Blackfeather Woods you are young and life is long

for @Astara, set for the 26th

Maegi took a small break from duties and interest to check up on the brat, still recuperating from the scare with the poison, which she had taken to calling "deadly pink." The name was a work in progress, but it would do for now. At any rate, it would serve to warn others away from the plant, especially the vulnerable and naive. Maegi knew never to touch it again, herself--

But it could be used against enemies, and that was enough for her to remember where it was located, in case deadly pink was needed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked when she came across the girl after searching, ears turned forward curiously. It had been a frightening experience for them both, and Maegi still feared Relmyna's wrath, whenever it may come. Even if her own mother wouldn't have reacted to someone trying to poison her daughter--she would have celebrated--not everyone was like Potema. Least of all Relmyna.

@Relmyna @Averna LOOK I'VE BEEN POISONED!! no jk just tags for your reference so you know what's goin on with dumbstara

astara had no name for the plant that had delivered her to ruin. if she had been tasked to designing a name she might have called it hateful pink, for the way it had churned in her stomach and exacted total disintegration her body and mind. never before had something cut through her so wickedly, and left so unclean a mark.

the girl had learned a lesson; to never trust a plant again.

in and out of fevered consciousness she weaved, huddled under the eldritch grove her mother had fashioned for her cubs. astara had wrestled for her tender grasp on life, and at last the hateful pink flower's toxicity had waned, and whatever incubus occupied her sweltering body had seen fit to vacate it.

she was not out of the woods physically speaking; there lingered a malign ataxia that contorted her every action at first, and her delirium was rampant in the days that followed. by the week's end she had regained most of her mobility, and the fever had departed - yet she was still weak and nervous.

she had been sleeping when maegi had arrived, but the voice jostled her from dreams and the nightcub's indigo eyes fluttered open in surprise. focusing on the melonii that had indelibly rescued her from death (maegi was deserving of undying gratitude, yet she would get little from the spidery cub), astara shifted her folded limbs out from under her and glanced upwards at her older sibling. there was no yarrow in maegi's grasp this time -- praise talos or whatever -- but it did little to buffer the suspicion that rimmed under the girl's purple gaze.

It did not take the ghost long to find out that something was wrong with the dark one. The woods were eerily quiet and the rendezvous site was downright empty without the dark one frolicking around filling it with her usual sass. The pale child had come to find her sibling, in case she was in some sort of pickle. The spirit wasn't sure where to search but it was not armed with her nose, but armed with the whispering trail of voices, that she ended up finding her way down to where the dark one was -- and Legs.

Surprised to find Legs and the dark one in the same place -- but also realising it a comforting confirmation of the realness of Legs -- the pale child looked from one for a short moment... Before mercilessly pouncing at the dark one, completely oblivious to her vulnerable state of being.

All right, the silence was very helpful. Maegi waited a beat for an answer before turning away, resisting a roll of her eyes. She instead went to the nearest cache, nosing around--half-expecting the shadow to pop up beside her--before finding what she needed. The folded leaf tucked beneath her chin, she returned, placing it gingerly on the ground and settling on her belly in front of the girl.

"This will help settle you down, if you're still freaked out," she said, unfolding the leaf to reveal two small, dark seeds. Maegi looked up at the brat, a wry smile painting her face. "They're safe to eat, but you can't have more than this. Too many and your body will try to shut down, forever." A fine shiver ran through her as she vividly recalled her brush with death.

She pushed them with her nose toward the spiderling. "You don't have to take them if you don't want to, but they will help," she murmured. "Some plants are fine to eat. But not all, as you now know." There was a touch of pique in her tone in that last sentence, bundled up in a sort of sisterly concern.

Too late did she notice the arrival of Spirit, and the pale child had set upon her sister without delay. "Careful," Maegi warned, "she's not feeling well."

R00D!

astara's suspicion only deepened as maegi proferred some strange seed; she eyed the two pods doubtfully, the mistrust evident by the curl of her lips. it had been kind of maegi to think of astara, and to bring her means to ease her pain -- but astara was not kind, and did not trust the girl's motives.

as if offended, she shifted away --just in time for averna's form to come crashing down on her. it was an onslaught entirely unexpected and astara squalled her terror, flinging her jaws towards her unknown attacker in instinctual terror. too late she noticed that her assailant was averna -- and when she did, her hackles did not subdue, and a deep, bitter growl rumbled in her throat defensively.

