The forest was so dark, everything felt so dark, his heart racing and pounding in his chest as his body refused to calm down, caught in the throws of the nightmare still to some degree. Nails digging furrows into the ground and sides heaving as he almost panted for breath with tears spilling down his cheeks. Everything caught on Where was he, was he bringing more ‘friends’ this time, what was going to happen, did he wake him up, where was h- It was the crack and creaking of branches and undergrowth that had his panic skyrocketing, body curling in on himself as much as he physically could as his voice caught in his throat on the near wailing."Im sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, please dont." Sobs wracking up painfully, his chest almost felt hollow from his wailing.

There almost wasn't any awareness of the hip touching his, much smaller than his own, the side of the owner’s against him. There was a distant voice too but he couldn’t register what it was saying, only the deep timbre of it. It was the head slowly laying on his own that had his body shaking and hiccups working their way between his crying, turning his whole head into Lailah’s chest and neck as he tried to get himself under control. The fog doing its best to clear with the familiar scent.

"Are you all right? Dream?" Ultyr, that voice was Ultyr, and he knew that but the terror and fear in his system made that thought a lot scarier than his waking mind had ever made the other out to be. His body pressed harder into Lailah’s as he worked to swallow and get his voice back even if he couldn't use it properly yet. Not to answer yet. But his sobbing had slowed to little gasps and hiccups, pale and red-rimmed eye rolling to look at Ultyr to try and ground himself more in this reality before he managed to croak out a quiet, "Memory.". That was no dream, and gods above he wished it was just a nightmare, but no. It was real, even if it was the past.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

"Im sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, please dont." His pleas had fallen on deaf ears. She had heard his scream, it hadn't been pain, but fear. She knew fear, and wasn't about t let someone be afraid alone. It was always better to have another to be frightened with.

"Where? Who did it? What's going on?" His growl had her already on edge nerves reeling. He was angry. She didn't understand what she had done wrong. A flinch away from him, her whole body leaned away. Her hackles raised even more if that was even possible. Her half tail kissing her belly barely. Fear of him in her eyes for his temper. Then she was moving carefully.

Once she had herself settled and Ganymede's head under her own, she was doing her best to give him her silent support. Ultyr was quiet as she did. Though the silence was filled with the sound of Ganymede as he cried into her chest. She wasn't really much of one to be able to comfort another but she did her best. Her head stayed atop the other's as he needed.

As he cried she rested her cheek on his, looking away from Ultyr. Her own form was still shaking and she wasn't sure she hadn't pissed him off by from the smells of it, pissing on him. Her own dreams had been vivid and she knew why she had pissed, Aryn terrified her. Everything about him and that night did. It was moments before the silence of the night, well aside from the sounds of Ganymede crying, was broken. Ultyr's voice finally calmed some but she still didn't look. "Are you all right? Dream?" She didn't dare look. In the dark he looked so much like Aryn that she wasn't sure the asshole wasn't here and had replaced Ultyr. At least he didn't seem ready to beat the shit out of her right now though.

Her ears pressed and she closed her eyes trying hard to shut her brain off. Her own heart was a harsh sound in her chest she was sure Ganymede could hear, her sides heaving slightly. She didn't dare cry. Crying over that night changed nothing and had only ever brought her more pain. She couldn't remember names or faces of those from that night, her own family blurs in her memory, but she could remember the screams. She dreamed about them so often. "Memory." The word from Ganymede had her opening her eyes and lifting her head to look down with the question in her eyes. Did he dream of that night too? Did he remember the screams? The smell of bodies as they burned?

Her face turned sad and her hackles lowered. Her forehead aiming to press to Ganymede's briefly before she let her own breath out and the tears finally broke. Hers silent. His loud. She was unaware it wasn't that night he dreamed of but she knew the catalyst of all the nightmares was that night. Then she was scootching till there was no space between herself and Ganymede and trying to hold the larger with her smaller frame, head on his neck. Her teary eye turned to Ultyr, a pain he could never heal in them but it was hers. But there was also a love there, an I forgave him a long time ago kind of look. She let the tears go, crying with Ganymede over a memory no one could alter, no one could fix.

"Hear"

coded by NachoMumma

Fuck.
The hackles along his spine began to relax as his mind became clearer. The silence in the darkness had stretched on as he waited for Gany's response. The tears, and the smells all threatened to overwhelm him.

A cold breeze cut into his wet side and wafted the smell more into his nose. Tilting his head to it he finally noticed it and pinned his ears. The terror of the night had made Lailah wet herself with her small squished bladder and he had been right next to her. He glanced around again, making sure they were safe before he turned and slowly walked away after he heard the murmur of Gany admitting to memories. He knew which memories. They shared opposite memories.

He didn't have to walk far to find a small bubbling stream. He laid down and dipped his piss-wet side in it. It wasn't the first time he'd been peed on in the middle of the night, legs wrapped around a lover suffering from nightmares.

As he let the cold stream carry away the acrid smell he looked up into the sky. The night was speckled with bright stars between the shadowed branches of freshly bare trees. He tried to remember that night. Storming the birthday party of the Morningstar royalty. It wasn't the first kingdom he had conquered with his father, but it was one of the most horrifying. He remembered the smell had made him wretch at first until his father scolded him for it. He remembered saving a younger boy, younger than Ganymede had probably been, from his father's services the next morning. Made the boy his personal kitchen boy where no one would dare touch him. He couldn't keep them all in his service. He was lucky his father had let him have that one boy.

He could almost remember that fateful day. But the memories were mixed with another kingdom. Toppling statues, setting the crops to light, the screams of the poor little godless heathens... Why didn't they understand? Why didn't they just say he was their god and they'd be left alone? Would they have been left alone?

He looked back down and watched the starlight play in the water over his paws. He didn't feel like a god washing the piss away. When he was retching when the smell of burnt flesh, piss, and feces assaulted his nose when the victory was so close at hand. Why would the actions of a benevolent god cause such nightmares? It wasn't him. It was his father. His father was the one driving the armies. He knew nothing else until his angel quietly told him what had actually happened.

With a sigh, he rose and shook the water from his pelt. The fresh stream had done its work. He watched the water one more time, remembering the delegate ball, several kingdoms had come to pay homage and pledge their loyalty to Ultyr and his father. To Archnemes. How he had paraded his lover before them all, a Prince of Judila, his personal slave. Then watched with satisfaction as each delegate, king, and princess had their throats slit at the feast by their servers. His Angel had not spoken to him for a week after that. Neither had Mama Rosa.

Slowly he returned to the two, perhaps they had some time to speak or just soothe each other's company. He pushed aside the foliage purposefully, dragging his paws through the leaf litter noisily. Letting them both know that he was returning.

"It's Ultyr." He rumbled, a touch of mourning in his tone. Yes, the image of their abuser, conqueror, demon walking toward them. Ultyr was much taller than his father. More robust, and his eyes were of active embers, unlike his father.

"Ganymede..." He spoke, his voice a rumble but soft, a breath above a whisper, "I will not harm you. I promised that you may walk away at any time. I am not my father. You may ask Lailah if I have ever hurt her." Shit... he did once, he regretted that... But gods do not regret their actions... He had been scared... Gods are not supposed to fear... His eyes betrayed his thoughts for once, uncertainty, glassy eyed and misty... Gods are not supposed to cry... He turned away from them, unable to hold back his own sniffing.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma