Prism

[DotCom]

She wanted to hate him.

The quiet days of semiconsciousness in the desert had been a strange dream, though a good one. She remembered little more than waking occasionally, the two of them in perfect tandem, rolling over to see that he was still alive and well, then drifting back into the nearest thing to perfection she'd ever seen.

But in the days hence, their quiet journey to and through the jungle, growing closer to the next village over with every step, the perfection had dissipated, leaving her with a pervasive sense of dread. She could not tell his own from hers, though she sensed a common enemy in the village. Where he saw a prison, she saw a death sentence. What would the Cerebrae do when they discovered her sins? At the very least, she would be kept, and experiment for the Council to document and the Prodigies to study. A Cerebrae with more than one power class? It was unheard of, an impossibility, and this one capable of massive and destructive power. She was dangerous and unknowable. She had killed her kind. She had killed her sister and assassinated the next CloudDottir. She had gone on the run with the city's greatest asset, perhaps the only black Aavan in existence. If she wasn't captured and caged for the rest of her life, she would be subject to a tribunal and put to death within a week.

And somehow, that seemed the kinder of the two fates.

She had been trying, ever since the two awoke, to distance herself from her Aavan -- from the Aavan -- sensing, knowing it would be best for both of them, and easier for her. His presence had become a balm somehow, entirely too strange and dependent to maintain, even if they're weren't to be forcibly separated. And they were. She had spent quiet hours trying to find the hatred she'd borne for him a few short weeks ago, when this whole journey had become. She'd stopped speaking to him, save for short, terse answers. She blamed him for falling afoul of the desert-snakes, for the days lost out in the sand. She was angry. She wanted to hate him. She tried to hate him.

And she couldn't.

And as the village loomed ever closer, she only felt more and more desolate, so that when he finally spoke, she responded with a modicum of the bitterness she'd felt in those first days.

"Fine," she said coolly. "Go. Leave me here, it's not so far to walk. It will be easier to explain if they see me coming from a distance. If they spot you, I won't be able to stop them."

That, she realized distantly, was a lie. If they sent forces after him numbering one or one thousand and one, she would tear them apart before she let them lay a finger on him. But it wouldn't matter. She would still be a killer, and he would still be gone.

"Let me down," she requested calmly. "This is where we part."

 

[Kaisaan]

If he'd been standing before her, he would have backed away, completely and utterly startled by her tone, her words. As it was, his body flinched violently under her own and his head, still looking back at her, jerked away as if she'd struck him. His chest suddenly hurt and the Aavan bit back a whimper, his tail coming around to curl tentatively around her waist and he set her down gently, but quickly as if she might bite him if he didn't. His mind had suddenly gone into chaos at those simple, harsh words from her and it was in that moment of complete pain that he realized the bond was still there. But the threads were unraveling now like dry rope stretched and pulled too hard.

Mori wanted to stop it, to somehow hold on to it but he knew he couldn't. Not if she didn't want to do the same and he stood there, looking at her, watching inwardly as the connection snapped and it felt like something inside him started to die once more. The brightness that had been in his violet eyes dulled rapidly and perhaps it would only be apparent that it had been there now that it was gone.

The Aavan finally looked away from Rora, to the Cerebrae village and his mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out as his eyes narrowed, spotting something he'd not noted before. It sent a different kind of chill through him, fear, and a growl instantly sprang to his throat as his body crouched just slightly. He didn't look to Rora, but he spoke to her. "The village. Rora, what do you sense from it?"

The walls were gray, a dark, unnatural gray. The Cerebrae were a colorful race, their walls were usually colored, not gray. Not as if the color had been leeched from them. Something was wrong...and if Mori wasn't mistaken...the Cerebra would be detecting a great fear from that community...or she'd detect no one at all. He didn't wait for her response, though, tail coming back around her before he leaped, wings flaring, gliding down to the flatland the city rested upon before he set Rora back down. His nose lifted then, sniffing the air, knowing he should have been able to catch the scent of many lifeforms.

