Preparing For 'The Stork'
Characters:Robin, William
Location: Moledeep
Moledeep: Mole Hall
It’s a quiet evening. Mostly quiet. The sound of a lute can be heard though, drifting in the rooms from in front of the fire. And, where one might expect to find a rat, they would find a stoat instead. Robin is practicing quietly, or as quietly as he can anyways, the stoat singing quietly to himself, a piece of parchment and writing coal in front of him. Whatever he's writing is in his own language.
"Out of practice?" Will asks jokingly as he ends the room assuming the music is coming from his wife. The rat blinks a bit upon seeing a stoat instead and no Amy to be seen in the room. Pity. "Trying to write a song?" he asks his nephew not even bothering to correct his earlier mistake, it's the stoat's own fault really.
Rob blinks and looks up. "I practice most every day, thank you very much." the stoat smirks, setting the lute across his lap before nodding. "Writing a lullaby for my son...or daughter...is born." he nods. "I'm not quite sure of the translation so I'm writing it in the way I know." he smiles. His english was never the best, but he's a lot better now than he was.
William shrugs, "I've been told, quite often, that one can't practice /too much/." The rat looks over the stoat's shoulder still unable to make heads or tails of the stoats' odd writing. "How's it going?"
Rob nods a little. "I'm sure." he chuckles just a little then hums. "Oh. Its going okay." he nods. "Haven't been able to work on it for a while. Syla is pretty demanding when she's awake." he laughs a little.
William nods and thinks it best to say nothing about Syla's behavior. "Have a place set up for th little un yet?" he can't recall when the baby is expected and he's been busy adjusting to fatherhood himself so the stoats haven't been that forefront of his mind so much lately.
The stoat blinks and then ohs. "Yeah. Yeah. We do. We're using Chris's old stuff." he nods. "We just have to move everything in our room." Robin nods. "I had forgotten all about that." he laughs a little.
Will walks around the stoat and pulls over a chair. The rat sits down in the hard wooden chair his tail hanging over one of the chair's arms. "Think of any good names?"
Robin hms a little bit and then sets his lute on the floor, sitting into one of the chairs too. "Yeah. We were thinking of Gabriel or Thane if we have a boy...Sarah or Alice if we have a girl." they nod. "I sort of like Thane." he nods. "It's dad's grandfather's name." he nods.
"Sounds good. Syla agree with you?" the rat asks.
Robin nods. "Sort of." he says. "She likes Gabriel." he chuckles a little. "But she did say she liked the name Thane too." he hms a little. "But we're both sorta hoping for a girl."
William mms, "We don't have many of those around here. ... not stoat ones anyway."
Robin chuckles. "Yeah. You know what's sad?" he asks. "Chris, when he finds someone of his very own, wants to have a son." he nods. "To be just like him." he laughs.
William says, "I don't think the world is ready for another Chris nor will it ever be ready."
Rob bursts out laughing and nods. "For sure!" he nods. "You should tell him that." He smirks a bit with a nod.
William grins and shakes his head, "Nah, you're his big brother that can be your job."
Rob smirks. "Big...half brother." he nods slowly. "Although I don't think we've thought of each other as half brothers." he nods. "I don't."
William just nods.
Robin tilts his head slightly to one side. "So. How have you been? Haven't talked much since Syla got...possessive of me." he chuckles a little.
The rat shifts a bit in his chair to better face the stoat. "About th same. Still getting used to th squirrel, he's /very/ attached to Amy but seems to be settling in."
"Oh yeah. How's that going?" Rob asks, tilting his head a bit more. "Must be fun." he smirks a little.
"It could be worse, but it could also be better," the rat says.
Rob nods. "How's Amy taking it?" he asks. "Can't be all that bad. But it must be nice to know there's a kid there for you to practice on." He smirks.
"Eh, she's about th same, mostly," the rat says chewing on his lip a while before adding, "Chris was wrong. She isn't extra nice now that she has a dibbun of her own. She doesn't sugercoat things for th ... Clenal either like some parents. He didn't even know his own mum was killed til she told im. He was too little to figure it out for himself when it happened. He seems fairly cheerful though, I don't know." Will shakes his head trying to make sense of it all.
Robin ohs and hms, then shrugs. "I guess nothing will change how...er...down...Amy seems all the time." he nods slowly. "She's always got something to frown at I think.
William smiles a little, "She's not that bad just a little too honest I guess with him than she needs to be. It doesn't seem to be hurting him."
Robin ahs and hums. "I suppose." he smirks. "But anyways. I'm sure she loves him all the same." he nods. "What about you, then? Not quite sure what to think of it?" he asks.
William leans back in his chair, "He's a nice kid and mostly well behaved so far. Mostly gotten over th shock. But it's not like she had a way t let any of us know ahead of time."
"Yeah. Its not like we were still at Moledeep or anything." Robin nods. "I'm just glad she wasn't hurt when the abbey was taken over. We should have listened to Riverdale's warnings." he nods.
William says, "But we didn't. The take over was over before we got back. Flicktail got the worst of it I think of those that lived."
