Moonspear my wings are fire, and you cannot break my will

arcturus had returned to moonspear some time ago, the trail of his sisters gone cold. in the weeks that followed arcturus moped; he was unconditioned to the absence of siblings, and mostly, missed hydra's guidance.

in a way he felt he had failed her; she had gone to find one sibling, he had gone to find her -- but he was too young, and too inexperienced - he could not sustain himself beyond moonspear and had been quickly turned from the inhospitable wild.

he missed also the summer nights; as of late the moon seemed colder, the sun more distant. this inexplicable change brought with it a fire of frost that hazed the stones in the morning, their icy breath lingering on blades of grass and fallen leaves. more confusing yet was the rash of flame to douse the mountainside; the trees were a vivid color arcturus had never seen before.

all this change, it perplexed the boy -- he was distressed, in his own way.

and then, yami disappeared.

he wrestled with this more than anything. his sweet, devious sister had gone. her scent practically dropped off of the mountain one day, and arcturus was both deeply wounded and hurt by grief: had she left him, too? or had something gotten her?

the boy was lowing quietly to himself as he paced up and down the rough face of the mountain. his voice was long gone from calling for yami; a rasp and a click was all the accompanied the labors of his tongue, and his eyes once bright with youth seemed disconsolate and sunken.

✴Their family was getting smaller. Revui might not have been very close to the Yams, not like he was with Arcturus, but he still felt the absence and disliked that such a thing could happen under his watch. The mountain was under his guard while Hydra and Lyra were absent from it, and for them to return to another sibling missing—it was maddening, a failure Revui had not encountered before. He was full of rage and endless energy, sleeping very little as he patrolled the weathered routes of the mountain and beyond it.

Then, when Arcturus returned from his own attempt to hunt down their siblings, Revui turned upon his route and charged. He was not angry with his shadow for doing what he could; he was angry at all his losses, at his own inexperience and many avenues of investigation gone dry. Yet he needed something to pummel, something to release his frustrations upon, and when Revui found his brother's trail on this day he zeroed in and began a new hunt. Upon spotting his swarthy figure along a ridge, Revui did not call out or greet him—instead he locked him in his sights, and shot across the mountainside after him.

The ensuing collision was narrowly avoided; as soon as Revui was near enough to see his brother's defeated expression, the weight of loss and sorrow hanging off of him, his anger was gone. The stampede of his steps concluded with a skid, and he rested there while the dust settled, then crooned a sad note to his brother.

gloom marched on heavy feet around arcturus; it stamped out the life in his sunny eyes, and choked the warmth in his genteel disposition. yet gloom saved him that day from an assault he would have been unprepared for -- had revui not altered his course, he would have found the boy limp and defeated beneath him, with no fight left to give.

he mourned yami's loss for different reasons: it did not occur to him that his older sisters would be disappointed to learn she had gone. truth be told, arcturus wondered if they too were gone for good.  what use was this grave and imposing mountain, if it took bits and pieces of his family every time his back was turned?

revui had crooned to him; arcturus lifted his sunken gaze to his brother, but managed no reassuring smile. and then -- as if revui was not even there at all, the boy slumped his shoulders and walked right past him.

✴They were growing children, soon to be teenagers if they weren't already. Surely they had begun to express the fickle nature inherent to such beings. Revui might not have been aware of his own behavioral shifts, his manic moments or depressive ones, but he was keenly aware of the change in Arcturus in this moment. It surprised him to meet the gaze of his shadow only to lose his attention, and to watch him slide away — ambiguous, unimportant, morose.

