ohana

Viviane wrapped her forelegs around the smaller, newly stilled body of her niece and rocked her back and forth gently. Her throat felt too tight, chokingly, but soft words fell from her lips regardless. "Everything will be all right now, Harlow. No more pain. Just rest." She knew that Harlow was beyond hearing now, beyond saving. Beyond the pain and the sickness. "Just rest," she whispered again, before an anguished keen broke its way through and she clung to the cooling body, rocking back and forth, wracked by grief. Would she watch as one by one her family was taken from her and she powerless to do anything to stop it? Were Cairo and Caelia even now falling ill with this disease? Would she return to find them choking to death on crystals as Harlow had? Later she would feel this as an overwhelming fear and return home, bearing Harlow with her to bury beside Harlow's grandmother, but for now she gave herself up to her grief and her tears and the pain of her failure.