Blackfeather Woods [m] The world laughed at any attempts we made to exist in it without pain

He'd had to bite down on his tongue to keep from crying out, so harshly, too, that he'd soon tasted copper within his mouth. His assault continued, dragged out to the point at which Xan thought it might go on forever. He'd started to feel nauseous, sickened by what was happening to him, and then appalled as his body responded to the stimulus. When at last he'd been released, his body had slumped towards the ground, trembling from a mixture of anger, disgust, and even fear. He'd done nothing to provoke the male, nothing to deserve what had been done to him. There within his mind he'd been overcome by a drowning feeling, and he couldn't decide if he wanted to reach out for the surface or not. And so he'd laid there, his face against the surface of the cave, having gone deaf to the words of his attacker.

Xan flinched away as his ear had been touched, eyes shutting as he'd braced himself. There'd come no more pain, though, only the sound of retreating steps. Even after he'd been able to hear the other's footfalls no longer, the boy hadn't moved from his place against the ground. He'd remained there, his mind working to fully grasp all the happened—and once it had is when the tears had finally begun to fall and the trembling of his form increased. Cicero had attacked him, he'd hurt him, he'd taken him. Everything hurt, and he couldn't fix it. So there he'd laid until his body could move at last, but he'd not gone towards the entrance, he'd not fled in order to tell someone of his defilement. Alexander had slunk back to the farthest reaches of the cave, and there he'd stayed.

He was broken, ruined, and absolute filth.