[Avery!]

Her trek was slow and unsteady. How many days had it been since she had left the desert behind her, for the last time? Her jaw clenched, head throbbing painfully. She had only just returned to her home.. before it had been wrenched from her grasp once more, this time by an enemy Eve simply could not fight. She had sobbed and cried, attacking everything around her in her grief, her anger, her anguish. 

Eve had kept moving since then, since the sandstorm (the second one I've survived, she thought bitterly). It couldn't be said when it was that she had last slept, time blurring together into a muddy streak of colors and sounds. What had she done to deserve this constant pain? Had she been so terrible in her previous life that fate saw fit to torture her for her entire next one?

The scarred wolfdog shook her head, growling. There was no such thing as fate, no gods or devils. It was just nature, and she knew that. There were footsteps beside of her, familiar footsteps, a warm and welcoming scent like home flooding her senses.. "d... ad?" she forced out in a squeak, voice crackling and rough like stones grinding together. The mirage of her father was so real that it almost convinced her - almost. Eve ignored the wavering image of Firebound, his face just the way she remembered it, so lovingly handsome. A sigh escaped her and she began to run, slowly picking up speed until she was sprinting through the thick woods. 

Gemini's border was lost on her, panic seizing her as she neared and crossed it, streaking into Gemini's territory like a golden bullet. Where would she go? Who had survived the storm? Where had they gone? Why had her children left her? Why had EVERYONE LEFT HER?!

Her paws hit unsteady ground, mossy rocks that caused the wolfdog to trip and go flying down a small rocky hill to the gully below. Her body crashed into a large moss-coated boulder, head smacking against it.. and she felt a dazed stupor fall over her, accompanied with the feeling of rain beginning to patter down, and the sound of thunder in the distance.

( avery slo mo catches eve in her strong wolf arms while whitney houson wails in the bg )

Daybreak rolled in gray and foreboding, peals of wind growing harsh as the hours stretched out, heaving the trees of this thickly wooded hollow to and fro, their roots moving visibly beneath the earth like reanimated bodies struggling against their graves. The threat of a storm made Avery tense, prone to aimless pacing and lips that grew stiff around the concealed teeth, and though she never looked particularly unfriendly, passersby who didn't already have some kind of rapport with her... maybe they took a look at her today and crossed paths to give her a wide berth.

And maybe she murmured soft, encouraging reminders to herself as she took shelter in the center of an old willow. Maybe Hawthorne had offered them to her the next time she had to power through a spot of bad, bad weather. Go to the mountains, one could imagine him saying. When the rain gets too loud, imagine the red rock, the smell of ibex, how it felt to stand on a hill and see everything for miles. Some sweet and unspoiled memory she could rest in for a while.

Mostly asleep, she heard the crashing before she connected any important dots, and woke a bit violently, throwing her head up with a reflexive snap of jaws at nothing. Ears perked, head low, eyes adjusting, heart racing, the firebird stilled and waited. Listening. Preparing. I smell sand, she thought distantly, dryly. What the hell, ladies and gentlemen.

Out of the crevice, through the brush, paws impressing the soft earth, and her caution slowly gave way to disbelief, some foreign feeling she couldn't recognize as god damned agonizing hope welling up in her chest as she ran, she ran, she ran --

to her friend's side.

"Eve," she breathed down at the half-conscious golden lump, her voice husky with awe. "Eve. I'm -- are you okay? Eve?" Asking her again, repeating the name, as though she couldn't believe it was real, as though she had to be mistaken, or she was dreaming it up, or that it would be yanked away from her somehow, because that's how this worked, that was the script of her life, but --

Here she was. Eve alive. Eve here.

Avery knelt down, on her belly beside the wounded wolfdog. Laid her head across her neck in a rare show of tenderness that would almost certainly embarrass her later to look back on. It didn't matter right now.

"I looked for you," she pleaded softly. "I looked for months. I couldn't find you. They wouldn't help me, they just... I'm sorry, Eve."

