Bonesplinter Ravine who thought she was a nightingale

✹☾❂

 

 
The man was surprisingly stoic, given that they were speaking of matters of life and death. His voice had seemed as if it croaked to life and carried the weight of a thousand lifetimes — with philosophies and ideas which sought to revolutionize the way they looked at what was alive and what was dead. Eleuthera regarded him gingerly as he stood to her side, unsure who this wolf was, who had so many ideas about death, and seemingly lived amongst death.  

“A win-win situation,” she corroborated, appreciating his duality fully. What a wonderful perspective, that everything had the potential to be good; if you chose the mindset to see it that way. “How optimistic of you,” Eleuthera said brightly, the irony dancing a tango on the tip of her tongue. Again, the same question crossed her mind — who was this man?

But, no matter how you could rationalize it, Eleuthera’s heart couldn’t change overnight. The thought of her mother’s lights snuffed out made her profoundly sad, even if it was merciful. She couldn’t help but intuit that Olive and Seabreeze and Ariel had not wanted to die and they fought against it — it was just a feeling, and it made her uncomfortable to think about. Bad things happening to good wolves was something that, in a wheel-of-life kind of way, shouldn’t happen. Eleuthera was a bad wolf; Eleuthera could have borne the weight of their punishments for them.

The gilded stranger tried to relate, but his own parents were still very much alive and thus, he could not. To know that one’s family was out there alive — or to even maintain hope that there was a small chance they were alive — was a sense of comfort Eleuthera no longer had. There was a finality to knowing that struck the lilac fae hard, and her heart suddenly leapt into her chest and began to claw its way up her throat. Tears sprang to her eyes, quite unbidden and quite unwelcome. Eleuthera quickly turned her visage to the side, facing away from the man who seemed so wise that she doubted he ever let his emotion get the best of him. 

She knew it wasn’t her fault, whatever happened to them, but what if she had been able to do something? Eleuthera held her breath for a moment, then quietly she lamented. “I wasn’t there when they needed me. I’m never where I need to be… and she didn’t turn back around to face him. Almost as if she didn’t deserve to even look upon him.