Wolf RPG

Reverie had one stop to make before they departed the coast; one that she dreaded, but knew she could not avoid. Her brother would have come looking for her. He would have found nothing, except perhaps the faintest traces of scent where the Mayfair family had disappeared from the Wilds entirely. She knew that he would have worried, maybe even grieved, and she couldn't leave him trapped with that feeling forever.
So she brought @Blossom across the land bridge, inviting @Boone but ultimately unbothered if he accompanied her or not. Either way, Reverie assured him, this wouldn't take long. There wasn't much to say anymore except that she was alive, and that she was not certain she deserved to be. She spared a kiss for her daughter's forehead, then took a deep breath and called for @Everett.

If he had still been in the lavender field, he would have seen her coming. But insrwad Everett found himself in the small strath of woodlands, hunting. He had fallen asleep with a troubled heart, but had risen with a stillness and indescribable peace. For the first time in many days, he did not linger on thoughts of Reverie beyond the prayer he offered for her, Blossom, and Lestan at his waking.

He did not forget her, but he would move on --

And then, his name. Her voice.

He was dreaming, he must be! But then, why was he racing out to break into the daylight, leaping over stone and sand until he reached that stretch of beach that connected shore to shore? She was an apparition before him who did not disappear.

Real.

Living.

Reverie! he called out, and his sorrow fizzled away with the punch of a laugh. Unreserved in ecstasy, feeling freely, and letting it be known. So unlike the broken man who had left the Gilded Sea.

He didn't keep her waiting long. Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw him — oh, he was running, oh, he didn't hate her, he —
Everett, Reverie half-gasped in response, laughing, crying, stepping forward to meet him with a breathless embrace. Everett, I - I'm sorry I wasn't there, it's - it's such a long story, but - She broke away to draw Blossom close to her side again, overcome with a surge of protective instinct as she recalled their ordeal. Her eyes flitted briefly to her daughter, then back to Everett, still shining with tears. I'm so happy to see you. And she was, in spite of the dread she'd felt coming here. He still loved her, and nothing else mattered.

They embraced, like they had so many times before - yet he held her longer. Aware, now, of what it felt to truly lose her. Unwilling that she should pull away from him too soon. Perhaps he should have been upset with her. Perhaps another would be. But she had been ill. And she was still his sister. And she looked better now, somehow.

Brighter.

He had so many questions. And from the sound of things, Reverie once again had many stories to tell. But rather than push in, like he had before, he reached out his muzzle to gently brush her cheek with a press of reassurance It's okay. You can tell me when youre ready. I looked for you... he swallowed, I'm just glad you're here, alive.

And maybe that's why he'd met her with relief instead of anger. And maybe he was crazy for it - but let them blame the Gilded Sea for that.

I missed you too, it was only now, when she pulled away, that Blossom came into fuller view, and another he did not know. A strange man - and only then he realized one was missing -- where's Lestan? and his smile faltered with the twinge of a frown.

She smiled helplessly, preparing to tell him all about the strange things she'd been through, but then — but then —
Her smile died. He... Her eyes found Blossom, and her throat ached. She leaned down to murmur in the girl's ear, Hey, why don't you sit with Boone for a minute? When she drew herself up she felt a little colder, watching her daughter run to sit by the man they now traveled with. She knew that Everett would see it too, their childhood all over again, whispers behind closed doors and sad looks they could never quite understand, pretending not to catch their mother crying at night when she thought they were all asleep, pretending not to see the way their father never looked at her when he spoke to her.
But she understood now, in her own way. She knew what it was to clutch a broken heart and swear to herself that her daughter would never know that love could feel this way; she knew what it was to keep her eyes carefully off of her husband in fear that Blossom would see the bitterness there and embrace it for her own future. She understood, most of all, how hard it was to let go of the kind of love that could only burn, even as she tried to shield her daughter from the smoke and ash.
We... had another fight. Weeks ago. He wanted to leave - temporarily, but I told him that I wouldn't wait for him if he did. That I would come here instead, Her ears folded to her skull somewhere during the retelling of what had started it all. So he said he would take me here, and that was what we did. We got to the land bridge, and then... something happened. I still don't understand - there were these strange creatures, I think they took us somewhere else. There were others, too. And they... they healed me. She gestured to the strange, precise scars at her abdomen, the only thing she had to show for the experience.
Reverie bit her lip. I know it sounds crazy. We were there for weeks. We... Lestan and I, we decided to separate for a little while. Almost two weeks, I think, Two weeks of mourning, two weeks of putting on a tired smile for Blossom with each rising of the sun and crumbling each time it set again. Then he came back, and... I don't know. I guess things were okay. Peaceful. But then it - it happened again, we all fell asleep, and Blossom and I woke up without him. Here, but further up the coast.
Maybe he left us before we woke up. Or maybe he ended up somewhere else, She cast a glance back at Blossom, holding back the threat of tears. I don't really know. I don't know if we'll ever see him again.