(WC: 337)[html]
Tayui was silent as her son thought. She could see that he was mulling over a number of thoughts, some which altered his expression ever so slightly, while others caused him to pause and almost frown. Instead of worrying over what was going through her son's head, Tayui simply waited for him to be ready to talk again. She did not want to push him to speak to her if it made him uncomfortable. However, she had done this with all of her children ever since they had been born. It was as if her coping mechanism -- her way of ignoring what was going on around her -- was allowing her children come to her in their own time. Perhaps she had relied on them to stay silent, expecting that they would not want to talk to her. But that couldn't be true; she wanted to be close to all of her children, not just the ones that were too afraid to go on a walk on their own. She loved Claudius, truly, but he was afraid of absolutely everything.
She leaned in to the embrace, smiling quietly when her son returned her affections. She had missed him: she had missed his antics, his trouble making, and everything that made him who he was. She had missed all of it.
“Claudius is back in the den, reading I think. He's been trying to teach himself a lot of things, like dyeing. I haven't seen Ocèane in months, but I did see Noir. She does still have her doll,” she replied, pausing. She did not want Attila to make fun of his sister any more about Toefur. No matter what, Noir loved it, and even if Attila thought it was stupid, well, he could just keep quiet about it.
She began to speak, but paused. She wanted to ask Attila if he had seen her, but it was unlikely. It didn't sound like he knew, but she decided to ask anyways.
“Have you heard anything from Oce?”