A/N: Enjoy some tooth-rotting fluff for a change.

Picnic

Heket hummed to herself as she moved about the cooking area of her temple. She had spent the last hour preparing food for her froglets' breakfast but also for their lunch, as today she had made arrangements to take them out on a picnic. How domestic of you, Heket, some critical part of her remarked, but in truth, she desired time away from her followers as well. For one day, she just wanted to be with her children, and only them, as their mother. For one day she wanted to metaphorically hang up her crown and just be Heket. When she had finished packing their picnic baskets and had laid out their breakfast, it was time to collect the children.

She entered their bedroom just as they were waking up. They were small enough to share a room – as well as one large bed – for now, but she would have prepare alternative, or at least additional accommodation for them in the near future. But that was, well, a problem for the future. Some yawned and stretched, then sat up and scrubbed the sleep from their eyes. "Mother!" The nearest one exclaimed, rousing the rest of his siblings still edging into wakefulness. "Mother!" They all chorused, now wide awake.

She smiled and held out her arms, and they eagerly piled into her embrace. "Good morning, my children." Once they'd pulled away, she asked. "Are you ready for breakfast?" They were, ready and eager in fact, and she smiled. "It is ready for you, follow me." They were too messy eaters still to dress them first, having yet to grow out of their voracious appetite. Breakfast was more like carnage as the froglets descended on their food, devouring it as if their very lives depended on their meals disappearing in the fastest time possible.

When they had finished, she cleaned them up, and then it was time to get dressed. They had kicked and fussed – or cried – or had even bit, when she had tried to clothe them previously. "Did I give you such trouble, sibling?" She had asked Shamura.

"Oh yes," they replied, with more brightness than she felt was warranted. "You would refuse to wear anything but a cloak even long after you had lost your tail. I believe you found anything else to be… suffocating." And so she had relented, clothing them in small cloaks fashioned after her own, but shorter to allow for more freedom of movement. Their hands were not yet dextrous enough to thread the button that kept the cloaks in place, so she had to button them herself. When she was finished, she stepped back to admire her handiwork; Fifteen froglets all dressed up and ready to begin the day. And she could not deny that they all looked absolutely darling in their little outfits.

They collected their picnic baskets, the handles of which were long enough to loop over their shoulders, like a satchel, leaving their hands free. Then they followed her to the threshold of her temple where she stopped and turned to them. "Now, you must stay close," she instructed, "and not venture far from me. My domain is not a safe place for little froglets to be out on their own." They gulped and exchanged looks of trepidation, and she smiled down at them reassuringly. "But do not fret; For nothing will dare to hurt you while I am with you."

"Mother is strong!" One of the froglets asserted and she patted him on the head.

"Yes. Mother is very strong. This is my domain, my children," she added for clarification. "There is no one stronger here than I." And any lingering trepidation they'd had turned instead to excitement for the day ahead.

Inevitably, despite her warnings, a small number of froglets would become separated from the group every so often, so that she kept having to stop and look for them. But fortunately they never got very far, and she would find them quickly, with some of them running to her voice with tears in their eyes, to bury themselves in her cloak. It began to frustrate her to the point where she even thought about threatening to leave them behind if it kept happening, but no, she told herself. No. That wasn't necessary. The fear from finding themselves suddenly alone in a place they didn't recognise with no idea how to get home was starting to do the work for her, and they had begun sticking together more closely.

They ate their lunch in the shadow of a giant mushroom before pressing on. By late afternoon they had arrived at the shore of a large pond. The froglets' eyes went wide in recognition. "Mother, look! We're back!"

She smiled. "Indeed you are, my children." She had taken them back to the place of their birth as a treat. They ditched their picnic baskets and threw off their cloaks, and ran into the water, shrieking in delight. She considered joining them, but decided that she would prefer to take this moment to relax instead. She removed her cloak and laid it out on the ground as if it were a blanket, then laid back, clasped her hands together over her stomach, closed her eyes and sighed. She listened to the sounds of her children playing in the water and smiled.

"Mother!"

She opened one eye. "Hm?" Her children were rushing toward her and so she opened her other three.

"Mother! Play with us!" She blinked in a lack of understanding, so they grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet and then into the water. "Play with us!"

"What… are we playing?"

"Tag!" One shouted. "Tag!" Another agreed. "Tag!" Several chorused. "Mother, you're it!"

"I'm what?" The froglets scattered and she understood. "Oh! I see. Well, I hope you are fast, my children." She grinned. "Because here I come." And she dove into the water after them.

When they returned to her temple, they were all soaking wet, and were laughing while she was smiling.

After Narinder had cut her throat, this would change. She hesitated, stopping at the water's edge and pulled out of their grasp to sign, 'My children… I cannot…'

"But Mother," they whined, with big, round, pleading eyes.

'My children…' She relented with a sigh. 'Very well… But you musn't splash me.' She touched a hand to her throat before signing. 'My bandages… they must remain dry…'

"We promise, Mother," they assured her, and so she waded into the water with them, but reluctantly.

When they returned to the temple, they were soaking wet and laughing, while she was recalling and longing for the time when she could be too.

A/N: Okay, well, that was supposed to be cute, but ended up going sad, oops.