Dragoncrest Cliffs for the arms that hold me

jesus i wrote a lot. srry guys

He expects nothing as feet carry him in the shadow of the Commander, but fufilling the sole purpose she has set to him since arrival; remembering that his life is not his own. And he does so, little by little surrendering himself to the ideals of Drageda's matriarch, and assimilating what he knew and what he is expect to know deep within his mind. But still, there is a barrier that holds unrelenting against the tides of her mindwashing; demanding that he recall what freedom was like and how it tasted. He is not ready to give up his old life. This would never be so more apparent then when the woman who threatened to take away everything he had stumbled upon the one thing he had left. Julep.

Instantantiously, his heart stops. All muscles seem to lock up within his body as he watches her scrambling body fight to pull herself from the water, and as her mouth opens to form a voice he truly never imagined he would hear again. His mouth dries up, breath caught in mid balance and he cannot seem to form a coherent thought as the floods of warning mixed with utter astonisment seem to flush out all other sense of reality. His eyes widen, sheer disbelief etched into every corner of his face as he begins to step forward, paw extended in an almost-attempt to embrace his sister once more. But the movement falls incomplete and so does his expression, dropping his foot to a stop and ceasing the overwhelming excitement as if it was never there. Instead, he stands placid, body rigid if not stoic in his bet attempt to pretend as if he does not know her. Every shred of acting ability he can muster within himself, does he throw into the preformance, the condemning facade, pushing his eyes to remain cold and utterly distant as the waves that crash in the far distance. He does this because of her. He cannot touch his sister, because of her. He cannot embrace is only living sibling after months of seperation, because of her. He cannot open his mouth to speak in Julep's direction, because of her. He knows that if there is any indication that the two are connected by blood, he will never see his sister again. It is because of her, and the fear she has instilled within his heart. It is because of the plan he knows she has for him, that is life will never be his own ever again; that any ties he had to his old life will drown and sink with the fishes. He knows this, and he cannot move or threaten what he has so quickly and pleadingly built so fast to hide those very emotions in a quick instant. Instead does he stare ahead into the distance, letting the cry of the gulls drown out the rapid pace of his heart that beats like a sledgehammer against rock within his ears, and he remains there, a post against the wind in guard of the Commander, morally unyeilding against all the emotions that threaten to surface. He cannot and he will not. He cannot, and he repeats this with a flick on his tounge as the woman capable of murdering his only remaining blood reaches out to the only girl he was ever meant to protect.

It is in this moment that Isengrim Cairn, son of the Leviathan and Barracuda of the Depths, never felt more helpless.