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There should have been something in her impressively speedy wake, something following rapidly and terrifyingly. Something intriguingly predatory and aggressive, nipping at her heels - an animal with many pointy bits, eyes glinting dangerously in the scarce light as it chased after her, giving her a reason to run as quickly as she was.

Instead, anticlimatically, it took quite a while before a hurrying caveworm caught up with her. Or really, until a caveworm kinda sorta mildly tagged onto her trail, surging at times to scuttle after her swift steps with its multitudes of tiny feet, and dropping back at other times only to try and catch up again, with almost resentful glowing eyes. Yet, it persisted, with an angry clicking of mandibles, as the little feet clicked too in its agitated, lagging chase. At times, it fell to the ground and crawled along like a millipede that was altogether too big, seeming to sullenly sight her swollen belly with great annoyance.

It would have been a poor excuse for a greater caveworm, but to be kind to the caveworm, the doe really was running very fast, and one would say that was a good thing, given that she was really quite pregnant.

The caveworm paused in its tracks after her halt, raising its front half to perch like a hissing snake. It swayed, undulating for a while as if it was catching its breath, staring at her with judging, glowing eyes that were as hard as they were bright.

Slowly, ever so slowly, without taking its eyes off her, the backmost legs articulated in a particular fashion, to gradually bring its hind around.

Eventually, the caveworm stood in front of her in a magnificent, petty arch, that showed both its jawsome face and its chitinous behind to the doe plainly.

Give me a good reason to bless you that you wouldn't mind the Motherfather hearing, the voice that wafted into her head was ragged and breathy, and also somewhat unimpressed, and we'll see.

The caveworm's mandibles moved in a strange, grinding way, crunching and snapping with an unpredictable rhythm before the mare emerged instead, and laughed a rasping laugh. She took a moment to orient her kimeti butt and her large scaly tail away, back to its natural position.

"The Motherfather has her days of judgment," she stood, proof of her statement, "as does every parent, and every kin - I myself, am both. Yet every parent," the smile that decorated her face was wry, a little nasty, a little kind, "also has the ability to listen, and to love. I see you'll be working on that."

The mare nodded approvingly, seemingly buoyed by the doe's acquiesce or her own dramatic speech, and declared with great pomp and purpose: "may they arrive healthy - and let them make their own mistakes to regret."

Then in an instant, she was a caveworm again, eyes glowing as intensely as ever. The caveworm shuffled away on its many little unhappy limbs, at a much slower pace than before, because it was incredibly sick of running.