Valentine had one final thing to do before he could truly rest. He needed to give Rhythm closure. With this she would hopefully be able to move on and be done with the horrors that were behind her. Granted, what he was about to give her was horrifying all on its own, but details. The old king had taken pains to set the stage up just right. To his left was a pile of severed wolf heads stacked nice and tidy pyramid-style. Thanks to the cold winter air they were more or less temporarily preserved. They didn't smell of rotting meat or appear bloated. Of course they were very noticeably dead but he wasn't about to trouble himself with shutting eyes and mouths, and poking dangly bits back into neck holes or fussing over facial wounds. They were severed heads not flowers. To his right was the river and somewhere in Legion was Rhythm. A lot of his theatrics would be lost on her, but that was alright. He was plenty entertained by them himself. While she couldn't appreciate the full effect of what he was doing, hopefully she would appreciate what had brought him to this point. Where the heads had come from, the cost of them. What they meant for her and for Rhyme. Valentine called for Rhythm and then sat down to wait. "Talk" "You" Think

Relief. It flooded through her as she heard Valentine’s call for her. Rhythm hadn’t had the motivation to do much but linger in and on her den while everyone was out enacting their vengeance. She had worried too much for that. She felt ashamed at how much she hadn’t done. Not even managing to visit with her grandchildren while her mate had been off collecting heads. Now she moved with a purpose. She got her feet underneath her and free from the den with a quickness. Slowly she was learning her way around again, and this time she moved like her sight still remained with her. Chocolate paws carried her to Valentine’s side, huge grin playing on her maw. Of course there was no sadness in his voice, she had no doubt Rhyme and Rhys were fine as well. Her grin faltered as she caught the scent of Toxic’s worthless smell but it was mixed with the smell of blood and many other slaver’s she remembered all too clearly. Her approach slowed, her ears perked as she tried to decipher the scene she had come upon. "Valentine.." She whispered, her voice a mixture of relief and confusion. ""

He didn't have to wait long. "Valentine..." He took a deep breath, then said, "I'm alright, love. We're all alright. It's done." Not one slaver lived to tell the tale. Not one. He'd seen to that.

Though he'd prepared what he had been going to say in advance when it came time to say the words Valentine found that they feel right. He was forced to start over and take it moment by moment.

He sighed. "If you haven't already...I want you to find peace." Earnestly, he amended, "I want nothing more than that for you."

"And...from experience I know it can be hard to take something to heart unless you have physical proof of it." Hearing about something was different than seeing it firsthand. "So perhaps it is a bit macabre - and if this is too much we can go home - but I want you to know it's over. So I brought proof."

Valentine stood and walked over to the pile of heads. He snatched the top one off the pyramid and dropped it unceremoniously on the ground at his paws. She couldn't see them, but there was no way Rhythm would have missed the solid thud and squish as the head hit the ground. He named the head. "Toxic." Then grabbed another and dropped it beside the first. "I didn't get her name, but this is Toxic's bitch."

He eyed the pair and then said, "I think the bottom of the river is a good final resting place for these two. What do you say?"

With Valentine’s first syllable she felt a huge weight of relief wash over her thin frame. She barely kept to her paws as he told her that everyone was fine. Rhythm decided not to delve further into that question. She didn’t know if anyone was wounded, but she knew that no one she cared about was dead.

She was forced to the ground with Valentine’s spur of the moment speech, her limbs trembling as he spoke. She visibly jumped as he dropped the head to the ground and uttered the name it had been called by in life. Rhythm shuddered. Valen didn’t linger there, and the next was listed off, but with this one the old she wolf wore a grin triumphantly.

Then he was speaking again, asking questions. Rhythm tried to focus on what he was saying. They did belong in a river. ”You mean the river of fire to the north-west right?” She asked him, sounding determined to send them to hell. Rhythm felt a surge of strength and returned to her paws. She’d throw what was left of them in the lava if it was the last thing she did.

Valentine had been prepared to chunk the heads into the river right then. He'd been so sure of that outcome that he'd even begun to lean down in preparation of snatching one up when Rhythm's question gave him pause. Head still lowered, he cocked it to the side and eyed her curiously. Hell's River was...quite far from their current location. But for her he would move the pyramid of heads without complaint. "I was imagining a river quite less fiery and within tossing distance," he said wryly over the roar of the river, "But that one certainly sounds more fitting." Valentine and Jupiter had carried the heads in makeshift hide bags and the skins, forever ruined by the smell of dead wolves, were still close by. "I have bags for them. Think you can carry a few?" "Talk" "You" Think