But there was nothing. No noise, no scent, no movement.

There was nothing.

 

[DotCom]

"What?"

Rora's initial answer was dazed, a little distant, still reeling from the confusion and pain pouring off the Aavan at her words. She felt a horrible sort of guilt settle over her instantly, and behind it all the fear and grief of the last few days. The comforting presence that had taken up residence in her mind had fled and surely and cleanly as a winter breeze tearing through a peaceful meadow.

It wasn't until he felt his tail around her, a gesture that had come to be familiar, protective, and even comforting, but now felt bracing, as though meant to prepare her for some horrible thing she couldn't see.

"I...from the village?" Dread, of course. Dread and apprehension, and fear, and everything she'd already been feeling for days, now perhaps doubled, an effect of the distance between...

"No...wait..." She paused as the breath swept from out of her lungs when he leapt and flew, but the surprise didn't last long. She'd been so long away from the city, the silence and desolation had become normal. But now, directly outside these walls, there was...nothing. Nothing but that fear, that desolation, that coldness she'd been feeling ever since they'd come in sight of the city.

She closed her eyes and tried to find just one voice, one consciousness to latch onto. She'd never been very good at narrowing down the gift, but this...this was abnormal.

Heart suddenly thudding in her chest, she ran for the nearest wall. It would have been simpler, faster, even to have circled half the city to find the gate, but she suddenly didn't want to be too far from Mori.

Instead, she threw herself up the wall, calling on years of playing at the edges of the city, scaling trees and remnants of the old walls there. Her fingers found crumbling rocks, her feet tiny divots in the pale gray stone, and all at once, she was hauling herself up the remains of the city, feeling half sick and already knowing what she was going to see.

Or rather...what she wasn't.

 

[Kaisaan]

Mori watched her, unsure if he should follow, but the more he listened and smelled, and didn't sense when his mind reached out, the more he knew that there was nothing in the traditional sense for him to fear here. No, there was something much, much worse. His form leaped, claws latching on to the top of the wall easily. For a moment he feared that it would harm him as so many things from the Cerebrae had - including their walls - but nothing happened. Nothing could happen.

This place was dead, completely devoid of any life and Mori's violet eyes flickered rapidly everywhere, trying to make sense of this. He looked to Rora then and once more his tail wrapped around her, placing her on his back before he leaped from the wall and down into the city itself. He didn't want her far from him and he wanted to be able to simply take off with her if they encountered anything.

His claws clicked against the wide streets as he moved through the 'village'. All around were things littered on the street, devices and clothes, personal items and small ships that had crashed and broken up buildings. It looked like an exodus, like the inhabitants here had been fleeing in sheer terror...and none of them had made it out. There were no bones, no flesh, no bodies, no ash...nothing. They were simply gone and all around were patches of dark grey, nearing on a blackish color that Mori bristled to see, not understanding why, but KNOWING it was wrong.

It was dangerous.

His large formed continued through the empty streets and then Mori realized something; he could walk through these streets. These streets were used to large creatures. Alarm flared inside him then and Mori leaped onto a building like cat into a tree, balancing on his perch as he looked around, spotted what he wanted and then took off. The flight was very brief and he landed in the middle of the cages, the very large, familiar cages. All empty. All empty but for the collars lying in the enclosures.

Aavan.

They were gone. Just like the Cerebrae. Just like everything else in this place.

Cold dread spread through him, a raw terror that seemed familiar as he looked back at Rora. "They're gone. They're...they're all gone." It was obvious yes, but what else could he say? What could either of them say? This....this was beyond anything they could comprehend.

 

[DotCom]

At first, Rora said nothing. There was nothing to say.

After all, even gray and desolate as the small city was, it offered a sort of beautiful serenity. The sadness around them was mesmerizing, almost artistic, and as the Empath who had spent her entire life wishing for silence looked around, she could only see peace. That she had spent so long dreading her arrival here only furthered the feeling.

