TIED TO WHAT IS LATE, AIN'T YOU NOW

Golden light spilled over the Redwater Rocks as the morning sun finally peeked over the formations that stretched out just northwest of Aerie's territory. Aureus had been feeling better, his paw mostly healed as summer took over Boreas. He was eager to see what he could do, or push his limits at the very least. He probably wouldn't be up for a long cross country walk but surely sneaking a territory over would be fine. He looked behind him to see how Eliphas and Asmodeus were doing. He had to admit he loved the idea of an early morning walk with his boyfriend. The child accompanying them was a bit unexpected. Aureus was on babysitting duty in a manner of speaking but he was trying to make the best of it and be a good uncle. He figured a good walk would help the kid burn off a bit of energy and he could return Deus to his parents tuckered out and ready to learn.

The sunlight lit up the rocks in beautiful amber tones and Aureus sighed. "It really is beautiful out here."

Accompanying Uncle Aureus and his friend-who-was-a-boy was the most exciting of an adventure that Deus' young mind could conjure up, and not only was he being babysat by the coolest uncle in the world (sorry Uncle Eli) but they were taking him out of the territory belonging to Aerie. It was a rare occurrence that someone took him out exploring, Danta always wanted to tag along and trips weren't always good for her health. She seemed to get better and better as the season changed though, and hopefully on the next adventure his big sister could be with him to cause trouble for Aureus.

"Are we there yet?" He piped up from behind, bounding along and weaving through Eliphas' legs as he walked like an obstacle course. Occasionally he'd mistime his pounce, smacking his small head into firm legs but recovering quickly enough. Deus paused his game politely as his uncle brought attention to the beauty around them. He looked lost in thought for a moment, before turning back to the duo. "I'm hungry, did anyone bring snacks?"

"Speech"

Eliphas was excited to go out with Aureus and his, their? nephew. He was a cue little guy, and the Klein man enjoyed his presence. The time spent certainly made him think about what might be, could he and Aureus have a family of their own one day? Obviously not of the two of them, but perhaps he could style up a potion? Maybe he’d talk with him when they got home that night. The future was bright, after this he was nearly convinced that he was ready to join Aerie. He’d make a life with Aureus, maybe he’d ask him to marry him..

He hid the blush on his cheeks as little Deus ran between his feet. Or tried to. Eliphas felt a little bad about giggling whenever he ran into his legs. Eliphas grinned and came to stand by his love as he took in the scenery around them. ”It is, but arguably, not as beautiful as you.” He chuckled and leaned against Auerus’s strong shoulder. Careful to choose the one with all of his toes. Unfortunately his rejuvenation potion had failed.

”Almost!” He answered the young pup as he signaled to Merlin the white owl. ”I’ll have Merlin get you a rabbit.” Eliphas offered softly.

TIED TO WHAT IS LATE, AIN'T YOU NOW

Aureus grinned at Eliphas comment and as his boyfriend leaned into him he reached around and licked at the other's cheek. The moment of intimacy was swiftly brought to a close as Deus stated he was hungry and in need of food. Eliphas was on the case though as he mentioned that Merlin would catch the boy a rabbit. Aureus gave his boyfriend a grateful grin. "I'd say maybe ten more minutes of walking? There's a clearing just down this trail that leads to a good place for a picnic." Aureus continued trotting down the trail with the sun rising steadily into the sky. It was gorgeous out. He couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

… and then the ground began to shake.

The gentle rumble grew swiftly into a roar. Rocks started to break loose around them and the precariously balanced rock formations started to crumble. "Turn back, run!" Aureus whipped around, stumbling from the shaking of the earth. In that moment he spied a rock column tumble, the large rock on the top headed for Deus. Aureus swiftly grabbed the pup in his jaws and leapt.

He almost made it.

Pain lanced through him and he opened his mouth in a choked gasp, dropping Deus. The massive rocks had landed across him, crushing him from just behind his front legs on down the rest of his body. Blood started to pool in his lungs. He couldn't hardly think for the pain and the shock as he realized in that moment he was going to die. "Eli… get Deus to safety… please," he choked. Tears started to form in his eyes as he watched his future blur and grow darker.

On cue Deus' stomach gave a loud rumbling growl, saliva already building in his mouth at the mention of a rabbit. The affection between the men barely caught his attention at all through his hunger, which was undoubtably a good thing as Deus might have ruined their tender moment with his childish 'eww's. Adults were silly, that much he knew. "How long is ten-?" His question was cut off by a much louder rumble, and naively the pup's head shot down to observe his stomach. His whisper was frightened, barely audible beneath the earth's scream. "That wasn't me."

Suddenly the ground was shaking and Asmodeus couldn't help but immediately begin to cry; he'd heard stories of his grandfather and the volcano that took his life. They said it started with a rumbling, and then fire and lava as the Gods took Malleus and the heretic away. His uncle's panicked warning reached him even through the loud cracking, though little Deus couldn't make his stupid paws move even an inch. Suddenly he was flying through the air in someone's jaws, and immediately he knew he was safe. Neither of these men would let him be hurt, Deus was certain that Uncle Aureus would stand before the Gods himself to defend him. Safety felt good.

Being dropped from those secure jaws was more startling then the madness of the earthquake, and Deus let out a pained squeak as he landed and rolled. With tears in his eyes the pup got back to his unsteady paws, looking back over at his uncle as he spoke his name. Seeing Aureus's lower half swallowed by rocks was terrifying, though Deus forced his paws to move him closer. He had to help him, even if he was afraid. "E-e-e-li-ph-phass." Forming words was somehow almost as hard as walking was, and he barely noticed how weird they sounded behind the clattering of his teeth. "We, we -" A small rock crashed down beside him and he jumped backwards with a choked sob. His tiny head bowed down between his forepaws and he prayed. "- Help him, please!"

[OOC: Permission to PP Deus given in advance if you need, Kat.]

He easily caught himself staring up at Aureus as he and the pup trailed behind the leader. A content smile played on his lips as the three of them enjoyed the beautiful day together. Eliphas could get used to this, maybe it was time to think of settling down with the one he loved. They could figure out how to make a family themselves somehow, because he couldn’t imagine his future any other way than raising some kids and growing old with his handsome man.

Those plans soon changed when the earth began to shake beneath their paws. Eliphas felt panic lace through him as he willed himself to run as he heard Aure’s voice. His first priority was Deus, and as his dual toned eyes went to the boy he watched in horror as his selfless love took the child’s place. Time seemed to stand still, everything turned to slow motion. Eliphas let out his own strangled cry, but this was of sorrow as he was given Aureus’s last words.

”I will. I love you.” He was gifted one more glance of those beautiful fading eyes before struggling forward to grab the boy and make their way from this place. ”I can’t.” Eliphas cried as the boy sought help for the dying Abraxas. ”But I can save you.” With Deus in his jaws Eli ran, but not without difficulty. Rocks continued to fall, and Eli was sure to not let a single one hit the pup in his mouth. He ran and was pelted, the adrenaline kept him moving but the closer they got to the border the more blood pooled in his footprints.

His breathing was ragged, though he tried to keep hold of the boy the wear on his body had taken its toll. Eliphas collapsed softly into the ground, his face swollen and his white fur stained nearly all red by his own blood. Deus was dropped gently on splayed paws as Eli struggled for breath and consciousness. All he had left was the ability to tip back his head and weakly call the pack for help. He’d kept his promise to Aureus.

-rip eliphas-

Deus didn't understand, why couldn't they save his uncle? Aureus had already saved Deus, it was his turn to be rescued. Before he could argue his point he was once again in the jaws of another and Aureus' body faded further and further away from view. Only once he could no longer see his uncle did he look up at Eliphas, shuddering each time as rock upon rock pelted at his bloodied coat. The pup's lip trembled and he hung his head, watching the ground fly past as they neared Aerie territory and waiting for it to open up and swallow both of them whole.

