Ankyra Sound ocean death

Forward dated a few days <3

The absence of Val could not have gone unnoticed. The wolves of Sapphique wandered sometimes, it was true, but Lucette had often trailed the scents idly past the borders — and never had she found one that did not fade out into the great beyond, but cut away abruptly in salt and stone by the sea. Quietly Lucette thought that Val could not have left Sapphique. Not by land.

When days had passed she roused @Lafayette, whispering to him with Val's name on her lips and uncharacteristic worry in her eyes. Together they slipped down toward the sound, wordless. At some point she lost track of him in the searching, but Lucette was unconcerned. They were near enough to shout to one another.

She was grateful, too, that her twin was not with her when she discovered the body. Dark and still, too small to be Val surely. Too frail. Lucette stepped closer with dry eyes, and discovered quickly that death makes puppets of us all; loose, empty things, shrunken without the light of life behind the eyes. His green eyes. They should not have looked that way.

Lucette did not weep, but sat beside him and turned her eyes toward the sea. She didn't know if she ought to weep for him, just as she'd never known whether she ought to call him father.