[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Sky had been running for months. She ran and she ran, tossing her head and stomping her hooves. Emotions tumbled within her like an inner storm, a turmoil of fury, hatred and fear. If she had run into anyone she knew, they probably wouldn't have known the difference from her normal self. She was always angry at someone.

But this time, the someone was herself.

Sky had always done what she wanted, when she wanted, throwing all forms of patience and restraint to the wind. This, of course, included kin of the opposite gender. But this had never happened before. Never.

Sky Breaker was pregnant, she knew this for a fact. She could feel the parasites worming their way around her belly which swelled with their disgusting weight. Her emotions had completely left her, running off on their own in a wild frenzy. This was not what she wanted.

She wanted them out. She wanted them gone. She wanted them dead.

...And yet, why did she still carry them? There were plants and berries, she knew, that could have helped her problem. And so she ran, because she knew not what else to do, her heart screaming for help while her pride shoved everyone away. 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ncert2.png[/imgleft]As Watch flew high above the canopy, his red eyes shone as bright as the sun. He closed them, slowly, reveling in the feel of the wind filtering through his feathers, lifting his higher than he had ever dreamed. But that pleasant feeling shattered when he felt... something. He was still very new to this new form and all of these new feelings were strange and, while he was still unsure on what they meant, he had learned that following them lead to something interesting to say the least.

And so he banked, letting himself fall gently through the leaves, landing in a soft flutter of feathers in a shallow stream. The feeling was still present, approaching it seemed, and so, Watch patiently lifted his wing to groom his feathers. He was trying to decipher the "feeling"-- it was full and red and...something-- when suddenly a white blur splashed past with a flurry of hooves. He paused, blinking slowly, before following the kin.

On swift wings, he headed her off, standing in her path with his wings spread wide. A few feet above his head, his true eyes glowed, ever watching. There was a feeling, a feeling of blue, about this kin that piqued his interest and he was curious to find out.

'Slow down,' He spoke into her mind, a voice the rumbled like distant rapids. 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]'Slow down,'

The sudden voice that swept through her mind like a flash flood of water startled her more than the unseen bird who now barred her path. She planted her hooves into the mod, skidding to a halt with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"Wha-? How did-? What?!" She screamed angrily, staring at the bird in confusion. "Was that you? No way, birds don't talk!" 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]'I am not a bird,' the voice echoed as the crane dissipated, the glowing eyes above filling out until Watch stood there full and whole, "I am your brother. And you, sister, are a mother."

The blue stag stood tall, his water-like marking rippling with the Swamp's magic, his gnarled horns reaching into the sky, and those eyes, glowing like a setting sun.

"Do you not remember me? You were much smaller then." 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]"Brother? Huh? No way, I--" Sky started, stomping her hooves in frustration. And yet, those eyes... "...Watch?" She remembered him visiting their mother often in his early days of travel. He was fast, for a Kimeti, she remembered, but too much like that soft foot, Dances with Shadows. She took challenging step forward, raising her chin to look him dead in the eyes, "I don't know what you mean. I am no mother, only the host to a bunch of writhing parasites!" 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Watch tutted at his half-sibling, shaking his head ever so slightly. When he moved, his mane shimmered like light on water, and when he spoke, his voice was like a brook running over stones.

"Poor, lost Sky Breaker. Lashing out, as ever. What would mother say, to hear those words from her own daughter." He sighed, "Do you not remember her? Our beautiful mother who taught you kindness and compassion, love and tolerance.Is being a mother such a terrible thing?" He tilted his head as he breathed life into her memories. 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]As Watch spoke, his form seemed to waver before her eyes; his eyes cooled into the morning sun that she had always admired. His face widened, his horns shortened and when he spoke, it was her mother's voice she heard.

'...is being a mother such a terrible thing?'

"N-No, I..."She stepped back, startled, confused, and ashamed to have spoken in front of her mother that way, "Mother, I'm scared! I don't know how to raise a child! What if they hate me? What if I hate them!?" 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]As The Sun Burns shook away his magic like water from his fur, answering in his own voice, calmly, comfortingly.

"You could never hate them, little sister. You will be the mother you admired for so long but thought you could never be. And they..." He paused, thinking of his own children with a warm smile, "Sky, they will be everything and more you could ever want."

Watch pressed his forehead to hers and looked deep into her eyes, "Fear not, my sister, for I give you my blessing. May your children run as free as the wind that guides them and be as bright and beautiful as the lightening that bore you your name." 

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]As the stag's words ebbed and flowed through her, Sky Breaker felt her fear and panic melt and be slowly swept away in his current. She let out a shuddering breath as her brother touched heads with her. His fur was cold, refreshing against her fevered mind. She closed her eyes and felt drops of water roll through her fur and wondered a moment whether it was more of his magic or her own tears.

He was right. She could do this. She could be the mother that Starburst had been to her. And if not? Well, she would die trying!

"Thank you, Watch, I--" She opened her eyes, but there was no one there. As she looked up into the sky above, all that could be heard was the fading flapping of large wings and a bubbling brook near by. Sky Breaker smiled as a beautiful blue feather landed before her.

She knelt, taking the feather between her teeth, and left to search for her future nest.