Chapter Text
Periboea was seated on a cushioned line in the weaving room. She weaved with the silky smooth precision of her nymph heritage. Her young daughter Penelope was seated next to her. Her large height dwarfed her daughter's.
Their fingers moved in eerie sink as they weaved two different tapestries. Penelope's was one of the river, her mother’s home. Periboea weaved a tapestry of the garden just outside the palace. This was their favorite past time, besides swimming in the rivers of course
The atmosphere was peaceful until Periboea’s swollen stomach shifted with a child's kick, causing her to audibly gasp
"Mother, are you well?" Her daughter asked concernedly, putting her small, pale hand to her mother’s stomach.
"Yes my dear child, this little bastard just wants me to suffer, " she replied, tiredly but not unkindly. She laid her large hand over her daughter's.
"Mother!" Penelope said playfully outraged at her mother’s language putting a hand to her mouth at the impoliteness.
"What? He deserves it" Periboea said back, playful as a nymph always was.
"How do you know it's a boy?" Penelope said while crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow. The little girl had her father's sass unfortunately.
"Dear girl, I have carried countless boys, you learn to recognize the patterns," Periboea answered, with wisdom that someone her age would have.
"There's already enough boys here already," Penelope groaned while slumping on the kline. Periboea chuckled.
"Don’t be ungrateful Penelope you have your cousins and your little sister don't you, do they not matter?" Periboea said teasingly. She remembered how excited Penelope was when she gave birth to Iphthime, "She's like me!" The young half-nymph had exclaimed.
"Yeah, but that's only five girls!" She exclaimed while holding up one hand in front of her mother’s face.
"You know how many sisters I have Penelope, five is just enough for one girl" Periboea chuckled while tapping her daughter's small nose with her thin pale fingers.
"Well if you have another baby, it better be a girl that time" She said accusingly while frowning at her mother’s belly that was round with child.
"Who says we'll have another?" Her mother questioned playfully with a smile on her face. Her eyebrow raising just like her daughter's did.
Her daughter gave her a look, that look that only a child of Icarius would give. The half lidded eyes with the straight lips and the crossed arms. Except her eyes looked like the wine-dark rivers Periboea came from, instead of the amber brown eyes her father had, and her arms were pale instead of Icarius’ bronze that her older brothers had. The expression was plain but it still gave off an air of annoyance.
Periboea cackled out loud and gently hit her daughter's side.
"Hey!" Penelope yelled indignantly, while rubbing her side.
When Periboea finished laughing, with a mischievous grin she said, "No matter how much you look like me definitely your father's child." The Naiad looked down at her stomach. The fabric of her wine dark bodice with red lining strained around it. "Hopefully your brother," she said while leaning in, "will look like him too."
"I hope he looks like you instead," she whispered to her mother