momma's always right

The woman told her to calm herself and her gaze narrowed, muscles bunching in preparation to turn and run, and she very nearly did until the name Hattori Hanzo was given. Her expression turned from fear and wariness to shellshock, her body going cold in ways that had nothing to do with the weather. Even the akitas and her macaque went stark still, all of them staring at Venom like she’d grown two heads. “That...cannot be,” she breathed. Her son was dead, his body thrown over a cliff as told to her by her nephew. The way that Raijin had looked...it still haunted her in her dreams. The look of a man who had lost everything, and she’d joined him in that misery. They’d looked everywhere for him or his body, and when they hadn’t found it she’d grown hopeful that perhaps he was actually alive and well. Yet, as months went by and there was no sign of his handsome face, her heart had grown cold and her hope extinguished.

A dark shape began to emerge from behind the Empress, its form so familiar that it ached. Slowly, his face began to define and even the manner of his walk drew tears to her hueless gaze. Her legs trembled before, finally, she collapsed into a sitting position. There, before her, was her son, her one and only child. He looked well, obviously being taken care of and...if Venom had called for him...then obviously he was someone of stature in these lands. Of course he was, her boy was a natural born leader through and through.

Tears streamed down her face and she was speechless, a rare sight for the woman who was normally so composed. It took her a moment before she regained strength in her limbs, the presence of Venom forgotten in that moment. She walked forward, legs still unsteady, her long tail trailing behind her like a silvery stream across the snow, before she was directly in front of him. A watery smile curled onto her lips, and while she made no move to embrace him, the affection and awe in her voice was just the same, “Hanzo”.