I'm so sorry.

Pain blossomed all over her body, throbbing head and paws and shoulders and chest - every part of her hurt. The wolfdog grimaced, but otherwise did not move, no energy left within her to do so. Eve felt rain pattering down on her soft gold and cream form, dampening her fur in select spots darkened by liquid. Was this it? Had she come so far, conquered so much, just to die.. here, in this ditch in some unknown territory, alone? In a way, Eve had expected as much - loneliness had become a part of her, the stony feeling like a gigantic, barren cave where echoes just never stopped. Echoes of the past, of her failures, of the fact that she was truly alone -- 

but she wasn't, was she? 

Her remaining eye fluttered open drunkenly, struggling to focus on the fire and coal colored creature moving towards her. The wolfdog growled in warning, mustering up the will to force out the sound accompanied by a slight crease in muzzle; it was a warning, broken mind unable to recognize who had approached, who was crawling into the gully with her, pressing against her with body instead of sinking teeth in. Eve gave pause, still growling weakly, still unable to understand.

"Eve. I'm -- are you okay? Eve?"

They knew her. They knew her and she couldn't remember, vision blurred and fading in and out, but slowly becoming steadier. "Wh.. who--" her voice cracked, unable to finish the question, throat burning and still pained from inhaling sand and grit during the sandstorm that had destroyed everything. Scarred nose inhaled deeply and it was like a light flashing in her mind, a black figure slowly fading to color, gaining detail, Eve gaining recognition of that scent, that voice -- "I looked for you, I looked for months. I couldn't find you. They wouldn't help me, they just... I'm sorry, Eve." What.. ? "A.. ver.. y?" Eve managed to croak out on hoarse, crackling voice, shock waves of disbelief running through her body like electric currents. Was it really her? Or was it just another mirage, a hopeful nothing? Single seaside eye looked up at the fiery woman, studying her features (what she could, anyway) before lifting her head as much as she could. This should have been a happy time.. she had thought that maybe, just maybe.. things would be okay if she found her old friend. 

But they weren't. 

"Avery.. " the collie fringe said, this time voice a little stronger but no less rough. Pressing into the other woman, Eve let a dry sob escape her. "It's gone.. all of it's gone," the valkyrie sputtered out, still not convinced that Avery was really there, really right there with her, but too out of it to truly care. "Are you.. is it really you?" Maybe not too tired to care after all - Eve raised her head to gaze through her single eye at the firebird, studying the face - feeling a burning anger rise in her stomach and chest at the sight of those goddamn red tattoos. Shredded ears fell back slightly as memories came flooding back, Eve pausing for only a moment before releasing those memories back into the world on a shaky sigh. 

Avery.. she was alive. All this time, Eve had never tried to look for her.. how long had she been in the desert since she had been traded for? Days, weeks.. ? The collie did not know. A shudder racked her body, the chill of rain and cool, powerful wind cutting straight through her feathery fur to the skin below - she was thin, thinner than she had been in even Saboro under the watchful eye of those demons. Not quite malnourished, but.. getting there, and fast. Avery had looked for her.. and Eve didn't even return the gesture after her freedom had been regained. What a joke she was, a terrible mother, a terrible leader, a terrible friend. Her heart ached, a dull pain that felt like her heart was too-cold, a thorn stuck directly in the middle shredding the walls of her brittle and broken heart with every beat. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Avery. I tried to get away, I wanted to be there for the pack, for my friends," for you, "I ruined everything and I am so, so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," all but blubbering the words out on half-sobs, half-chokes as body became overwhelmed with emotion, saying the words over and over and over again and meaning it every single time. Maybe if she said those words enough, everything would go back to the way things were, before.

It thundered loudly, a crackling BOOM that shook her to her bones, vibrating in her marrow. She heard the creaking of tree limbs as they swayed in the wind, the rustling of bushes and leaves scattering themselves through the thick undergrowth.. and through it all, her eye remained on Avery, unable to look away out of fear that the firebird would disappear on the wind like sand dust sweeping over the crests of dunes. Eve wasn't willing to risk that. 

