Blackfeather Woods bitter pill

Tags for funsies.

The fact that @Maegi was here was almost entirely lost on the boy. He was lucid now, having eaten a few good meals and rested since that moment, but it still felt like a strange dream segment. Not entirely real. Even now, having rested for a few hours and finally rousing himself on the tail end of the daylight, Mou wasn't sure if his experiences were actual things that transpired or maybe he had just been hopeful, yearning for a life he'd walked away from. He decided not to partake in the poppies unless they were absolutely necessary — but at this point, Mou had been using more than what he'd needed and he knew, somewhere deep in his mind, that he couldn't quite let it go.

But he was up and about. His legs were shaky but not to the point where he would collapse beneath his own weight. His body had gradually adjusted to larger meals, and he was feeling a lot better overall. Yet he could not bring himself to explore the great dark forest; he worried that he would get so tangled in this darkness that he'd be set upon by some unseen force. Perhaps the beast from the pit?

So he lingered near @Astara's playing area, just outside of the ring of trees that had become his roost. He let out a drawn sigh and began to pace, to test his long limbs and try to regain some strength and dexterity within them. If he was stuck here, he may as well make the best of it.

For a few days, all she did was walk. Traveled down the paths once so familiar to her, a familiarity lost to time. Breathed in the scent of the Willow, and thought of Cicero as she continued on in a daze. Left a sacrifice for Mephala at the Temple, saying a silent prayer for all who she had lost. Curled up in her old den in Spiderling's Glen, cuddling with the feather she'd unearthed--the one Euron had given her, long ago.

It was a shred of its former self, a dark spine with a few scraggly feathers clinging. But if she brought it to her nose, she could swear she smelled her brother again.

Once she had readjusted to her old home, her duties began. First and foremost was seeking out Mou, someone she hadn't thought for a million years would be here. How had he come to be here? The journey from the isle to Blackfeather was not so difficult, but it was far from straightforward. Was he familiar with these woods--did he know someone here?

Sithis. She thought of the way he had whispered the word; then, she had assumed he was simply parroting her in a vain attempt to speak. Could it be that Sithis was already known to him, somewhere deep within?

These questions all rose up, a storm within her mind, when she saw him walking, pacing. Maegi gave a low whine and came closer, head tilted to one side. He hadn't appeared to recognize her, at the border--but then, his pupils had been large and dark owing to some toxin or another. Poppies, perhaps; she recognized the glazed look, from his previous recuperation. From Potema, too. . .

"Mou," she called quietly, still several paces away from her friend. She didn't want to come any closer, lest she startle him.

Lest he had come here to get away from her, in the first place.

Yes, her insecurities reared their ugly heads even here.

He had not taken any medicine since his awakening that day, but felt the fuzziness in his brain that told him there was still a bit in his system. It was enough to make his efforts less painful. Mou paced along the ring of trees and did a few laps, but stopped when he felt a presence. It wasn't the same presence from the cave — nothing frightening, no sense of impending doom, so he stopped and he looked around. When his eye landed on the familiar figure of Maegi he thought he heard a distant drum beat in his ears, and realized it was the thudding of his heart. The medicine must've been strong the other day for it to still be this potent. 

She spoke his name and his ears pivoted to catch the sound of her voice, but even before she had spoken he was striding carefully over to her. Mou was happy to see her, but he still felt quite numb and his face didn't obey him, so while he felt like smiling he only stared at her blankly. When he felt relief upon realizing that yes, she was here and he wasn't dreaming, little changed.

M'gee, he murmured to her, and pressed his face against the fur of her shoulder. It felt like sinking in to a cloud. Whad do 'ere? He asked, but knew it didn't matter why she had come or what pieces of fate had thrown them back together; he was overjoyed that she was here at all.

He came to her, strides more fluid then they were when the two had first met. Then he was burying his face into her pelt, saying her name, and the tide of emotion threatened to drag her downward, deeper and deeper into some chasm of comfort and vulnerability. She let herself relax, pressing back, her breath coming fast and sobbing, her heart much the same.

"This is my home," Maegi responded, an incredulous laugh bubbling from her lips. She pulled back, blinking at him, as if now she could not believe the sight of him, though they both knew the other was solid. "This is where I was born. What are you doing here?" she shot back, tilting her head with a smile that could single-handedly light up the forest--if she wanted it to.

The woods suited him better than the pristine beaches of Undersea, much like they suited her. They were broken, marred creatures, chewed up and spit out still living by the cruel forces of the world. Blackfeather was made for wolves like them, the twisted and the damned. Now, they could live out their existences side-by-side.

She hadn't thought, when he'd washed up on the beach, that he'd be anything of significance to her. How time had proved her wrong.

This is my home, she tells him with such mirth to her tone that he is, for half a heartbeat, charmed by. It is not often that she is in good spirits (as far as he could remember from his last days upon the isle), and hearing her voice turn happy helps to lessen the oddness he feels within himself. The forest is not so ominous with her beside him.

