Mother Like No Other

Regulus took in the information his mother gave him quite well. He’d always been a good learner, as long as he was paying attention to the lesson. But it was quite eye-opening. Males were actually needed after all? He took another careful sniff of his mother’s scent, committing that particular aroma to memory. He still didn’t quite get the part about ‘laying with his father’... Maybe his father would have more to say on that? After all, Father was male, too, and might be able to give more insight on the male’s side of this whole reproduction thing. Zuriel was going to smell good… On his own, Regulus came to the conclusion that he was going to have to keep a sharp eye on his sister this autumn. If that smell could make Regulus’ brain feel that muzzy and foolish, other males might make trouble for her.

He was glad for the tips his mother had for him. Stay upwind of the family females during their heat cycles to avoid a muzzy head: check. He’d remember that. His head ducked as she got to the part about remarking on a woman’s smell. Oops. He had kinda blurted it out, that question of what had she rolled in… But her tone wasn’t angry, and in fact, she seemed to be teasing him about it. Respect her space? Definitely. Since he was often so much larger than the females he encountered thus far, keeping a bit of distance was usually a pretty good idea, considering he still sometimes managed to trod on Cinder now and then. And be firm but polite in saying how close a woman should come to him. What exactly did she mean by overly friendly?

And finally, his mother would get to the point about him being old enough soon to get a female pregnant. Really? He could make puppies happen? That had never occurred to him before. After all, he’d never seen his kind breed before. He’d seen other animals, though, but it had never clicked in his head that those animals were doing certain things. He’d just found it really odd that the bull elk was lunging onto the cow elk like that. His mother’s words about mating only with the one he was in love with, and that he must think first of his children and mate before himself were not missed. He committed them to memory, just as he had the rest of the information. Was this why his mother was so upset over his father possibly making children with Amalia? It was beginning to make more sense to him, now.

His mother fell silent, looking at him expectantly, and he realized she must be waiting for him to ask questions. Well… he had a few, yes. He took a moment to round up the most relevant, and started with the subject of respecting one another’s space. "Cad is 'ró cairdiúil'? Cad iad na comharthaí ba chóir dom lorg? Cad a tharlaíonn má nach mbeidh sí fanacht fós amach as mo spás pearsanta?" He tilted his head, pondering whether or not to ask more, then looked at his mother, deciding to let her answer the first few questions before he added more.