Blackfeather Woods divine timing

several days ago!!! backdated to around “march” thread

the world and it’s ways was changing her. Toula did not drift too far from her camp, only far enough to look upon herself in the still lakewater. Toula was keenly aware she might need to do something she never before had dreamt she would do—because she was not only Toula, now, but Pharaoh. 
she thought of her fiercest sister, and longed for her. how unafraid the golden eagle would be! what words of wisdom might she share with her? 
I go to war, she breathed to the Gods and Goddesses, and the spirits in the world in between. I go to war and I know what must be done. I know I Can command others to do it, but I feel… how can I do such a thing, if I myself will not do it? how can I ask others to fight for a thing I myself would not? she lowered her lips to the waters, casting ripples as she said in a small voice that none would ever hear but for herself, and these Gods and Goddesses and spirits, but I am afraid, came her whisper-quiet words, muted by the flight of crows above. Toula listened for Them, as if They could be heard again outside of dreams and prayer.

good hunting took her down below. where she ran through fields without cares. she had tasted much blood but none of them could fall beneath her own teeth alone.

it had inspired something wild and reckless.

maybe it was knowing that the shadow ridge would always be safe with muskrat there and that since hex returned, things might not be so grim. there was the girl too. quick growing and training hard.

the royal eagle could satisfy her needs down here before she returned.

only the scent grew from something prey to something...divine. it should not be here. her heart hammered so strong that it set off something within her. auto-pilot instructed her to follow, but makono did not feel her flesh anymore. her body was not her own, guided by something larger than her.

you are too close, were the warnings within her.

you are so close! were the chants of her spirit.

it could not be. her flesh refused it but her Ka yearned for it. something ancient waking and stirring within her. blood burned and roared, something up ahead rippled the waters and she looked with her one good eye. terrified of what she might see across the way. begging to see who it was. she had very scarcely been this conflicted before — maybe once, maybe twice.

her skin burned with holy fire.

she had thought she might have a many grand thing to say. that she might come with a million treasures and trinkets to show her devotion to the young woman who would always be princess toula to her.

"i will always think of you."

the surge of emotions felt far too much to hold in. the inside of her cheeks were chewed like fat.

"i love you. do you know this?"

and it had not changed when she had learned that she had been replaced. for it was the right thing to do and it had been such a grand choice. maybe it had been for the best, anyway, somehow.

for toula looked every bit Divine Pharaoh while makono was nothing more than a windswept warrior now. too struck by her own flood of feelings to say anything.

some might call it instinct—but Toula would tell you, the Gods demanded that then and there she turn around. and so she did, the sight awaiting her there nearly every answered prayer. there stood that golden eagle, and Toula gasped—
not in turmoil, not to see Her, nor in disbelief—somewhere in her heart the now Pharaoh knew Makono would not go so early, her flame burned too greatly!
and she also saw Makono as perhaps she was always meant to be. wild, free, unbound—beholden to no law, no man, no woman, too big for any of that. too brilliant, too bright—and Gods, each scar she wore only made her more beautiful! 
Toula cried out with joy, to be reunited with so big of a missing piece of her heart that now beat a little more steadily. sister! not for a moment did Toula’s love for her falter. one might think absence made the heart grow even fonder, but Toula loved Makono then as she did now—with all of herself.

no titles between them.

only the knowledge of the blood that bound them. it was deeper than that. she knew that much to be true. for her heart felt something raw to hear toula's voice so warmly welcome her. not scorn, not anguish. although she very much thought that she might have deserved either.

come here, but it was no command. only the soft ushering of a woman who very much still felt like big sister to her beloved princess.

she had been moving even before the sentence could be finished. Toula looked with love upon the hurts bestowed upon Makono, and saw how the world had changed her too. Toula flung her arms around her sister in an affectionately familial embrace, air stolen from her lungs upon contact to know and to feel that this was reality, that she was really here! 
much more has changed, but this love shared between them was an eternal thing. I love you, she said, for all the times she had not been able to say it when Makono had been gone, I love you, I love you! her tail waved steadily behind her as she bestowed sisterly kisses upon the one-eyed eagle. she withdrew to really look at Makono and said with much knowing, bless Khonsu, to have led you to me—and Thoth, for determining the amount of time I must endure without you has come to an end! she laughed around her joyful tears, leaning into her.

three blessings.

three bestowals of love upon her from the royal crown. she saw it now and did not envy how well toula wore it. how somehow she had kept such a soft and warm heart despite all that the throne could ask of one's spirit.

or maybe, maybe it had only ever asked so much of herself — of their father.

now toula could be peace and grace.

i love you, she exhaled at the end of her sister's blessings. somehow untangled and strung up again all at once. she could not hide beneath such royal eyes. they carried the shadows of their father but held a radiance unlike any other.

who will you bless if i tell you i am meant only for bloodshed and wilds now?

a smile, soft and tired. a paw reached to touch Pharaoh's gentle features.