The Weight Of Us

speech

Célestin stared numbly at the two small forms at his paws, his mind trying in vain to make the image make sense. But the truth was nothing did right now. Olympia wasn't really Olympia anymore. They'd fled their lands as the volcano has erupted but not everyone had made it here, in fact Célestin himself hadn't found them until very recently and now... Well now Pegasus was... lost. That's what he decided to call it anyways, he refused to believe the man had abandoned them but the truth was it had been a few days now and he'd left no message to explain his disappearance and hadn't yet returned. Célestin was trying his best to not assume the worst, he woke up every morning hoping he'd find signs of his lovers return but he was slowly growing less and less hopeful.

And now? Now as he stood at the mouth of the den of the woman he'd seen around he couldn't really process what was happening. The two little forms at his paws, still and cold already. They looked like... well they looked like Pegasus. Or rather they looked like Beauforts but they were outside of the den of that woman, the one he'd seen looking at Pegasus... hanging around him... So he knew who's they were. Some part of Célestin broke in that moment, the man he loved was gone... not even around to mourn his own children...

Célestin lay there for a long while, long enough he wasn't even sure of the passage of time anymore. He wept for the tiny creatures, huddled them to his chest and silently cried for them and over them. He allowed all his grief and worry spill out of him as he silently cried, finally the milk scent of the woman reached him and drew him from his misery. Slowly Célestin rose to his paws and took a tentative step towards the mouth of the den, would she want to see him? Would she even know? No of course not, Célestin had agreed to give Pegasus a year if he needed to break the news... He should have asked him to do it the moment they got home. Now instead of anyone knowing about them, Célestin was left to harbor the secret for Pegasus, something he'd never wanted to be a secret in the first place. He wondered who it was that was made the "other one" in this scenario and as he thought on Pegasus' talk of his family and the need for an heir, for an official marriage and a secret love he knew that it was him. He was Pegasus' hidden affair... That nearly toppled him again, nearly sent him into another sobbing spiral but he merely faltered.

Célestin had promised to protect Olympia, to protect all that was dear to his lover and if the woman inside the den was all that was left of that then he'd perform his duty, not gladly but he wouldn't abandon his promise. So he slowly lowered his head, peering into the darkness, searching for the form of the maned woman.

"M'am, do you need assistance?" He asked lamely, a dumb question for a woman who had just lost two of her pups, maybe her only pups, and her... mate. That thought hurt, wounded him to his core and for a brief moment he was hyper-aware of the flower woven into his fur... the last symbol of Pegasus' affection he'd received before he'd... gone.