(This thread is backdated to just after this thread, sorry all I wanted this done much sooner but everything got held up.)

It was probably a miracle that Recluse had managed to make it back to the pirate lands, she had lost so much blood, more than she thought could have ever flowed through her veins. But as she smelled the familiar comforting scent of Sparrow's border she felt a brief flood of relief. It did not last long. Galho had made sure that she'd made it to the safety of the pack lands before immediately flying off to find the pirate king, to get help. He would never make it in time. He did not see Recluse's eyes roll, as she stumbled and then toppled and then crashed into the ground. Recluse was aware then of her own mortality, so very aware. Was this what it had been like for Kali when she'd died? Oh god, Kali. More so, her children! She'd failed them hadn't she? Failed to protect them, failed to free them. She had spent so much time recovering, so much time doing whatever she could to avoid Medusa's eyes while plotting and planning... And it would come to naught, all her grand visions of bringing a war to Medusa's doorsteps, ripping her children free from the bitch and reminding her of her place... None of that would happen... She had failed them. None of Habari's allies had made moves to establish that the Klein empire was not to be trifled with,  Habari had been taken, and their own blood had been taken prisoner and yet nothing, no drums of war, no rescue parties. They'd let it all happen... The empire was a sham, maybe she'd always known that... But it left her so alone. And it made the pain of having failed to save a single one of her children so much worse. Who would help them? Recluse was dying, and no one was going to hold her and sob over her corpse. She would not get the love that Kali had, it made her cold... Or maybe that was the dying. But it hurt all the same. She wept, unable to do more than burble hopelessly, her throat too destroyed to do much else. She longed then for her husband, his warm embrace had been a comfort for such a short time in her life... But he would not hold her now. In the end it had never mattered had it? Her crown, her titles, the men? In the end none of it had changed who she was, a scared child abandoned by her family and the world. And now, through no choice of her own, she would never chose to abandon her children after all, it would happen again. They would be left to fend for themselves in a world that already hated them for being in it, and she couldn't protect them. That knowledge killed her nearly faster than her mutilated throat. As the world was drifting away Recluse's thoughts were, as they had been since every single one of them had been born, were on her children. She could not know who would find her, if her children would be allowed to mourn over her body, would not know that in the days that passed Galho would take it upon himself to search out every single one of her children and let them know of her murder and their brother's kidnapping. Ashen and Armada's alphas would be given terse messages that Recluse had passed, her son had been taken and reminders that empire citizens by birthright were still left to rot in captivity. (Recluse had confided in both her companions her feeling of being abandoned by them after all.) Eraithus would be told. What all of them did with that information would be up to them. The only thing Recluse would ever care about for the rest of eternity was those last thoughts of her children, and the mixture of terror and love she'd felt before it had all finally ended. -Exit Recluse via death- ”Speech”  ’Thought’

Sparrow wasn't really familiar with the bird that sought her out, but the thing seemed desperate and it mentioned Recluse, so Sparrow followed it. She made haste, the bird keeping pace with her and leading the way. Soon, a white lump came into view, the cavern air blowing the tips of the fur gently. She was crumpled wrong- not in the way one sleeps or rests- like she plummeted face first into the cavern and similarly, so did Sparrow's heart. The scent of blood hit her before even Recluse's own as she rushed to the woman's side, murmuring her name between soft 'no's that gave away that she already knew what was going on. She lowered herself, gingerly flipping the woman's limp body over, revealing the stained fur and wound that opened below her lifeless face. She was still so warm- she didn't smell dead yet, but she showed it, her lips tinging the slightest shade of blue in the earliest stages. Sparrow's throat closed and she wracked with a violent sob as she tried to suck in air, her paw covering the wound. She was no healer, but if she tried- maybe- no, she knew she couldn't, but she tried anyway. The flow of blood had slowed, but Sparrow sought to stop it. Maybe if it stopped, Recluse could make more blood, right? That happened all the time. She pulled the blood-stained woman close, rocking her while trying to find some way to close the wound. A part of her knew it was hopeless, so she sobbed, but the stubborn part of her wouldn't let go. She pressed her face into Recluse's cheek, willing her to wake up, rocking her and rubbing her chest like a newborn baby that hasn't taken its first breath yet. Her damp sobs melted into the woman's fur which was beginning to slowly lose its warmth. Sparrow pressed her forehead to Recluse's as if she could get her thoughts and prayers through to the woman, then she'd return. She cast a look to the sky, pleading to gods she never believed in to not take Recluse from her- to give her back, even if just for a little. She mushed her nose to the woman's, remembering their first kiss before smushing one unreturned on her maw. Wasn't love and willpower and all that good shit supposed to fix everything? Sparrow curled around the woman, as if she could keep her warm enough to recover, but she knew somewhere inside that this was the end- she just wasn't ready to accept it yet, and so she wouldn't until all signs of life were gone and she had squeezed out the last bit of whatever feelings Recluse had left in her soul to carry with her for the rest of her life.