[PRP] Pillow Talk (Maple Milk, Melt)

[Tiarana]

He nodded. "Most think they'll die young, before they ever have a chance to get old. And that's often true, but certainly not always."  

[theCorniest]

She snorted and shook her head. "Most kin haven't had the kind of life I have, either. I had damned good reason to think I'd die in the wild days of my youth."  

[Tiarana]

"Wild days? You? I don't believe it," Melt said, in a tone that implied that he also wasn't surprised. Well, the scars were obvious.  

[theCorniest]

Maple hummed assent, nodding. "Wild days indeed, my friend. They'd make your hair curl - all of it," she added in a drawl, glancing up and down his length.  

[Tiarana]

"Is that so? Well, now you have to regale me with these tales of your youth."  

[theCorniest]

"Mmmm, well. I can tell one story, I suppose," she mumbled, ears flicking. "I ah... once... once there was a beautiful white doe," she said hesitantly, "and her hair was straight and fine and shone in the sun. Her eyes were bright and blue as the sky, and wise and sparkling with secrets."  

[Tiarana]

"She sounds like the fairest doe in all the land," Melt nodded approvingly.  

[theCorniest]

"She was. I was," she confirmed. "Long ago. I was - she was - the apprentice of her tribe's medicine woman. Before she had quite finished her training, however, her master died, and she had to take over the full duties of the office on her own. The medicine woman was a position of great importance, so it was also prestigious - but because she had come into it so young, the kin of her tribe did not afford her proper respect. So she pretended to hear the spirits, and to hear the swamp's guidance.

"She couldn't really, of course," Maple said. "She had no more knowledge than others had access to. What she did have, though, were sharp ears and a clever mind - she was able to put information together faster and more ably than others, and use it to her advantage. She also had a flair for theatrics, knew how to play the part and hold their attention, and how to deliver her advice in mystic style. So, they did come to duly respect and fear her wisdom."  

[Tiarana]

"That's a lot of responsibility for one so young," Melt observed.  

[theCorniest]

Maple tilted her head slightly to acknowledge this. "It may well have been," she mused, "but she handled it well.

"The aged leader of the tribe and his mate were alright leaders, and fair to their people, but foolish in many ways... and easily suggestible. While they seemed at first doubtful of her, the medicine woman's words were never wrong, and so they also came to trust her, in time. They came to depend on her wisdom quite thoroughly.

"Now... this next part gets a little tricky," she said, glancing up at her one-man audience. "In this tribe, only certain bloodlines were seen as fit to lead. The belief was they were descended from certain important kin in Matope's history, but there is no way to know for sure if that was true. In any event, the tribe leaders and their prospective mates were from a very few carefully maintained family trees, and only members of these families could assume control of the tribe, could guide the people.

"The medicine woman this story is about, she was not part of one of these families. But she came to enjoy leading the people of her tribe. Protecting them from harm, and healing their ills when she could not; indirectly managing their resources, and directly benefiting from the richness of them; being praised, respected, sometimes feared, for her knowledge. She knew that some day, a new leader would come into power, and they might not rely so heavily on her wisdom, and she might lose the power she had worked so hard to gain. Naturally, she did not want this to happen.

"So she came up with a plan."