Moonspear give me something
the bonecracker
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#1
All Welcome 
 

Hydra, in his state of sleep, would now and then look in on her brother. Linger in silence, as he preferred, and rest nearby with a watchful eye. She had not granted him the privilege of being among them by any permanent means, in his having disappeared again... but for herself, selfish as she was, she provided protection. She had many questions for him. Where had he gone? Who had he run with? Who hurt him? Why had he returned? When would he walk away from their family again? 

Questions for herself, too. 

She would see them all answered. With Mira home now, Hydra drifted toward where he rest none too quietly. She made no mystery about her arrival, her gaze searching for him.
I'll find that you'll find that I'm lethal
Ghost
"God is every bit as feral as that which he creates."
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#2
Revui was nearly awake as it was. He roused with a churlish huff as breath caught in his gullet, sounding more like his piggish teenaged self than the man he had grown in to. Then came a yawn, a reach of broad paws connected to unfortunately willowed limbs, a stretch. As he drew back to himself he noted the long cast of shadow; the unmistakable aura of his sister.

She would have questions. He had some of his own, of course. Wondering why he was here in Kukutux' care primarily; he was surprised to be so near to Moonspear and less so that he was hidden from it, in one of the corridors of forest adjacent to the claim. So close, yet so far. He wondered why the effort would be made to care for him in such a way - had Kukutux pleaded for it, or Hydra demanded it?

He could not look her way, but he felt her stare as if it were a magnifying glass set upon the anthill of his skin. It seared.

The woods have always been filled with these soft doe-eyed things;
with hearts beating for the arrow, the bullet, the lance.

I have always been the huntsman.  ⤑

the bonecracker
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Hydra saw him, assessing. He still did not look well, but he did not look dead any longer. It was a small improvement, but improvement nonetheless. She was silent for but a moment longer, ears pricked forward to see how he might greet her. He did not. To express gratitude seemed too difficult a feat for him, but then, sometimes so did thinking as she recalled. 

Fill in the blanks for me, Revui, she drawled, when you left your family again without a word after we healed your hurts, where was it you went? And after, who might you have brought to our doorstep when you returned, looking like the distant cousin of death? She asked, ears twitching.
I'll find that you'll find that I'm lethal
Ghost
"God is every bit as feral as that which he creates."
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#4
She was patient, and even he knew her patience was a fickle thing, fraying at the edges. Whatever investment she had placed with him, whatever hopes, were at their limit. Her questions were pointed - and try as he might, he would do his best to answer. It was difficult to think back to those moments when he'd arrived at the edge of Moonspear - it was so long ago, and he had been in terrible condition.

I went... To find my own way. Revui said. It was what Kukutux had told him to do. He would not place the blame on her, if there was any. It had been his decision. He could take the brunt of Hydra's malice if that is what his words brought out of her. It was his own doing, after all. I crossed the mountains. On the other side was a valley, the Bearclaw, and I lived among the people there. He thought of Merrick and found himself softening somewhat, missing his friend; but Ikkalrok's face pulled to the forefront of his memory and he felt a familiar selfish ire spark to life.

It was home, but I did not feel... Wanted, there. I left. I... Cannot tell you more than that. He looked so pitiful, so sad. I remember the sea, or... I think I do, but that is all.

The woods have always been filled with these soft doe-eyed things;
with hearts beating for the arrow, the bullet, the lance.

I have always been the huntsman.  ⤑

the bonecracker
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...a valley, the Bearclaw, and I lived among the people there...

If one ever doubted the matriarch's exercise in her own control, this moment in time would confirm for them the reasoning behind the doubt or else eradicate the question of it from existence. Hydra saw many things in the long span of seconds between these words and the next, and to control her first impulse to dash head across stone to see if the rorschach of bloodmatter left behind might somehow brought more value to her life, or more relief, than the entirety of his existence thist past year was a remarkable feat. 

She could fucking kill him. She should fucking kill him—

Hydra reined in her temper, her anger. For all that he had done, he had returned home in the end. But what trouble had he caused with those insufferable Valley wolves? Of course of all the packs within the Wilderness, he would throw himself into their lot. Hydra searched for traces of Korei Julia in him, as she had the silver Mintaka, as she lamented on his life. How he had not felt wanted.

