He smiles, and the expression is reflected on Djinni’s dark face as well. She doesn’t really mean it; children are always best raised by their parents (and perhaps with the help of their older siblings). Or at least she had thought so until Luster’s observation had forced her to consider parenting in a far less abstract way.
With the kingdom, she’s been able to foist off responsibility on Stillwater. Sylva is a quiet place, and there is little needed of a monarch. The same will not be true for a parent,. And the idea of being ever-watchful is already draining. She’ll have to make sure it doesn’t fall off a tall rock or drown in the lakes, she’ll have to make sure it eats and sleeps and becomes a valuable member of society.
It never occurs to her that she might foist it off on someone else, let alone a stranger.
She has made her bed, and now she will lie in it, even if means she must do so alone. Lior reminds her of that as he suggests Stillwater is equally elated. Djinni makes a noncommittal hum in the back of her throat, but answers the question asked by the winged stallion. “I’m not sure,” she says, “I’d not thought to find out.”
It seems a strange thing to not have thought about, but she truly hasn’t. Despite her efforts to bring abstract to concrete, the grullo mare has yet to think of the thing growing insdie her as its own self. Its more an extension of herself, if anything, but Lior’s casual inquiry makes her think.
“A boy,” she says suddenly, having wished the knowledge after a moment of deliberation. “It’ll be a boy.”
“I’ve never had a child before,” she finds herself telling Lior, “Have you? Are they very much trouble?”
slim build
smoky grullo tobiano
sea green eyes
visibly pregnant