She's also a slave to her unfortunate love of dick, which is precisely how she's spawned four foals in two years. Twins. Bloody twins. It feels utterly wrong to have a sense of melancholy about the lack of a child at her heels, when she has so many who still need her attention...but nature has a way of not making any sense when it comes to reproduction. Perhaps it's the fact that her older children, Libertad and d'Arcy, have either disappeared or hate her; perhaps it's the fact that Oizys and Enyo are so fiercely independent, which she puts down to a combination of their difficult early weeks and, of course, their father's genes. Either way, she feels the absence of a needy, hungry, fluffy little creature at her heels (that isn't Dominus; he growls at this comparison), even though she's solemnly sworn off men for life.

But these are not thoughts to be dwelled upon. They are thoughts to be banished, ignored, crushed. She's already turned into fucking Supernanny, she needs no further additions to her brood. The handsome man-meat of Helovia can consider this womb formally closed for business.

Well, closed for however long this little vow of chastity will last. Dominus guessed a week; she kicked him in the ribs for that.

The spring sun is sweltering as she grazes lazily around the outskirts of the Edge. It's morning, with the sun on the cusp of reaching its midday highest temperatures, so she has already sought out the shade of a tree beneath which she can fill her belly without sweating like a stallion on a promise. Dominus lounges in the bottom folds of the tree - he is too large and cumbersome to climb particularly high, but he's managed to wedge himself upon one of the lowest-hanging branches and he's insufferably proud of this achievement. He dozes happily on his perch, ignoring the ominous creaking of the thin branch that groans beneath his weight.

Nyx's thoughts fade into simplicity as she enjoys the tasty Birdsong grass, her worries momentarily shelved.

Dominus' reaction to the monarch's approach is far less subtle. He spies Tembovu's elephant companion, and his eyes light up with liquid fire. Predatory hunger seizes him - he'd missed out on devouring the prey last time, and fully intends on repairing that mistake now. He rises to his feet, a glowering pillar of white power, slavering from dripping fangs...

Except he's forgotten that he's lying down on the thinnest branch possible, a branch already struggling to hold his considerable weight. When he stands in such a hurry, the fragile wood splinters with a gunshot-like crack, and he tumbles in an ungainly heap to the floor with an anguished yowl. Nyx cannot contain the snort of laughter that ripples free from her nostrils, even as her lion's wounded pride throbs inside her mind. That's what happens when you try to eat other people's companions, she points out.

He greets her as his trustworthy general, and guilt knots her stomach. "Tembovu, my favourite king." She flashes a wide grin, which falters only slightly when he reveals he's been looking for her. Shit, does he know, is he coming to rage at me? But no - his companion rolls two glass spears towards her, and she leans down to sniff them with interest. "Ooh, pointy." And they are - deadly shards that would hurt like a bitch should they penetrate flesh. Dominus, having shaken off the indignity of his fall, gathers the spears in his mouth before retreating to glower at the elephant from Nyx's side.

He tasks her with finding a fellow warrior to spar, and she nods her acceptance of the command. "Of course. We also need a rematch at some point, as well. Admittedly, me losing last time ended fabulously for both of us, but I hate being bested." Another flash of that wolfish grin and twinkling eyes - humour, to rid herself of any dark thoughts about her last lost spar and the consequences of it. "Is there anything else I can do to help?"

The tone changes, and the silver enjoys the opportunity for lighthearted conversation. She doesn't get much of it these days. "I'm good - even better now I'm not a walking milk tank for the twins." Perhaps that's the source of her sudden broodyness; they've only recently weaned, and she missed that opportunity for bonding. "I've missed my humour, too. The last few months....haven't been easy. But I'm getting better, and I'll be your favourite innuendo-on-legs again before you know it." Would he expect anything less? "And how are you? You seem accustomed to leadership now." An observation she's picked up on recently - his crown seems to fit him far easier now.

He repeats her comment back to her, and she gives a small sigh. She can't say the truth of why the last few months have been hard - that keeping up her lie is exhausting, that pretending her twins aren't hers is harder than she ever could have thought (although she actually thinks Oizys, at least, is beginning to confuse the lie with the truth - the filly blurted out you're not even my real mother during their last argument), that there's one small wicked part of her that wishes they'd never been born, as much as she loves them. No, she can't say any of this, save perhaps for the part about Oizys' outburst, which is actually true - and incredibly hurtful, as well. For the girl to say that, to even think it...what kind of shitty mother is Nyx if she actually makes her daughter's brain twist up the threads of reality and falsehood?

"A multitude of things, really. Mostly it's the twins...I'm not used to children with such...darkness in them. The other day, Oizys screamed at me that I'm not even her real mother and can't tell her what to do, just because I told her to stop using her new magic to murder random animals. I'm worried they're going to grow up and resent me." This is almost the truth; she is worried that the twins will resent her, but mostly because of the lie she's twisted out of their childhood. "And then there's the fact Libertad and d'Arcy have all but disappeared, and I've not seen Enyo in weeks, either....What kind of mother does that make me?" She sighs, scraping the dirt with a hoof so as to distract herself from her sudden wave of misery. Perhaps that's why she's so broody all of a sudden - because she wants another attempt at keeping a child safe, at raising it properly, to be a balanced, loving citizen of the Edge. Not a borderline psychopath like Oizys - that'll be her father's genetics, no doubt.

Tembovu says the same as her, that life hasn't been easy. She looks at him through kind eyes, tilting her head slightly and pricking her ears forward to show her interest. "Do you want to talk about it? I mean, I just unloaded all my mother-problems onto you, so it's only fair." She manages a weak smile. "And yes, it does. You just seem...more assured now. It's hot." Another grin and a twinkle of the eye, to show she's jesting - although it's half true, and her newfound broodyness certainly isn't helping...

She's distracted from this train of thought by a small glass blade suddenly clattering to the ground at her feet, accompanied by a high-pitched squeal from Tembovu's elephant companion. Dominus gives a half-growl, half-roar, as if to prove that his voice is far more appealing to the ears than Mbwene's elephantine shriek. The blade is beautiful, glimmering and deadly (and evidently sharp enough to prick Mbwene's thick trunk). "Ooh, you're flush with gifts today. Thank you, Tembovu, I love it." She leans down to sniff at the blade, finding it quite appealing - her fights will have a new edge to them with that bad boy.