Ankyra Sound Lay down my bones knowing I'll be in a better place

I figured this would be a fun spot if they were gonna stop <3 I can also open this up if you like! But private for now

All the way home, @Val was steadfast. His quiet assuredness, and her own exhaustion, kept her in a calm sort of stupor as they made slow progress, but when they reached the boundary of the sound she could go no further without stopping. She would need to eat soon or she wouldn’t last much longer either way.

She was asleep almost the instant she stumbled into the shelter of the stone cliffs, restlessly falling into dreams that quickly twisted to nightmare.

Raleska, grinning at her, a hollow skull with those beloved, and cursed, glowing yellow eyes. Another behind her in the shadow… a witch. The cream pelt twisting, the face leering, until it was not the sea witch but instead her wife who jeered at her from the darkness. There was no sound, but still her words cut the pirate to the bone.

Now you know what it is to lose everything.

She didn’t know which of them spoke. It was again the leering face of Caiaphas that glared, her wicked smile full of triumph. Raleska alongside, ruined skull laughing, joined by a chorus of others alongside. They all saw her for what she was.

She woke with a cry that she stifled, shoving her muzzle beneath her forelegs. No….. she wouldn’t. Despite the insistence, she couldn’t stop the sobs that overtook her.

Her wife would never betray her. But the knife of her absence, in that moment, was the only truth she had.

val was faced with a choice: rest and hunt, or press on. in rosalyn's current state, only the former seemed possible. while he had trepidation about resting in the sound, he knew it close enough to home that their safety was more assured than anywhere else.

while he hunted, rosalyn dreamed. he would have given anything in the world to know in that moment the same torment visited her!

val returned to rosalyn with a meager grouse winter-thin and already on its way to dying. he dropped the kill tentatively by his maman, his eyes softening as he saw she was overwrought with sobs. maman, what's wrong? val asked, stepping close to nudge the back of her neck gently.

The shaking slowed as Val touched her, though her breathing continued in rough gasps as she slumped exhausted in the sand.

They took her, she finally responded, the words laced with a slight moan. I couldn’t stop it. She’d never leave… she cut out to silence, unable to continue.

It was a lie. Her wife would never betray her, but the witch… the witch would lie. She held her here. With a gasp Rosalyn tried to lunge to her paws, but was not able to rise. She collapsed back down, but her voice was desperate.

Where is she?!

She would tear the very shoreline apart.

this was well beyond val's wheelhouse. he looked to the cliff line in anguish; if only chacal or mireille could sense maman's distress and come down screaming from their roost!

val pushed the thin grouse towards rosalyn. by now her shaking had slowed, but her emotions were no less distilled. if anything, she seemed rallied by an unseen spectre he could not conjure nor chase away. who did she speak of? erzulie? where is who?

his gaze cast along the cold shoreline. ankyra had never been one for warmth, and for a moment, he thought he sensed phantasmal things slithering around them. perhaps his family was right -- this place was cursed. maman, we are almost there. eat. you will feel better, and then we can go home.

At first she did not seem to hear him. But the scent of the prey, and his insistent voice, broke through in some way. She did not want to eat. Her body knew that it needed to.

Anguish and revulsion wrestled in her stomach as she hovered over the grouse, but visibly wavered against eating it.

Finally, instinct overcame it. Her body knew how to survive even if her mind did not and at length she tore into it. She didn’t have the presence to recall Val was there or to consider sharing. His question would go unanswered.

the grouse sat between them for several seconds. val wrestled the fatigue that threatened to overcome him. they were so close -- and yet the cliffs loomed large and improbable above.

rosalyn set into the grouse, but val noticed a flicker of revulsion a moment before. she did not answer his question. he sensed in some ways it was better off not knowing.

they were both so tired. val felt the cut along his chest throbbing. it'd reopened some time between the bay and here. we can rest here tonight, maman. val offered, eyes upon her with concern. unless you would like to keep pressing on.

She did not want to stop, but now that she had, there was no pushing forward until she’d rested. The only reason she’d maintained the pace she had was pure momentum. Now it was lost to exhaustion.

Normally she never would have wished to stay here, but something about it felt appropriate. If she was to live in a nightmare then let it be in a place with ghosts. If she was to leave her wife behind then let her be haunted for the crime of it. Easy dreams would have only made things more out of place.

She didn’t answer, but did shift beside him, sharing her son’s warmth. It was likely enough of an answer that she didn’t move… just looked to the shore and the ocean beyond.

it wasn't val's first choice for rest either, but the cliffs peered down upon them as if a safeguard. while this place often troubled him, its familiarity bled it of its strangeness.

maman said nothing, but her actions were words enough. wordless himself, val hunkered down besides rosalyn. his eyes closed.

val was so tired, but he had to be strong.

before he knew it his voice filled the small space around them. their little world transported into the mystique as val wove the tale of the very first story he had ever told erzulie.

only this time, he sang for rosalyn so that her grieved mind might take spirit elsewhere.

The urgency was still there and sang within her very bones. There was a wrongness that could not be righted; an unease that could not be shaken.

As Val began to sing, however, she allowed herself to be carried by the familiar and well-loved voice. Slowly she relaxed with his presence beside her, and after a time, she would find sleep.