you could haveit all, my empire of dirt

Pestilence wasn't sure how to feel about her mother's words, nor how to express the many different emotions swirling around within her. On one paw it was great that she was allowed to aim for warlord, encouraged to train with her warrior uncles and not looked down upon for choosing a physical and not spiritual path. "Does that mean I can stop training with Obi?" She interjected after her mother's address to Tox, looking up at her mother expectantly. The religious lessons of her father's late monkey were tedious and tiresome as they had been since her birth. Now that she was growing and given a path to apprentice then she didn't need to focus on the areas she wasn't interested in, right?

Finally, her mother proclaimed Venom to be the next heir, and Pestilence groaned. "Earned?" She repeated angrily. "You asked us what skills we wanted to pursue, where we saw ourselves. I didn't think Empress was an option." The pup blathered on, flabbergasted. Ashen didn't need an heir, not now. An heir meant that one day her mom wouldn't be Empress, and it was a future that Pestilence refused to believe would ever exist. She couldn't handle losing her mother, not without a father. "That's not fair, mom. Cala and Plague and Tox and I have to actually work and earn the path we want to take, and she gets given that one just because there's no competition for it?" The princess huffed, shooting a glare Venom's way. Why didn't she think of that?