Dragoncrest Cliffs and be yourself my ally in love’s battle

val allowed himself to be fussed over by chacal. his attention was largely trained on his mothers.

not for the first time was valravn made painfully aware that even those that loved you could hurt you. he thought of how his mothers -- his own mothers -- had manifested a race that, by its very nature, could only humiliate him. his entire life he had looked to adults for their wisdom, for their experience -- and now he was realizing even adults lacked foresight.

for how could they not consider their son in this race? his heart became prickly as chacal receeded.

he stayed long enough to watch njord, vex, and merlin depart into the water. his gaze was hard even, as they made their bid for home -- only, things had gone wrong.

of course they had gone wrong. it was the fucking water -- everything was wrong about the water. valravn's heart iced over as he saw erzulie's expression go from stony to suddenly apprehensive -- merlin's head had disappeared underwater and had not resurfaced.

and now his mother -- his lunatic fucking mother -- was going in the water where merlin's form had been lost.

valravn killed the cry that rose instinctively to his lips as he watched, and waited, for erzulie's form to re-emerge. the boy was not heartless, and he hoped that merlin's figure would reappear at any moment, but he could not stomach the repeated divings of his mother out of sight -- it became too much for his terrified heart.

the moment he saw erzulie (and possibly merlin) break from the stormy water, valravn would leave after chacal -- but not before each of them was given an unusually cold and hard stare from the boy.