Hushed Willows [m] But don't stop dancing, don't dare stop

Too far, he'd been too far away. On momentary leave, searching the land for fresh food to bring back to his sister.

And her cry rang out.

Pierced and panicked, perhaps not unfamiliar when it came to childbirth - but from Reverie's lips, a cry that chilled him. Misplaced. Unexpected. He heard the fear laced in her breath; too heavy, too deep. He knew his sister too well to this this anything normal.

His hunt abandoned, he called to the Singer with the first note of a prayer that would carry him through the next long hours to come, and he turned his efforts to reaching the den. By the time he arrived, a commotion had already stirred. Thoughtful Minnow leading away a rattled Tuft, wise Abel sticking to the shadows, devoted Reina slipping back into the den -

Everett's gaze hitched on Tybault, who stood guard near the den mouth, but did not enter, and he felt a tightness in his belly.

Not now.

The Medeiros passed his brother with a slow, silent blink, approving his station there, before he plunged into the darkness and the unfolding scene within. If Reverie had asked for Tybault to join her in the den, Everett knew Tybault would be inside. But he was there, outside, so she had not - and better for it. Whether their brother was a part of Hearthwood either spoke to Reverie's forgiveness or her bleeding heart, but Everett still didn't trust him, either way.

He prayed as he drew near the women. Settled next to Reverie with a touch to her shoulder, as he always did, and as he would even hours from now when she welcomed her living children into the world. But now, as his gaze fell upon the tiny bundle wrapped in her arms, his prayers became a lament, and as Kukutux prayed the child to an unknown god, Everett prayed the child to the Singer of Worlds, the One who had led him all this way, and would surely lead them now. But his heart broke; his eyes misted; he wept with her, her griefs borne upon him, becoming his own, for they were his own. His sister. His nephew! Prayers becoming a deep groaning only the Singer would know.

These things escaped in only a whisper here and there, and Everett would allow Reverie to press into him or cast him away as she needed. May she only know she was not alone.

She was never alone.