Eve couldn't lose her again.

The disoriented woman cried out softly; Avery tightened her protective grip.

"It's me," she was murmuring again and again, trying with this reassurance to coax Eve back to reality. Over and over, a shushing, a soothing, repeated as though even she the speaker needed convincing. "It's me. It's Avery. I'm here. You're safe now..."

Pitter patter far above her head, the beginnings of rain falling to break upon her broad back, cold little strikes the firebird didn't even notice. It was a mirrored image of a time long past... her wading into the oasis in a dissociative fugue at high noon and passing out. Eve had come to pull her out, to save her from drowning, maybe in more ways than just the one that involved her lungs trying to learn to breathe water. A fugitive terrified for her life, escaped chattel risking far worse than simple hobbling, no family and no friends and no home and no hope. Just the need, stronger than reason or judgment, to run until she couldn't see red anymore.

And here lay someone who'd shown her real kindness during that nightmare.

And here lay someone she would have forgiven in a heartbeat should she admit to Avery that she'd never tried to look for her friend, who had all the reason in the world to believe she'd led Eve's captors right to her, anyway. Given them the tools to forge her chains.

"Don't say sorry," breathed Avery roughly into gold fur, her voice sounding tight and choked. Maybe something was in her eye. She certainly was not fighting back tears. "It's my fault this happened, you didn't do anything wrong, just..."

A monstrous thunderclap shook the sky and made her jump, effectively cutting her off mid-sentence. Avery peered upward... then regretted it as the rain grew abruptly harsher, dumping water into her upturned face, soaking the twosome's coats and matting it to their hides as surely as Ave flinched away and failed to suppress a loud sneeze. Fuck off, nature, we're trying to have a moment down here.

"Let's get out of the rain. I'll carry you, okay?"

"It's me. It's me. It's Avery. I'm here. You're safe now..."

Eve buried her face in the dark crook of the woman's neck, inhaling the firebird's scent to assure herself that it really was Avery, she was really and truly here. How long had it been since the woman had seen a familiar, friendly face? She shuddered, from the cold, from the sheer overwhelming pressure of the emotions raging within her like a hurricane. 

Where were they? Why was Avery here, what had caused her to abandon the desert? Eve was desperate for answers, but even more so for the feeling of safety. A year of her life had been spent terrified and paranoid, always looking over her shoulder in that god-forsaken jungle. Even when she had returned to the desert, that feeling of uncertainty and unease never truly faded. She had been alone, even in her old home - a place that had forsaken her, and left her for dead. 

"Don't say sorry, it's my fault this happened, you didn't do anything wrong, just..."

Avery's voice was strained, the emotion within it causing Eve's heart to ache painfully. The thunder crack shook the both of them, chilly raindrops beginning to fall in heavier amounts. "Let's get out of the rain. I'll carry you, okay?" Eve grunted a little, forcing herself to struggled up to her feet. Her joints ached, paws throbbing and maybe a little bloodied from cracked pads - but she remained standing, a tremble passing through her form. "I can make it," the battered wolfdog said defiantly, single eye closing as her headache thrummed along inside her skull, causing her world to spin. It took a few moments before the nauseous feeling faded, Eve's eye opening and looking at the red woman before her. A curt nod was given, a silent message of 'let's go'.

Eve's sandy form remained close to Avery's and, if allowed, would likely lean against the red woman's often for support. The rain was cold but welcomed; it felt nice on her hurting paws, the cold soothing the dull burn of her pawpads. "Avery, I.." Eve began, her voice hoarse and tired. "there's.. a lot I need to tell you." Eve's tone was somewhat ashamed when she spoke, as well as sad and ultimately disappointed - in herself, in what she had failed to do. A failure, that's all she was, wasn't it? A failure at being a friend, at being a mom, at being an alpha. 

