[Cuivre]

Until tall oak trees flattened into rolling hills and gorgeous greens, the man ran with demons snapping at his ankles. He didn't even sense the transition from the dull hues of Saboro to the vibrant colors of Gemini, nor did he realize how the air seemed to practically shift in this new atmosphere to something lighter, something friendlier… almost.

There were shadows in those troubled eyes, and they sensed things beyond the physical world. Things no one else could see or hear. The whispers of paranoia coaxed him into a frenzy, and under the smoke and flames of his mind caught fire, he could hear them. They were coming. Oh, they were coming and they would kill him.

“Please,” he whispered, hoarse voice breaking in the wind. “Please, I’m sorry.” To whoever was there, to whoever was listening. “I need--” And with the crack of something breaking behind him—perhaps it was the sound of his mind, finally splitting in two—he jumped, he shrieked. 

“PLEASE! Oh, please… please don’t let them kill me! I don’t want to go back, I’ll do whatever you want, whatever you need. They’ll kill me,” he urged, staring at his company with blind eyes that would not register to whom they spoke. “Please!”

[Lev Malakh]

The wind howled as she sat atop the cobble stones of the wall, bones whistling as air seeped through the cracks of scars scored by teeth of a dying boy. Paws crossed before her, her mind calm as she heard the drone of the ocean in the near distance, wondering if she should wander the shore in a little while to soothe her soul, to feel sand betwixt her toes as she felt the cold, crisp water stealing her warmth. Two lovers had danced upon the shores, one gold under the sun as the fragrance of flowers filled their minds. She was afraid then.

She was afraid no longer.

And just as the Valkyrie stood to move across the highlands to the hewn steps, a voice called across the low valley, one so familiar yet so foreign. Heart fluttered in a chest that felt vacant, but now burst with sudden realization. Golden eyes met golden eyes, as gold as the sand between a lover’s paw, dancing wildly like flames of a lost soul she could never forget — a body pinned against the Earth as ash soiled tears and screams filled the soul of Ki Tisa.

She didn’t know when she had hit the ground, the pain shot through her leg and shoulder, yet she didn’t care. She didn’t know when she ran, a limp in her gait. She didn’t know when she began to cry, hot tears clear and pure, the ash of yesterday could not reach them. She didn’t know when her forehead plummeted into his chest, her own heaving with sobs and unbelievable happiness because she thought this boy was gone, dead, part of her fault.

He ranted, raved, and finally, the Valkyrie found herself. Lev Malakh looked from his chest to the scarred face of her brother; tail wagging uncontrollably as she thought she had lost him forever. Like she had lost Tauro, like she had lost her two children. “No, no, no, baby, never.” she gasped, trying to catch breaths between sobs. “You’re here, you found us. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Cuivre.” Lev Malakh hugged him then, paws locked around his neck and she could smell the heat of the volcano upon his fur.

Saboro was a smell she thought she forgot, but you can never forget smells.

But she never, ever, forgot the scent of her brother.

✦ ✦ Speech Text ✦ ✦

[Toya]

#ce2029
song inspo
Though the world is cruel
There's a light that still shines

The commotion hit him almost instantly, he hadn't been that far of a ways off, and the curiosity had gotten the better of him. Toya was always so careful to avoid such loud noise, so it was strange even to himself that he was so drawn in by it. 

It's when he saw them, an older sister hugging onto a stranger, cooing words like a mother would to calm her screaming child, caught in an embrace between two people that had not seen each other in a very very long time, or in a bizarre alternate universe a snake's coil. Constricting dear Lev, and yet she cooed and he cried and she loved him and would die against him. The scene played back within Toya's mind, Lev had already died one too many times.  Smile out your one face, and frown with the other.

But Toya was an unwanted onlooker, a creature that had slunk his way from the heartland to spy these two all because he was just so curious. He felt disgusting and uncomfortable, his paw darting to press black furred hairs against the side of his face to cover that hideous mutation. His fur prickled and he swallowed an audible gulping breath. Creep, creep, CREEP.

The wind howled, and his heart twisted and turned and he frowned gruesomely at the ground, finally clearing his throat to speak up to his sister. "Lev.." He said voice raising slightly so that the two could hear him, the wind and Cuivre's ravings aside. Amber eye hovering over that crazed beast, that unknown brother. His face marred with scars, as too was the rest of his body. "W-who... is he?" Far be it from him to tell his elder sister who she could or could not hug and hold, but he just wished for her safety if nothing else. She had already lost so much.