Emberwood one in a million

sometimes, she felt like an only child.

okay, well, not really. but she felt she should be. you know what i'm sayin'? like how a girl who has been 5'5" her entire adult life puts on a pair of platforms and at 5'7" feels spiritually like she should be 5'7" — like this is how it was always supposed to be.

that's kind of what dahlia was feeling now.

except for, well, she still had one sibling who was physically present, and it seemed like all anyone cared about was the one who wasn't around. actually, that was the worst part about all of this.

because you know what? dahlia found that she kind of cared a little bit about it, too, maybe. and that sucked. there was a thought that couldn't stop crossing her mind. one ghastly no-good thought. one of her sister's entrails spread across the soil. broken open like she'd seen rabbits before.

she didn't know if she could ever eat again. it was unusual for her to be so worried. unusual for her to follow dusty rose when he slipped out from the territory in search of her sister, but she did so anyway.

Of course Reverie was not far behind the firstborn of her second litter. While Petal played quietly with Blossom, the Dancing Queen shadowed Dahlia closely, watching her battle between worry and envy. Her lack of appetite had not gone unnoticed.

Honestly, Reverie hadn't expected the gravity of the situation to truly weigh on either of her youngest daughters. Blossom hadn't worried about these things so young. Yet it seemed there was some of Boone in each of the trio, something different passed down to each of them. It was his protective instinct she saw in Dahlia now. She wasn't at all sure what to do with it.

She was quiet as she approached from behind, easily closing the distance and matching her daughter's stride. It'll be alright, you know, Reverie said softly, watching her daughter carefully for a startle response or any changes in her pace. Foxglove will be home before you know it. And the sisters would be back to bickering within the hour, Reverie knew.

she had never been caught before, at least not like this — not in her vulnerability, in her care. she had only ever been caught being mean. when reverire revealed herself, dahlia’s feelings twisted up like they would have if she had been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

always ready with a comeback, this time she had nothing to say. i guess so. mama was always right, after all.

After a moment Reverie swept forward to pull her daughter into an embrace.

It's okay to be worried, She reassured her softly, still uncertain whether she was saying the right things. Dahlia could be so reticent at times — not on purpose, Reverie didn't think. Feelings were just confusing. It just means you care - and that's not a bad thing. Family is all we have.

But sometimes the best thing to do is wait, and put your trust in someone else. Dusty Rose will bring her back. I trust him, Reverie offered a faint, encouraging smile.

waiting was hard. the longer that passed, the more time she had to be preoccupied by worry. trust meant little to dahlia. she had no context for it. she had never had to trust in anything; everything unfolded exactly how it was supposed to, for how else could it ever be?

her trust had never been broken. yet.

family is all we have. 
sisters are important, dahlia.

maybe that meant a little more to her now than it had then. she  sighed and settled into mama’s arms. if mama said fox would be coming back, she had to be right. 

how do you know everything all the time? it was said so earnestly it was almost comical.

It took everything she had to avoid laughing just then. Somehow she managed it, though her smile was in her voice as she spoke. Oh, I don't know everything. Not yet, anyway, Reverie did laugh then, just a little. She doubted she ever truly would know everything, but she certainly wouldn't stop trying.

It's just that life teaches you all sorts of lessons. And then when you have kids, you - try to pass that on. So that your kids don't have to learn those lessons by making mistakes, That was what good parents did, anyway. It was what her own parents had tried to do. Reverie could only hope that the things she'd taken from her own experiences weren't quite so twisted and damaging as what she'd been taught in The Gilded Sea. She'd been confident about that, once. She wasn't so sure anymore.

But that didn't matter as much as keeping her daughters safe.

That's why I try to teach you what I know. So you don't have to make as many mistakes as I did. You'll still make your own mistakes - everyone does. But that just means one day you'll know even more than I do. She hoped.

mama smiled, and that meant she liked dahlia's questions. her heart swelled in her chest all the way up to her throat where it caught; she felt guilty for feeling so much joy when just moments ago, she had been overcome by worry.

mama's response was a lot for her, philosophically speaking. what she said was so abstract; she had no life experience to fill in the gaps. but if life was the teacher of all lessons, that must have meant that mama went through this once, too.

mama, she says, what happened? which could really mean anything, once she thought about it. she went on to clarify with life, when you learned this lesson?