But she could not deny that something was horribly, horribly wrong here. Cerebrae did not just abandon their cities. Not this far away from the Matriarch, not after hardwon battles to make their place in the wilds, not for anything. There had been disaster before, in the early years. Flood, famine, plague and worse, and these wildling Cerebrae had weathered the storm. A mass exodus like this, even if it were par for the course, would have raised alarm back in the Matriarch's city. This was not mere abandonment. Something more sinister was at work here. She could feel it.

She could feel, too, Mori's own caution, fear, sadness. She knew he was reluctant to be separate from her, and for once, she did not bother hiding that she felt the same way. But they needed answers here. Something horrible had happened, to his people, and to hers. Going back home had become secondary. She could not return without some spark of hope.

"Could you...could you let me down?" she asked softly, staring at the empty cages he'd brought her too. There was no more there than there had been in the village proper, but perhaps...

The Aavan spent so much of their time in chains and cages. Even residual memory might help them discover what had happened here. Rora had never been more sure of anything in her life. A freak, a monster she may be...but if it helped now, she would gladly embrace it.

"I want to look. I want to see if I can...if I can see what happened..."

 

[Kaisaan]

Mori merely looked at her for a long minute at her first words and it was only when she spoke again, explaining why she wanted down, that he complied with an extremely reluctant air about him. He didn't like it here and that was an understatement. His scales prickled with the sense of danger and his claws kept flexing constantly, tail snapping through the air until he brought it around and lowered the Cerebra to the ground again. It then resumed its tense coiling. His wings shifted against his body, wanting to flare and leap away from this place, from the borderline horror he could sense radiating from the very stones. He wasn't an Empath, but one did not have telepathic communications for their whole life, was not a telepathic creature without being able to pick up on such things.

It didn't make him feel any better about putting her down.

The Aavan looked around again before directing his attention to the Cerebra, watching as she entered one of the cages, feeling a shiver run through his scales just being close to the thing. He never wanted to feel a collar around his neck again, never wanted to feel trapped like that again.

And he really, really didn't want Rora in there. Such a feeling was growing stronger as the minutes ticked by and he nearly acted on that pressing desire twice, holding himself back, before he realized WHY he'd felt it.

He wasn't sure at first. It could have been a trick of the light, his own imagination, but the second time he knew what he'd just seen. That gray spot had moved.

His heartbeat roared in his ears as Mori's muzzle snapped out toward the Cerebra even as the gray spot, the shadow, did. Fangs snapped over her clothing, yanking her back as the shadow disengaged from the ground and reached for her with astounding speed. Mori was faster and that's when he heard the shadow shriek, a high-pitched noise that didn't even seem to be in the ears so much as in the head, and very suddenly the malice and hunger it felt was projected, perfectly hidden before but now plain to feel, even for him.

It stirred memory, primal terror in his mind and the Aavan didn't think, he just acted as he lifted Rora up by her clothes that his teeth were still latched on to - much like a mother cat carries a kitten - and he ran.

And the shadow gave chase, gathering more along the way, dark gray spots that suddenly detached and joined the first, growing in size and flying above, blocking off any chance of escape from the air as they herded their prey through the city in a cruel game.

 

[DotCom]

She would never admit it, but as soon as Rora entered the oversized cage, she was ready for Mori to take her up again and be gone from this place.

A portion of that was the cage itself. Empty, cold, and harsh, she could swear she felt the remnants of hopelessness and loss felt by the Aavan that had resides her before Rora arrived. It had always been cruel to keep such magnificent creatures in cages. Seeing what they saw from the inside out did not make her feel any more kindly toward their original captors. But as she crouched, running almost reverent fingers over collars and lengths of chain, the desolation saw swept up by a greater sense of urgency, of a growing sense of dread and fear that started in her belly and worked her way up her limbs, making the hair on the back of her neck stand rigid. She could not see, did not know what the Aavan here had seen, only that it had been horrible. Very, very bad. As she watched, digging almost helplessly deeper, the dread began to consume her, until her hands shook and her breath became uneven and she knew only that she and Mori needed to get out of here, be far, far, far away, and soon, or else --

The feeling of abject fear climbed so suddenly, she turned to Mori on some unexplained instinct, only to see a maw full of teeth snap at the air inches in front of her face.