I, uh, he mumbles, trying to find a way to answer her question, but his speech remains an issue. At most he can make out, Cave, mm, Mouh ged st, st, shh, ugh, he couldn't make the word stuck come out right so instead he breathes, Stuhg. Burr too, hmm, really none of it mattered. He couldn't explain how he'd gotten stuck or how long he'd been dragging himself through the dark; the look that passed over his features and darkened his good eye was one of contained horror, a rememberance of the worst of it.

Buh I 'ere, Shi-shu an' Reh — Reh-hin-nah, safe me. All this talking was hard on him, and he found his voice eventually petering out until it was only gasps and heavy breathing. His throat felt raw, but, he was also somewhat proud of what he'd managed. Reed's lessons had helped him get this far and he was thankful. Mou sighed against Maegi's coat and after resting his voice for a moment, he murmured, Mouh habby M'gee 'ere.

It was difficult to put together what he was saying--much of it was mumbled and fragmented. But she gave it her best effort, gleaning what she thought were the most salient details of the story. Cave. Stuck? Safe--save me. Relmyna had saved him? Her lips curved in a smile that grew even wider as he offered his last remark.

Now that, she understood.

"I'm happy you're here, too," Maegi whispered, nose running idly through his fur. He smelled at once so different and much the same--it was, truly, Mou. Here. "And talking, too--Mou, you're doing such a great job." That was Reed's area of expertise, and she gave a metaphorical tip of the hat to her old friend on the isle, eyes misting slightly as she thought of the ruddy princess.

She sniffled and moved slightly away, picking up the scent of the girl that had come to the border. Something akin to envy rushed through her veins--she remembered the Melonii eyes, the dark fur. The child was certainly of her blood, and it gave her some angst to think that she was not the only princess of her lineage residing in the dark woods.

"How long have you been here?" she asked, pushing those thoughts away for now.

He stays close to her. Even as she pulls away, he cannot help but close part of that gap so that he can still feel the heat of her skin. The sensation of cold air between them is not exactly welcome. And then she asks him an important question — how long. He doesn't know what to say beyond a small shrug of his bony shoulders.

I... I... his gaze went from being fixed and focused on her to drifting and foggy, and then he blinked and looked at her, shrugging again and shaking his head. He really didn't know. Is em-por-dend? Because to Mou, how he got here or how long he'd been here wasn't at all important. The fact was, he was here and she was here — and, he realized, he wanted to say so much more to her but found himself lacking.

He frowned then, and was silent.

It was obvious he didn't know. What did he know, about this place? Maegi shook her head at his question, her face that unusual mix of sadness and joy--shall we call it bittersweet?--that seemed to occupy her countenance so often. "No," she whispered, "it isn't important. What's important is that you're here and safe.."

She scoffed, then, butting his shoulder gently with her head. "I was so worried about you!" the girl scolded, frowning at him--though she couldn't keep the happiness from her eyes, even then. How could she really be angry when fate had brought them together again so perfectly? "I looked all over the place. No one had seen you."

The unmarred side of her mouth quirked in a smile. "Guess that was payback for my night with the poppy seeds, huh?" she said ruefully, shuffling her feet but keeping her gaze firmly fixed on him. She had given him, and everyone else, quite a scare. But that wasn't as bad as leaving without word. . .right?

The poppies. He remembered that moment keenly, even through the fog of his own self-medication and all the terror of the past weeks. He had been so afraid in the cave but that was nothing compared with the thought that she wouldn't survive the poppies — that she would leave him all alone. Maybe he had left as a sort of rebuttal; Mou didn't know why he'd done it really, but he thought of that moment easily and it felt like his heart wasn't a part of his body. Like it was still on the island.

M'gee s'deh, he sighed in to her fur. Mouh s'deh an' M'gee — wh.. whee, whee s'deh. 'Ome now. 

He knew talking was pointless but he tried anyway. He tried to convey something in his screwed up way about them — about her, and him, and this place — and about how they didn't have to go anywhere ever again. Maybe she wouldn't understand. He should've practiced more, Mou thought. 

She struggled to understand him once again--but 'ome now could not be misconstrued. Maegi smiled, nodding. "Yes, we're home," she crooned. There was a pang, though, in her heart as she said the words, thinking of all they had left behind. . .Coelacanth, Venninne, Reed, Moorhen. The list went on from there, and she wondered whether that guilt would ever leave her. Certainly the guilt of abandoning her brothers was still alive and well.

The girl sighed, feeling, once more, the weight of all her past betrayals. She knew that she was tied to Mou forever, for no reason other than she could not walk away from another loved one again. Should she do so, it would be more of the same. Mou had been brought into her life for a reason--she was old enough, now, to know that to undermine the work of the gods and abandon him, too, would be foolish, self-detrimental.

Not to mention that it would hurt him, too.

"Would you like a tour?" she asked suddenly, trying to drag herself from that dark spiral of thoughts. Her eyes gleamed with wry humor. "I know this place pretty well."

Home. It was all that he wanted, he realized, and yet he realized that it didn't matter where he was. As long as he was with Maegi, he could make a home anywhere. This place already felt so much better now that she was here — and he knew, somehow, he would follow her anywhere. Maybe she had followed him here without knowing it — or something had led them. Someone. His mind began to wander then, but Maegi brought him back with a few easy words.

A tour? He smiled, and nodded. Yes, that would be good. Really he just didn't want to leave her side.