Noctisardor Bypass [m] ashkola

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she bathed in the water beside silencepine, gritting her teeth at its cold tinge. the more she stayed in rivenwood, the more the warm familiarity of the place rose around her in a way that she had not been able to evoke on her own.
the soaking of her fur did little but turn heda into all bony angles and bedraggled pelt, but she smoothed it down as best as she was able until her hips had some semblance of a curve.
she had little reason to think druid had been kidding about @Glaukos, but the entire thing was just so bizarre, and half a year ago heda might have found herself scandalized, offended even.
now, even though she said she wasn't, the widow surreptitiously searched for the big man, pausing beside the lagoon to watch ospsrey fish on the cold surface.

Having an additional mouth to feed did not bother Glaukos in the slightest. He was glad that Druid had found someone who was important to her, and that was all. Hunting was not so difficult in this space either — he had caught some fish that morning for himself and then sighted a small herd of deer passing through the area, and figured he could bring them to the attention of the two women if they craved red meat. Life went on. For Glaukos that involved the work of feeding the women and keeping the territory scouted, and he kept himself busy enough with these tasks.

It felt good to him to have a purpose again.

As he ambled through the woods now, he heard the sound of something slapping water and his interest was piqued. The man sought out the lagoon and once at its edge he saw Heda, but not what she had been watching. He rumbles a small, low sound to alert her of his presence, as he did not wish to surprise her.

the man arrived, and heda turned her head to look at him. "hello." her voice was soft, pitched hardly over the sluggish rush of the lagoon. she couldn't think of what else to say in that moment, and so looked back out over the water.
"the man who raised us often sat here. he watched the ospreys." she pointed out the large nesting birds, idly wondering if they too were the same from all those years ago.
now that druid had given her name as heda, she felt no reason to return to widow — regardless of how she felt inside.

There was a sadness to her that was unbecoming. It wasn't the same strength that had always imbued Druid, which had earned the other woman Glaukos' attention; but he did not know her story, and could not fault her for how damaging the wilderness could be when someone was ill-prepared. They looked to be as different as night and day, these sisters.

She spoke of the past. His eyes followed the birds in question but he wasn't entirely sure that was what she meant; he had not learned the names of these things, as it had never mattered before. He did not speak yet — preferring to linger and to listen, and to keep watch so that the woman would know he was not after anything from her.

Once a little time had passed, he cleared his throat and said, I grew up nearby. The valley. Bearclaw; he did not want to speak it, suddenly. The name of that place had stopped being relevant to him years ago.

there was a — distance — between them that was not only physical. heda was unsure of how to even broach what her sister had said. she felt dismal, as though she were sitting in a pool of slowly heating water and the only way out was to burn herself.
heda found herself unappealing and certainly any man would too, save anselm, who had hated her before and after. compared to druid, she was a downright hag. 
self-consciously she lifted a paw to her cheek, staring down into the doom-eyed wavering reflection on the lagoon's surface. "we didn't go too many places when i was here. by then i was already leaving, to that glacier in the taiga. duskfire was its name at the time."
idle. stupid. she wanted to turn to glaukos and ask right out.

He wasn't sure why she felt the need to tell him about these things. These bids for connection were important, he knew that much even if he could not put the thought in to words, and so he entertained her by listening; but she seemed distracted at the same time, focused on her reflection and focused on wallowing. He was right to think the two sisters were worlds apart — Druid seemed so alive compared to Heda.

While she appeared distracted, Glaukos shifted his weight and moved closer to the water's edge. He looked at his own reflection and saw how his heft had begun to reduce, given that he wasn't training as a soldier any longer. He saw Heda there too, in the ripples, and wondered to himself what she was like before — whatever it was that had so spoiled her.

His eyes lingered there. Watching that image of her shifting apart.

You are here now. Home. What use was it to dwell on the past? They each had their own histories, but they were gone. The present was all that mattered to him; he barely even though of the future or what Druid may birth here in Rivenwood, and only took his moments day by day.

The ripples across the lagoon's surface appeared to ease. Further out, the ospreys soared and dipped.

What is it you want from this place? He probed in small ways, indulging what limited curiosity he held for her, but being careful. She was an unknown factor despite her connection to Druid, who he would protect above all.

a safe place for my daughters.
a place to start over.
she shut her eyes and drew a breath that felt like skin stretched over a drum, then turned her golden eyes upon him, their silver sockets deepened with all she had been through "— children."
if there was ever a moment to make a bid, it was now.
and so, in the manner of a woman smoothing a threadbare skirt around her knees, heda straightened and drew closer to glaukos, stopping a hesitant distance away. "i need someone safe for that, not a — not someone who i can't trust."
she did not plead; she would not beg. the widow had much idea of how this appeared, and how it would be an act of pity for him, but she needed anselm out of the proverbial picture. she could live with silent and taciturn. she could not with explosive resentment.

Now came the subject that had been like a fraying thread between them. Glaukos had not thought of its validity when Druid had initially spoken it to life, but now as he watched Heda and he listened to her answer, he knew he could serve in such a way. He knew what he had been craving since encountering Sialuk, and what Druid had done her best to mitigate within him.

As Heda drew closer, Glaukos did not move. He did not want to upset her.

He did not know if he could be trusted. He did not think he could be a father, not really; but he could hunt, and he could fight, and already one sister thought that was enough. Trust was something he could not outright give to her - it was to be built. Perhaps by giving her what she wanted, and by proving he would not take more than what was offered, something could begin here.

He slowly rose to his full height, dwarfing her.

The expression on his face had not shifted much from the sullen, stoic mask that he often wore; but there was wonder in his eye, too. Something struggling to remain passive, hiding a deeper hunger.

You are safe here, he intoned finally, and bowed his head to her; this bear of a man, ready to do as she required of him — or nothing at all, if she should change her mind.

it would be as quick as necessity demanded, perhaps a second repetition after they had rested for a few moments, just so heda could be sure that glaukos would believe them to be his.
and perhaps they would be. but if there was any hope from god it was that he would provide a miraculous way out of conception now twice.
yet she had grown colder and pragmatic; she thought as the feral thing to which her deity had reduced her, and perhaps in this mental divorcing she found a small, rudimentary pleasure in the act.
he was so different from caracal that she could not compare them, and so perhaps for the first time since his death, he did not come to her mind as more than a glissade of longing still salted with pain.
when they parted, heda was unsure what to say or if to say anything at all; she looked into his face as if seeing his countenance for the first time, studied him. "will you tell druid i'm going? i want to go and be back as soon as i can."

He'd had enough practice with Druid to know how to comport himself by now, but still Glaukos could be too rough, or forget that his partner in this moment was someone too small for him, or delicate; so while Heda worried over her own struggles, Glaukos was lost to his own body's sensations.

In the aftermath he gave her space — and found her eyes upon him instead, in a look that made the soldier pause. There was no talk of togetherness or childhood or names with Heda; she seemed more invested in getting away from him once his role was completed.

Her message was met with a nod of his head. He would be sure to tell Druid this, and did not stop Heda should she want to depart.

Satisfied in some small way by what he'd done, Glaukos returned to his survey of the lagoon's edge with the same stoic focus as before, as if nothing had transpired at all.