moment. Why so many odd, convoluted emotions?

Whatever the reason, the further she spoke, it seemed to vanish all at once. Momentarily regarding Ktulu quizzically, she decided there was no point in inquiring what she'd been thinking of when it had clearly passed. Others may have been insulted by how Ktulu brushed aside her worry, but Lakota did not care for such things, for she was no typical mare who cared about complacency and comfort. She desired the truth and the honesty, something Ktulu equally sought and what made them a good match for one another. Her eyes hardened in determination and she smirked, slow and easy, a coil of poison and desire. "They are the creators of nature, and I am a stubborn mare. Who's to know if they would if we don't at least try?" The latter was far more sincere than what she'd started out with. But it was the truth at least. She was a very stubborn mare, and she'd get what she wanted even if it meant having to be a thorn in the ass of every God she came across.

Laughing at herself when Ktulu caught her in her lie, she shook her head with an endeared smirk. "Ah, I'm a wonderful liar, just not with you my love." It was partly teasing, an echo of a time long past when they had danced around one another after the dramatic departure of Ktulu's cousin. She held no shame in having been found out. Sobering only when Ktulu mentioned the responsibility that came with foals, nodding. "I've thought over this many moons, Ktulu. They are a lot of time, require much care. I know this. But I do not hold such an important position anymore." There was a faint tinge of regret, desiring her old position and the busy lifestyle she'd once led. "You are the Captain now, you are far busier, but I have the time to spare raising them. Of course I would not be the sole parent, you are not that consumed with your tasks, but I have far more time and it would not be so tiring as it would have had I still been Medic." Had the pair held their same positions, Lakota would not have asked for a foal, she knew they would never have been able to raise them the way they deserved.

Love and delight bubbled up like a fountain in her chest, emotions she wasn't used to feeling but reveled in. Snorting happily she jumped forth and wrapped her lips around Ktulu's mane, pulling like an excited foal as she pulled her to her chest despite their height difference. "Thank you Ktulu," she breathed, eyes nearly sparking with excitement. "Oh, can we leave soon? I don't give a damn about your duties, give them to that painted lass for one night," she barked, knowing Ktulu would understand that she was merely excited and truly did care about Ktulu's duties.