Swiftcurrent Creek Like waves of sweet fire

@Zephyr
Forwarded to around 2AM.
The world was kind and it started raining so have this thread :eyes:

Restless, yet tired all the same. His mind whirls, spinning in directions outside of his control. It is, thus, that the eldest [living] Karl child finds himself unable to escape to his dreams. He lays amongst his family, attempting to fall asleep by pure will alone. Alas, after many hours, Helios gives in. Eyes open, and the boy raises his head from his paws. He glances around the den; vision adjusting to the darkness.

No one appears awake. He doesn't plan to change that either, despite the drumming of his heart. Helios gets to his feet, slipping away from the suffocating comfort of his family den and into the night. The air crisp and cool, unlike the days which continue to get hotter. Above him, a crescent moon and a plethora of stars sprinkled in the night sky. He wanders a few dozen feet away from the den, to a clearing he knows well enough. There, he sits and looks up.

Something heavy taints the air, and the sprite stirs to its bitter taste on his tongue and an icy trickle of dread down his spine. The awakening is too familiar, too tiring to draw a true reaction, and he sags against the floor for a moment before the darkness registers. Different, he thinks, stirring faintly as the realization breathes a small amount of life into him. He's never woken this late before — early? He drags himself to his feet with a yawn, tense as his gaze scans the den entrance for that familiar form — but there is nothing. No dancing shadow creatures, no scuffles and whispers just beyond the threshold. The absence puzzles him in the breath before he notices another, far more significant absence. His heart leaps into his throat, tail sweeping between his legs, and for a moment he's paralyzed by the flood of emotion.
But then he's moving, limbs trembling as he steps forward so quickly — no, he's moving slowly, isn't he? A sharp breath escapes him and he presses forward, urging his body to respond despite the chill creeping up his limbs. Don't think about shadow monsters, he tells himself, immediately cursing his own stupidity for the thought; that's thinking about shadow monsters! His breath quickens, gaze trained firmly on the ground. After eight and a half years, Helios's scent finally grows stronger, like he's close, and he dares a glance up. Helios! He blurts, far louder than he'd intended, and drops to his haunches with a wheeze. Why are you — ugh! He trembles harder, struggling to control his breathing as he glares at his brother. Why are you making me feel like this, he wants to say, and: get back in the den, idiot! Instead, he wheezes.

A breath is taken, and he exhales it slowly—missing the way chiller nights would make it visible. Around him, he focuses on the soft rustle of leaves as the wind blows, and the telltale chirps of insects rising from their long hibernation during winter. It keeps him grounded, in a way. Calm, with his heart no longer stuttering. Mind clearing from it's heavy fog. Just him, and the starry night sky.

The raven boy slowly closes his eyes. His breaths becoming slower, despite a cough escaping him every now and then. Those are normal, and something he has experienced since Day One. It is weird when they don't affect him. But he thinks—letting his mind wander—about a life where he can run; about a life chasing the stars. He wonders how they might feel, if they would taste good, or if they'd just burn his eyes like the sun does every day.

"Helios!"

The trance breaks.

Helios opens his eyes, just as gradual as he had previously closed them. His ears swerve in the direction of a very familiar voice, and he turns to see Zephyr dropping with a wheeze. It doesn't keep the silver pup from shouting. Helios wonders what his sibling's problem is, especially when icy eyes turn heated. The raven gets to his feet, twisting to approach his fallen baby sibling. He tries to press his nose to Zephyr's cheek in greeting; copying Maman's habits.

« What are you doing? » Helios questions, laying before the silver dagger. His breaths keeping even, in effort to help with slowing Zephyr's.

His breathing calms a little when his brother's attention turns to him, though he's still glaring when Helios approaches. He's reluctant to allow the greeting, but it's something familiar, and his oldest sibling has always secretly been his favorite. The touch calms him a little more, enough to form a proper response: Not supposed to be out here, The words are solemn, tinged with anxiety, and his eyes are wide as he watches for Helios's reaction. Shadow monsters. He adds quietly after a few beats, glancing around briefly as if speaking of the creatures will summon them. Surely Helios will understand the danger now, and come back to the den with him.

Ah, Zephyr is right.

The raven boy ought to be tucked in bed with the lot of them, yet he roams in the dark instead. Unable to lure sleep to him. A quiet grunt escapes Helios, tempted to argue with the silver dagger as he places his chin overtop his younger sibling's back. He starts to groom, licking Zephyr's scruff in further attempts to calm, as he has witnessed his parents do before.

His baby blues stay on the night sky.

« It's safe. » There are no shadow monsters that can take them. Certainly not Zephyr, for Helios would fight to his last breath to keep the silver pup safe.

His expression falls further when Helios does not move or even seem alarmed by his words, ears pinning back even as his brother begins to groom him. The sprite is silent for several long moments, stewing in his anxiety and displeasure. It's not, He says finally, sullen as he settles against the earth. Everything in him screams at him to flee, but he refuses to abandon Helios to his fate. If he is so determined to get himself eaten by shadow monsters, then he will at least not do it alone.

Zephyr is stubborn, but so is Helios. The raven boy stays a dead weight nestled against his youngest sibling, unwilling to move for he is finally growing comfortable. Out here, he can breathe. Pausing his grooming, his tongue sticks out between his lips, eyes turning from the night sky to stare at Zephyr for a long moment. « Is so, » he counters. Nothing can hurt them. Otherwise their parents will kick its ass back to the shadowy depths of wherever it came from.

He falls silent again, deciding there's no point in arguing when Helios is so stubborn and so clearly wrong. Casting an unimpressed glance over his brother's extended tongue, he turns his own gaze away and toward the sky. It is beautiful out here. He almost starts to feel peaceful after a few moments.
Then a deep rumble fills his ears, and the hair along his spine prickles as he freezes in response. Fear swallows him before he even registers what's going on, and the urge to flee becomes overwhelming — but he's locked in place. Do you hear that? He whispers, breathless and terrified and still staring at the sky. He's far too afraid of what he might see to look away.

Zephyr has a tendency to hear and see what Helios cannot. Often times he wonders just what his younger sibling envisions, and why it comes into being. Perhaps it is similar to the terrors that quake him nights the raven boy gets an ounce of sleep. He feels the way Zephyr stiffens underneath his hold, and for a moment, Helios tenses out of instinct.

« No. » He hears nothing other than the fast beat of his siblings heart, of hushed breaths taken and exhaled, and the quiet of the night surrounding them. He leans his cheek on Zephyr's scruff.