"Sicher.. it's gone. The oasis dried up, a massive sandstorm forced everyone to just leave. It's.. all gone now.." Her head hung low, the woman's breath moving the grass as though she were almost speaking directly to the earth itself. Her posture was slouched, pained and tired - she would need to rest soon, or exhaustion would take her into darkness once more. "What is this place?" Curiosity still gnawed at her over that subject, head lifting a little as single eye inspected the forest around them. 

Safety. That was all women like them really craved in the end, wasn't it? Somewhere separate from the unpredictable world all around them that lashed out at random with vicious hurt they'd never before thought possible. Once upon a time, hurt to the firebird had been a busted leg, a nasty bite from a controlling sister, a long fall onto solid rock... were that she was still so laughably innocent! There was no escaping from danger. She'd take a thousand busted legs if it meant undoing all that had happened. If it meant taking at least one of Eve's captures away. Her unwilling stay in Saboro had all but dominated her life for the past few years -- to have it happen AGAIN?!

She'd have fucking killed herself. 

Eve was a better woman than her, never mind the epithets she branded herself with.

"All right," relented Ave, stepping back, but still hovering near the wolfdog's back should she stumble and start to fall again, though she tried to at least be discreet about it. That was something she could understand, something they had in common, that sort of fierce pride loathe to let anyone baby them. It spoke volumes on what rough shape Eve was in that she leaned against the other woman for support in the end. Of course she'd allow it, she'd be her rock in this storm, and off off they went, clinging to each other like two survivors of a shipwreck, and Avery would take her under the shelter of a gargantuan willow. The one Hawthorne had once taken her to, incidentally. A place of healing, perhaps. 

"There," she murmured, settling down once she'd helped Eve do the same, and for a moment in time. God. Eve here. Eve alive. She couldn't believe it. What was that feeling welling up in her chest, that lightness, that rising sun? Was it joy? Another friend long-lost to time. Softly then: "Tell me." I want to listen for you now.

Her eyes grew wider, an incredulous face, as that news was broken. "It's gone...?" More disbelief than real sadness; she'd grown estranged from her old homeland and she knew it. But to think that the refuge, once so thriving, was all so much fodder for a natural disaster, nobody left, nothing there... it was daunting. Made her too aware suddenly of the passage of time. "I'm sorry." What else was there to say? Quieter afterthought, mournful too strong a word, just resigned, once a moment had passed: "It was my home once, too."

Everybody had to grow up sometime.

"This place?" Avery blinked, gazing around as though just now remembering where they were. "It's... well, this is Gemini." And how the hell to summarize? "It's a funny place," she went on, echoing the words she'd offered previously to Blue. Funny ha-ha? Funny farmish? We just don't know. "A lot of people have come here to start over. You remember me telling you about Saboro? An old queen of theirs broke away and started it up... it's a long story, but I came with, there was a big group of us... then it kept growing, and uh... here we are."

A lick of her whiskery muzzle, quick and anxious.

"Can I hunt for you? Get you water? Anything?"

"It's gone...? I'm sorry. It was my home once, too."

Eve knew that Avery did not feel the depth of sadness over the loss of the her desert home as deeply as Eve herself did. The red woman had been there for a short time, never truly becoming a part of the desert.. just someone who lived in it. The collie mix had been with Tjenu when it was Sicher, when it was the Blackblood Alliance. Her youthful memories had been made there, and knowing that the desert home she had loved so much was as dead as the shifting sands within it.. 

She moved her mind to other things, much more urgent than wallowing in sadness over lost lands.

"This place? It's... well, this is Gemini. It's a funny place. A lot of people have come here to start over. You remember me telling you about Saboro? An old queen of theirs broke away and started it up... it's a long story, but I came with, there was a big group of us... then it kept growing, and uh... here we are."

