Emberwood [m] Down

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Reverie is not able to conceive again per site rules but since multiple heats in a season are allowed, why not chaos

Her children were scarcely weaned, and Reverie still had yet to shed the excess weight of carrying them.

So it was truly baffling when she woke to a familiar fire burning in her veins. The Dancing Queen bristled, distancing herself at once from her brother and daughters. It was too early to find Dusty Rose there, surely, but all the same Reverie went to the little hollow they shared each night. She dove into it without a second thought, seeking to curl up and hide there for the remainder of whatever fresh torment this was.

He hardly slept. Sunrise to sunset, he watched the horizon - and sometimes longer. Recently, he had begun sleeping on the outskirts of parkland, and not by choice, but because his eyes grew heavy in watching, and he found himself waking up to birdsong begore he'd had the chance to drag himself elsewhere to sleep.

And still no sign of Reina or Tybault.

He had to do something! So today he broke better judgement and stole into the heart of the land, fevered in sleeplessness, impaired in exhaustion. Shadows rimmed his bloodshot eyes. He sought his sister like a hound.

Reverie! he whispered too loud when he finally found her scent, threading down into a hollow, we need to talk.

In his current state, he didn't notice hers, else he may have turned his words elsewhere.

But instead, his words would run.

Any other time, her brother would have been a welcome presence. Of course he would have. Reverie loved him dearly, would never have done anything to hurt him under normal circumstances, except —

Except this was not a normal circumstance. And he was not meant to be here. The wrongness of it prickled across her skin like fire and she lunged from the hollow with a desperate snarl, teeth snapping for his muzzle. She didn't even hear what he said. Reverie didn't mean to hurt him, not truly. She only wanted him to stay away. Far, far away.

Teeth scored his muzzle - Reverie's - and burned like Father Fire when he hadn't sung hard enough.

Had his sister ever struck him before?

The thought droned in the far corner of his mind, not present enough to make a difference. He did not hear her desperation. She broke the eye of his storm.

He struck back like a tempest.

Reverie! he snapped, and instead of fleeing or freezing, he reached out to push her down.

It'd been a glancing blow, not enough to draw blood, yet Everett's retaliation was swift all the same. He was pushing her —

he was pushing her down (why?whywhywhy?)

and she couldn't breathe she

what was he doing?

to her?

She screamed. A violent twist of her body freed her. It hurt, but she hardly felt it. Reverie spared no second glance for her brother. She ripped herself from beneath him and she fled, she ran, away and into the valley beyond. She wasn't safe there.

She wasn't safe here, either.

Something was wrong - but he didn't clue in, and his exhaustion left him volatile -

not thinking -

a fool.

But he would use none of these words to describe himself now. In fact, they stacked against Reverie in an ugly tower he'd set up to break.

Who cared if Tybault was the hound of the Gilded Sea?

No doubt he was dead now, and Reina too.

And it was Reverie's fault.

It was his.

I can't wait around anymore! he shouted as she fled. Give her space. A small voice whispered. You hurt her. Breathe. Pray. Talk to her once you've both cooled down -

Reina was dead.

Tybault was dead.

Sleep sleep SLEEP

GGRRRAAH!

Frustration clapped like thunder.

He turned around and left Emberwood behind him.

- exit Everett -