Much to his confusion, the world had flipped upside down at some point and his father had been put on trial.
Aquillius, fully healed, had considered breaking the man out and fleeing with him, but he knew there was something keeping him here. And if Germanicus stayed, so too did Aquillius. But he couldn’t help the swell of teenage anger at the world for allowing everything to turn upside down so completely and wholly that his life had jumped tracks.
The eagleson pulled into himself, taking up the duty of his father in some asinine attempt to shoulder the burden. But he knew, with his still clicking ankle and still aching side when he moved too quickly, that Germanicus would be pulling the majority of it. That and he didn’t speak of it to his father.
A trail followed him through the morning dew, dousing his legs in chilled water as he moved through the meadow, watching the distant lightening sky. Objectively, he considered, it was quite beautiful out here.
she was adder-like in the dawn, slithering in a zig-zagging line through the dry grasses tickling at her rib-encased whole, gaunt waist hiding the glimpse of an ember sure to grow in days to come.
but for now, the daughter to madness looked not for a lock-and-key husband, but a companion willing to make a promise.
her one concern was that the blackpelt wolf she approached could be female - his rawboned boyishness wasn't yet evident.
Something was coming.
His hackles raised as the adder approached him, twisting to stare with a single eye, a stone monolith there in the early dawn.
She was a sight that brought fear to him, in the same way the demon and the spider did, and he knew terror as a friend. How many times would he be haunted by these monsters of dusk?
He swiveled his ears back.
State your business!
He called to the creature, trying desperately to bluff his way into confidence despite the tremulous fear in his voice.
his voice enticed a giggle.
she rose from the grasses to full height of withers - unimpressive and with a bent head.
her teeth showed pure white.
quiver not, lillebror.
stretching a leg to take a long step. we mean no ill.
His heartbeat kicked off like a snare drum.
Aquillius was frozen in the red gaze turned his way, his legs locked, his body trembling lightly. An already traumatized boy, seemingly once again facing the dark and the magicks of the world, thought that was him projecting, perhaps.
His nostrils blew wide.
What do you mean, then?
He was so close to Kvarsheim. He was close to the other packs too, but he had seen the way their leaders looked at his father, perched afar to make sure they did not hurt him.
Who’s to say those wolves wouldn’t see him and laugh? Or worse, believe him in cahoots with the adder before him?
So he did not call.
to rein in an impulse - she had to bite her tongue. when her lips parted, instead of the vile giggle she desired, words came, blood pouring off of them.
companion?
said the madwoman with a pitiful whine, brows drawing together and arching toward the center of the forehead.
darkling paw took its step.
the other rose to follow.
is svart søster such bad sight?
puppylike blink.
Thump thump thump went the boy’s galloping heart, his nostrils flaring wide as he took a step back to her step forward.
Aquillius swallowed his fear, tried not to let it touch his face.
I don’t know you. You don’t know me.
Another step back.
He should call. He didn’t.
Why would you trust me as a companion?
Why would she try to get close?
He should call.
He didn’t.
teeth white as salt.
you is same as we.
a step.
svart. not dark; black.
another.
in og out.
a third.
lillebror, isn't soul same as pelt?
stop.
you are svart, to your bone.
teeth white as salt.
The creature crept close on spindly legs and Aquillius began shaking.
It could see him, it could see his black stained soul, and he skittered backwards like a spooked colt, ears falling back to his head and his teeth flashing the same bone white.
I do not know what you are saying!
He tried to sound tough, tried to invoke his father, or Mars, or whatever gods out there that didn’t want to skin him and put his pelt out in front of their door.
My-My soul is-isn’t black!
But it was, and the creature and Aquillius both knew this.
W-What even is a svart?
her ears pinned at his own grin- oh, but it were no smile! feeble hel, poor stupid hel had angered a sibling again. will little hel never learn? will little hel need her bright spots tugged raw anew?
dum, dum hel.
shrinking to desperate, desperate minisculity, advance stopped a good four lengths away from him, all parts coweringly tucked, coiled, hid.
pitiful, pitiful whimpers as lilebror renounced his self with such repulsion.
ears cupping forward when he needed explanation!
u-us, bror.
soft and trembling. you, and us.
black. not black like white-bird says it. lies it.
wrinkle of a snarl.
then softened to a face pleading for understanding.
svart like seed-feeding earth, like warm den after womb, like safe night where eyes are bright.
hers grew wide and glistening. her tail rapidly sped.
svart! svart as life, as all colors at once, svart as svartravn-
again, her grin. she tucked the bones away, lowering head.
as svartravn knows it.
can teach it.
a madness imbibed at mother's breasts.
She was a strange creature, near prostrate on the ground, and Aquillius felt sickened and empowered in equal strides. His stomach churned. His mind felt like a sea.
His legs had started shaking. He could feel the sour breath of the demon on his haunches. The spider’s hissing words. Aquillius sharply drew a breath, holding it in his lungs before releasing with a sharp hiss.
Teach?
What was there to teach?
Did the creature know the dark? Could they pull it away from him?
Teach what?