Before he knew it he was dropped once more, though much more gently than Aureus had when his uncle returned him to the ground. He rolled atop Eliphas' paws and struggled to stand no matter how wobbly his feet felt. He pressed his white-tipped muzzle into the bloodied man's fur, nudging him firmly. "W-wake up, we hav'ta to save Uncle." His voice had not yet steadied, the shock still setting in and chattering the boy's teeth and shaking his bones. No matter how insistently he tried, still Eliphas would not wake. Eventually Deus' desperation drove him to try harder, and he climbed up upon the wolf to bite hard upon the man's ear and tug. The howl he'd managed meant that someone was on their way now, but for good measure the boy tipped his own head back too and howled a pitchy song to the pack. Where was his mother? She could wake up Eliphas and go save Aurues, of that Deus was sure.

"Speech"

The world had begun to shiver and shake. The earth quaked beneath the woman's dark paws. Her first thought was that the volcano had been roused from sleep once more. A bit of panic edged into Fel's mind as she stood in place, waiting. The quake didn't last terribly long, but it had done some damage. From her place in the distance, she could see a cloud of dust rising from the rocks. A moment later a howl rang out and once again that panic took hold. A second later, the strangled cry of a pup filled the air and her blood ran cold. Fel ran as fast as her legs would carry her. There was no breath to waste in her lungs and she couldn't be bothered to howl back, but she was on her way. Small bits of rock were still falling when she arrived. Through the haze of dust she could see the small form of Asmodeus. Fel literally skidded to a halt, rock cutting into the soft pads of her paws as she came up beside the boy and the deceased wolf beside him. Having newly arrived, she didn't know this man. Reaching out, Fel snatched the boy close to her, inspecting him for damage, but also to simply hold him close. Other than some spit in his fur, he seemed to be unharmed. With claret eyes still wide, she asked the boy, "Deus, tell me what happened." "Fel" "Oona"

The sound of hurried footsteps pulled his attention away from the sleeping man and he pushed off of the bloodied fur to run to meet his aunt. His mouth fell open as he started to speak, but before he knew it he was being pulled in by her arm for inspection. "I'm fine!" Deus assured her, his voice shaking. "Uncle Aureus s-saved me!" His name was enough to break the pup's dam once more and his breath caught on a loud wet sob. He moved to press his face into her chest fur, transferring Eliphas' blood from his face onto Fel's glossy black coat. "H-he needs help!" Calling forth the bravery to turn backwards to direct her, he got only as far as waving his paw when he saw the thick blood trail Eliphas had left behind. He turned away so sharply that the movement pained his neck, aiming to wrap both forelegs around Fel's limb and hold it to him.

The situation as far as Deus was concerned was very dire, maybe if Fel moved fast enough she could save his beloved uncle from the rocks. No matter how much he told himself to let go and let her save him, his little paws refused to obey the command. Her presence was too comforting, and he didn't want to be alone again. The tremors in his bones continued, though he wasn't sure if it was his terror or the sudden cold that had washed over him. An Abraxas needed to be brave even when he was afraid, that much Deus knew. He reluctantly forced himself to release her, taking cautious steps back towards Eliphas' body. "Go g-get him, I'll stay with E-Eliphas.. I'll-I'll tell him to find you when he wakes u-u-up." Though verbally he encouraged her onwards, his body language screamed the opposite. Tiny tail was tucked far between his legs, his ears pulling to each side of his head, and his expression was pleading.