Revui frowned, pacing on the spot for a moment as he tried to understand. He wasn't sure what to do, so he followed after him — silent, but present. When he grew impatient with this avenue of investigation (and this didn't take long), Revui huffed, or snorted, or snapped at Arcturus' tail, trying to get a reaction. Whether this worked or not, Revui wasn't leaving his brother alone. He was hurting too, and he needed his brother — selfishly coveting their time together even if Arcturus wished to be alone with his sadness.

sorry he's such a turd!! <3

he could not concentrate. he had swept right past his brother as if he had been oblivious to him; he was in no mood to play, to hunt, or to kill -- and those were revui's favorite activities (besides eating, of course). all arcturus wanted was to see yami, or, if that was not feasible, to have answers.

why had she gone? where had she gone? would she come back?

was she okay?

he fretted, his paws worn and limbs exhausted. there was a tiredness evident in him, for he stumbled often and leaned terribly on the forehand as he walked. he was aware his brother was trailing him, but he was too crushed to turn him away. he didn't even acknowledge the many huffs and snorts that grumble behind him -- and would have continued to ignore them as he searched were it not for the sudden pinch of pain in his tail.

arcturus yelped and scooted forward, his tail tucked to his belly and ears pulled back in discomfort - but it was his eyes that told of some other emotion besides agony: anger.

he rounded his shoulders, irritable - he was exhausted from searching, defeated that yami was patently gone, and now, was being harassed by his brother. perhaps it was the total exhaustion that made his patience so thin - perhaps it was the desolation of grief -- but arcturus was not arcturus as he snarled and turned to face his brother, an unusual shade of wrath distorting his features as he snapped once - twice - three times in the manner of a dog that would tolerate kicks from its abuser no longer.

✴He busied himself with bothering his brother, however, it didn't take long before the shadow struck back. Turning with a sharpness that Revui had never witnessed of him before, Arcturus began to counter his brother's snapping with his own, and for once rivaled the leviathan in viciousness. All of this Revui took as part of a new game, a violent game, but he was not prepared for the swift rebuke his brother put forth. The snarling face made him look all the more devilish, and he would have fit in well as one of the Cerberus; still Revui was not afraid, even as those teeth came slicing through the air after him.

The hit was right on the mark. Teeth caught upon Revui's snout and gouged the flesh, scoring it with Arcturus' rage, and all at once Revui knew it was not a game at all. He was stunned and drew backwards against the force of the enraged shadow but it was too late, the sound of teeth clipping bone had already filled the air. He didn't need to smell the blood that rose upon his snout to know it was there - it was warm, surprising him more than the blow did - and the leviathan was temporarily cowed by his shock.

None of his family had ever struck him a blow such as this. Before they had been playful things, lessons, and at times they might've grown rough but never had anyone raised a weapon against him in this manner. That it was Arcturus to brandish his knives and to slice him — Revui was stunned. He did finally shrink back when the livid welt began to dribble blood, splattering a small mess of it in the soil, but never once did Revui retaliate or run. He stared right at his brother, unsure of what to do.

OMG ARCTURUS WHAT DID YOU DO *sob emoji*

his grief had augmented into something else; perhaps tinctured darkly by the veil of frustration that coursed through him. arcturus didn't know it, but grief often bloomed into the most ravenous of angers -- it was as if sorrow was the wellspring in which the purest rage often sprung forth, rioted, and then burned so hot and sharp and clean that it was over in a flash.

just like that, he had snapped -- just like that, he had caused incorrigible, permanent damage to his brother.

he stepped back, shocked by the furor in which he had turned on his hounding sibling -- he hadn't meant to hurt him, he hadn't meant to strike true -- but these intentions didn't matter, did they? not when you were staring at your own kin, watching the blood (your blood0 you had a hand in extracting slowly trickle down your beloved brother's face.

he stepped back more, horrified to witness what he had done. and what had he done? a swallow worked itself, thick and lumpy and cutting, down his throat. rev -- he wanted to coarsely utter -- rev, i'm sorry --

but his tongue was leaden, his throat unmoving -- and as his brother wheeled from the atrocious deed arcturus had done, arcturus turned tail to run with his shame howling in torment after him.

arcturus -- wretch -- bloodspiller --

cain.