Noctisardor Bypass ást

something was wrong.

there was a pounding in her chest as she swayed into the bypass. far from home. tired and weary and yet electrified with a certain kind of frenzy! she could not describe it.

only knowing that it made her turn her head at every sound and made her stumble in her own breathing. only knowing that it had been building for some hours and now seemed to reach a sort of climax.

she called for anybody who might hear.

and only felt even more alone in return.

And someone did meet her.

Everett slipped from the bypass - alone, for once, having left Evander so he could collect his thoughts away from his twin’s prying eyes. More and more and more and more, Everett felt that growing need for space. And more and more, he took these moments. Still strange, after being tied together, bound together, tapestry of life woven together for so very long.

He did not know who had put the pieces of the girl he found together. Everett did not wholly know what he was looking at. Shaggy and squared, eyes burrowed under wild strands of fur.

Perhaps she was cursed.

Perhaps that’s why he remained on the edge of the Bypass, looking down upon the woman, considering what to do. And something stirred in his chest. A familiarity in the way her voice strung desperate and alone.

He blinked, and tipped his head. Howled back a note of some folk song he’d known as a child, to let her know she was not alone. His own tall frame, backlit by the sunlit sky. Glowing gold against the blue.

someone called out.

melodic and sweet. blue eyes swept the place, looking and searching. finding someone high above drenched in a halo of gold.

reverie! systir!

she was here, she was near. she thought she was frenzied in her movements, reaching for that golden figure in nearly worshipful ways.

but she was slow. sluggish. stumbling before she was down in the snow. only gazing up at the golden creature in the sky.

a sudden overwhelming sense of peace —

she closed her eyes.

Lethargic. Convulsing. Her movements reminded Everett of how he’d thought he might become after eating the mushroom dust the night after turning his teeth against Evander. Thoughts that had paralyzed him upon that sacred hilltop where they had told him heaven would meet earth, and he would begin to fulfill the prophesy Mother Rain had spoken over him at birth. And heaven had met earth, but in every way he hadn’t expected.

Everett had not touched the mushrooms at his paws.

He wondered, if this one had. Though he could not see her eyes, he saw her tilt her head towards him. Gazing upward, sunward, though she herself stayed in shadow. And a pang of something angry stung him.

Are you okay? he called down to her. Voice deep and soft, and as controlled as he could be. Not demanding her to rise, not demanding anything of her, but to know that she was okay.

Okay.

He had never been, but if only someone other than Evander had ever cared to ask.

okay?

okay.

she heard it, behind closed eyes and a closing heart. the voice was soft and just as golden as the halo. yet it was not...not her systir. no, she did not think so.

was it the spirit of a bear come for her?

maybe the spirit of a stag.

maybe the spirit of stone and mountains.

she was dizzy behind her closed eyes. her voice a warbled thing full of her exhaustion and confusion.

hver ertu?

He thought of descending these mountain steps towards her. Thought, but did not do.

Everett could only read so much from up here. The subtler motions of her face lost to distance and space. But, on the other hand, he was safer here.

Yet he caught himself leaning forward.

Excuse me, miss, I couldn’t quite — ah, didn’t quite catch that.

But he had caught the strain in her voice, and he thought of Reverie, and now, without thinking, began to descend towards her.