The wolfdog listened to Avery's soothing, strong voice, almost lulled into peace by the tones. Noticeably, her tattered and shredded ears fell back against her head at the mention of Saboro, whatever calmness she might have been feeling becoming brittle and worthless. A former Saboran queen ruled these lands? Suddenly anxious and uneasy, body tensing, she focused her single-eyed gaze on Avery. The red woman wouldn't stay under the rule of a Saboran queen.. would she? Avery was here of her own free will, or so she'd said.. for now, Eve had to trust that Avery knew what she was doing. 

"Can I hunt for you? Get you water? Anything?"

Eve's sore paw lifted up from the ground, placing itself on the other woman's. "You can listen," the valkyrie said softly, her words tired and shameful. Eve swallowed, her teal eye focused on the ground below her. "Avery, I.. I was traded to Saboro." The woman inhaled deeply, holding the air within her lungs for a short while before exhaling - hoping the tension, the bad feelings would leave in that breath but knowing they wouldn't. She looked anywhere and everywhere except for at Avery, almost afraid to meet the other woman's gaze. Intently studying (or so it seemed) the massive beautiful willow, long leafy tendrils draped down all around them. Avery would understand the true weight of those words, Avery who had had everything taken from her by that bloody red jungle. Eve understood, now.

"I spent so long there, Avery. Just.. rotting away as a slave in that god forsaken jungle." Her muzzle wrinkled, brows furrowing together as her tone soured. No one had come for her, her own packmates content to leave her to rot -- but stupid enough to allow Saboro to sink their poisonous claws into the desert. It brought Eve a small amount of petty satisfaction, knowing that the outpost Saboro had secured was completely worthless now. "When I came back, nothing was the same. I thought I would be happy to be home, but.. that place wasn't my home." That desert no longer held the familiar warmth that Eve had grown to love. It was just a cold, dead land filled with unfamiliar faces.

All the valkyrie wanted was safety and security. Had Avery found those things here, beneath the rule of a former Saboran queen of all things? "Who.. who is your queen?" Eve understandably had very little faith in the idea of a trustworthy Saboran ruler. If Avery was still here, though.. perhaps it was worth at least looking in to. God knew the wolfdog was so very tired of running.

Avery was no clairvoyant, but she also was no idiot, and when Eve's ears drew back and her mangled face grew tense the moment she happened to mention that this place was under rule by a runaway queen of Saboro... well. She could connect the dots, and apologetically, quick to remedy that terrible jolt of anxiety, the firebird spoke again.

"She's different," was her reassurance, and she could say it confidently now, as she might never have with Derringer, should that brute still lurk among the living. "She's..." A pause, a hum of consideration. "... like me." They really did have so much in common, virtues and flaws alike. Compassion for those downtrodden. Hellish fury when pushed. Idealism. Royal children, their lives entrusted to her, an old enemy; neither one had ever once thought it possible at all. "Saboro was every bit as bad to her as it was to me. No history's gonna... repeat itself here, you know?"

A pale paw then, reaching for hers. Avery accepted it and set her great head across the crook of the forelimb she'd been touched with, a motion that was consoling and very tired all at once, belying something heavy and poisonous like lead. You can listen, was all the wolfdog said, and so she would, her own ears flicked back and sun-gold eye rolling half-lidded to look up at Eve. Maybe she'd feel the jaw tighten hard, the teeth clench together with something passionate and horrified and so fucking angry -- watch that same eye, see its pupil constrict as though it was disappearing fast down a tunnel --

Oh god.

"I knew it," Avery croaked hoarsely. She pulled in a seething breath, sucking it in as though fighting against a vacuum for it, and forced it out hot and fiery and hateful. "I knew it, I [i]knew it, those fuCKING --"

Almost choking on the words, the agony in the face of a confirmation she'd suspected all along, and for a horrible humiliating moment, Avery thought she might begin to cry. The suffocating seize, the aching in the chest, the eyes that blurred like she'd been plunged face-first into the sea. Fuck...

