[Post 'Trust'//ITP: Puppies]

[an_alpha_wolf]

[1]

After the mission, a Clan Wolf dropship has docked with the Chalice, offloading a few more bits of cargo: some supplies, several Scientists (assigned to study the diverse new weapons of Terra) and on a kind of mobile play yard a few yards wide, several dire wolf pups, excitedly whimpering and sniffing about, trying to climb over the sides of

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[zeonfunnelcake]

Haman had been on the Chalice long enough that running into people who where working bothered her much less than it had back on Axis. It had been over a year now, and she was grown quite used to the lack of pomp she received here. It was not for lack of respect that she was not treated with the privilege her rank entitled her to, she was respected and feared through the whole system, but only here on the chalice, Haman had found the rare treat of being respected as a woman first, and the 'Queen of Axis' second.

"It's alright." Haman waved her off quickly. "She's working and I'm in the way it seems. The fault is mine." She straightened her cowl, but kept a hard stone expression as she spoke.

[an_alpha_wolf]

His better instincts were to leave her alone but curiosity was nipping at his heels as much as one of the pups would later. There was something about the way she was looking at them...

"Regent...Have you never seen wolves or dogs before?"

He supposed it had to make sense. Space colonies were dense places.

[zeonfunnelcake]

"No, of course not. Well, I've seen small dogs before, mostly here on the ship. But never something so... huge. We wouldn't have room for something that big in Axis." In the halls of the pristine houses she had lived in, there was no room for pets. In the years spent in the hospital as a research study for cyber newtype powers, there was no time for a pet. She had been the Regent since she was 14, and they had given her a child, there was no place for a pet then.

"Are they staying here on the Chalice?" She asked warily, the idea of those things around made her remember to not let Mineva out on her own. "Tell me they're not."

[an_alpha_wolf]

Was she...scared, he wondered? Or at least wary of them? The fearless leader of Zeon, trepidatious about pups with big, stupid smiles still constantly plastered on their faces. He suppressed an urge to laugh.

"They are still only pups. But be assured, the Scientists will be looking after them...with help from our Elementals if need be. And when our settlement is established, they will go back there." Scientists like the absent minded girl who just bumped into her. Real reassuring there.

[zeonfunnelcake]

"Lovely." As she said it, it was clear she was being sarcastic. Haman had only heard old stores about wolves, tales from the Earth that still lingered even in space. Wolves where always cunning, and up to something in stores, and very often pretty young girls, namely princess, found them selves on the wrong end of the Wolf's teeth. It was strange that fairy tales where the basis for the fear she felt about having such beasts around the ship.

"I do hope you will keep them contained. We have enough wild animals living here as it is. I should hate to meet one in the halls on my way to bed late at night." Haman instinctively touched her hip, where under the drape of her tunic a small side arm was always worn. She honestly meant the pups no harm, but she was afraid of the wildness of the beast, such notions where foreign to a spacenoid like her.

[an_alpha_wolf]

There was very little these dopey younglings had in common with anything from the Brothers Grimm, though their adult forms would indeed be the kind of thing used to frighten children. Well, non clanner children anyway.

"Regent, there is very little an elemental in full armor cannot keep contained. But these pups are tame." If not domesticated. "Their mothers rejected them due to the stress of space travel. Thus they became our responsibility."

He walked towards the enclosure, scratching one behind its ears, as he'd seen the Scientists do. "See for yourself, if you wish."

[zeonfunnelcake]

Haman refused to get closer than an arm length, she stood there pigeon toed looking at the giant dogs. What purpose dose such a thing serve? Animals where worthless in space unless they could be eaten, and even then...

They smelled, it was over powering, warmth and fur and slobber. Haman didn't like it at all, but had more pride than to show it. How could anyone think these things where cute?

"Disgusting." Nope, she would not be swayed to think the pups where cute, even at close range.
It was only then, that through the chaos a blonde woman in a blue dress swept gracefully though, bee-lining to the Regents side. In her arms she was holding Mineva who was sniffing and whimpering, her face will wet with tears.
It was a quick exchange, as the handmaiden handed the child over to her guardian. Apparently the child had been napping and had a nightmare, common for Mineva these days. The only way to soothe her was to be brought directly to Haman.
But today was different, before Haman could even begin to whisper sweetly to Mineva the child was completely taken by surprise!
"Puppies!!"

[an_alpha_wolf]

Resnick opened his mouth, about to snap at the Regent about how the Strana Mechty dire wolf was a noble animal and how dare she disparage it and in general mess up his own attempt at diplomacy when a child was brought in. Not having royalty natively (that was a thing for the Successor States), the clansman did not recognize the princess for what she was.

"That is right, sibbie. They are pups."

One tried to stick its neck over the fence and just barely missed licking her.

[zeonfunnelcake]

Haman squeezed Mineva as she reached out to the pup who was trying to lick her, Haman tried to pull her back, but it was no use. The child reached out and and put both hands on the beasts face, and was rewarded with a lick across her cheek. She giggled with glee, the girlish sound ringing above the commotion in the hanger.
All Haman could think about was how close Mineva's head was to those giant teeth!

It was funny, because really, Haman and Mineva both has been orphans, families lost to the tragedies of love and war. They where not unlike these young pups themselves.

Haman said nothing, wanting to pull Mineva away but unable to separate her from something that... made her laugh like that. It warmed Haman's heart, and kept her rooted in place even as she was Ultrasuede by hot dog breath.
"He's so cute Haman! Look and how big his ears are!"
She seemed to smile and nod only as a patter of appeasing Mineva.

"You'll address the princess of Zeon by her title if you please. 'Your Royal Highness', or 'Your eminence' will do." She half snapped at him, as she tried to juggle the squirming princess.

