Stretched thin

There he was! Crux couldn't help the feeling of, well relief wasn't right, but some amount of happiness that Dread didn't look all that great. Then came the guilt. He should have hoped Dread looked good, looked well cared for and fed. Dread was still his brother! Crux watched his brother's approach trying to keep the pain and exhaustion from showing too much. He ought to be heading back home, trying to curl up in whatever makeshift sleeping space he could snag. His leg had screamed all the way to Insomnia and it hadn't let up when he'd left and frankly he just wanted to pass out, be unconscious for a bit so he could just escape all the feelings, physical and emotional. But he was here, watching his brother's form approach him across neutral lands instead of at home were they both should have been.

"Thanks, I just got done drowning." His words should have been a joke, they were built like one. But there wasn't even a hint of levity in his tone. He was being serious. "We all did actually. Your family is all alive, thanks for asking. Stratum has a broken leg, Andy is sick and my friend did damage to her throat so bad she can't talk. Not everyone else got so lucky." There was an edge to his voice, almost an accusation. He hadn't known the two wolves they'd pulled from the tunnels, their bodies floating limply in the nasty water... Crux wasn't sure he'd ever get that image out of his mind. They'd already been gone by the time any of them could get to them, nothing to do but bury them. Crux sighed and allowed himself to fall onto his haunches, cuffed leg jutting out, he simply didn't have it in himself to pretend he was anything but disabled right now, feeling all the fight leave his body, he just wanted to rest, to feel okay. Heh, did he even know what that felt like? Did any of them, since their mother had died? "Dread... Tell me why you weren't there. Tell me why we're in a crisis and you're out here!" He looked at his brother pleadingly. He wanted Dread to tell him that there'd been nothing anyone could have done, that something no one could stop had happened. He wanted to hear that there was no one at fault, not in their family at least, he couldn't care less if someone else was involved.  

"Speech!"

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