Dragoncrest Cliffs & Lord, if I’ve never had courage in my life before, let me have it now —

the initial hesitance in her approach to where aure's call rises is because of several things, because she is drakru born and bred, because being drakru is everything she is and everything she will ever be regardless of if she leaves or doesn't. it was who she was. there is a deep sadness in her but beyond that a conviction that with no return of a fos goufa and blixen's obvious struggles that it is a fissured kingdom waiting to crumble in on itself; and beyond that the threat of rusalka still remains large. they'd almost killed vercingetorix, after all. drageda was no longer the pillar of strength it'd once been. when heda had thrown herself from the cliff she doomed them all to this.

blodreina was scared. her fear was a greedy beast that threatened to paralyze her with each step she took towards aure and vercingetorix. she does pause and swing her head to study her flank. perhaps there is a subtle roundness to her that hadn't been there before, she can't really tell. the truth is, despite her best attempts to pretend like it wasn't so, there was life growing within her womb. there wasn't much of a maternal bone in her body really but she feels an obligation to think of the life she was creating because it isn't just about her anymore. would it have been, she'd have seen drageda to it's end the way her mother helped see it's conception.

she'd started walking again, at some point and soon finds the figures of aure and verx and her pace slows upon her approach. aure looks like she's about to pop any second. blodreina is pregnant but not so far along that she can't help verx take care of aure on the journey. blodreina isn't sure how it's going to work, truth be told. she doesn't know how to be anything but drakru and she isn't sure how well adjusting is going to be for her ...if she ever adjusts at all. she supposes the trick is to find a pack that can tolerate her and her ways.

shof op, verx. she snaps light-heartedly. it's not like it's an easy decision. blodreina adds seriously. at least, for her, it hadn't been easy. she's still not sure it's the right decision but she's here; because her dreadful feeling that drageda is a jenga tower ready to collapse, because of rusalka which in the end is an ouroboros circling back to the simple fact of the life she carries in her womb and the fact that maybe there is a spark of protectiveness in her heart for the cubs.