Duck Lake Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved

He made it as far as the lake. Lestan would have killed him if he'd stayed a moment longer, and might still even now. Tybault had lost too much blood, far too much. His own knowledge of medicine was limited but it didn't take a doctor to know that it was a miracle he hadn't collapsed yet. It wasn't adrenaline that kept him going at this point.
It was the icy feeling in his chest, as if everything under his ribs had frozen solid. The feeling was his anchor. Tybault stopped to look out over the lake, aware of the way blood trickled from his torn face even now. He would need to find the twins, and then... and then...
Then he would go back to the island.

He had only started to worry for his brother when Tybault didn't come back.

Of course, they should have known their younger brother would leave as soon as Ophelia's scent trail had started to fade, and Evander felt guilty that he and Everett hadn't pursued their sister sooner. He hadn't actually seen much of her at all - only heard what she was like through the grapevine of Everett. She had changed, like they all had, only more. That she wouldn't even listen to Ophelia anymore.

So he'd given her space. And... maybe too much. But she had left, after all, and hadn't returned, and in every way treated herself like someone who didn't want to be found. But...

He's not really going where Ophelia went, Evander thought aloud, and turned to his brother with a frown.

Indeed, following Tybault hadn't led them to Ophelia at all. Rather, they found themselves far from where her own trail had branched, and thick in a land of placid waters and quibbling ducks. The tranquillity of everything other than the water fowl at least made up for the raucous noise, though Everett would look forward to being somewhere... quieter, once they made it through this place.

He caught the flash of his brother's frown and held back a derisive laugh. If Tybault wasn't following Ophelia, then Everett could only guess why their brother had left them without word or reason why. Be a man, Everett. Easier said than done - but he pulled a straight face and shrugged. Well, he's still gone, and knowing no reason is worse than having one.

And they would find him, for no reason other than that he was their brother. Sunlight peeked through the nearby edge of the aspen grove, glinting off calm waters and suggesting a large swath of land that would be much easier to navigate through than the tangled maze of trees.

They're just about to come out of the grove of aspen trees on the western edge of Duck Lake, feel free to have Tybault hear them or see them in your next post if you'd like! ^^

He heard their voices before he saw them, and chuckled under his breath. Of course they weren't far behind. Tybault turned away from the lake and trailed toward the sound of his brothers' voices. He winced with the first step, but his face settled back into stoicism by the time they were within sight of one another. ... worse than having one, he heard; Everett's voice. He wondered briefly what they were talking about — but only briefly.
Determined to get ahead of their inevitable shock, he called out first. Before you ask what happened, He started, surprised by how calm and unwavering his own voice sounded. I got my ass kicked by some twinkle-toes bitch. Tybault spat blood into the snow. For her, of course. Their sister, their nameless sister who he had hurt irreparably. Enough time had passed for the regret to set in. It had felt like the only option at the time, but now, looking back — it just felt like cruelty.

Evander smirked at the look that had momentarily crossed his brother’s face. He knew Everett still wasn’t happy about Tybault being here and Tybault doing this or that, but he was doing a darn decent job at making himself sound like he cared. And Evander reckoned he did care, somewhere deep in that boxed up heart of his. If even just because Tybault was their brother. Actually, probably only because of that.

That was when Tybault materialized.

Parts of him, anyway.

Evander’s jaw slacked but Tybault was talking before he or Everett could even get a word in edgewise. Unnervingly calm, considering the blood that stained him up and down, and that he spat from his very own shredded up mouth.

The heck, Tybault! Evander rushed forward, and his voice cracked with the stress, he did more than kick your ass, he just about ripped it right off! And where was Ophelia? Where was the other guy now? And what were you supposed to do for wounds again? Clean them, clean them with something. Cobwebs? Cobwebs. But what came after that?

Everett picked up where Evander left off, but instead of rushing towards his brother and fretting over him like Evander did, Everett hung back. Cool as the ice that slicked the ponds around them.

Someone had done this to Tybault, but what had Tybault done to them? What had he done to her? He’d seen how much Ophelia had pushed him away - but he had no answers why. Why she had told him she loved him. Why she had left them again.

And where is she now? Everett asked, stilted and flat, because she sure wasn’t with Tybault now. And what did he do to her?