"I'm... I shouldn't have gone after them, I made them angry... I'm..."

(my fault it's all my fault all you do is get people hurt you're a CURSE)

"D-Did... you escape, too? Did Sicher do something?" Maybe they weren't quite as useless and uncaring as the firebird had left them, more concerned about squabbling over Eve's empty seat like seagulls fighting over a chunk of bread than saving her life --

She'd gone out herself. And that was why, wasn't it? Someone had to save people like them, and when one too many times you ran into incompetence and indifference and bystander syndrome when you looked for that help... you learned to seek it yourself. People can't be relied upon. Not enough.

Nobody deserved this.

But here it was anyway.

"Her name is Serrate. Maybe... you've seen her?" Somewhere in that deep and consuming hellhole. "I was out of there before she was... but it's... hard to remember what happened when anymore."
[/i]

Avery must have noticed Eve's uneasiness, scrambling to explain the situation and ease the wolfdog's nerves. 

"She's different. She's... like me. Saboro was every bit as bad to her as it was to me. No history's gonna... repeat itself here, you know?"

Eve swallowed, throat unpleasantly dry. Was it possible that someone who ruled over the violent red jungle was kind and compassionate? A memory of Coven's yellowed fangs and Kross's malevolent gaze flashed in Eve's mind; she frowned, shaking her head. "I'll.. have to take your word for that, I guess."

The firebird's reaction to the news of what had happened to Eve caused the wolfdog to shrink slightly. The fringe collie pressed herself into Avery almost desperately, as if clinging on to the red and charcoal woman for dear life. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, those fuCKING --" "Avery, please, no, no - it's okay --" "I'm... I shouldn't have gone after them, I made them angry... I'm..." "No! None of what happened is your fault, Avery!" the valkyrie almost yelled, her voice strained with small embers of pain and hurt burning on the fringes. 

"D-Did... you escape, too? Did Sicher do something?"

Tattered remnants of what had once been her ears pressed back against her skull, and Eve buried her face in the firebird's thick ruff. "Sicher.. they didn't care. Saboro had to -- they traded me back, for a post in the desert." It hurt, god did it hurt, like hot knives sticking into her spine. No one had come for her, or for Aleksei.. they had been too busy squabbling over her empty throne to give a fuck. Her jaw tightened, but suddenly, a bark of rough laughter cut through the air. "Guess the joke's on Saboro, losing what they traded me back for without even getting to use it." 

It brought Eve a little bit of satisfaction knowing that Saboro had gotten absolutely nothing out of that deal in the end. 

"Her name is Serrate. Maybe... you've seen her? I was out of there before she was... but it's... hard to remember what happened when anymore."

The wolfdog shook her head. She'd never met anyone named Serrate during her time in the jungle. "The.. Sabora?" she said almost questioningly, uncertain of the correct term. "During my time there was Sol Katti.. and the king, Coven." Eve inhaled deeply, sighing as she exhaled slowly. "I met.. a few wolves. A young boy named Raylan, and a girl named Hecate, and this.. weird one named Zasha, I don't think he was all there but he was.. kind, at least," and in Saboro, that was a rare trait to find, Eve imagined. "Not.. all of them were bad." Like the trio who had cared for her and fed her - Atlas, Bane, and Reiss. There had been kindness - or at least, lack of malevolence - in the jungle, a surprising thing to find to the wolfdog who saw Saboro only as evil. 

Ash and agony in her throat when she tried to breathe; the firebird raged against the suffocation, raged against the god damn injustice of it all --

(her friend shrank and pleaded. people were afraid of her anger. people were cut by the sharp edges of her pain. this was what she was.)

-- and battled away her grief, wrestling it down not for her own sake, but for the woman clinging to her who'd seen far too much terror already. Avery squeezed her eyes shut, reopened them in a snap. Pulled in air and focused on keeping it full and steady, protection against the threat of drowning. In her mind she envisioned mountains, ibex, pine trees, snow-capped peaks. She counted backwards, multiplied each number as they went. Mindfulness, Hawthorne had called it -- was that right? It kept her calm during storms. It kept her rooted to her own skin. It kept her thoughts stitched together when they wanted to fly apart.

