Next Update: Friday April 11th.

Chapter 11

Ghira Belladonna envied his daughter's position at the nearby table. Her line of suitors growing smaller by the hour. She'd seemed refreshed and renewed after one of those humans of hers came for a visit. It was against the rules, but Ghira doubted Blake cared. With the way she entertained herself with the humans in her household, he knew she thought significantly of them. Of course she would allow one of them up on the observation stage.

As much as he wanted to scold her for it, he had his own personal tribulations to deal with, and he couldn't leave his post.

Ghira liked to think himself a smart man, or at the very least, one who wasn't completely daft. He also liked to think of himself as an educated person, with well thought out speeches, and carefully laid plans. If little else, he thought himself a fitting chieftain, because his efforts had always been to his greatest abilities. However, for all of his pride, and several accolades, he often thought of himself as a terrible mate to Kali, and a poor father to Blake.

These were not weak assumptions, and they weren't based on pure conjecture.

Rather, they were made based on his assumptions as a male. Kali was of weak constitution when it came to the burden of bearing him many offspring. She miscarried several litters before they'd been blessed with a single child, Blake. Kali tried to bear more children after that, but two more miscarriages followed. It was around that time that they stopped trying to force more children, and Kali turned every effort into securing the Belladonna family name by raising Blake to take her father's title.

However, even if he and his mate had chosen not to bear more offspring, Kali was far from finished when it came to securing the Belladonna bloodline.

He sipped on his tea as he watched the many females approach Kali, gaining her blessing before approaching him. He grumbled as Kali let another female pass her interview. He hid a frown behind his drink. Ghira had to at least allow the woman the courtesy of his attention, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He certainly didn't plan to claim another breeding female, not even a nomadic female from the mainland. He didn't care how far these women traveled just to seek his approval, they would not get it.

When his mate approached him, it was with a human woman this time, which surprised him even more. "Ghira, I would like to present to you my final choice of this evening, Pyrrha Nikos. A huntress from Blake's personal command."

"I know who she is, dear." Ghira said to her as he opened his large hand outward, to extend the invitation to sit down. This was either some sort off prank, or the women in his life conspiring against him. He wasn't sure which. "What I'd like to know, is why she's here."

"Blake requested it." Pyrrha said lightly. "She said that it would be for the betterment of Menagerie if the Belladonna line were to be extended. She requested I make a case that if you will not choose a Faunus woman to help maintain the line, that perhaps you'd consider a human woman. Although you run the risk of the children being human, and multiples are not common in my family, you'd gain the benefit of diversity. Something that can only strengthen the goals of Faunus worldwide."

"And you're in just the right position, not to mention, you're self-sacrificing enough to do it." Ghira grumbled.

Pyrrha looked away at the snippet of a detail. She worked alongside Ghira often, her skill in battle was something even he could not overlook. She was an asset to the Faunus community as well, having the bloodline of a Niko's was no small matter. She was the youngest unmarried daughter of an aristocrat, and she often took tea with the human traders that passed by. Without her diplomatic efforts, Menagerie would not receive such strong support from the great kingdom she hailed from.

She was a self-sacrificing soul, too. Bound far more by duty, than by personal desire. It was then that he guiltily realized, Pyrrha would be an all too obedient mate. There was something inherently desirable about any woman who so easily bent to his whims. Human or not, her qualities more than made up for any shortcomings someone might accuse her of.

"I will do what is asked of me." Pyrrha said then. "Whatever it is, that you ask of me."

"I had thought I'd made my intentions on the subject clear to Blake most of all. She is the entire future of Menagerie, I will not be expanding the line." Ghira told Pyrrha. "And while I understand my daughter's ideology, and her desires to make Menagerie the first truly unified safe-hold between humans and Faunus, I think it's not very reasonable."

"Isn't it, though?" Pyrrha asked.

"I don't know, Pyrrha." He said ever so thoughtfully. "However, I do know this. Change must come from somewhere. If that is to happen, then it will not happen in my reign. Those are her reforms, her visions, and not mine. I doubt I'd ever be able to implement them properly, and if I failed to do so, it would be a perversion if her intent to protect this island. Therefore, those changes must come from her, not me."

"And there's your answer." Kali replied, already expecting this. Gently, she rested a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. "I'm glad you would even think to go to such lengths when it doesn't benefit you at all to do so. However, I've known your mother for a long time, Pyrrha. She would not want you to be unhappy. If you've written to her, saying you've found someone in your life worthwhile, that's one thing. But, if you write to her about an arrangement that won't make you happy, she would be so very disappointed."

"I came to Menagerie to help ease the political tensions between Faunus and humans. That was the one thing I was asked to do. I feel, that in some capacity, Blake's right. If I were to carry your children it would send a rather direct message to the world. Given my personal station, as well as yours…perhaps entirely because of yours, it wouldn't be easily ignored. Humans would have to take notice. This was not a conclusion I came to lightly. I've given it some very deep thought."

