Little Miss Kali

[Roma]

The night is dark...

“Well not exactly, but it leads to mating, which is when…” I sigh, turning my eyes skyward for a moment, before I managed to meet hers. “Mating is when a boy climbs on top of a girl and makes a baby. Any boys come sniffing around your haunches you give them a good kick okay?” Sweet gods, I was not going into any more detail than that, at least I hope I wasn’t. My face would have been flaming if horses blushed. She was a very aware child. She paid more attention and thought the most random things, things I don’t ever remembering thinking much about until I was a little bit older.

“Well no, you don’t have to have a baby. It would depend on the season. Sometimes girls feel very grumpy and irritable, much closer to when its cold. That means they come into heat, and then babies can be made. Any other time just means it feels good, but, I wouldn’t want to take a chance. Accidents can happen after all.” Disclaimer, good place to put a disclaimer. “Or at least wait until you are a couple years older.” Please gods, wait until you are older.

I can see the questions swimming in her eyes as she looks up at me. I almost sighed, my shoulders almost slumping in an oh-god-please-stop kind of way. My next question had put a stop to it. Her face falling away, ducking so she didn’t have to meet my eyes. I wanted to demand who, wanted to demand her to answer me but I manage somehow to reign myself in. I take a couple of very deep, quiet breaths that steady me some.

When she lies to me, I know it as soon as she lets the word slip past her lips. I stay quiet, and she finishes and when she peeks a small glance upwards towards my face, I give her a very soft smile. “Oh baby, I’m not mad at you.” I wrap her up in a hug, pulling her close against me and snuggling my wing tight around her so she is all cozy. “I am very much not upset with you.” However, the little bastard that had touched her was going to hear some very choice words from me, once I found out who it was.

“Did they say to keep it safe and secret? Is that why you are worried, little love?” My lips finding her forelock, tugging on it lightly, doing what I could to put her more at ease. My anger was burning steadily in my chest, lighting a fire through my blood, but somehow I managed to keep it from exploding outwards. And if she was a tad worried about the baby thing, then well it had to be a boy. There were only a few of them on the island, only a few of them that she played with.

“I wouldn’t want you to break your secret. What if I guessed their name? Then we can talk more about it?” A sneaky little friend smile that had my eyes lighting up in mischief, or at least what seemed to be mischief to my dear little friend. “Then you aren’t telling anyone. I’m guessing it, right?”

...and full of terrors.

[Kali]

Well. That was at least a little bit more information. Maybe she’d ask Khari next time they went out exploring, because Roma was looking a little flustered. “Okay. Thanks, Roma, that’s very helpful information. Does it have to be a boy and a girl to make a baby?” Oooh, or maybe she could spring it on her dad. It was pretty fun to fluster him, and it took a whole lot of work and a big dose of cleverness usually. Of course, she’d have to be careful about how she asked, but Dad, as fabulous as he was, wasn’t usually as sneaky and perceptive as Roma was.

Even about something as little as a one word lie. Kali should’ve known better than to try even, but she’d promised. “Okay,” she said softly, snuggling close again under Roma’s wing. “I’m glad you’re not mad. I think that would make my heart hurt, if you were mad at me.” Roma asked if it was a secret, and Kali nodded. “Uh-huh--” She paused and tilted her head, thinking about the way Roma had asked. They. That seemed important somehow.

“They asked, and I didn’t understand why it had to be secret, but I guess it makes sense why now if I’m not supposed to until I’m older. They said they shouldn’t have--just one they, it’s not like I was kissing a lot of people, and it was only a little kissing--and that they’d try not to do it again, and I shouldn’t have said, but you’re sneaky.”

And sneaky was normally so delightful, but Kali was awfully conflicted about this particular kind of sneaky in this particular moment. Especially when she asked about the one, one thing Kali wouldn’t give away. There was a stubborn glint to her dark brown eyes when she said, “No. No guessing who, okay? I won’t tell, I already told way too much. That part’s for sure still breaking my word, even if you guess it. Please don’t, Roma. And please don’t try to sneak it out of me either.”

Kirby and Lacey's
little whisper girl

[Roma]

The night is dark...

I just nod in response to her first question, although I tilt my head to the side a bit. Technically, that’s not exactly true either, but I wasn’t about to go into that kind of detail with her, about how sometimes if you knew the right horses you could be a boy and a boy or a girl and a girl and be able to make babies together. Father and Gran had helped Uncle Zur and Uncle Drow make the triplets together. I shake away the thoughts and listen.

My ears flicker back a bit and then forwards and my weight shifts to the side that she is on and I lean a bit. My wing was still wrapped tight around her and I only nodded slightly, rolling my shoulders in a little bit of a shrug. “Okay.” I was going to have to go talk to Kerberos, see who might be around that Kali hung out with that could be a problem. The stubborn glint in her eyes tells me that I won’t get anything else out of her. I didn’t want to sneak it out of her, since she asked me not too.

I sigh softly, my eyes turning away from her own to look back out over the island, again. I take in the green jungle trees, even as I wonder who might be lurking there amongst the shadows. Dramatic a bit, I know. Regardless, there was someone here that was touching my Kali and I was going to find out who.

Even if it was only once.
I hoped it was only once.

“So you think if it happens again, you will tell him to stop and that you need to wait?” I turn my eyes back to hers, deliberately changing the pronoun to see what she says. I needed to figure out the gender, so I could eliminate my options.

...and full of terrors.

[Kali]

Snuggles were pretty much always the best choice. As soon as Roma agreed not to try to sneak the who out of her, Kali rested her head back on that pretty blue shoulder and sighed a cozy little sigh and closed her eyes. “Thanks, Roma,” she said softly, wiggling just a little to settle against Roma and fit just right under her wing. Roma snuggled a little closer too, and Kali smiled softly. “This is nice,” she murmured, tension easing from her neck and her back and leaving her nice and relaxed.

“So you think if it happens again, you will tell him to stop and that you need to wait?”

Kali nodded sleepily, yawning a little before she answered. “I think I’ll try really hard to remember that if anybody kisses me again, or touches me in ways that make me feel all tingly and melty. I’ll try to remember to tell them what you said, about waiting ‘til I’m older. Or until I know them better. It just felt really nice is all, so I might have to try pretty hard. But they said we wouldn’t do it again.” Well almost. Close enough. Kali peeked up at Roma, just a quick little glance before she ducked her head. “I was maybe kinda disappointed about that, but I think I understand better now. At least a little.”

One more sneaky little glance, this one with a teeeeny bit of a grin as Kali peeked up at Roma out of the corner of her eye. “I bet it’d feel nice like that if you kissed my daddy, huh?”

Kirby and Lacey's
little whisper girl