She screamed and cringed away, terrified that the fear had already driven him crazy, that he would kill her before she could save him.

Then he was up and running, she dangling from his jaws and trying to decipher the chaos in his mind...until she saw the swiftly gathering darkness behind them.

What it was, she couldn't say. She could pick up nothing from the shadows but grief, anger, hatred, sadness...so many awful feelings, each so powerful, that for a moment, she was too stunned to speak or move or breathe. Somehow, Mori had known to run, but Rora felt helpless, and the thought that if she'd been alone, or responsible for his life as he was for hers, they'd have both died nearly overwhelmed her.

Then it happened. Such a simple moment that led to so much, Rora would wonder if she had imagined it for years to come. She blinked once -- once -- and one of the larger gray shadows was nearly upon them. She opened her mouth to warn Mori...but it was too late.

The shadow made a simple leap, spreading itself thin across Mori's legs. She flinched in sympathy, even before the flash of pain that felt as though she'd been dipped into a vat of live fire. She watched, terrified for a moment that they were doomed...but Mori kept running, and for a little while, she thought they might be okay.

He began to falter and stumble a moment later. She had a brief image of the desert, when the baby snakes had come upon them. He'd done much the same then...stumbled, fallen...and she had never been so frightened or angry in her life.

She looked at him, eyes wide and afraid. "Mori?"

It was her last coherent thought before leaving the destroyed city. Fortunate, perhaps, because the destruction of such a place might have been difficult for her to see otherwise. As it were, it nearly took her life.

---

The moment she realized that he was injured, that he might die, was the moment the village ceased to become a village, instead seeming more a playground. A city built of play blocks for an overactive, over-imaginative child, intent on destroying its creation. Houses were not houses but projectiles. Fuel lines and electronics became pyrotechnics, and brick walls became battering rams. As Rora looked around at the gray village, she realized she was not afraid, or even angry -- though there was a burning rage in the pit of her belly at these things that would dare hurt Mori -- but glee. The world was her oyster to crush.

She started with the shadows that had attacked Mori, because they were closest and because she'd forgotten how to think. There was no conscious Rora, only one taken up in rage and a sinister excitement.

As Mori finally began to slow, she wrenched herself from his grip and turned to face the shadows, taking a protective stance in front of him.

Out of nowhere, a chunk of the gray wall at the edge of the city came hurtling by, crushing the grayness beneath, trapping it -- at least as far as Rora was concerned. She had already turned her attention to the rest of the shadows. Houses evaporated into dust as she lifted them from the ground and toppled them again, pummeling each other into little more than errant pebbles. The streets tore themselves apart, becoming truncated walls, built around Mori and herself. There was a pause in the ruckus...and then a yellow-orange explosion as the city's fuel line burst, sending fire and light into the air.

Rora didn't feel exhausted or afraid or exposed. She felt nothing as she ripped the former village to pieces, leveling it in a matter of minutes. She felt nothing until she turned around and saw she had done very little to halt the advance of the shadow creatures. Only then did her throat burn with the acidic tang of fear. The shadows were closing around Mori, and --

"NO!" she screamed suddenly, bodily lifting the Aavan up and away from the gathering shadows. It was only then she felt the weight of what she'd done. If she could have, she might have looked around and seen the village had been reduced to a large, grey circle of dust and rubble, burning here and there, crawling all over with the shadow.

But they were coming for Mori, and she could only support him so long. They gathered overhead and on the ground, and Rora was sweating, and shaking and --

When the first shadow wrapped itself around her, the pain was so foreign, she thought Mori had gotten hurt. It wasn't until unconsciousness began to drag her down that she realized she might die, too. Funny, how it had never occurred to her until the danger was upon her.