[an_alpha_wolf]

Oh this was just too good for words. The child, he thought to himself, was instinctually drawn to the animal's nobility but the Regent was disgusted by them because she'd spent her whole life in an artificial environment. Arrogantly, he could only pity her, never feeling the snow crunch under her feet, stalking prey across the tundra. No wonder, he thought, the Snow Ravens are such jackasses.

"Would you like to pet her outside of the enclosure, princess?" He said to Mineva, partially acceding to Hamon's insistence but offering no apology. He put no stock in royalty. That was something for the Successor States, who did nothing to earn their position.

[zeonfunnelcake]

If he had tried to say so she only would have been more standoffish. Humans didn't need snow, or stalking prey on a tundra, human's needed to leave behind the gravity well of earth and gain the righteous powers of the 'Newtype'.

"Oh, don't do that!!" Haman insisted, frightened by the idea of letting those things out. They should be in crates, and off this ship as quickly as possible.
For the first time in a long time Haman was upset that the power she had on Axis could not be extended here, and that she could not simply order away the thing she did not like.
"Mineva I know you want to play with them but..." She could hear Char's voice nagging in the back of her mind to let the child do what she wanted, but Haman denied it, and pushed it away far easier than the other voices which often plagued her in quite moments of reflection. "You'll get your uniform all dirty." There we go, a good excuse! "And you have lessons in just a little whole don't you?"
The child frowned, and nodded, she was already well trained to obey Haman's desires.

[an_alpha_wolf]

Their uniforms must be pretty bad if they cannot take contact with a pup. Anyway she is far too young for full dress... He thought.

"Well Regent. I hope this has been
educational. Your Eminence, if you should ever wish to visit the pups when you are not in full dress or due for schooling, just ask one of the Scientists."

He remembered, before the incident with the big male out in the woods, being fascinated by such predators as a sibbie. There was no way Mineva Zabi was going to forget this. If he knew more of freeborn realpolitik, he'd be even more pleased, since Haman couldn't publicly forbid her without appearing ungrateful or making the girl sad.

[zeonfunnelcake]

Haman wanted to snap at him, did the man have no respect for motherly authority? Usually attempting to under mind Haman ended in something very painful, but again, such powers where not strong enough here to be effective.
Mineva gave the huge puppy a final pet, and deposited a kiss on it's wet nose, before she returned to clinging to Haman, wrapping her tiny arms around her neck, and pouted silently.

"Don't pout, don't you get to go swimming with Char tomorrow?" This wiped the frown off the child's face. Another activity Haman simply wouldn't stand herself, but she let Mineva go only because it was Char who was with her (and it meant Haman got a little time to herself).
Haman put Mineva on her feet, and almost instantly her handmaiden swept back, and gathered up the child with a wordless nod to her first Haman, and then to Resnick, before she lead the child away again.
Motherhood was complicated.

"I would appreciate it very much if you let me do the parenting to my own child." Although, it wasn't really her child at all. "I did you a favor so that you could get these things here in the first place, don't make me regret it." Haman shook a finger at him, giving him a stern look that promised great malice if her words where not heeded. " I allowed you and your dogs to pass through my space safely and without incident, you would do well to remember which side of your bread the butter is on."

[an_alpha_wolf]

He watched the child go as the pup that had taken a liking to her whined at being deprived of its new friend. He scratched it behind its ears.

"My apologies, Regent." He bowed a little, though he was not sorry at all. "We in the Warrior caste are born from iron wombs and grow up with no parents at all, only taskmasters. From day one we are trained solely in the art of battle, and are not given affection as the Princess clearly is. Thus I hope you will excuse how ignorant we are of relations between parent and child." Which was his answer to her implied threat, and true enough. A favor they did owe (true) Zeon, but they were no longer in as vulnerable a position as they had been three months ago and could afford to not go everywhere with their ears flat and their tails between their legs.

[zeonfunnelcake]

That was much better, Haman smirked.
So savages can be trained, just like a dog. But Haman already had a lap dog, namely Kamille, there was little need to woo another.
"I believe the saying goes 'When in Rome." Which was to say, You're not at home anymore, it would benefit us all if you remember that.'
She paused to brush herself off, certain there was dog hair on her new tunic. Haman back up a step of two from the enclosed animals, she would never covet their nature they was these clanners seemed to, what did they need these animals for anyways?
"Mineva is my dearest treasure in all the stars. I would kill anyone who tried to hurt her, or take her from me, without pause or distinction. Not because it is my duty, but because she is a child who deserves so much more in this world than fate has given her. ... And I am not alone in this." She shuttered to think what kind of reaction Char would have if anything bad happened to the princess.
"This is not a threat, it is a promise. But if you can understand at least that much, then there should be no further incident." Haman was fierce about her love for the child, it was hard to believe Mineva was not her flesh at all, but an orphan who had been handed to Haman when she was only a child herself. For a time, Haman had felt that Mineva was the only person in her life who would ever love her, and the same was true in reverse.

[an_alpha_wolf]

The fact hadn't escaped his notice. A people who placed a lot of importance on genetics, most clansmen could instinctively trace lineages. So she had been...adapted, was that the word?

His expression darkened a moment. "I hope you are not suggesting I would commit so dezgra an act as to harm a child. That would be insulting. No matter what you think of us clansmen, know that certain acts are universally beyond the pale, quiaff? But if all you fear is our totem doing her harm well..." He looked back at the welps, trying to figure out what Haman saw as menacing about them. An adult, the height of a man's shoulder with terrible jaws he could understand but these were still rather dopy children, barely older than the princess herself by canine standards. "...these ones are tame pups and will be supervised by our elementals whenever there are visitors. So I do encourage you to bring the princess if it does not interfere with her duties." That he could actually understand, having had very little recreation time himself as a child.