Noctisardor Bypass souda

when glaukos had joined druid and their newborns, heda murmured a few words to her sister and grew scarce.
she did not want druid to see the pain which clawed at her belly, nor the dull drumming ache; it would not be long. it would be sooner than she thought.
to busy herself, heda went to find @Etienne and @Anselm. both had been scuffed in the fight, and so she brought with her new blades of soft grass, to act as a mat-poultice.
"we would like you to officially stay, druid and i," heda said softly as she approached, setting down the grass and feeling tension heat her palms as she glanced at anselm.

Etienne looked at her with dull eyes. At the grass at her feet. He stayed crouched and defensive in the shadows. He flicked his eyes back up to her. Speaking, his family tongue falling from his lips. As if it were all he knew anymore. It wasn't, but he was being stubborn. He didn't want ot be here, but where could they go. He was injured, Anselm was injured. So he would stay.

Kisa ou vle, Heda?

He shifted. Wincing a little as it jarred his ribs. He had done what was needed. He had watched over Druid. And based on the way Heda was holding herself, She would be next.

Ti bebe yo ap vini byento.

He studied her sides and noticed the gentle roll. He bent his nose to a nearby cache of herbs. Searching. Lemon balm.

He lay it down, pressed his paw on top and pushed it towards her. This would help the pain.

Pou doulè

Glaukos was a good fighter. Anselm paid the price for it. 

In the heat of the moment he had not realized the severity of his wounds. It was only later after Druid had been tended to and the adrenaline burned off, that Anselm grew light headed and could not travel. 

He rested in fitful snatches. Etienne often stood watch over him, and then he stood watch over Etienne. 

The sound of feet nearby caused Anselm to sit up. Heda appeared, carrying a clutch of grass. As she placed it down and announced she and Druid wanted them to stay, Anselm could not help the soft gasp. All the same, he remained quiet as Etienne spoke for them both, an ear turned towards the lyrical beat of Etienne’s voice as he spoke in his natal tongue. Though he did not know what Etienne said, he too noticed the roundness of Heda’s side and wondered if her hour would come soon.

strained, heda stared at etienne as he answered in a musical language suffused with his own emotion. but she could not understand him, and frustration for all he had suffered stole over her again.
anselm was silent. heda lowered herself to the ground and regarded etienne. "i'm sorry. no one asked him to do that; no one needed it to be done. and i'm sorry to ask you to stay after all this."
the golden eyes in their cupping of moonsilver now turned toward anselm. "both of you. i know you'd rather be home."
a breath, then back to etienne. "she had four pups. so many. i think it's what made her sick." even as she spoke, her eyes were pleading, for she had little choice but to depend on him.

Etienne felt all the emotions. And it beat upon his breast. His heart pained and panging. He wanted his mom. He wanted her to whisper all the good things she always did. Perhaps sing him a lullaby in the voice lyrical with sea and surf and love. Hug him tight. Ease the pain. Make him know that he was loved. Cherished. Wanted. Not just needed.

It was moments like this right now when he realized though he felt older, he was still young. Not even yet 2. And already his life had been suffused with so much pain and sorrow. He was unsure if he could function without it. Though it was painful it was familiar.

He heard her apology, but did she mean it? Or was it just another way, kinder perhaps to get him to do what she wanted and Druid wanted and the beast Glaukos. Because that was what it was right? He was only needed for his skill set.

No one here loved him. Cared whether he lived or died. Unless it benefited them somehow. When was the last time anyone truly told him he was enough. That he was loved other than his family.

In those thoughts brewed an anger that rivaled the sea. A pain that went bone deep, infected and putrid it dug into the soft flesh of his heart and it squeezed. It fatigued him.

He gave a nod. Byen. mwen pral rete.

He nodded again and then moved further into the shadows. Curling his tail around his body as he slumped to the ground.

Anselm was suffused with emotions, much like the wave of thoughts that overtook Etienne. He looked to him silently, thoughtfully — wondering what storm raged in those goldcoin eyes. 

It struck him as strange to see Heda supplanted before them. He looked to Etienne again, this time to read his answer. Because he had learned, when he’d first feared Etienne had left him, that the Hollow would not be home if no one he cared for lived in it. He’d realized then, his place wasn’t in the Keep or the Wildwood — it was wherever Etienne went. 

At last, Etienne answered. Anselm’s gaze then slid to Heda — who was so strikingly round of flank in that moment he almost felt guilty for thinking it. As Etienne stalked away, Anselm’s gaze held Heda’s for a moment before he wordlessly rose and limped after Etienne, coming to sit watch over him in the darker section of tree cover. 

He worried for them all — Druid and her coven, Heda and her unborn — but most of all, he worried for the soul who sat in the dirt next to him, bleeding in all the ways Anselm could not see.

etienne gave his reply, and heda's shoulders unknotted from tension's release, though it was quickly replaced by a deep worry for him.
anselm and heda stared at each other for a long moment. she stood at last, and in the manner of a woman pulling a threadbare shawl around her shoulders, she turned and moved gracelessly back in the direction of dawnleaf.