The last of her strength waning, she felt her legs giving out. She turned to Mori, eyelids heavy.

"C-can you fly?" she asked hoarsely, and only then realized she'd been screaming even as the village fell. "You have to fly away. I...I'll hold them...I'll...hold...I..."

And then it was too much, and once again, the walls she'd built for them trembled and succumbed to their own weight.

 

[Kaisaan]

He would never be able to accurately describe the type of fear that had gone through him when the shadows had touched his scales, when he felt his legs giving out, when Rora was dropped from his mouth as his body simply stopped, his legs numb, burning with cold fire that was slowly creeping upward. He would never be able to tell anyone what he felt seeing the Cerebra turn into a goddess of destruction. It wasn't horror or disgust or fear of her. No. It was something more like awe and worry and absolutely terror that she'd be harmed.

He saw long before she did that her efforts, as powerful and magnificent as they were - and they were. He'd never seen anything like it, not even the Truscor episode came close to this and she was beautiful in her anger - were getting her nowhere. This was not flesh and bone, this was wraiths and shadows, things that didn't even seemed harmed by the damage she was causing. They could not be physically fought, not like this. But Rora could hardly know that.

He tried to call out when the shadows grew nearer, but one had already brushed along his throat with a malicious glee and his voice wouldn't work past the freezing pain, but the Cerebra had seen the danger and Mori found himself lifted into the air, moved with an invisible power that would have scared him coming from anyone else. As it was, he was feeling enough fear about everything else as it was...but even in the midst of this fear...something came to him.

Rora was lifting him. He'd somehow gotten out of that pool without remembering how.

She'd lifted him.

He hadn't killed Risa.

Rora had.

Of all the things to realize in that moment, that was the last one he'd expected, but watching the Cerebra...he knew. He knew...and he accepted.

And then his body was dropping, his numb legs barely catching him, wings doing most of that work, as the Cerebra was finally attacked. Mori barely heard her words then as a fury like a storm itself came over him, clouded his vision entirely and as the walls came tumbling down around them, Mori rose up. Lightning, blue in color surging over his body, seemed to drive the cold away and when the shadows came back, his power met them, streaking out like a wave. Unholy shrieks rose up as the electricity touched the darkness and it shied back, pain and rage coming off of it, but Mori didn't back down.

His body was over Rora's now, protecting her and the lightning surrounded them both in a dome-like enclosure. The shadows seemed to make a decision then, pausing for several minutes before they started to gather together like a great storm of bees, readying for the attack. And Mori knew that he would not be able to keep them at bay. So he didn't try. Once more he picked Rora up and he leaped away. The shadows gave chase again, shrieking their victory, though, none of them could touch him again. The lightning kept them at bay, but they were cutting him off, circling around and the Aavan once again felt terror past the rage that still burned in his blood.

They were going to die. The shadows were swarming, converging. They were going to-

A bright burst of flame interrupted the thought, interrupted everything as it broke through the shadows and then another burst of fire followed it, and another and another. The shadows were scattering, chaotic and Mori's lightning swept over them whenever they got too close. He didn't know what was happening, everything too wild and fast for him to catch even as the shadows began to leave, to flee back to the city and beyond it. The Aavan teetered then, dropped and he released Rora, unable to tell if she was conscious or not as his vision blurred and his body shrank down in reaction, the cold numbing him all over again now that the adrenaline had died, his power doing the same.

The last thing he remembered was seeing two towering forms looking down at him, such familiar forms and then his world went dark. His last thought was for Rora, a silent plea for them to not harm her.

 

[DotCom]

It was the cold that woke her.

There were many things going on, strange and unfamiliar sensations of mingled confusion, fear, anger and more, but the cold was all she was aware of. She thought maybe she was being held, because the movement around her was steady and constant, but the body or bodies around her provided no warmth. Or not enough. She shivered violently, miserable, trying to remember if she had ever known warmth. Something touched her -- she whimpered, crying out wordlessly for comfort, and the noises stopped abruptly. She felt heady surprise, a moment's silence...and then anger again. Anger, grief, blame, fear. A strong tang of sheer unwantedness. She was not welcome here, wherever 'here' was, by whomever did not want her.

