Zola had lounged like she normally did. It wasn't always in the same spot, she laid around in a lot of the chambers inside the ship. She was looking for more places that her blind sister couldn't really come up to or find her. She didn't want to bothered obviously...
But the girl would open her eyes and think of her mother who had just come out of an illness. Jian would probably still be somewhere inside their large den until she was physically able to do anything else. She had grown to skin and bone and it would probably take a while for that to come back. So Zola would jump down from shelf and make her way to the next chamber to start looking for her mother.
"Mom?" She called just loud enough for her cvoice to echo everywhere around the ship, "Mooooommmm!" She would call again, just a little louder than the last. If Jian was up and about, Zola could spend more time with her again. It had seemed like forever since they had even talked.
It had been hard making herself stay in the ship and relax. She wanted to get out and stretch her legs, but she was still so frail from her illness. She was slowly beginning to regain her former weight, but it was still hard for her to move around for more than short periods of time. She stayed in the area that she considered their den even though there was nothing really resembling what she considered a den here. She was lounging on what had been a cot once upon a time, not quite asleep but still resting her bright blue gaze. It was absolutely silent in the ship today.... at least it was till her daughter's voice rang out and echoed off the hard walls.
Her gaze blinked open, her dark ears flicking back at the sudden loudness. Zola didn't sound distressed, but she certainly was insistent. A small smile tugged at her muzzle. She had gotten to spend so little time with her children and finally she would be able to. She had gotten sick not long after they had gotten big enough to leave the den. It felt like she had already missed such a large part of their childhood. "I'm in here, Zola!" she called back, hearing her own voice echo down the hall. She laid on her stomach with her hind legs tucked against her thin frame neatly and her forepaws dangling off the edge of the cot, waiting eagerly to see if Zola would find her.
Her mother's returned voice came from a direction, but the noise echoed off every wall in the rooms down there. She would start to walk down a ways, pressing on slowly to check the chambers along the way. She didn't bother yelling for her mother anymore, it would just bounce of the walls.
What she was really hoping for at this point was that her little sister didn't hear, or at least bother to come to their voices. Jian wasn't her mother and so long as Zola was concerned, she didn't deserve to be anywhere near her.
Not too long after, she would come to a room near the end of the hall that she had walked by but instantly backed up to notice her mother was inside. Seeing as she was laying down on a cot, she would come to it and place her front paws on, being too big to join her now. She wasn't fully grown, but she was at least half that size. She offered her mother a smile as her chin laid on her paws on the cot and kept quiet only a minute before speaking.
"Are you feeling any better?"
She asked, though there was a sense in her voice that she wanted to talk about more then her mother's increasing health. Of course, she was more than happy to spend the lost time with her mother. In fact, she was willing to share all the feelings she had been missing...
It would take a little time, but finally Zola's grey and white form would appear in the doorway. Jian smiled and her tail wagged happily at the sight of her daughter. She was getting so big! It seemed like just yesterday she was a tiny, blind bundle of fur. Now here she was, already too big to climb up onto the cot with her. Zola would come and rest her forepaws on the cot next to her and Jian would lean over to nuzzle her cheek against Zola's and give her daughter's nose a small kiss before saying, "There's my beautiful girl," her voice soft and lilting.
Zola asked how she was feeling and she would nod in response. "I'm starting to feel much better." It was almost true. She wished her recovery would hurry itself along, but she knew these kinds of things couldn't be rushed. Well, not without knowledge of healing anyway and that sort of thing had never been her strong suit. Honestly she wondered if there was anything she actually was good at. However, that was a train of thought to have some other time when her daughter wasn't here. She looked at Zola curiously. It seemed that their time apart hadn't dulled Jian's ability to know when something was bothering her children. "How have you been, Zola? What's on your mind?"
Her tail wagged as her mother gave her kisses. She tried her best to sit at the same time as keep her head on the cot, but it was all sorts of awkward and uncomfortable. But she would stay in place not really feeling like moving again.
She smiled knowing that her mother believed she was getting better too, but her tail stilled when Jian knew that there was something up. Not like she was trying to tell her that or anything...
"Lian doesn't like to stay in the den as much as I do." She was leading it somewhere else of course, "I get stuck with Armai a lot."
Calder seemed to do his own thing a lot. But her little sister was always fascinated with Zola, and Zola didn't leave the den hardly at all. She would just run out to the beach to get away, but it was still too cold for that. Well, too cold for just her. Lian was with her almost all the time, he wouldn't be gone for too long, sometimes just wanted some fresh air. He seemed to be playing safe since his fight, only Zola didn't know it was so she wouldn't be sad to see him hurt again.
"I'm really glad you're able to be back with us again."
Jian watched her daughter intently as she spoke. For a brief moment she wasn't sure who Arami was. She was sick for most of her brother's other children's lives after all. However, the name quickly clicked and her ears flicked just slightly in response, trying her best to keep her opinions about Callisto's children to herself. She did not blame the children for their existence, it was completely Lel's doing that they were here, but she couldn't quite bring herself to like it either. Quietly she made a note to herself to ask Lel about them later and to check on the other pups herself, but for now she simply gave a small nod of understanding. She didn't want her prejudice against Zola's half-siblings to taint her daughter's view on them, no matter how Zola might already feel about them.
She smiled and replied, "So am I. I missed you and your brother so much. I feel like I missed so much and I have so much to catch up on." She meant that too. She wanted so much to be a bigger part in their lives and if they'd let her she'd be just that. She pulled herself up into a sitting position so that she was sitting on her haunches on the cot, giving Zola room to hop up and sit beside her if she wanted to. "What have I missed anyway? How's Lian? Has Lel been good to the both of you?" She wanted to anything and everything!
The girl would take the space her mother gave up to jump up beside her and try to place her smaller paw on top of Jian's. She gave her a smile to show her how truly happy she was that she was getting better. Zola had no preference of personal space so she had no problem being as close to her mother as necessary. The only time she cared was if Armai or Calder tried to touch her in any way.
Jian would ask a few questions, Zola obviously seeing her eager answers as her mother almost didn't breathe between her sentences. Zola would smile even brighter and raise a brow to her mother's voice. Not because she asked of Lian first, but because he was the much more happy of the matter. Or at least she felt closer to her brother than her father, especially after the demons were born.
"Well, Lian got in a fight a while ago but... He's all better now." Knowing that her mother probably had more questions on the matter, Zola made an exaggerated inhale before continuing, "He said the boy stared at him or something, I don't know." She held a tone as if she were saying, "I will never understand boys," and most likely she never would. Cat fights will be something in her future, but she wouldn't provoke anything that could scar her.
And then the matter came to Lel, who she would look blankly at the wall for a few seconds before taking another breath. "He hasn't been mean to us." And really, Lel did everything a father should. But Zola was so caught up on her hatred toward her siblings and blaming him for every bit of it, she couldn't see the good he did for them. Of course, if Lian had grown ill, Zola would lay by him every day either until he was better or she was dead. She didn't understand why Lel didn't do more for his mate; especially his sister.
