Blackfeather Woods and sleep as i in childhood sweetly slept,

WEEPING MEADOW @Damien, whenever you have a chance

the willow.
redgrove formed a safe and well traversed place wherein shivali had also brought her young. and while relmyna had withdrawn since her time at the berry-place, averna and astara were old enough to be left in the company of their packmates. she must return now to the studies she had postponed during the early days of her daughters' lives.
whatever dried and eerie plantlife cicero had left behind was now in the woman's possession; she had marked his densite as his own and knew she needed no tongue to defend it. whosoever would challenge her claim was a fool, for those in blackfeather aware of who she was knew what she had been to both the melonii and sheogorath..
the rock of tongue was carried in her mute jaws to the place relmyna had before not trusted herself to visit. and now she stood before its twisted bole, watching silently as the wisped leaves moved gently against the earth, brushing one another. lowering her haunches to the earth, she set down the stone and placed it beneath one paw; her breathing steadied and she tasted the bitterness of things to come. 
it was not long before she was lifted in dizziness and nausea; surprised at the swiftness of her malady, relmyna sank to the earth, curling close to her connection with those who spoke, those who could speak, and retching out the remainder of her breakfast into the grasses. all worthwhile, all necessary; she must be brought to bow before the foot of the mother.

OMG EB! IDK why I thought she was killing herself for a moment and teared up a little T.T

Just out of pure curiosity Damien veered off from the borders once he reached the western edge to find his way towards the Weeping Willow. Cicero, as Damien remembered, would spend entire days within the spores' reach without apparent purpose, and though Damien feared that the effects of the poison would one day take a toll on his brother there was no might capable of dissuading the patchwork spider.

He went hoping to find a trace of him. A mark, a hidden message, perhaps even Cicero himself just dosing off under the willow's poisonous shade, but instead he found the consort he left behind. From Damien's point of view Relmyna was in danger. She was vulnerable to the effects of the mysterious tree, closer to death with every second she spent within the clearing. She could not be spared, Relmyna had not only the responsibility of bringing up Cicero's daughters, but she was also already part of the Melonii clan, and thus, part of Damien's family. But the dark prince had his reservations about ever nearing the tree again. He went as far as to walk across the treeline that surround the willow's reach, and even from that distance Damien could smell the faint bitter ether emanating from the tree, blurring his vision. From there he barked at the mute hoping that she still had a grip on reality strong enough to determine his presence and hopefully give him some sort of signal. What was she hoping to achieve?

sorry! D: <3 <3 <3

a ridge. a black wolf.
she breathed —
snowfallen, stone ground.
she breathed —
a cry, the immolation of stars in her flesh
breath —
slowly the pale girl hidden in the recesses of the mute stirred, uncoiled, peered sharply up, and relmyna beheld the fractured turquoise of her inner self's stare
breath —
he said he would kill them
taggarik
flight. terich.
a horror was beginning to grow in her chest, a burgeoning mass that clipped her teeth together with savage snappings, writhed her body against the earth
breath.
agony. the metallic scent of her own blood; the sensation of dismemberment.
her failure compounded in the lifeless bodies of her children//you were willing to trade them to taggarik for the price of your own soul
that was not forgotten
a sob, an intake; a strangled cry at the clenching of a belly that had nothing left to spew into the dirt —
vuk. take your name.
"t ... ch."
breath breath breath vuk seff terich vuk seff terich vuk vuk vuk
you killed him
you killed him.
you killed him.
"r...w .. ch. t ... eh..ch."
sobbing, drawing more of the poison within herself, the brush of willowbranch against earth.
get up//i killed him//get up now, vuk
weak, gaze murky — a cry in the gloom. " 'ih...c'ro." 
he is dead — you know it to be true
and then a screaming such as relmyna had never before uttered, the one syllable of the dark brother's name she was able to pronounce —
"AME! AME! AME! AME!"
the woman did not stop until her voice broke into wretched coughing that cut her throat with thorns.

