Qeya River c is for clara who wasted away

For @Anselm and/or @Ezra, no obligation if you're busy or it doesn't work for you! Continued from this post, just wanted to thread out Gideon reuniting with them and learning about Skaigona. Lmk if you have any issues with the assumptions herein! <3

But how? he asked, pulling back from his brother long enough to cast a searching gaze toward Anselm. So much had happened, but the whole time, Gideon had taken comfort in believing his family was safe at home so long as he wasn't there to attract Isra's morbid curiosity. He thought of his mom and Ezra constantly and longed to see them again. He never would have imagined reuniting with his brother here of all places.

What about mom? Where's Amadeo? That name was accompanied with the darkening of his features and a flattening of tone suggesting he hoped the answer involved a heart attack or another accident of the fatal variety. He didn't want Amadeo anywhere near Anselm or Sun Eater; he asked only because he was dying to see his mother again, but feared Heda would never have left Rivenwood without him.

He didn't want to go.

But he had no choice. His children deserved at least one living parent, and the somber, almost skeletal way Heda's eyes were scarcely housed in her drawn skull told Anselm that she was not mistaken in believing this was her end.

His heart. The thing he thought was scorched and blackened to the point of unfeeling; turns out it was only scarred over and scabbed -- and this new injury was a mortal wound, and he felt every bit of him bleeding out there in the dirt where she'd first told him the truth.

He closed his eyes, trying to come back to the present. He did not wish to relive what he saw that day, but again and again it resurfaced. When he opened his eyes, Gideon's face was sour and his ears flat. Amadeo is gone. Anselm tried to keep the hatred from his voice, for if nothing else, his boys should learn pragmatism. They wouldn't do that having a spiteful father.

I don't know how. Druid was sick, and she passed it to your mom. Struggling to keep his voice even, Anselm continued. Mom wants us all together. It vill be hard, but it is vhat she vants. Only time vill tell if the sickness passes. Or if -- he could not finish the unthinkable thought.

oop, edited for shadowposting. <3

ezra hugs his brother so tight that he fears if he lets go that gideon might vanish. but eventually, he pulls back from the embrace, looking to anselm before his gaze focuses back on gideon and tries to answer in order after anselm had spoken.

thus, ezra starts at the beginning, with what had happened relatively directly after their disappearances. how amadeo had spoken of the fight and that anselm had left, how druid had attacked skaigona, that she'd been sick and that skaigona and him had fled then and there. filling in the details where his father could not.

he told them of their travels searching for them both, how they'd met etienne at swiftcurrent creek and they'd been advised that anselm might be at the great hunt the moonwolves had put together.

from there, the rest had been as their father had described; gaze lowering to his paws for a long moment as he hoped that skaigona had not actually caught druid's sickness.

In another time, Gideon would have listened to Ezra with rapt attention and a smidgeon of envy for the things his brother had seen and done. Well, the bit about being harassed in the mountains left little to be desired, but a Great Hunt! Hundreds of wolves! It was grandiose in his imagining, and overshadowed entirely by the news that mom wasn't coming.

Gideon was slow to process it, his brain churning over the details while his emotions played across his brow. Finally, it scrunched and he said, what? But if she's sick, she needs us! Even as he said it, he knew the answer would be no. This was not what mom wanted, and even if Anselm would heed her, Ezra would never have left her behind if it wasn't true. Knowing it did nothing to stop the bargaining Gideon fell into.

We can go get her, he said with a frantic edge, the slow deflating of his ears til they hung listlessly, and bring her here, and if she's sick, she can just... Stay away from everyone until she feels better! There's lots of food here! Sun Eater made sure of that. She'll get better if she's here. I'm learning to make medicines, I can try to cure her. She'll get better. She... She has to.