"Speech"

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Not maternal in the slightest, Fel didn't quite know what to do for the crying mess of fur. When he wrapped his little arms around her own and buried his face in her chest though, she reacted in instinct. Fel extracted her arm from his grasp and wrapped them both around him, pulling him tightly to her. She was being comforting, look at that. Onyx ears flicked forward as Deus began to speak. She couldn't look at him though. She only had eyes for the crushed body and the trail of blood. Deus insisted that she go get Aureus and the marbled woman felt her stomach drop. Oh no... She didn't have to see him to know that her brother was dead. The panicked howls, the acrid tang of blood in the air. If she had to go get him, then he had already been gotten, in a sense. Pulling back, she looked down at the boy, her eyes, the very color of the blood that ran in rivers behind them, bored into him. "Deus, I want you to go over there behind that boulder and wait for me. Don't look back. Just go and wait." She gave him a little push of encouragement before turning to face the direction that the boy had indicated Aureus was in. The woman's steps were slow, each paw well placed lest she bring down more rocks. Pebbles still fell periodically, but other than that, the place was deathly quiet. The body of the unknown man didn't matter to her. She didn't know him, so she didn't care. All of her focus was on what she knew would be laying ahead. The dust had mostly settled, but the finer powder still lingered in the air, giving the place a slightly ethereal look. She didn't want it to be pretty here. She wanted it to be as ugly as the situation was. He was dead. Her brother was dead. Claret gaze fell upon the broken, battered body of Aureus. Blood pooled around his partially open mouth. Boulders rested upon his body. There would be no way that she could push them off of him. It didn't matter though. He was gone. She stared a moment longer and felt... nothing. Fel was empty and dry as a husk. Shock was what it was. Shock and disbelief. The slender woman turned her back on the corpse that had formerly been her most loved sibling. It wasn't until she closed her eyes that everything sank in. Her legs shook and she sank to the ground in a hard sit. She wouldn't cry. She couldn't. She had to get the boy back to his mother. She had to tell Eli and Pyrrhic. Leaving the scene behind her, the wide eyed woman moved stiffly forward. She collected Deus with a scoop of one paw and brought him close so that they could walk back together. "We have to go get Uncle Eli, okay?" She forced a smile, though no doubt her gaze was haunting. "We'll go get him and you can run and find your mother while he and I work, okay?" She didn't want him to argue. She wanted and needed him to obey. "Fel" "Oona"

Deus did not know Fel very well, but she was an Abraxas and an elder whom he was supposed to obey. All his life he'd tried to be an obedient listener, though as she gave the instruction to wait behind a boulder he felt his resolve waver. Why couldn't he wait with Eli? It wasn't fair to have the man wake up and not know that someone had gone to help Aureus. He clamped his jaws together to resist protesting, meekly moving as directed of him.

It was difficult through the shock to know how long exactly his aunt had left for and Deus spent most of the time alone staring off blankly into the rock. He was brought back to the present as Fel's paw scooped him against her. What about Eliphas? Deus wanted to ask, but his question was silenced by the haunted look in her eye. Instead he whispered a worry into the air as they walked. "Will Uncle Eli be mad at me?" Eligos was the alpha, sworn to protect each and every member of the pack. Would he think Deus had a hand in this catastrophe?

"Speech"

[/b][/color]

The quake, mild though as it had felt where he was, had come as a bit of a surprise to Eligos, and had brought a flash of alarm as his gaze cut over to where he might be able to see if the volcano had erupted again, but the sky there was clear of the ash and sullen red glare that he had almost expected to find. He relaxed minutely, but he needed to check on his pack and assure himself that none of the caves had been collapsed in the shaking. He had been in the process of that when a weak call for help came from the border - not one of his wolves, and Eligos hesitated to answer it when he hadn't finished accounting for his wolves. But then a second howl rose high pitched and quaverinv. Asmodeus. He left off his check and made his way to the border as quickly as he could manage, but it still took him some time before he made it there. Fel had Deus and was herding him away from the border, where Eli could see the body of a stranger, the lax, waxy stillness of death obvious to his gaze and he dismissed the body to study Deus. The boy was clearly shaken, though that was understandable for having been through an earthquake. What was he doing out here with a dead stranger? "I'm here," he spoke gently as he approached. He didn't assure Deus that he wouldn't be angry about whatever the boy was speaking about, though reassurance was his first impulse, because he didn't know what it was the boy was expecting him to be angry over and for all he knew it could very well be something that did deserve anger. "What happened?" His eyes flicked towards the body and back again, brows raised questioningly.

