Sunset Valley yeah. i couldn't either.

posts will probably be long this thread for quen growth — never any need to match <3

it was bad.

he did not need to be any medic or therapist to decide that for them. two young boys bloodied in the snow, laid out like the ragdolls they had been for the bear.

quennell practically tailless, swordfish sliced sidelong.

the winds whipped around them and the snow helped his rear more than he knew in those moments. the dustings of day old snow swirled and fogged the area. the bear could have been breathing on them and quen figured he would have been none the wiser.

"Ma?"

lazily, his head rolled to the side. staring at swordfish, or rather through him. wondering if somehow meemee had come to them. maybe she had been doting, maybe she was here to tell them it was alright. to joke that shark fighting was not fit for bear fighting.

but there was no meemee. there was no maman in sight.

and everybody was going to hate quen for taking swordfish out with him that day, for letting them both get half-bear devoured. if they made it home. if they ever saw the faces again.

the face swordfish called for in the snow.

maybe njord would hate him most. for telling the pirate boy the story of that disastrous demon, shardik, only for quen to lead his son into the ghost of that demon. he would have found the comedy in it if he did not lay here. wounded from the rear.

's jus' me, s'ord. he laughed, then coughed slightly. lungs burned from the cold exhaustion. then he was crying again. uncertain when his laughter had turned into tears again.

it was just him.

quennell dahomey-rivaini — a son of the sea not fit to face the world beyond the coast.