The Life Among The Dead

She glanced over toward Solo and Psalm as they caught up and came to join them, glad to see that her sister had recovered from her fall. She refocused on the man in front of them hopefully, but once she saw his expression darken her smile faded. At first when she heard that their mother was no longer here she was just sad because they had come all this way just to miss her and find out that she had even abandoned the place where she had she would be, but then the darker truth came out and her shoulders slowly slumped, her mismatched ears falling back against her head while her mind slowly processed the words. Their mother was dead. Not only that - but she had been pregnant with another litter and that was what had killed her.

She felt like she was frozen in place even as Balthier pressed into her neck. She stared at the ground in front of her with shocked, blue eyes while she leaned back into Balthier's touch. She didn't really hear Ulric as he invited them to see Aranea's grave and offered them a place to stay if they wished, everything feeling kind of muffled and distant. Their mother had already abandoned them, their father was gone, and now this... The vague and fuzzy memories of her mother were all she'd ever have left and a mix of sorrow and frustration squeezed at her and made her throat hurt with unshed tears. Her illness had kept her from so much - including coming to visit their mother when their father had brought the others down to see her. That had unknowingly been her last opportunity to see her mother and now she'd never get another chance again.

Azzurra followed close to Balthier's side as they began to move, not really comprehending what they were doing or where they were going until they were placed in front of a grave. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the mound where grass had begun to grow over under a tree, breathing in a shaky breath as she fell back onto her haunches. She leaned heavily into Balthier, pressing her face into him and wrapping her frail forelegs around him to hug him tight. She didn't notice the other, smaller grave opposite their mother's and she honestly didn't want to look at any of it again. It was just a reminder of everything she had lost and all the opportunities she would never have.

Her brother's voice caught her off guard as he spoke of their father, making her blink open her eyes to look up at him. She didn't comprehend or understand his words any more than she had understood the fact that their mother was dead. They were both dead. Both of their parents. Completely gone with no chance of getting them back. A sob caught in her chest and she held Balthier tighter as she buried her face into his chest again, the overwhelming emotions bubbling over into tears while she tried to drown out the rest of the world and hide from everything they had lost.

"Azzurra"