Deus's words brought the woman's ears tucking back against her skull for a moment. Her eyes were still wide as the shock of the situation clung tightly to her. She was holding it together for the sake of the boy. It took her a minute to form words, but she managed. "No, he won't be mad at you." A moment later, the wolf in question appeared in her path. Her brother offered words of assurance to the boy, then questioned them both. If he couldn't see the horror in her gaze, then he was blind. She didn't want to say too much in front of Asmodeus, but she needed to say something. "Aureus," was all that she could manage in hushed tones. Other than that, all the marbled woman could do was give her head a shake and look up as if doing so would keep the tears inside of her skull. Having willed the tears into submission, Fel inhaled shakily and looked to her sibling once more. "I need to get Deus back to his mother, then I'll return and we can..." she didn't finish, only set her mouth in a hard line. A thought flashed in her mind and she decided to offer Eligos the chance. "Or you can take him back and I'll wait here." If she waited here, it would give her time to mourn her brother as she wished to; alone. If she came back to work beside Eli, Fel would have a hard time releasing that emotion that was building up within her. "Speech"

While Fel assured him his uncle wouldn't be angry, the worry still grasped at Deus' already panic-stricken heart. Why were they walking away from Aureus and Eliphas? It was overwhelming and scary, and as Eli appeared before them his lip began to quiver once more. Fel began her reply, and before she was finished speaking Deus was running for his uncle. He aimed to crash his little body into Eli's leg as he had with Fel, wrapping his limbs around him and holding tight.

"Please don't be mad, Uncle E." The boy whimpered. "We were on a walk, and I was so s-scared when the earth started to shake but Uncle Aureus tried to take c-care of me. Then a great big rock fell on him and he needs help, he really needs h-help. I think he's stuck!" He shot a sad expression towards Fel before hiding his face back in his uncle's leg fur. Maybe his aunt wasn't strong enough to move the boulder, but all three of them had to be enough. "Uncle Aureus told Eliphas to s-save me but I didn't need saving, he did. He ran so f-fast away from the rocks, now he's sleeping. He needs to see Mom t-too after Uncle Aureus does. I don't need to see Mom, I can h-help you." It would take a monumental effort as far as Deus was concerned to convince him to release his uncle's leg - wasting Aerie's most proficient healer's time on Deus was a stupid decision when two others needed her help so very badly. He could live without his mom while she helped the two injured men.

"Speech"

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The way Fel looked at him, the way the name of their brother fell from her lips as though it were agony, rendered him motionless, expressionless. He didn't really understand what she was saying, because she was saying so much of nothing, and then Deus threw himself at him and he was left reeling - emotionally, not physically... he stood there sturdily, his paw falling on Deus' shoulders in an automatic gesture of comfort - as the bottom fell out of his world. Aureus was hurt - injured, caught in the landslide or he'd have already been limping up, and Fel had been ... escorting Deus home, rather than saving their brother? His toes and ears, even his lips tingled as feeling seemed to leave them to lodge somewhere in the vicinity of his chest in a painful knot. He drew a hot, pained breath in, the first he'd taken since Fel had spoken Aureus' name, marveling in the depths of his mind how calm it sounded, as though there wasn't this fearful, urgent need to race to his brother's aid. He couldn't do everything that he knew he needed to, couldn't save Aureus and comfort his nephew.

