Totoka River in the evening everybody went to worship and weep

Dee!
What's her problem now?
Static roars inside her head; dainty paws touch the mainland for only the second time in her life, and she cannot stop to appreciate it. She does not stop, does not dare stop walking until the panicked chatter of her family is drowned by the lick of roaring waves. Her home. Her Isle. She did not know if she was going to return.
She reaches a point where wild reeds sprout from the sands, and adjacent to her is a river; a big, big river, and she stumbles forward until she reaches the bank. She'd never seen anything quite like it. It feels so calm, so serene as she watches the water rush over the rocks, softened by the sand of time.
Her knees buckle and she drops down into a heap, paws crammed close to her chest, her neck; her pulse thrums wildly and she wonders if her heart may burst, and every time she tries to blink she can see — it. Him. Daddy. Fuck you!
Only after a shred of moments pass in a deafening silence do the tears finally start to fall.

Sheesh, Kai! he'd bit over his shoulder as his brother's words faded to the distance between them.

Dinah had had a head start on him, and boy, was she quick! Gangly legs taking them both over the sandbridge connecting shore to shore. The water didn't come for them as it had before, when they had found John.

When he finally caught up, he found her by the river, a firebrand curled up among the early autumn leaves.

Dee? he said, and shuffled forward, legs tucked and belly brushing along the ground. He had questions for her, a great multitude that would have come spilling, if he hadn't heard her sobs. Instead, all that surfaced was a wha- before he shut himself up and chose to break the stillness with only a soft touch of his nose against her shoulder.

I love you. It's okay. I'll be here when you're ready.

this is such a cute post i wanna keep it in here SOB!!! but we can just make this one short since the plot has been moving swiftly if u'd like <3

She thought she was alone; she had wanted to be alone, until—
Simeon. Simmy, his name comes in a muted whisper, a nickname that still stuck — my, how much they'd both grown. Her rock, her dearest brother, her shining light.
He should not have to see her like this.
He didn't even know what happened, did he?
Dinah unfurls herself like a late-autumn bloom, face hot and puffy with tears she cannot seem to halt. I love you, you know that, right? she sounded like her father. Her father, her father;
Her lanky arms reach out to pull him close, to smell the last hints of salt and lavender that linger on his shoulders. To search for something, some semblance of comfort, to sift through the rubble of her family and find the last little gemstone in the sand.
I'm sorry.