"Not when it came to your own happiness, you didn't." Ghira grumbled then. "I am not the sort of man that would make you happy…and furthermore…" He trailed off, looking to Kali. "I don't need, nor do I want, another mate." Then he glanced back to Pyrrha. "Nor do you truly want to mate with me…thank you, though, Pyrrha. It's humans like you that give me hope. It makes me believe Blake's plans to make a truly unified Menagerie just might be possible…just maybe…"

"When it comes to the unity of humans Faunus, I believe it can be done sooner than you think." Pyrrha said then, poised and thoughtful. "However, I also think at first it would be a very limited success. Living together equally is no small task. It would require a level of empathy that the current villages and kingdoms do not provide. What we have at Blake's household is a very rare circumstance. Even if you were to replicate it amongst an entire like-minded community, the truth is that the rules of the world would likely swallow it whole."

"In what manner?" Ghira asked, obviously intrigued what the human had to say on the topic.

"If someone were to make a village such as what Blake proposes, then the moment you stepped outside such a village's boarders, Faunus and humans would still be at odds. Life outside the village would not have changed. What Blake desires is not a simple solution…then again, so long as there is a faction of likeminded souls who believe it's possible, then it has no choice but to come to fruition eventually."

"And would a fraction of you split off, to do as Blake wished?" Ghira asked. "To make a village of your own, where such a thing is possible?"

"I have my uses here." Pyrrha smiled at this and stood to excuse herself, the audible sigh of relief clear on her face. "Besides, I think we can both agree matters of the heart are more complicated than that. The people I live alongside, are people I would never be able to walk away from. They are my family, this village is my home, and Blake's household is my sanctuary. I don't think I could ever bring myself to leave all of that behind. I wouldn't want to."

"I see." Ghira said, his nod slight, but there all the same. He watched Pyrrha leave, and found himself even more confused about the human population than ever before. In his youth, he'd tried to build bridges between them, forced himself to battle hard for the equality of all Faunus, only to fail.

Blake, his only daughter was doing that same battle now, in a vastly different way. He couldn't help but feel guilty all over again for maintaining his stance on the topic. Maybe she was already doing too much. Perhaps, he was putting too much pressure on Blake to carry the family line. Perhaps, he should take another Faunus woman into his household, and raise more children under his roof. He found himself lost in his vortex of thought until he heard Kali laugh at his expense.

"What's gotten into you now?" She asked, lifting her hand, allowing her fingers to smooth away the crease in his brow. "You only scowl in such a way when you're thinking deeply on something."

"I only scowl in such a way when my mate and my daughter conspire against me." Ghira returned evenly, the impish smirk refusing to leave her face even under his stern gaze. "Sometimes I wonder if you wish for me to take a second mate so that you too, can reap the rewards of such an arrangement."

"And what would those rewards be, I wonder?" Kali replied with an upraised eyebrow. "Just what sort of troublesome antics do you think I'd get up to, exactly?"

This was what he liked about her, Ghira was sure. He was an imposing man. A cat Faunus male, with a towering height and powerful build. That she was hardly intimidated for all of the reasons she should be, meant a great deal to him. Kali had always proven herself to be a docile, yet difficult mate to contend with. She always kept him busy, never allowing his mind or his efforts to idle. He had no words for all of it, but he was thankful for that, truly.

"That isn't something I'd know unless you'd get up to them, now isn't it?" He said with a shrug.

In this she nodded, looking out to the many peoples, and the partiers that would stay out until sunrise. "I'll admit, we've never had what one would call a lively household, and in some part, I'm to blame for that. This time of year serves as a reminder that it doesn't have to be that way. I recall what it was like growing up, my father kept many women in his bed, and as such, I enjoyed the pleasure of over twenty siblings. I was never without someone by my side. I know you grew up differently, but, even so…"

"Suppose I were to take another mate. If that mate were to become pregnant, she would need to become my top priority, the resulting litter soon after." Ghira replied earnestly. "My father, as chieftain, spent too many nights away from home. Too many nights, he was focused on the people, and I should have been unquestionably proud of him for that. Instead, although I never said it out loud, I'd always hated him for not being around. Leaving my mother and I on our own for so long, the way he did. I promised myself the day I became chieftain, that I would not neglect the duties of my own household first and foremost."

In that, he'd sworn to himself, he would not waver.

"There were so many things I missed out on when it came to Blake. So many more things I had to set aside when it came to you. I regret those things, even though I know at the time, I had no other option." He licked his lips, his eyes gazing over his many peoples. "I know I would not have time to take another mate. Some men, like your father, they can manage many mates. They can keep a large family, and their people happy at the same time. Some men can do it seemingly effortlessly, but I am not such a person. I never have been, and I never will be."