The Heartwood Pouliá

in the end, chickadee had gone. she didn't want ceridwin with her, she didn't want anyone to come. her sister knew her as the girl she had always been. her mom needed her close. but chickadee had woken from a blackened nightmare, sticky with sweat, where she had gone back to that place and to that blood, and it had been ani there, throat torn, eyes ripped out, spine broken.
and so she had run from brecheliant, where all she loved lived, where she had never suffered. the pain was inside her. on the edge of the caldera she called to @Maia, to @Eljay, to aiden, to jay, and finally to @Ceridwin, who, somehow, she hoped would find her again. the guilt of having her sister be so protective, so affected; it created shame under her skin.
dwin had been out. dwin had traveled. she had much wisdom to impart.
but the wanderlust and the depression had a chokehold on chickadee.
i'm sorry i couldn't stay. i have to look for ani. i love you.
and on an afterthought, voice hitching, don't come after me.
she wanted to disappear.
it was sorcha who joined antigone, solemn, silent. she looked at him and kept walking in a dogged line, afraid she would cry if she stopped for one moment. he was crying, and her own came in quiet streaming. "come on."