The Sentinels where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night

During Teaghlaigh’s trip to their new territory, Olive will be experiencing the 7 stages of grief — grief over the pain of Dakarai losing (and regaining) his memory, being brutalized, BFW finding them, being demoted and abandoning Ravensblood Forest… and a little bit of postpartum depression. Olive's posts in thread will represent a different stage of grief, dated in order (albeit, a little expedited). This thread represents stage two: pain and guilt. 

Of course, feel free to skip Olive! I’ll bring her in when she is needed and/or addressed.

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The troupe had arrived at the abandoned sentinels on the third day of their travel. Under normal conditions, such trip might have taken the vagrant a day — maybe two, if she were being particularly immersed in the wonders of the world — but their journey was lethargic and dawdling, all at the behest of the pale sylph and her cherubs. Every time she called for the group to pause in the moments, she grit her teeth and steeled herself against the reluctance of the masses. Perhaps Olive had made it all up in her head and convinced herself of such vehemence towards her and her family, but the pain felt very, very, very real to her.

Olive felt remorseful that she continued to vex her own children [first through her mad flight at the Blackfeather Woods, then again through their arduous trek across the wilds] and cause them discomfort. Their small, nascent minds would never remember such hardships and somehow that fact almost made the torment in her heart worse.

Olive felt liable for the strenuous transit that the pregnant Lotte subjected herself to, all too willingly carrying the pace and spirit of the entire group upon her buxom shoulders. The woman, who Olive felt intimately connected with due to their mutual maternal experience [but remained somewhat of a stranger], had been too kind to the pale miscreant. Olive felt undeserving of her kind words and selfless gestures, though she wondered if there was some sense of artifice to such actions. Genuine or not, Olive nurtured a healthy sense of guilt about forcing Lotte’s hand and making her leave the sanctity of the Ravensblood Forest so late in her pregnancy. 

Olive felt anguished at the fact that so many others were put into danger at her and Dakarai’s hands [though, in her mind, she assumed most of the blame; Dakarai was entirely  faultless and wholesome in his  choice to defend her]. Many of the pack was new, though several had simple recommitted themselves to Teaghlaigh and their leader. The shrouded druid was thankful for their arrival and support [if it weren’t for their contributions, Arturo may have dispatched the babes upon their birth] — and begged the heavens that the trials of relocation would not prove their faith in Teaghlaigh was misplaced. 

Olive felt helpless in the face of such destruction [and Teaghlaigh’s own survival], having passed by the cliffside dwelling of Blackrock Depth and using the burnt hull of the sentinels as a temporary haven. The coast, which once bustled with the activities of their allies, laid vacant. Perhaps this was the only good part of leaving Ravensblood Forest — it pained Olive to be in the presence of such fallen greatness and she felt uncomfortable [albeit thankful] that Teaghlaigh had survived the fall of the axis relatively unscathed. But why had they survived, when so many others perished? It was an answer that she prayed the stars would reveal to her; but alas, they never did. 

But most of all, Olive felt unwelcome. When the group hunkered down and found repose once more and Lotte began to lift the spirits of the group with a song, Olive encouraged her brood to wriggle to the outskirts of the group. Their tiny little legs were barely strong enough to lift their rotund little bodies but the three babes were tenacious in their own ways.  There were sentries around so the mother felt safe even in her remote position. She very much preferred to remain outside the direct line of sight of the pack, as Olive felt her greatest threat was the judgement and hatred of the family... not whatever dangers existed within the bleakness of the sentinels — and from her spot in the back, Olive’s eau-de-nil gaze searched for her dark knight; the only one who truly understood the pain which wracked her soul wholly.


 

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