The definition of the past is...

Once she was bidden entry, the woman carried herself gracefully forward and placed a particularly plump fish in front of the well-rounded Empress. “I brought you something to eat in case you were hungry,” she offered with a bow of her antlered head and a gentle smile, backing up a little until there was an appropriate distance between them. The woman settled down herself, her long, silken tail trailing out behind her and the rest that draped off her body pooling like liquid silver onto the ground.

She allowed herself a moment to brush her warm, molten gaze over the other’s form. Venom had certainly ballooned out in the past week, her sides bulging and her teats filling to show the impending arrival of her brood. She pondered over how many she thought the woman would have. The Ashen matriarch was certainly larger than her by over a foot, so it was entirely possible that she could be holding the same amount of pups that Kiyo had born but not look nearly like a pufferfish as the silver maiden had.

“How are you and the children doing this morning?” she asked before ripping off a piece of the fish under her paw.