I just love everything you write
Plenty of PP but I figured it was necessary. I can edit stuff if you want <3

The air was poisoned, he'd felt it already. The memories of his childhood around this tree were no good, they were of violence and hatred, of fear and revenge, which is why Damien had always tried to avoid the place as much as possible. But today it seemed he had no choice. Relmyna was hexed. The tree wasn't only poisonous, it was enchanted with the darkest magic making wolves see and hear things that were not from this plane.

He had never heard her muster a single word, yet in the distance Damien could hear Relmyna's cries and gibberish, struggling to grasp on reality. It made him anxious, but Damien couldn't yet overcome his fear of the tree. He barked at her, loudly and repeatedly, building up nerve until suddenly Relmyna started screaming his name.

Adrenaline kicks in.

Damien took a deep breath, the way his brother had taught him long ago, and rushed to aid the lost soul. Her voice broke down to nothing, she wasn't in there anymore, so Damien grabbed her tightly by the scruff, feeling her blood flow in his mouth, and dragged her away from the tree. He could only hold his breath for so long, and by the time he managed to pull her out of the clearing he had already breathed in quite a huge amount of infected air.

Deep back inside the forest Damien dropped Relmyna's body on the ground and stepped away to cough his lungs out. The dizziness kept growing stronger, but he still held on to this world. His breathing was troubled, but he could still see what was in front of him. Relmyna! he called, checking her breathing. She was alive.

wow sorry hopefully you will never wait like that again

dragged — she did not fight the pain at her nape, not as clearer air rushed her lungs. the mute woman gasped, writhing against the ground as the effect of the spores threatened to haze her more deeply. coughing' not her own. turquoise eyes blinked, their bleariness clearing; relmyna felt her cheek cool against the earth as she searched for damien's visage.
the dark brother hunched nearby, blowing poison from his body — guilt. the priestess' eyes closed and she passed a dry tongue along arid lips; water, water, water. "Ame?" came her cracked inquiry; she still found it within her to marvel at the garbled but recognizable syllable.
struggling to lift her head, the woman sought his scent, the comfort of the melonii's presence. "Ame."
it was enough.

Damien sighs and drops to the ground beside her. The relief of knowing Relmyna would survive and hearing her mutter his botched name lifted a huge weight off of Damien's shoulders. He couldn't even imagine the guilt he would feel if anything happened to her, compromised as her guardian as an extension of his young nieces.

What were you trying to do? asked Damien with an almost mad tone, you could have died! he emphasized. It was important that Relmyna understood how dangerous it was, and despite the magical properties of it, it was better to keep the macabre tree off limits both for her and the twins.

she shook her head, wilting somewhat at his harsh tone. gaze traveling in the direction from which he had dragged her, relmyna raked it across the ground as she slowly turned to regard damien. for a moment she explored with dulled turquoise the fierceness of his bearing. would he have abandoned her, she wondered; would he have been strong enough to withstand the redhawk wolves and vaati's foolishness?
no matter — relmyna was keenly aware of her battered, twisted appearance. her sole merit was that her body could bring forth children. and so she put away the vague persual of damien as a man. her features settled into some sorrow; the ragged lips trembled along the naked swathe of teeth on one side of her muzzle.
"ss ... ss ... eh," the woman attempted, immediately horrified by her pathetic try for the name of the man who had fathered her children. frustrated, angry tears sprang to her eyes; she stared pointedly away from him.

With hot blood still rushing through his veins Damien forced himself to settle. His eyes studied Relmyna's face and although he was used to the woman's savaged appearance Damien couldn't help thinking she looked grimmer than usual. Perhaps it was her eyes, which glanced at him with lusterless emotion, or maybe it was the shivering which made her look abnormally nervous. Whatever it was, Damien suspected it had to do with his brother, for he knew the two of them had been particularly close despite being oblivious to the nature of their relationship.