"Sorry," she said slowly, shaking her head. Back. Forth. A rhythm, a metronome. A heartbeat. Steady. "I'm sorry. I didn't... mean to yell. I'm not mad at you, I just..." The firebird set her great head back down, across the nape of Eve's neck this time, that she might be able to lean into her mane like she wanted. "... it should never have happened."

Sicher, Tjenu, whatever the hell it had called itself -- it disgusted Avery down to her core, the gross and self-centered apathy they'd demonstrated in the face of a crime against one of their own, the feeble-minded failure to learn from history and do the right thing in this remarkably similar situation to the one that in the past Sunrush had so egregiously bungled. Idiots, the lot of them. Fucking morons. Fair-weather friends to the extreme. She pitied the children, the uninvolved and unaware innocents affected by the sandstorm that buried their nation once and for all, but otherwise... they could choke on it for all she cared.

"Just pathetic," she spat, a bitter laugh croaking from her dry throat not at all unlike Eve's own chuckle. Just depressing. "A post in the desert, tch. For fuck's sake. Who needs 'em." That Saboro hadn't gotten what they wanted, sacrificing a chess piece for no good reason, would have amused her nastily if she didn't know them well enough to realize they probably didn't give a shit anyway.

Different rulers. Another day, another tyrant. Avery had at least been fortunate enough to evade the Cokatti reign. "I guess..." she relented slowly, not sure what else to say. "... they couldn't all be." Despite what it was far easier on her to believe. "I'm glad not everyone was shitty."

The firebird closed her eyes once more. She too had liked herself best when she remembered to be kind to the prisoners.

"And I'm glad you made it here."

Too tired, too weak in this moment to bite her tongue and hold back the admission of --

"I really missed you."

They were bound to tragedy it seemed, the both of them, experiencing chaos and turmoil wherever they went. Their wrists bore the lasting marks of shackles that had crushed their bones, and they each had a void within them created by the terrible loss of everything they had ever loved, or wanted to love. Kindred spirits in all of the worst ways - but they were together again, finally. That was what mattered. 

"Sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't... mean to yell. I'm not mad at you, I just... it should never have happened." 

Eve pressed her head against the firebird's warm body, her friend's scent the most comforting aroma the wolfdog had encountered in a very long time. "It's okay, it's okay," she reassured the other woman softly, offering a comforting lick or two to her friend's fur. Eve wanted apologies, and vengeance, oh how she wanted vengeance - but she did not want apologies from Avery. The firebird had been there for her, she cared; that was more than the fringe collie could say for anyone else. 

She listened as Avery spat and cursed about Saboro and about Tjenu the same way Eve herself often did. Eve's anger had somewhat lessened as time passed, but the desire for retribution burned within her like an undying flame. The valkyrie would not ever forget the faces of those that wronged her. 

"I'm glad not everyone was shitty. And I'm glad you made it here. I really missed you."

Those last words struck a chord deep within the wolfdog's chest, causing her heart to flutter gently. "Well I found you, so.. I'm glad I made it here, too." The words were softly spoken, Eve chuckling lightly. She was happy to have wound up in Gemini of all places in the world - it had to have been fate that led the fringe collie back to her companion. 

Her entire body ached, exhaustion creeping up slowly. Eve wanted to sleep, to rest for days and days, but was almost afraid that if she went to sleep, she would wake in Saboro, or in Tjenu.. alone. "Will you.. stay with me, for tonight?" she asked almost meekly, single seaside eye closed and breathing already growing lengthier and slower. "I'm so glad I found you," Eve mumbled sleepily into Avery's fur. Thunder rolled in the distance, lulling the exhausted woman to sleep.