For some reason the question had been burning her for a few days. Where had she come from. Maybe it was the brightness of the sun, maybe it was the cubs she had seen frolicking in the snow, maybe it was a glimpse of green peering through the pure white landscape. She didn’t know. What it was, but one thing was certain, today she would ask Menthas where she had come from. Her mother hare hadn’t really avoided the subject but she certainly hadn’t broached it ever and she, dutiful daughter as she was had never really asked, but she wanted to know, where had she come from? It was actually unusual for Menthas not to be out and about with her and as she approached their den she spotted the pale mint coloured hare easily enough.
The light hare stood on a snowbank, she had been waiting and watching for her lioness daughter to return and as she spotted that familiar beige and white coat she breathed a sigh of relief. She really hated it when Onaedo went out alone it made her heart flutter. The mint coloured hair hopped off the snow drift to greet her wayward child and was about to scold her for leaving alone when she saw the look of seriousness upon the lionesses face. “Whats wrong?” Her brow creased, it seemed that there was something on her childs mind. She knew that face, it was the face of determination. She had watched that face for years and knew exactly what it meant. There were questions to be asked and she would be expected to answer them properly.
It was sometimes difficult to broach the subjects that her lioness child asked her. How to hunt had been a hard one, when she had become old enough to ask those questions the hare had openly had to admit she didn’t know and so a journey had begun a journey that had lead them to the Shnee a pride that loved the snow and hares, which was a most convenient state of affairs really. The snow lions had taught her daughter how to hunt, taught her to be a lion really, there was no denying that. The green hare still considered the lioness her daughter though obviously there was no biological way for them to be related, it didn’t matter, they were related in a different way, related by a bond that couldn’t be broken.
Onaedo smiled at the hare as she approached and greeted her as she always did if she was away from her for even a moment, with a gentle head-bump and a lick from her rough tongue. Her mother hare meant the world to her, she really didn’t know what she would do without the mint coloured female. She had protected her from a very young cub. Menthas always knew when something was wrong, it was like the hare had a sixth sense about these things, it had always been this way Menthas could read her like a book, she supposed that was why the hare was her mother and protector. She was the elder, the wiser and she knew exactly what to do and what to say in almost every situation. Menthas had her head screwed on and she was glad of it. She knew that she would not have survived in the world without the hare and every day she thanked her lucky stars that she had such a caring mother, even if they were not biologically related she would never think of anyone other than Menthas as her mother, her carer, her life line to the world.
“Mother.” She started, taking a long slow breath, this subject, did she really want to ask? She had gone to ask many times before and put it off, discarding the idea, there was even a time that she thought Menthas was really her mother. That was when she was tiny of course but thinking back on it amused her, she had always been larger than the hare even as a cub, not that she was a massive lioness but she was a lion and Menthas was a hare, they were different things and Onaedo was naturally the larger of the two of them.
“Where did I come from mother?” She asked at last, letting out a long terrified breath, her eyes looked down at the hare hopefully, she really wanted to know this time. Why was it that she was the daughter of a hare instead of a lion? Why was she adopted in to the care of a bunny? Why had she been alone? These were all questions she wanted the answer to and only Menthas knew the answers. This time, she wouldn’t chicken out, she would get the answers she longed for, she was old enough to know the truth now even if the truth was something she would regret.
Menthas knew this day would come, she had actually expected it a lot earlier than this. Her dutiful daughter had never asked, she had seen the look on her face many times, the question in her eyes. Why wasn’t she a hare? She had seen it and always waited for Onaedo to ask the question. This was the first time the liones shad managed to form the words on her mind in to a sentence though and while she considered telling a joke, along the lines of, ‘when a mummy and daddy love each other’ she cast this aside and gave a nod. “Come inside, lets get settled and I will tell you everything I know. The hare smiles and hops towards the den she shared with the lioness. There was much going through her mind, she had to think about where to start, mow much to tell, really what to tell. It would be a hard thing to talk about, admitting that the lioness wasn’t really her daughter would be the hardest party of the whole conversation. It wasn’t like they didn’t know they weren’t related but it would still be hard. It would be a hard conversation to swallow.
((W/c 1020))