Patiently she waited for the trino to return to her - it was inevitable, after all, her Fire wouldn't leave her... would she? She could hear the voices distantly cloying for attention, two small ones panicked as they thrashed in the water and gathered around the trino, calling her Mama, Mama, Mama, and then she could hear Nemesis gently coo to them that their Mama was here. Her, the trino, suddenly their mother. Magdalena furrowed her brow, but that was the extent of the emotion she had allowed to slip free. When she heard it it was no more than a pinprick in her mind. But Nemesis urged the children out of the water, and Magdalena was left clamoring over the word. They must have looked upon her and decided that she was their mother, but how - how was it so easy? How could it happen so quickly, so suddenly, so loyally?

Perhaps I was not meant for such a fate. Out of nowhere it emerged like a cold flame, the thought. Or maybe it was an epiphany. Magdalena tried to distance herself from the possibility, convince herself that maybe it wasn't true, that maybe she had just been unlucky, but the present had a way of reminding her. Dredging up those memories. The memory of the numbat and the dragon. The memory of the horse, the last time she'd seen her. The little dog, Graham. The caracal. They had all left... and here her Fire was with two identical creatures in tow to add onto the amalgamate of a beast she had created of the iolite, that had hatched in her den, waiting for their return.

Magdalena wished she had room still in her heart for love. In its place was resentment.

Her Fire's voice was the cue to look up, and Magdalena raised her head, her attention latched onto the trino in her approach. She listened closely as the trino asked them for their names, and Magdalena reached out for them, dutifully seeking to know them as Nemesis had. She'd since given up any hope that a creature may hold her in such juvenile love as they did Nemesis, but that didn't mean she would abandon the motions. In the back of her head, that hope still lingered; it was neglected and withering in the dust, but it still breathed.

Their isolated cultures responded and showed her where they sat. Magdalena felt their pulled and pointed her nose first at the female, then to the male, and finally settled with directing her gaze between the two of them. As Nemesis introduced her, Magdalena smiled.

@Feverfew

Fever sniffled, tears running freely down her face. Mama was here, it was going to be okay. Nettle wasn't dead and drowned in the river, and Mama had come charging out of nowhere to come and save them both. It was okay. She took the end of Mama's tail gently with her mouth, holding on just in case she slipped - she really didn't want to experience what her brother just did, and she could feel her heavy feet squish into the loamy mud of the river - and she let Nettle take ahold of hers, also just in case. No reason to risk anything! Adventures were one thing, but real danger was something else! Like Papa said, no reason to be foolish and jump headlong into danger. Papa knew best, after all, and she was sure that Mama did too!

When they got to the opposite riverbank where the other creature was that she'd barely noticed, Mama was asking them their names and introducing them to their friend. "Ah! Me Fever, brother Nettle." She said, bowing her head low, just like Papa told her. "Nice t' meet ya!"

Then she got a good look at the friend that Mama was introducing, her Princess Magdalena, and instantly frowned. They were smiling....and she could see their sharp teeth.

This was-! This was a monster! In disguise! A really pretty disguise! She nudged Nettle and gave him a look. But they were blind?? So maybe they wouldn't attack them?

No, of course they wouldn't! Not with Mama around! Maybe they were Mama's pet or slave or something like Papa said? He mentioned having one at one point, but they ran away, didn't they? Well, if Papa had one, then so could Mama! Nothing could hurt Mama!

"Nice to meet you," He said after his sister, politely and quietly. He was still shaking after his dip in the river, but he was safe and so was his sister and that was all that mattered.

And yes, even without Fever's obvious nudging that pushed him more than a little and her over-exaggerated rolling of her eyes from him to the Princess that Mama introduced, he could tell that the new creature was a carnivore. Really sis, he wasn't blind.

Well. Someone was.

He suddenly felt awkward.

She was....awfully pretty, though. For a monster. It made him want to shuffle his feet and look away, do something else other than think about how Papa would stomp on them and make them unable to stand for even daring to smile at them. That would've been...overkill, he thought. He liked that smile. It was soft and indulgent, as if she truly cared.

....The thought made him lean against his sister protectively.

@Nemesis