Rob nods a little. "Yeah. At least he's okay." he nods. "He should be glad he doesn't have dad's luck." he frowns just a bit.
William says, "The warlord that took over th Abbey must have. Amy said he went soft in th head after the Abbey was reclaimed."
The stoat laughs and then smirks. "I guess it’s easier to go nuts than I thought" the stoat chuckles, a light yawn following. "I'm going to get a drink." he stands. "Do you want anything?"
"Ale," the rat says and smirks at the stoat's yawn, "get all th sleep ya can now once th baby comes you wont get anymore for a long time."
Robin blinks. "Did you just ask for ale?!" he laughs and then nods. "Righto then." he says, dashing off into the kitchen. He comes back with two mugs of ale, offering one out to the rat before he nods. "When we're done with the drinks, yes. I plan to." he hums.
William says, "Yes I did. Rules changed didn't you hear? I can drink without threat of otters now." He takes the offered mug when the stoat returns and chuckles at the stoat's delayed reply.
Robin hums and nods. "Yeah. I know the rules changed. But still. I never thought you'd be drinking." he smirks, sitting back down and taking a long drink from his mug.
William shrugs, "I drank on the ship and before Aik started half drowning me for doing it at all. I was younger than Chris th last time I got drunk and I don't plan to drinking that much again anytime soon."
Robin chuckles. "Yeah." he smirks a bit. "Well, as long as you don't get drunk all the time, I'm happy." he nods. "Same with me. And same with Chris when he comes of age."
William says, "Or before."
Robin nods slowly. "Yeah. Or before. I remember he drank a bit when we were on that trip." he chuckles a little bit. "Dad did too. He did get drunk one night...but he falls asleep when he gets drunk so he pretty much just made a loud thud as he hit the floor."
"Ow," Will chuckles, "wish I had that problem except for the headache that usually comes with it."
Rob smirks and nods. "Yeah. That would be cool. I'm just glad I'm not like that. I don't get drunk." he nods. "By choice. I prefer not to go around like an idiot before crashing and forgetting the last little bit of my life." he smirks.
William laughs, "Good choice. I've made that choice too. An' not just cause th other choice was 'drowning by otter'."
Rob laughs a little too and nods. "Yeah...well. Drinking is good, but too much of it..." he shudders.
William says, "Too much is bad for yer health."
Rob nods. "You know what else is dangerous to your health?" he asks with a grin. "An angry otter when he finds out you got drunk." he laughs.
Robin huhs then bursts into laughter. "Yeah...yeah. Very true...and I suppose I'd be too busy staring at Syla to notice if someone punched me across the nose." he smirks.
William pretends to contemplate this before replying, "But she would notice and that would be bad for your attackers' health. Very bad."
Rob laughs and nods. "I see...that probably would be true." he nods. "Its okay though. I wouldn't mind having her do that...would be cool to see her kick some butt." he nods.
William chuckles, "It would," then turns more serious remembering how Robin had joined the family, "but it would also be dangerous."
Rob nods. "Yeah. I know. Which is why I'm not letting her go anywhere by herself." he nods. "For now anyways."
William nods, "It'd be for th best."
The stoat nods. "Yeah. As long as she doesn't kill me first. I don't quite know how dad handled that with Chris." he hms.
"I don't think there was much of a problem. I doubt Garnet wanted t chance meeting Anba again. She was sick then too," Will says, "Be glad things are this hard cause nothing's wrong."
Rob nods slowly then tilts his head. "She was sick?" he asks. "What do you mean?"
William sighs, "She an Kentar were tortured by Anba before we knew Chris was coming. I think Kentar knew but the rest of us didn't. And because of that Garnet was very sick even after Chris was born for a little while. Aik had her taken somethin' for it. If she hadn't neither Chris or her would be here today. Once Chris was born she slept for a /long/ time. I was afraid she'd gotten worse or died, she laid there so long. She wanted t sleep more than look at her new babe. I was still a dibbun then so didn't know what all was going on but didn't seem right for her t be laying there so still like that after havin' a baby."
Robin nods slowly and listens. "Yeah...I was told about the fox thing...but. No one told me she was sick." he blinks and sighs before shrugging. "Oh well...at least she's okay now."
William says, "I think she was mostly fine by th time Chris was born just had to be careful. It took a lot out of her seeing as she slept for days it seemed like."
Robin nods a little. "Yeah. Well." he looks towards the sleeping hall. "I shouldn't have asked." he hms.
William shrugs, "Don't know why you shouldn't know but I can see why Kentar wouldn't want to think about it anymore than he has to." The rat's one eye follows the stoat's glaze to the sleeping hall. "Thinking of heading back? Syla probably thinks you got lost some place," he teases.
Robin hms and nods. "Yeah. Actually, I am." he stands, setting his mug off to the side, picking up his lute and his parchment. "Now I'm more worried about Syla than before." he chuckles only slightly. "See you later, Will." he heads off towards his room.
"You don't need to be. She's fine," the rat calls after him. Will down his drink in quick gulps then lets the mug drop to the table. It topples over and he's quick to right it again before looking around the room for something to do as Mole Hall is not rather empty.
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