.

The sun was setting when Raven returned to her tent after days of absence. Inside, she was greeted by the adorable view of her little bird sitting on the floor on a blanket trying to catch one of the cloth balls which Vernal was juggling with to entertain her.

"Having fun I see." Raven said with an amused voice.

"Raven!" Vernal put two balls in one of her pockets and put the third in Yang's hands before standing up at attention.

Raven quickly motioned for her to relax, and passed her to take her daughter in her arms, who was trying to devour her toy. She was so cute, her hair was growing fast, you could already make her two little pigtails on the back of her head, and Raven would be lying if she said she didn't like playing doll with her.

"Any problem while I was gone?" she asked.

"No, she's been very nice, isn't that right Yang?" Vernal asked the baby.

"Aaa~?"

Yang looked at her nanny with questioning, the ball half in her mouth, with a trickle of drool running down her chin. The two laughed when they saw her, then Vernal returned to her chores, while Raven put down her things. It had been so long since the last time she went on a raid, she had almost forgotten how it felt. She would have gone earlier to guide her troops, but Yang was still too young.

A smile settled on her lips as she sat on her bed and watched her little girl play innocently with everything that came into her hands, a cloth ball, an empty cup of tea, a spoon… It was the first time Raven took care of a baby, and she had to admit, it was really lovely to watch. She wanted to pinch her pink chubby cheeks all the time, and she was sure she had never heard any sound sweeter than her laugh.

With a smile, she looked away while taking her things out of her bag. She had mainly brought clothes for Yang, who was growing up at an astounding speed, and especially a big teddy bear with a pretty yellow ribbon around its neck. She really hoped she would liked it, it would be her first real toy after all…

SPLASH

Raven immediately turned her attention back to Yang. Her eyes left her for only a few seconds and she had stayed right in front of her, and yet her little bird had managed to spill the fortunately cold water of the teapot all over herself, and was now completely soaked, the teapot placed as a hat on her head, and her two little arms still in the air as she looked at her mother with large eyes, as if even she did not understand what just happened.

Raven's eyebrow flickered. One, two, three times…

"Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't-…" she repeated in her head while biting her lip.

Large drops began to appear at the corners of Yang's eyes as her mouth started to shake.

"Oh no."

Raven ran towards Yang to take her in her arms before she started to scream. Seriously, why didn't anyone warn her that a baby with so small lungs could make more noise than a Goliath trumpeting?!

"There, mommy got you, everything's fine so don't cry okay?" she tried to comfort her.

First sob. Raven started to panic inside.

"Come on little bird, it's just water, you're not going to cry for water, are you?"

Yang let out a second sob that Raven could almost interpret as a "I am".

"Okay, don't panic Raven, you've faced worse, don't panic…" she tried to reassure herself.

Raven looked around for a quick solution, while Yang continued to sob in her arms. Her eyes then fell on the teddy bear which at the moment seemed to radiate a divine light.

"My savior!"

In an instant, she grabbed the toy and placed it right in front of Yang's face, who continued to sob, ready to start screaming any moment now.

"Yang, look what mommy brought you~!" Raven said with her sweetest voice to get her daughter's attention.

This time, the little blonde opened her eyes slightly, tears already flowing, as well as a few snot… Then she stopped completely, and stared at the strange animal in front of her.

For several long seconds, a heavy silence reigned in the tent. Raven could feel the sweat running down the side of her forehead. If Yang didn't like the teddy bear, she would immediately start to scream and goodbye eardrums…

The little girl continued to analyze the thing for a while… Then gave her verdict with a little laugh, trying to grab the toy. Raven let out a long sigh of relief and put Yang on the bed with her new friend. Immediately, the little girl started to try to bite and hit it from all sides, which made her mother laugh. She was a brawler at heart, that was for sure.

Raven took the pile of child clothes she had brought back, and went to put them in a trunk reserved to Yang's belongings. Some people thought it was unfair that a baby would be given more attention than the most important members of the tribe, but Raven didn't care, she wanted the best for her daughter, no matter what others could say. For the moment, Yang still slept with her, but she would create a room for her when she would be two years old, Summer once said that it was about this age babies no longer had bars to their bed. Or something like that… Good thing they were babies who didn't realize what was going on around them, because sleeping in a cage must have been really annoying.

Raven absolutely didn't know how to take care of a baby, or even a child, she just let her maternal instinct guide her, and sometimes discreetly asked Ramy for advice. Being older and having grown up in the Kingdoms, the old ram was far more experienced than she was on many things, and unlike others, he didn't question her position as the leader. She really took a big risk by claiming the leadership of the tribe after having almost abandoned them, especially since she came back pregnant, and from a Huntsman.

Yeah, she didn't really put all chances on her side that day. But her determination to protect her child had prevailed over everything else, and she had managed to reclaim a place in the tribe. Now the hard part was to make it clear that she deserved it…

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Raven jumped when she heard the shrill cry behind her, paranoia almost making her draw her sword.

Then she realized that Yang had just dropped her teddy bear from the bed, and that was apparently a good reason to pierce the eardrums of the entire continent…

"Why did no one tell me that being a mother was so hard…?"

And here is the bonus chapter!

Very short, I know, but I need time to work on the following chapters, and I didn't want to leave you with an empty week. Besides, you all missed Raven, didn't you? n_n

Next week chapter will be a bonus too, but more interesting than this one, and longer.

Also, I don't know the english baby cry, in french it's "ouin" ...