Once again Relmyna tried to formulate words and Damien's ears swiveled towards her immediately. It was an uncommon occurrence what she was attempting, which could only mean she had something very important to say. "ss ... ss ... eh," she muttered, and Damien picked up the thread. Sh.. Sheo? he queried hopefully. Sheogorath? Are you talking about my brother? he wondered, then. But it was strange. As far as Damien was aware everyone knew him as Cicero, so why, then, would Relmyna call him by his middle name?

she could not read the inscrutable expression beneath damien's wonder. sheogorath. cicero. the patterned toxicologist with whom she had experienced one moment of joy in a life otherwise colorless. and yet she had not loved him. relmyna knew not what she had felt for the man, beyond the keening of a sharp pain at knowing he was no more. nodding toward damien, the she-wolf blinked with a sudden weariness, searching the ground between them as if it held the secrets to continuing her message.
"ast .. asta," she went on, attempting to voice the syllables she was able of her nightcub's name. "av ... avah," and the daycub. silently she rested, lifting her gaze to damien only when she was able to go on. and if he did not understand her, she knew she had not the strength to repeat herself. "ss .. eh. fa ... her."
perhaps he knew already what she meant to say, and this was all for naught; relmyna wished to try all the same. with a final glance into the eyes of the man who might have been her brother-by-law, in a kinder world, the woman fell quiet.

The oddest thing of all was how talkative Relmyna had become in the past weeks. Damien had good memory, but nowhere in his archives was there a file on how the patchwork female's voice sounded like before that day. Whatever she was trying to let out must drag an immense importance both for her and himself as recipient of the message.

Sheogorath. He could be sure that was what she was trying to say as no negative came from her. Then she muttered once more, and though at first it didn't make sense Damien was trying to pick up the hints, but it was hard when he couldn't read her eyes as they stared at the ground. Ast... Astrid? No, Nyx didn't go by that name and Damien doubted that Relmyna would even know it. Av... It took him a second, but his intuition told him: Astara. Averna. Relmyna's cubs, probably her most priced treasure. Then Sheo again, and the last bit was not hard to guess from there. Relmyna was trying to say that Sheogorath was the father of her girls.

A rarely seen smile comes across Damien's face when Relmyna lifted her gaze. He felt nothing but joy, for although he had already guessed it, no one but her could confirm the day & night cubs' parentage.

I know, he said warmly, I know... a nostalgic whisper, and he reches out to cover her with a protective embrace. Lets get you back home, he said then gently nudging her up. Her daughters needed her to be at her strongest point, and after that day he could be sure she would try her best. Sadly not all the mothers care.

relmyna let out her breath in a gesture of both relief and mild disappoint: that damien knew was a weight away, but would she always struggle so? a slow blink; she felt the strength of the man beside her and her ragged lips curved into some semblance of a bleak smile. this could not last; all those who came to her door, who could lend her succor in darkened hours; all departed.
but she was determined that she would take from his touch what she could. his urging was correct; relmyna knew a great toll had been taken upon her, and she was in need of rest now. the only ones who would suffer her weakness were her daughters, and she could not do that to them. i am lonely; i want to sleep, sounded the whispering of her heart — but the patchwork wolfess merely steadied herself alongside the dark prince and waited for him to lead, drained now not only of strength but whatever brief sunlight had entered her soul.

Last post!

Had he ever known a way to express his feelings Damien would have perhaps already told Relmyna how meaningful she had become to him in the past weeks. But sadly Damien's life had been plagued by emotionally crippled individuals and his empathy skills were depressingly underdeveloped.

But he was improving, or at least trying to improve. He had already told his muse to share their lives together and that had worked out pretty well. Relmyna, although the emotional meaning wasn't as powerful, was still an important figure in the current Melonii family frame and he needed her to understand that he took family business seriously.

We are family now... My loyalty will always rest with my family, I want you to know that. he said as he made himself available to help Relmyna stand and keep in balance. Then without much else to say Damien allowed the silence to settle as he drew a path directly to Relmyna's den where he knew she would have all the commodities she could need to recover from such a trip.

<3

had anyone said such to her? she did not know. surprise mingled with the welling of blood from the bruised and lonely places in her soul; tears crept to her eyes. relmyna would not weep before him, but he would see the glisten there she was sure. how could the dark prince speak such to the pain within her? again, she did not know. her glance one of raw gratitude, relmyna nevertheless was silent.
the spores whispered when she lay down gratefully in the darkness of the small cavern, and watched his sunless form move off into blackfeather. he has made you a melonii. could kove do such? the priestess frowned, but her last thought before slumber smoothed the pale brow.
it was not damien, but cicero.