Duskfire Glacier i have never been good at building anything but fire,

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The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: trigger warning: implied seizures & character death.

in and out of delirium @Wintersbane existed ...for a month now, maybe longer — arius had ceased keeping track. the days and nights blurred together and his father's condition did not improve.

arius' frustration grew and grew; that the herbs they forced the king of the glacier to consume did not appear to lessen his suffering.

incoherent words tumbled from his father's lips when he was lucid and the minutes never lasted long.

and then one morning, the air in the den his father had been taken and confined to ( not that he was doing much moving ) changed. the smell of urine was strong in arius' nostrils and he shifts away from his father's side, trying to keep his disgust at bay.

dad? arius asks, not expecting an answer. dad! he moves then, grabbing his father by the scruff as he notices his body...thinning from his lack of activity trembling uncontrollably. panic courses through arius' veins and before he can even lift his head to summon anyone —

it is too late.

the once titan of duskfire glacier's body grows eerily still and horror and anger war inside arius as he grabs his father's scruff, his scarred shoulder, his muzzle ...trying and failing to get his flanks to rise and fall.

a sob tears itself from arius' chest; heavy and painful.

wintersbane had succumbed to the internal injuries and death took him swiftly, having been cheated far too many times.

feeling as if he is suffocating, for no amount of air he sucks greedily into his lungs, dank and putrid satisfy him; arius stumbles from the cavern, from the cave system, into the blinding sun of the early morning. the cold air rushes to greet him and fills his lungs with an icy prickle that numbs him as he vomits the ( meager ) contents of his stomach.

the shock lingers in his veins, wondering what will happen. to him, to his mother, to his siblings, to duskfire.

the howl that rips itself from betwixt his jaws is filled with sorrow and mournful; the notes trembling as he forces himself to get out the news in the only way his numb and shocked mind could think to do so.