Hushed Willows like eating glass

set loosely for the 20th/21st - tags for ref

@Ibis had left--but okeanos, still beset with a terrible foreboding, goes after her. he tells @Mal, hoping the silvery boy might know where ibis went, but in the end he just follows instinct, finding himself moving in the direction of elysium. maybe the heightened tension in the air makes him want to check in on his moms, like he told himself he'd eventually do. maybe it's just a lucky guess, catching snippets of ibis' scent every so often like a lifeline. 

he moves quickly, hoping to catch up to her before getting to his former home. fate has other ideas--in more way than one. the world is uncannily silent, the sun thinning into the horizon as okeanos reaches the faded borders of the willows. he shivers, the stale scent of the border alarming, the absence immediately noticeable. where is sunny or cortez, where are his siblings, surely old enough now to bumble around, where are his mothers, for that matter? the willows offer implications but no concrete answers, and he can smell ibis too, ibis and a stranger, though where exactly they are  or how long ago they were here he can only guess at.

terrance had warned them when they'd left lost hollow creek that he might not be there when they deigned to come back. somehow, it'd never occured to him that the same could be true of elysium, or his mother. outloud he says, "i'm sorry," his voice a mournful keen.

I'm not sure if anyone from Elysium is gonna reply to my other thread so I'll be vague about it, as it is ongoing.

A day was spent investigating; Ibis leading Ereshkigal over the scent border (faded though it had become) despite knowing that she might be in trouble for it. This had been home - more so than the Sunspire where she'd been born, the pull that Ibis felt to this space was greater than anything. It was hard to learn of Lily's passing, harder still when Ibis could not face her grief, but this — losing it all like this — there was emptiness inside of her. The loss was too great for her to fathom; it was as if someone had ripped the heart from her chest and crushed it underfoot.

Ibis was in shock as she traced the familiar paths of Elysium. Not a word was spoken to Ereshkigal, unable to will herself in to telling stories; the memories were her last precious commodity, and Ibis held them in her fractured heart as if they were her very lifeblood. Eventually the other girl drifted off and gave Ibis a moment alone. The willows shifted and whispered in the wind, and for a few minutes all was still.

Then she heard a faint but familiar voice, and moved to meet it. As Ibis comes upon her brother she stops and realizes her limbs will not let her go further. She is staring glassy-eyed at the willows. It feels like there is a continent between them, but she sees Okeanos and in that moment her knees buckle, she crumples to the dirt.

caught up in the moment, he'd forgotten he was looking for ibis at all. he stands for a long moment, holding his breath; he turns, the breath he'd held coming out in a slow woosh as he sees ibis crumpled on the ground. "oh! okeanos cries, rushing toward her to take her in his embrace. "ibis," he says, nearly a wail, "where did they go? what happened?"

for surely she just saw them, her last trip -- and maybe she got here soon enough to find out what happened now -- nightmare scenarios plague him, remembering the way the earth has trembled and shook, visions of his family crushed under rocks or swallowed whole by the ground. shuddering, he moves to bury his face in her neck, seeking comfort in her familiar feeling against him.

For the life of her she could not recall the sound of Lily's voice. It had struck her earlier, this thought, burrowing like a wasp's sting just beneath the surface of her skin. At the time she had not realized how wholly and completely Elysium had fallen. The near silent whispering of the willows had been the only sound for a long while; even Ereshkigal had gone, giving Ibis space to process when it was then the very last thing she wanted. What she craved most of all was the sound of girlish laughter to deafen her ears; to lay her eyes upon the warm smile of Olive, and most of all, to hold close to Seabreeze. One by one these thoughts took form for her, each so precious, until the moment she had begun to walk the grounds. The emptiness screamed at her and she wanted desperately to scream back, yet her sweet little voice had fled her.

When she had seen it all and returned by way of a central line through the core of the old claim, she saw Okeanos and felt herself unfurl. The dry soil crunched beneath her slight weight, and she curled, like a spider caught by a lit match, until Okeanos spoke. His voice came from leagues away; muddy in her unfocused mind, but recognizable, to which Ibis raised her head enough to look upon him for as long as she could. Her eyes were dim; one would expect someone as emotional as Ibis to perhaps sob brokenly on this giant grave of a home, but she was silent, composed.

Each of Okeanos' subsequent questions was heard yet disregarded just as easily, in one ear and out the other, while Ibis fought with herself. Blamed herself. Above all, she loathed herself for being too afraid to visit before - perhaps if she had been present, even for a moment. . .?

The rough sensation of Okeanos' broad face and warm scruff against her finally drums up something. She tenses, her whole body rigid as it tries to contain the disaster within. Her mouth is a thin hard line and she tries so hard to keep herself composed, but it is only a matter of time before she cracks, her mouth splitting open like a fissure. 

I lied. Ibis says.

short sorry --- very overwhelmed w school rn!

i lied.

confused, okeanos pulls back slightly--lied about what? it seems like a nonsequitur, stopping momentarily the flow of his thoughts. then the context of the moment hits him and he pulls back further, the confused expression giving way to surprise. "about visiting?" he asks, still not quite willing to believe he's right--but what else could it be? and if he is right--how could he feel about that?

All good! Hope school chills tf out for you!

He is confused, as is to be expected, and then makes the connection. Hearing the words makes Ibis' stomach churn. It feels like her heart is in her throat, and she forces herself to be more composed but --- but its so hard -- she sniffles, burrows her nose in to his fur to contain the sob as it erupts from her mouth. When she can manage it, she withdraws enough to nod, just a little. It was wrong of her to lie and Ibis knows that, aches over that fact with more guilt than is necessary. Each time she tries to explain herself she feels the same tension knotting through her belly -- suffocating the words before she can voice them. Gradually though she manages to calm herself enough to say, I got so close, b-but, Lily, she's... It took me so long, before, and I couldn't let them... Wouldn't make them relive the loss, so I didn't visit. I was afraid to. Even as she said these things she knew she could not have done anything differently; nothing could have compelled Ibis to revisit that pain upon her beloved mothers and the family they had built. But now, sitting here while everyone else was gone, it was like a ghost town — and Ibis blamed herself. I'm sorry Okee.