relmyna had never inquired into the events that had almost led to her daughter's death. grimly she had attended astara in every moment, resting little and exhausting the store of cicero's herbs to keep blood beating within the barely conscious body. her nights were spent in prayer, and while she had not wept, the toll of the preceding week was clear in the strain upon her scarred features.
but it was a toxicologist that had reared relmyna in her year of unawareness, and it was upon her that sheogorath had tested his poisons, his brews. such a venom had consumed astara, and the listener was not willing to ignore the correlation betwixt maegi's reintegration into the wood, and her own daughter's illness. what reason could there be such a thing; the younger girls posed no threat to their elder sister's acension into the brotherhood. relmyna could discover no motive for a deliberate act.
it was not far behind averna that relmyna came, moving between the pair with a hard chuff for their disengagement. astara was far too weak for such play, and she was irrationally, briefly annoyed that averna had not seemed to consider that for a moment's time. but her young ghost was indeed such — averna had never existed in the waking world.
passing a nudge along her daycub's ears, relmyna turned back to astara, worry pooling in the weary seawater glint of her gaze. and then anger, a conflagration that burned for a fierce second as she spotted the telltale black spots of poppy laid out before the girl. it was then that she turned fully to maegi, and while relmyna saw no reason to posture or to threaten, the hardness of her gaze was a testament to her ability. you do not give poppy to those who have ingested poison, she chastised. what did she eat to put her in this state?

Her attack had the desired effect of a squeak and a growl; her attack came as a surprise to the dark one. That earned the dark one a new name, for now: Squeaky. The ghost laughed and tickled Squeaky's stomach until she was taken by a rough nudge behind the ear.

With an aw, mommm expression the ghost let herself be nudged off. She sat down and looked back at Squeaky and stuck out her tongue teasingly, a toothy grin on her face whilst she ignored the caretaker's mouthed words.

Ah, here we go. Relmyna came storming into the scene, reproach in her gaze. Rather than fumble for excuses or burst into scattered apologies, Maegi held her gaze, straightening to a sitting position and curling her tail around her paws. None of this was her fault, after all. If she hadn't raised such a stupid, impulsive girl, this wouldn't have happened.

"I only wanted to calm her nerves, help her sleep," she said calmly, voice like ice crystals. "She ate a plant I was examining. It had pink flowers with darker edges. I gave her yarrow to throw it up, but she ate a lot of it. . ." Here she threw a baleful look at the spiderling, before glancing back at Relmyna.

"I had some myself, but only the tip of one leaf," Maegi explained. "I wanted to see what it did, if anything. But she decided to get on my nerves by eating more of it." Great success. She wouldn't be in this scenario if the brat had thought before she acted.

for a time, both maegi and the arrival of relmyna went unnoticed, for astara's weakened attention was focused on her sister. her normal playful attitude was entirely drained, and averna earned herself a series of snapping bites with her jaws that were entirely uncharacteristic for the nightcub.

just like that, averna was hauled off -- astara gave her a bitter stare in return, but did not move to follow her. moving was taxing yet, and her head swam with sickened vengeance. she tried to focus on her dam and maegi (and even offered a feeble stir of her tail) but before long she was lost to the shores of unconsciousness, and curled into a sickly black ball with her nose tucked under tail.

maegi answered, her tone brittle, cold. relmyna did not respond for a moment, turning the image of the flower over in her mind, as well as noting the glance that the melonii exchanged with the younger. her attention on astara for a moment. her exhausted daughter faded into sleep, and relmyna glanced with an apologetic warm at the other of her brood, into the pale, fathomless eyes.
in the next moment, her own seafoam gaze returned to maegi. the hard edge she had sensed in the girl filled the listener's awareness; pride, pain, nameless things. relmyna knew not how to address such things, not with a great rift between them, and one she did not think she had hope of mending. i do not blame you, maegi, she mouthed all the same, a pause following wherein she held the two-toned eyes for a long moment.
without you, astara might have died. i am grateful you were there. it was the truth, and suspicion was beginning to ebb from relmyna that this had been deliberate. if they are drawn to poison, it is something cicero passed down to them. cicero. she had not yet said his name in this way, and her gaze tightened with a sudden and inscrutable expression. were there more of the flowers?

The spirit settled down by the caretaker's side and stared at Squeaky from there. She didn't follow the conversation until she heard Legs say something about plants. Attention was gathered very abruptly as the ghost realised they were talking about the dark one, and considering Squeaky seemed too out of it to listen in on her own devices, the spirit decided to do it for her.

Gaze followed from Legs to the caretaker as she mouthed words. One she did not understand though, Sisserow or something of the likes, though from the context she gathered it a name. It surprised the spirit because how had he or she passed anything down that she was completely unaware of? Weird. She hereby gave Sisserow the working title Unknown, for it would be a bit easier to address them while she figured out who this person was.