Children needed to grow up, some sooner than others and, he told himself as ice burned through him, now was that time for Asmodeus Abraxas. "Kida. Cypher. Go find Riva and Pyrrhic and direct them here, then wait at Riva's den until I come for you. Deus, I want you to go straight home and wait there until they come to watch you. Do not go anywhere else. I will send your mother to you to make sure you're ok when I can." His voice came out... odd, like it was echoing somehow. Distant, a little clipped, and he carefully disentangled himself from his nephew, trying desperately not to grip too hard in his desperate urgency, as he gripped Asmodeus' shoulders to hold his attention. "Asmodeus, I need you to be strong right now and do what I ask. I know it's hard. I know it's scary. But I need you to do this for me. Go on, now." With that he gently turned the boy towards home and gave him a gentle push, then met Fel's bleak gaze with a heat that disguised blind panic beneath. "Fel. Do whatever you need to pull yourself together. Bring Pyrrhic and Riva to me."

And the dam holding back that urgent need broke and he whirled, racing to the body of the stranger, to where he could pick up the trail. Raced along it, every second that ticked past building the fires of that desperation until his brother's scent and the tang of blood filled his nose and he froze motionless a second to stare helplessly.

No -

A wordless sound escaped him, fury and pain intermingled and Eligos threw himself at the motionless form of his brother, clawed at the rocks in desperation and panted through a throat torn raw by the agonized keening. Rock after rock he threw from him, threw himself forcefully at the boulder trapping Aureus. He needed to get the rocks off him. Riva could heal him. She was a master healer. She could fix broken bones, could nurse him back to health, if Eligos could free him from the rockslide that had buried him. He refused to see that Aureus was every inch as motionless and lifeless as the stranger on the border, and closed his ears to the fact that the only sound was his own harsh breathing and the clatter of rocks as he threw himself desperately at the boulders. His own blood speckled the rocks alongside Aureus' as the rocks tore open pawpads and gauged at his legs, but he didn't - couldn't - stop.

Hate. There was a flash of hatred rising up within Fel as Eligos told her to pull herself together. She wanted to sink her teeth into him just for that remark. He didn't know. He hadn't seen. He wasn't the one that had seen their brother broken, bloody and lifeless. When he did, no doubt he would be the mighty leader and be able to hold himself cool and collected, right? She said nothing though. The woman simply let a hardness enter her gaze and she turned away from him. Let him go on his own. Let him see on his own.

With the dogs running off to get Pyrrhic and Riva, there was nothing for Fel to do other than take the boy back. Once he was safe, she would make sure that her brother at least would be sent to the scene. No healer, no matter how skilled, would be able to bring Aureus back from the dead. Fel had seen him. She had seen that lifeless glaze over his blue eyes. There was no doubt in her mind. She was not in denial. Aureus was well and truly gone. No manner of emotion could or would erase that from her mind. It didn't matter how much she 'got herself together.' Bastard...

Everyone dealt with grief in their own way. At first Fel had been ready to cry, but having Asmodeus there had stopped her. Then Eli was there and that pushed the tears back even more. She didn't want to think about Aureus, her sweet, shining sibling. If she could hold back the tears forever, she surely would. She focused on her current task, escorting Deus back to the dens. Once he was there, she gave him but a word before moving away. "Stay."

Maybe Pyrrhic and Riva wouldn't answer the call of the two dogs, so Fel released a howl as she searched for them. It was what Eligos wanted. Had it been up to her, she'd have located Pyrrhic quietly so that the three of them could do what needed to be done in privacy. Just the four of them together one last time.

Pyrrhic came at a run. Loose stones underfoot were kicked back numbly without thought to the damage being done to the pads of his feet. He felt nothing except fear. All he knew about the scene he was coming up on was that it was bad. He followed the trail with little thought for his surroundings. If Riva ran with him he was blind to her presence. It was a solitary run, a lonely venture towards what felt like wave looming overhead. On this cold and perilous ocean, a seascape that one was ultimately forced to swim alone, he could do nothing but wait for the strike. Because that's what was happening, wasn't it? In his heart he knew somehow. This was the volcano all over again. The water below began to curl forward, the wave looming closer. Any second now.

Numbly he skirted around the body of the stranger; blowing by with little more than the understanding that it wasn't Aureus. Vaguely he was aware of Eli's scent on the trail and perhaps that was what guided him to the scene, but in truth, if asked to recount his run in detail Pyrrhic would have been unable to do so. He knew he ran. He remembered the body. Nothing else in between mattered.

