Blackfeather Woods the green mile

It was with great reluctance that she had set foot in the glen once more. This had once been her place, her shared stomping ground with her brothers. But since Ramsay and Euron had left with Cicero, she'd avoided it altogether, not even coming near the cliffs that bordered it. The whelping den was there, though, and if she were to be any sort of help--whether practical or emotional--to Relmyna, she must go. . .and swallow the memories that choked her with every breath.

She lingered outside, wincing at the woman's cries but not feeling it her place to enter the den. Soon enough, all was calm, the soft, homely sounds of a mother nursing her newborn children music to her ears. This was the first birth she was present for save her own, and it was natural that she'd remember much more of the details of this one.

Kove appeared, an otter clenched in his jaws, and Maegi gave him a shaky smile, watching as he entered the den. She counted a few silent seconds in her head before slipping into the cave herself, a small, pale shadow of her mentor.

The stone beneath her pads was cool and familiar, the dark wet atmosphere of the place like coming home again. She blinked at Relmyna, the smile lingering on her muzzle, then her gaze shifted downward, to the two pups nestled against her belly.

One white, one black. Cuddled together so tightly, it seemed as if nothing could separate them.

A sob rose very suddenly in her throat, and she looked away, feeling the loss of her brothers more acutely than if someone had broken one of her limbs. There was no gray to complete the trio, but she could have very well been looking at her and Ramsay, nestled against Potema's belly in a perfect world. And they were perfect, at least from what she could see, their bodies sleek and soft and normal. Not strange, not demons, like she and her littermates had been.

The world would smile down upon the newest Blackfeathers, she was sure of it. She knew she must serve as a teacher, a friend, a dark sister to the babes. Who else would?

But in this moment, all she wanted was her brothers at her side.