Atonement

Time passed and Indigo felt the same. Like he had stagnated and become a shadow of his former self. It started that night when Aslatiel told him that she hated him and left him forever. She tore his heart out that day, and his whole life fell apart shortly after. He didn’t blame Aslatiel, all of this had always been his fault to begin with. If he had been more aware of Duchess, if he hadn’t been so careless.. He’d still have Aslatiel and there wouldn’t be four tiny graves in the ground. They died because of his mistakes, and Indigo would carry that weight for the rest of his life. He should have been raising his children, instead he was here. Alone in his own head, struggling to return to a place and time in the past that had once seemed so perfect.

He didn’t know where the future would take him, he tried not to think about the future because all he could see was a life filled with pain, suffering, and struggle. He was losing the wolves he called family now, and soon he would be left totally alone. Duchess would run off, starved for the physical attention he didn’t give her. Emersyn and Segin would be fine, the two of them would find a place to forget about their past and raise a beautiful family together. Gypsy would find her confidence as she sang her way across Boreas and realized how much she didn’t need him. Indigo would find his way into a forest somewhere and do his best to become one with the plants he always loved. But even they died in the winter.

Hopelessness clung to him as he acted like he was gathering herbs. His eyes didn’t focus and he swayed slightly as he stood over a bed of summer flowers. Indigo was about to give up the act and return to the camp in hopes of finding Gypsy or someone to sit next to him. He almost ignored that voice on the wind. It wasn’t the first time his mind played tricks on him, when he’d hear Aslatiel’s voice or that of small children. Everything it craved. He grit his teeth and shook it off, but he heard her again. Clear and real as the day around him.

Unable to truly believe it Indy slowly paced through the forest and stopped dead, frozen as sapphire eyes landed on Asla’s faun form.

"Speech"