A coward and a liar

Noor's mind was racing, trying desperately to make sense of what had happened and what Fable was saying. It was hard to really think about anything but her fear and the pain. No running. Confusion and despair. Did Fable not know? Or did she just not care? The latter terrified her. Dead. The word seemed to echo both around them and inside Noor's head, bouncing around insider her skull painfully.

Dead.
The bodies of her whole family, the only family she'd ever had staring sightlessly up at her, accusatory. She hadn't meant for it to be all of them. But then what comfort was it to know she'd meant for it to be her father and brother at least? Little, because the dead received no comfort, especially not from their murderers.

Dead.
The gentle older woman who'd helped stop Noor from falling, had potentially saved her own life. There one minute, gone the next. Digesting somewhere in that monster's stomach. Noor had watched it happen, hadn't done anything to stop anyone else from meeting the same fate.

Dead.
Fable had been sentenced for it. Noor had grieved. Had felt the loss of the woman like a hole had been punched straight through her ribs.

Dead.
Even when news of Fable's escape had reached her some part of Noor never believed the woman was alive. What else was out there? Only death. She only hoped that if it came for Fable she'd at least face it on her own terms and not theirs.

Dead. The ground caving out from under them. Dead. The panic at realizing they'd been separated. Dead. The monster stalking the shadows, snatching up wolves. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

Noor was spiralling. Her breathing become shallow and rapid as her eyes rolled in a panic, searching desperately for the thing that was coming for them. It was only when Fable's nose gently pressed against her cheek that Noor finally seemed to come to reality. She blinked. Fable's croaked words having been taken in but not processed yet in her mind. They were getting out of there... Together? She stared for a moment longer, her breathe still coming too quickly but her heart felt like it was hammering just slightly less now. Slowly, gaze planted firmly on Fable, Noor started to rise on shaky legs. She leaned into the bigger woman. Only a short time ago she may have avoided putting any weight at all on Fable, trying to respect the wall that was erected between them but now she didn't have the physical strength to hold herself upright on her own.

It would be slow, halting progress. Neither woman was doing particularly well but somehow... With that familiar warmth and scent so close Noor believed they would make it out. Somehow... They would be alright. "I thought I lost you." They weren't the right words to say. "That you were gone and I'd never see you again. If I lived that long." Noor's voice was stronger than Fable's, even raw as her throat was from the retching and yet, in that moment, it felt so fragile. She was talking about the cave in, the worm... She was talking about the assassination, the trial... It was the wrong thing to say, and yet she didn't have the strength to not say it anymore. She didn't need a response, simply needed to say it. Had to express that at least in some way... She had been glad to see Fable again. Even if she shouldn't have. 

"Speech"