Walk | Talk | Think
Rune managed a shaky step back as his sister's other son Colten squeezed his way into the den, finally pulled from his disbelief enough to glance at the russet boy as he took up a place at his mother's side. Where had he been? How was it that, just when it seemed his presence most necessary, he finally decided to show up? Confused, irritated, and still miserably at a loss, the grey wolf could do nothing but watch on helplessly as mother and sons had a quiet moment to themselves amidst their family. It was so hard to accept, so hard to wrap his mind around, that the grey male felt almost as if it was not entirely real, that it was all just some elaborate nightmare dredged up from too much work and not enough rest.
But it had to be real. The scents were too strong, the coldness that had settled within the pit of his stomach far too weighty, and everything was going way too fast. She was so weak already, watching Maia do her best to comfort her boys, to offer them her last bits of strength to comfort them was heartbreaking. How had he not realized she had been deteriorating so quickly? If only he had known, he might have tried to use his connections to help, might have tried seeking out Surreal to ask her mother for aid. But it was too late. Everything was out of his paws now, and Maia would soon leave them.
He felt his throat tighten around an uncomfortable lump as the sickly woman spoke of her love for them all, met her vibrant eyes with a look full of remorse, of unwavering affection for her, and with a desperation that she not need to leave. Vixe was gone already, lost for so long before he had even known of his death. Maia had been his sole remaining sibling, the last true family he felt he had from those days growing up on Mount Volkan. Selfishly he wanted her to stay so that he would not be alone, so that he could have someone to turn to who knew him as no one else could, but as her eyes closed he knew any chance of that was gone. A few shuddering breaths and Maia was gone.
For a moment he could not react. He stared at the suddenly still figure of his green-eyed sister wrapped so carefully within her father's embrace, her two sons pressed close and clinging to what remained of their mother. He felt himself lean slightly until his shoulder connected with the wall of the den, providing him with support that he had failed to realize he needed. Whatever his father might have uttered there at the far end of the den was drowned out by Rune's personal sorrow and the desperate, frantic screams of his nephew. God, how was he going to do this?
Rune closed his eyes, attempting to steady himself, before he pushed off from the wall and stepped forward. As his pale gaze came to rest on Amarant, clinging to Maia in refusal to accept that she was gone, he very nearly reached out to comfort the child with a touch. But in his current, emotionally unstable state he half expected the child to snap, and it was not a position he wanted to put the kid in. He glanced briefly at Colten and then at his sister, wishing for his own moment to say goodbye but understanding there would be time enough for that later once the boys could be drawn away from her. She was truly all they had in the world, the connecting piece that had brought them here to Secretua. They needed time to come to terms with her loss.
At last his gaze shifted away from his family and came to rest upon Kylar, feeling the rage that had nearly stolen his ability to rationalize come back as cold fury. His hardened stare was not welcoming and very much he wanted to tell the man to leave - his time with his daughter to say his own goodbyes was done and gone - but the distraught figures of his nephews stopped him from expressing those wishes in the terms that he most would have preferred. Censoring himself, he made himself speak with forced calm, only lifting his voice as much as was necessary to be heard over the children. "Leave them be," he ordered the older male, tone as frosty as his gaze. For a second more he deliberated before averting his gaze and adding, "We need to talk."
Without further elaboration, Rune turned and stepped from the den out into the stormy world of the Gulley, breathing in deeply the crisp, unsullied air as he prepared himself for a confrontation that he hoped would end swiftly.
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