All in all things had gone well, though her children were now growing up without exposure to any of their family, or the culture that they were intentionally born in to. Things had been a mess or quite some time and the deity had done her best to lie low. It had proven to be a particularly difficult thing to do given that her own children had a penchant for being sociable. They undoubtably inherited this trait from her, their father had always been much better and keep his composure, but it was in those moments that she had fully appreciated why he had been quite so aloof. On many occasions it was simply safer to act in such a neutral manner in order to ensure your security.
She'd done her best of course and the cubs were maturing well, even if it was at the cost of scoai linteraction. The moment in which she had discovered her cubs had been seen by the Firekin, she'd known she'd needed to move them again. After that, Arimathras had been keen to keep them completely out of sight. The result? Well now they had grown accustomed to livng in a barren land with only an oasis and themselves for company.
It had been fine for a while, they'd been content in their own company as cubs, but as they had matured they had started to ask many more questions and Arimathras was stuck. They were now at an age where they probably shouldn't be sheltered further, she'd taught them to be mindful of some things, but even she knew that when something was too sheltered common sense didn't always prevail over curiosity. There was every chance that if something or someone did appear and it was dangerous, that curiosity and desire to explore, would get the better of them.
She would much prefer that Thrymr and Ymir were left unharmed but Destati had opened her eyes to the reality of the world and the truth of it was that bad things did happen, and that she needed to prepare for them. It was that preparation that had led her to do what she had done in the first place, it was that preparedness that had ensured she could flee and preserve her cubs' lives... But she hadn't really been ready for how difficult it would be to do the rest alone.
She'd overestimated herself.
Nevertheless, she wasn't allowed to keep to her own musings for long as Ymir reliably entered her field of vision after the same explorative routine she often did in the morning. At this stage, Arimathras was certain that her daughter could probably tell the difference between every petal on every flower within this region. It would have been useful in a different circumstance, she would have made an excellent tracker with such skills, but in such an isolated region...?
Not so useful.
"I'm -"
"Bored," Arimathras had already played through this dialogue before, it happened every day. First Ymir would complain to her about a lack of activity, a lack of people to talk to... and then Thrymr would join her and provide his own woes. He hadn't had the chance to speak with anything and there was very little of value here for him. He wasn't interested in nature as his sister was, but he was certainly interested in how or why things were as they were. Truth be told both of them really should have been alowed to live at home and they would have exceled if circumstances had been different.
Arimathras couldn't help but resent the Al-Siq, which was a bit of an unusual sentiment for her.
"Well yes," Ymir sighed and shook her head. "There's nothing here, and there's no one here," she pointed out. "There were others when I was little and then you made everything disappear."
"You know we have this conversation every day?" It was Thrymr that interjected as he wandered in, earlier than normal. "Well you do, mine comes later, but I can probably say what will be said word for word," he continued and rolled his eyes. "And every time we finish with the 'we have to keep you safe' reason," he waved his paw dismissively. "At this rate we'll all expire from the boredom and the constant state of deja vu we live in."
...His vocabulary had certainly gotten better as he'd matured, Arimathras could at least be proud that she'd done something right.
"Yeah last I checked there was nothing there to hurt us," Ymir muttered.
"That's the point," Thrymr stated. Unfortunately they were also getting tetchier as they aged and eventually, Arimathras had concerns they would simply walk off. Based on where they were that would end up being very bad. She'd genuinely deposited them so far out of the way of anything that they would end up dead before they ever encountered another civilisation. It was really in her best interests to avoid that where possible.
She sighed.
"I think you should both sit down," she murmured as she adjusted her weight slightly to make herself more comfortable. There were some unavoidable truths in this world and the fact that her children were nearing breaking point was one of them. They were old enough now to hear at least the first parts of the story, and after they had heard it, perhaps that would put things in to perspective for them. "Not because I want to have the same conversation again, you are right that this is a daily and thoroughly rehearsed play," she glanced them pointedly. "But because I think it's time you knew why you were here and not somewhere more fun..."
"We know why," Thrymr rolled his eyes.
"To keep us 'safe'," Ymir had also developed much the same attitude as her brother in the months that had followed her isolation. Definitely unappealing in the grand scheme of things, but Ari had acknowledged that this was largely driven by where she had put them.
"That is a part of it, yes," Arimathras confirmed. "But it's because out here they just can't find us," she patted the ground near her. "Now sit down, and I'll tell you of the reason we came to be here, and why you haven't been able to see your father since you were young...because for your safety, not even he could know where we are..."
"All right," Thrymr was first to take a seat, and his sister soon followed. It was a carrot on a stick, but it was more than they'd ever received before. He'd taken what he could get at this point in time, then consider what to do with whatever information his mother might have deemed appropriate to provide them with.
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