Palisander
When Palisander first heard that his mother had gone on a viking he could hardly believe it. His mother on a viking? His mother on a viking? His mother on a viking? No matter how he looked at it, the whole idea was absurd. His mother liked things neat and orderly, and by all reports the lands beyond the pride were not that.He had to find out for himself, and so he set off for the den where he had grown up. It still felt like home, even though he had not lived there for some time.
"It's a good day to die, Ma. How are you?" he asked, looking around.
There was a place for everything and everything was in its place, just as his mother liked it. But there were some new things. There were a lot of herbs, for one thing, which was surprising to him. His mother had never been all that interested in herblore in the past.
Signild
Signild, not expecting company, did not look especially pleased to see her son, even though she had never made any of her cubs feel unwelcome. She simply did not care for surprises, and did not do well at pretending to feel things she didn't truly feel. That was why her cubs never felt unwelcome when they surprised her: her aversion to surprises was always outweighed by her pleasure at seeing her family."It's a good day to die, Palisander," she agreed. "I'm doing well. What brings you here?"
Signild also had never been a lioness who had much need for social niceties as a matter of form. She had taught her cubs to know them, of course, but she did not have a great deal of patience for them. She was happier to simply get right to the point of a conversation. The look she gave her son indicated that she would appreciate it if he would do so.
Palisander
Despite himself Palisander smiled at his mother's bluntness. It had been easy to be raised by her, in many respects. There were never any emotional games or manipulations. She was always so straightforward and it was impossible not to appreciate it, especially now that he was old enough to have experience with how confusing lionesses could be. She was a good one, his ma, and he was sure that when he asked her about the viking she'd tell him he was being absurd, and of course she hadn't gone off and become a reaver without telling anyone."I heard the strangest thing, Ma," Palisander began. "Some reavers on the sands were saying that you went on a viking. I told them that they had to be mistaken, that my mother would never have any interest in going into the rogue lands."
He waited for her to interrupt him, to agree that it was a ridiculous story,but she didn't, and so he had to ask, "You didn't, did you? Go on a viking?"
Signild
Although not prone to emotional outbursts herself, Signild was perfectly capable of telling when someone else was working himself up to one, and her son was definitely looking for a confrontation, it seemed. And over something as silly as her trip into the rogue lands."It's true," she answered in her most reasonable tone. Although it had never worked before, she hoped that if she set the example of being calm and rational, the emotional people in her proximity would encourage them to do the same. Maybe this time it would.
"I went on a viking. I don't see why you're so upset about that. Lions do that all the time around here."
She realized her words had been a mistake as soon as she uttered them and saw her son's expression, but she couldn't unsay them. Instead, Signild sighed and mentally hunkered down to address whatever complaints Palisander might make.
Palisander
Palisander couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had truly expected his mother to refute the story, but as was her way, she had calmly shocked him to his core and admitted that she'd gone viking."I don't understand," he said, trying to keep his cool. "Why would you do something like that?"
To Palisander's reasoning, there was no conceivable cause for his mother to go into the rogue lands. She had everything she could need or want here in the Stronghold. It was ridiculous that she would just decide to go on a viking with no warning or explanation.
The worst part, though, and Palisander hated that it was even an issue for him, was that his mother had gone on a viking before him. He'd just kept putting it off and putting it off, looking for the perfect captain and the perfect viking band when he should've just picked someone - anyone - who could fulfill his goal. What a fool he'd been!
Signild
Signild still held out hope that if she explained herself she would be able to forestall the tantrum she could still sense brewing on her son's emotional horizon."I wanted to see if I would be able to manage," she said simply. "I had never left the pride before and, as I'm sure you're aware, there was every possibility that I would hate everything about it. I wanted to find out if that was the case before I committed to anything long-term."
The grey lioness who was now, technically, a reaver, was about to continue and explain why she had needed to test herself against the rogue lands when Palisander interrupted her, speaking so quickly that he actually had to stop himself and start over again before she could understand him.
Palisander
Palisander took deep breaths. From his mother's manner he could tell that she really had no idea why he was getting upset about this. Of course, she didn't train on the sands. She wasn't privy to the teasing Palisander had endured - some of it truly cutting - about the fact that his mother had managed to become a reaver before he had. Not to mention the slurs cast against his mother based on suppositions of how she had convinced a captain to take a non-warrior lioness like her on a viking in the first place."All right, so you were testing yourself, and you've found out whatever it was you were trying to find out, so there's no further reason for you to go out again, right?" He was talking too fast, a sign that his agitation was winning through his attempt at calm, but he couldn't stop himself. "You won't actually go around calling yourself a reaver. After all, you're really not reaver material.
You don't fight, you don't like change or surprises, and you are terrible at taking orders. Obviously you're done with all this."
Signild
Signild frowned at Palisander. He may be a grown lion, but she was certainly not going to accept his not-so-subtle attempts to tell her what to do. It had not occurred to her that he might become the butt of others' jokes, nor that she might be a target of slander."Of course I will," Signild said in a quelling tone. "This wasn't something I did on a lark because I was bored. My interest in classification came up the last time I was speaking with Priestess Nadezhda, and she mentioned that she was having difficulty getting the herbs she needed for some of her concoctions, because the reavers she works with have changed their viking routes and no longer go where the plants grow. Since I have a much keener eye for plants than a reaver anyway, I thought I might see if I could collect her plants for her, assuming viking didn't prove too unbearable."
She shrugged, confident that her explanation would set her son's mind at ease. "It's simply a business transaction. Not that it's any of yours."
Palisander
"I cannot believe you!" Palisander fumed, unable to keep his temper in check any longer. "You are the most thoughtless, awful mother in existence!"His tail lashing, Palisander began to pace, as though trying to burn off some of the excess fury boiling inside him like acid.
"Reavers on the sands are saying you slept with a captain to get him to take you! They're calling me all sorts of names because my basically nonviolent mother is going on vikings and I still haven't!"
When his mother made a face that looked distinctly like she was about to tell him that how he handled being teased was up to him, and that she didn't give a giraffe's fart for what gossips said about her, Palisander gave it up as a lost cause. He snarled and turned on his heels, storming out of his mother's den with no intention of returning until she came to see reason about this whole thing. At this point, even if he became a captain, he didn't think he'd be able to forgive her for putting him in this situation.
Signild
Signild listened to her son rage. She was sorry to hear that he was being made fun of, but the fact of the matter was she had been telling him for most of his life that he would have to make his own arrangements for vikings if he wanted to be a reaver, because she didn't believe that a mother arranging that sort of thing for her son looked very good. He had chosen to ignore her and hope that a captain would ask him out of the blue, apparently,and that was unfortunate but it was the choice he'd made. She wasn't going to feel guilty for succeeding just because he hadn't yet managed to do so.
Maybe this would be the catalyst that lit a fire under his tail and got him to find a band.