Blackfeather Woods nothing but the burnt edge of an unfinished history

i feel like this is def. kja & potema right now, lmao.

Atli or Kjalarr or …whatever — those names meaning nothing to him, they’re just reminders of all the chaos and pain he’s left in his wake, remnants of the the boy-man who’d played king and had, ultimately abandoned those wolves too — the shadowmarked draws in a raw, ragged breath and lets it out slowly, as if he could exhale the pain out of his thigh through clenched teeth. It’s the only sign of his discomfort, accompanied by the favor of his left, hind leg and the slight limp he adopts to keep from disturbing the carved flesh too much. It is his deserved punishment not just for Potema but also for everyone he’s done similar to ( that list was awfully long ) but mostly it was for her and he bears it with the conviction of a man who knows he’s guilty of his crime.

Kjalarr looks to her as she presses against his shoulder, the scent of his blood mixed with her scent strong upon the air. For a moment the disgraced northerner wonders how deranged he must be that seeing her muzzle stained with the crimson of his blood does things to him. The sight is twisted and erotic to him and his breath catches in his throat, trapped as it constricts with that breathless wonder. She nudges him and he obeys, following her into the tunnel, reminds him immediately of Ankyra Sound’s grotto once more ( it’s rather a good thing he’s not claustrophobic or afraid of being underground for prolonged periods of time, he thinks ), though he has not explored them at any length. He hadn’t been around long enough for a thorough exploration the first time he called the dark woods home.

She’s had her babes, he realizes. It’s taken him a while, through the haze of his selfish want for her to accept him back into her life and then through the blinding pain as she carved her the mark upon his flesh to realize it. It’s a fleeting thought. He does not inquire about them because though they are part of Potema but the truth is he doesn’t care. Not enough to ask and not enough to want to ask. “How’s Vaati?” He’s unsure if she has implemented a ‘speak-only-when-spoken-to’ law or not but he thinks ( hopes, really ) that he’s given the right to his single phone call to ask about him. Vaati is his son after all ( their son ) …not that he’s been much of a father to him ( though in Kja’s defense that’s not strictly his own fault; not entirely anyway ). Still, it’s not uncommon for the father to want to check on the prosperity of his spawn.

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