Wheeling Gull Isle You are my anchor, so steady me, steady me now

also tagging @Saint @Accipitra @Hierophant @Anathema ! <3

The driftwood creaks under the strain of the children and the wear of the wood across the sand.

When he was certain Reverie and Lestan had left him, he had set about to clear the children from the wood and had cleaned up the surface of their cradle the best he could. If there had been any berries left, he had discarded of them the same way he had destroyed the rest, pounding them into the dirt and scuffing dust across them so no one could eat of them again. Already, two showed signs of their ingestion, and his heart wept for them, but he was no healer, and there was very little he could do.

He would help them as they grew. He would teach them how to know what was real and what was not, if the delusions lingered like the ones that still scarred him from the Gilded Sea.

Everett sought to soothe the children as he pushed them down the shoreline by singing sweet hymns he'd heard from Heda, the same she would sing to her children as she spun the love of God about them. He let his soft voice drift over the pups and prayed that God might use his words and the sound of his song to lull them with some semblance of peace.

He sang for them, and for himself also. His heart was in disarray. He could only think of Reverie and Lestan and how they fell and were falling still. As he pulled himself further from the confrontation by the river, the more he worried for Lestan. Lestan, more than Reverie. Although she looked like herself, something had changed in her, and now she spoke like a mad woman. There was no freedom in the way she clung to her husband. Only chains that he did not think Lestan had imposed.

Everett quieted as he reached the shoreline. He kept the driftwood well enough away that he could catch any of the children if they tried to crawl into the sea. The landbridge lay under the waves, but he knew in time, it would show itself again.

Be at peace, little ones, he said softly to the children. Oh, what would Heda even say? He had worried about that too.

With a tip of his head, Everett called for her: @Heda first, and @Caracal too. He hoped Manea was near and might watch the children. This was not a light decision, and he wanted the new parents to hear and make their choice together.

His howl rang out over briny sea, and now, Everett let it be. He turned to the children, who were filthy with sand and seawater, and set down to groom them, one by one and speaking softly to them, as he waited for the parents to arrive.