Moonspear There will be no more stories after this one.

As Dacio's condition declined, she stayed closer to his den--as if any amount of her watching over him may change what course nature has viciously set him upon. If not immediately in reach (studying the rise and fall of his sides, glaring at the festering elbow, waiting as fever ran through him, or just being company) she lingered near, feeling utterly aimless and fetching a few needs but largely, running on a single-minded focus of seeing him through this.

But days were blurring together, and the young warrior was tired. Day after day, no headway. His wits were well about him, but she saw how the fatigue weighed at him. Her brother was not improving. He was...

Opalia leaned against side, vaguely opposite Praimfaya, her ears folded back and eyes burning--knowing if she moved, it may be over for all the careful containment of everything that hurt her. She listened with a little grunt, and stubbornly didn't want to think about firstborns she had no nearby plans for, let alone how to honor Dacio's name from beyond his own end. And, even if she did have such designs, he was meant to be there with her, with Praimfaya, and whatever else could come after too. He might not fear his death, but that did not mean she was ready to see him off yet. She couldn't stop thinking of everything there had been, and there was yet to be between the three of them.

Distantly, she heard the wanheda's voice. Yu gonplei ste odon, Dacio kom Roankru. Yu gonplei ste odon...

No. Everything went cold, numb, she couldn't move. Her vision swam, edges blurring. No. Dacio... she whined, voice small, loss looming but fight not yet gone from her.

Not without her! she wanted to protest, and the tension coiling in her muscles screamed this. She choked on the sob she could not quiet as it felt like her grasp on so very much just couldn't be enough, again, and this time with a finality unseen. She shook, and sunk into him, her tear-streaked muzzle against his neck, blending her golds against his silver as she'd done so many times in the lifetime they spent together--determined not to focus on how withered he was already and desperate to hold onto him. There was one absence that she had never needed to feel before. No number of days of watching it slowly come for him would ever have her ready.