She relaxed, slightly, as Relmyna took her explanation to heart. But there was something between them, something strange. It did not help that--

Cicero passed down to them.

An icy ball of dread formed in her stomach as a hypothesis came to her mind, the puzzle pieces coming together. Astara's eyes and plush dark fur, so like Ramsay. Averna's ghostly gaze. The way they acted, the way they slunk about. And the dearth of men, around the time Relmyna was pregnant. But it couldn't be. . .

"Cicero?" she asked--though it held the weight of a statement--her mouth dry. She licked her lips, looking first at the girls, then back at Relmyna. Anger began to curdle within her, a heat that melted the ice quickly and savagely. "Cicero?!"

Peryite, madness, was taking hold. Her orange eye flashed, the indigo turning to purple fire.

Ramsay, Euron, Maegi. Those were Cicero's children, the princes and princess of the forest. Not these two, these dumb, childish spiderlings, who chased frogs and ate poisons with little regard. It had only been the trio. Melonii royalty. Not these. Not this.

relmyna was taken aback by the ire that seemed to kindle in maegi's breath; a swift blink while she attempted to make sense of it. but already she had — already she knew why it was that anger wreathed from the older girl with each utterance of her father's name. yes, the listener confirmed, her own seafoam gaze gathering an inscrutable expression. surely maegi did not believe her and her own siblings the only brood of cicero, the only one that could be suffered.
a protective irritation was beginning to glint snakelike within relmyna as the flames of indigo and firelight pierced the air in her direction. if the gods did not want them here, they would not be here, came the unheard crisp edge of her own words. the mother had seen fit to bless her womb with cicero's
there was another
daughters. blackfeather belonged to those of melonii blood, and this relmyna believed would come to pass. the enraged girl before her was best suited for the throne — or so she had considered. how had maegi not known? or perhaps the yearling had not wanted to know. she was silent then, awiaiting the young priestess' response.

skip this fleabag <3 she sleep

as the adults' voices murmured, astara's eyes fluttered. in a few mere seconds she had drifted off into fitful sleep, averna's coarse attack forgotten, maegi's stuttering unwitnessed, her dam's bubbling ire unseen -- all astara was aware of in that moment as she tossed and turned, was how unsettled her belly was, and how peace sleep seemed to come to her with all the longevity of rolling mist.

With Squeaky out cold -- booooring! -- the pale child turned her attention to the adult conversation at hand. Head tilted as she looked from one to the other. There was something bothering Legs, though the spirit wasn't too sure what it was. It had something to do with Unknown, for as far as she could tell from the conversation at hand. She followed only some of the caretaker's mouthed words for she was so used to non-verbal communication that it was harder to pay attention to what was being mouthed; she was still learning that language.

Maegi was never one for confrontations. Faced with a reality that was disagreeable to her, nine times out of ten, she fled. And she saw no reason to do otherwise, now. Cicero. The spiderlings were her sisters, of a sort. It was both enraging and disappointing, and the two emotions fought tooth and nail within her for domination. Rage won out.

With a snort, the Melonii--the Melonii!!--turned on her heel and stalked away, not another word in edgewise.

It was not an affront to her. It was an affront to Ramsay and Euron, who should be here, not them. And Cicero should be, too--how dare he? How dare he abandon his children like Potema did hers? For surely he had departed, her brothers in tow, with Relmyna carrying his pups. These girls, unfit to bear the Melonii name.

Yes, this would require some rumination. She allowed herself to sink into a dark place in her mind, brooding.

last post for me! <3

relmyna could not help that she felt spurned by maegi; she watched the young melonii stalk away, anger limning the edges of her body. but the listener soon refocused upon sleeping astara, playful averna. smoothing her nightcub's slumbering ear with a kiss, relmyna nuzzled averna and sighed. a hunt, perhaps, while the child slept and her sister accompanied their mother.
with a chuff to her daycub, relmyna moved off into the shadows, her heart troubled but a smile solely for averna trained on her muzzle.

"What's wrong with Squeaky?" asked the pale child, but for now the answers lingered in the tense air between the adults, not yet made for her ears. She could only conclude that therefore, nothing was wrong with the dark one. Legs made for the shadows as something appeared to be bothering her. You can't hide there, the pale child thought wistfully as Legs ran. Legs could never hide, for she was too white, like the spirit herself, except not ready to embody this.

With a purred yip the spirit accepted the caretaker's nuzzle. She then pounced at Squeaky, likely awakening her, but then settled by the dark one's side and bathed in the shared warmth of their pelts touching as she drifted off to sleep alongside her ill counterpart.