There, before Eli, was Aureus. Pyrrhic slid to a halt, his eyes on his twin's hollow gaze. There was no life there. He knew that immediately. "Aur-" He couldn't say it. His brother's name got caught in his throat and was overtaken by a strangled sob. It was too much; he couldn't take it. He couldn't do this again. He needed to leave. The wave came crashing down, plunging him into the deep. His fear was smashed away in an instant. So too was his grief. But he couldn't will himself away. His feet were planted and unresponsive. They felt alien and distant as though they belonged to someone else. The whole scene was unreal. It was like he was viewing someone else's nightmare.

He couldn't move, he couldn't feel. Pyrrhic stood there empty, his gaze not quite as hollow as Aureus' but saved from such an emptiness by only a steady heartbeat. There were no tears in his eyes, no cries in his throat. He was an outside observer detached from the scene. This was not real. They were not his family. That was not his brother. This was not his problem.

Deus's small ears fell back as Eli's clipped words reached him. Fel had said he wouldn't be angry, but he sure seemed a little angry from where Deus was standing. The obedient boy nodded as instruction was given, though his uncle's paw upon his shoulder was not enough of a comfort to reassure him. He was going to ask if he'd done something wrong - and if so, how he could have done things differently - but he knew better than to interrupt the alpha when he was giving out commands.

Eli had asked Fel (and Kida, and Cypher) to bring both his mother and father to Aureus' assistance, and Deus' head drooped further as he swallowed his rebuttal. Did they really need both his parents? Dad wasn't a healer, couldn't dad stay with him while mom tended to his uncle? He walked along quietly beside Fel as he was told to, being deposited with a single word back at the dens. "Stay." The boy nodded, his bottom lip trembling as she turned and left. He'd never felt so alone in his life, and with tears brimming in his eyes once more he called out softly into their den for his sister. "Danta?"

-potential exit, thing, Laz don't feel obligated to throw Danta in haha-

"Speech"

Eligos threw himself against the boulder again, claws digging into the rocks beneath him as he strained against it, and it finally gave way, rolling down the rest of the rockslide with a clatter as it released Aureus from its weight. Eligos staggered for a moment at the sudden movement, barely keeping himself from following the boulder from his own momentum. He reached out with a paw to clear the rest of the debris from his brother, then froze in place, swaying, his paw on his brother's bared shoulder. Pyrrhic's choked voice broke the silence that had fallen when Eligos stopped digging, but it sounded far away as though he spoke through a tunnel. Shaking, Eligos met Aureus' glazed eyes.

When the echoes of his voice washed over him, a grief-filled howl of loss he hadn't realized he'd given voice to, Eligos folded himself over his brother's... his brother's body, wrapping himself around the broken form and raising blank, white-rimmed eyes to Pyrrhic. Inside, he cringed, knowing. Knowing that Pyrrhic's twin was dead under Eligos' leadership, that it was his responsibility. "Pyrrhic - " Eligos' voice rasped out shakily. "Pyrrhic, I'm sorry, I couldn't - I couldn't - I should have..." but his gravely cry trailed off, because what could he have done to prevent it? And somehow that made it worse, that he couldn't have prevented his brother's death.

He pressed his forehead against Aureus', his eyes closing as his throat did. And slowly he stood, slipping beneath Aureus and lifting his limp form over his shoulders. He stood there a moment. "We have to bring him home," he said aloud to Pyrrhic, his voice dull beneath the rasp. "He deserves... better than this." He shivered beneath his burden, fighting against the urge to lay down. He would honor Aureus, as he deserved to be honored. But after that... he couldn't see past that. Just bring Aureus home. "Please, Pyrrhic - help me." With that last pleading cry he forced himself onto the path with his burden. One shaky step after another, leaving bloody prints behind to mark the way.