Is there any measure of your loyalty left in that Valley, Revui? she asked of him, voice soft though firm, With any wolf, in any place? she finished, ears pricked forward. It was not a strange question, not from Hydra, who valued loyalty to their family above anything else among their own. And she would not have anything else from her brother, not anymore, not after giving so much for him in turn. He breathed now for her allowance of it, and he recovered for her permitting of it—Amekaze had bore him, but it was she who had kept him alive for all this time after his witless misdeeds. 

Let all of that end now, she willed of his response to her.
I'll find that you'll find that I'm lethal
Ghost
"God is every bit as feral as that which he creates."
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#6
Is there any measure of your loyalty left- she asked of him, and the sound of her voice became like that of the sea crashing in his disjointed fever dreams, a rumble of white-noise and nothingness. The rest did not matter.

No. He snapped the word, more vicious than he intended.

Revui held on to nothing from the Valley; he briefly thought of Merrick and the bloodied bond they'd created, some semblance of friendship (or as close as they could manage between the two of them). He thought of Ikkalrok, which made his heart hurt until he let it harden some. This was a self-inflicted wound he could bounce back from, like the others.

The look in his eyes - the emptiness - remained, while his brow pinched in to a scowl, tired of having to repeat the sentiment every time, tired of the doubt. But he could not lie - he had never been a vocal creature and so the need to learn had never surfaced, thus, his reply was as basic as the rest of himself:

I am loyal to myself. I can only trust myself. And even though he wished he could say otherwise, Revui was certain he was signing his death warrant as he answered, or at the very least confirming for Hydra all of her lamentations. He was through listening to what everyone else wanted out of him when he got nothing in return but endless doubt.

If she wanted more than that, it was Hydra's turn to earn it.

The woods have always been filled with these soft doe-eyed things;
with hearts beating for the arrow, the bullet, the lance.

I have always been the huntsman.  ⤑

the bonecracker
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#7
Nothing would ever change with him, she recognized. He would always be this way. Time and time again, she put her faith in him, her hopes in him—

Insanity. It was insanity. 

He was the most untrustworthy of them all; kinslayer, oathbreaker, abandoner—

She could scarce believe her ears. But Revui, like her, did not lie. 

Stepping backward, Hydra's cold, low voice echoed off of the walls of where she had let him slumber for weeks past, hovering over the imprint outside of it left behind by her from the hours of keeping watch: Get up, she commanded, and get out. She was finished with him, truly now. Too dim to see all that she had done for him, and Kukutux too, she knew there was no getting him to understand the measure of the love she held for him. The last vestiges of it which saved him even then from her wrath. Loyalty to himself was what he had chosen, and he would find the result of it very bleak.
I'll find that you'll find that I'm lethal
Ghost
"God is every bit as feral as that which he creates."
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#8
Having anticipated bloodshed, her words were a surprise - though they bit with the frigidity of winter's encroaching deep freeze. All was said, it could not be undone. They both knew it. Revui, too tired to fight with her further or deny her this last command, stood on shaking limbs and turned his back. The last vestiges of his trust in her shattered like glass as the distance grew, until he was naught but a shadow.

The woods have always been filled with these soft doe-eyed things;
with hearts beating for the arrow, the bullet, the lance.

I have always been the huntsman.  ⤑

the bonecracker
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#9
She watched him go, watched as his limbs trembled, and terribly felt not a shred of remorse. 

A shame he had not trusted her. Trusted the care that had kept him living and breathing this long. A shame that she did not trust him, he who ran merrily alongside her most hated of enemies. Of course she could trust him no further. Of course. 

But her heart splintered once he was well and truly out of sight. With no one around to hear her, Hydra choked out a sob. Arcturus, Revui—for all of the love she bore for them both, for all she had ever done, this was the way they both repaid her. She wanted to hate, and only hate, but she ached and found her limbs quivering in much the same way her brothers had. Looking to the last place in which he had rest, she moved toward it; Hydra circled thrice and simply lay there to breathe in the scent of him one final time. 

She could not trust him, she reminded herself. But for as long as she rest there, she would let herself love him for a little while longer.
I'll find that you'll find that I'm lethal