She tried to be sorry. But she could only feel cold. And Mori --

"M-Mori?" Again, the single word found its way to her lips, charging through chattering teeth to greet the chaos outside. She blinked open her eyes and for a moment, could see nothing. Then, vague, unfamiliar shapes. Something looming over her. Something else, something soft and warm -- a blanket? -- given and then taken away. She whimpered a soft protest, trembling.

"Mori..."

And then she saw him. Thought it was him. Her vision was fogged, her head floating and heavy all at once. It was an exhaustion she could barely recognize, it was so vast. But she knew what he felt like to her, and knew he was being taken away, pale and shivering and vulnerable and --

"NO! No, Mori, don't...leave him alone!"

She did nothing, but a great wave of dizziness washed over her. There was a loud crashing somewhere nearby, and several shouts, roars, really, anger, pain, surprise. None of it mattered. Mori was hurt, and they, someone, as taking him away.

"No!" she said again, though it was no longer a scream, more of an exhausted whimper. Was she standing now? She was so dizzy, so tired...She stumbled roughly and forced herself up again. More bodies moved in close. She shoved them aside. More screaming. Another crash.

"Leave...leave'm 'lone..."

Her vision was fading again, but she could just give up! What if they hurt him? What if they killed him?

"Please...Mori..."

Voices, maybe. Words she couldn't understand. More restraints she was too weak to fight. Another crash. Another scream. She fell again, and something stopped her before she hit the ground. Something was forced into her mouth. A strange, cloying flavor, tart, succulent.

She coughed, fought against it, succumbed to the cold and the dark. The screams faded as she sagged in stranger's arms. The soft warmth was back. Someone was carrying her.

"...Mori..."

 

[Kaisaan]

Raskiis'Banuas watched the creature being taken away with bared fangs and a rumbling growl and he wasn't the only one. Structures in the great cavern had been damaged, nearly destroyed by her and many Aavan were moving to attend to the damage and to each other, several of them badly bruised from being thrown against the walls of the cavern. The entire tribe knew of the Cerebra's presence by now. The gold Aavan looked after her again, still unsure why Tac had felt the need to bring her. They'd found their brother, that was what had mattered! Why bring the creature that had imprisoned him along as well?

But his red brother had been insistent, claiming he'd heard Moridryn plead for the creature's life. Rask had heard nothing, but he didn't dispute his sibling, able to feel that Tac truly believed he'd heard something.

The creature couldn't be allowed to stay near their brother, though. Not when it was so dangerous as to be able to throw several Aavan around like they were leaves in the wind. For all they knew, Moridryn could have been a prisoner of this Cerebra. She had the power to keep him contained. And now they had the power to do the same to her. The thought satisfied him as he gave a snort and turned away from the deeper cave she was being taken into, his form shrinking down to a tall male with gold hair and gold-hued skin, green eyes fierce and cold as he entered the smaller cavern his brother had been taken to.

Tac was already there, their mother, Anesa, as well and he met his brother's orange eyes, instantly knowing what had been going on while he'd been away. Moridryn had been touched by the shadows that had started to plague the land, but they hadn't been strong ones and while he'd feel sick for a good deal of time, he wouldn't die. Even so, two healer Aavan were looking him over. It had been six years since they'd seen him and Rask found that he was almost afraid that his baby brother would disappear if he strayed too far.

He knew Tac felt the same way, more strongly even as he'd NOT left Moridryn's side since the black Aavan was brought in. He now stayed close to the bed and to their mother who was simply holding her youngest son's hand, tears streaming quietly as the healers worked. They were checking through Moridryn's hair, looking for cuts, old injuries but they found none. When they took his shirt off, though...

Tac didn't flinch in the least when Rask surged away from the wall with a roar, merely moving with equal quickness to grab his brother's arm, halting him from moving out of the room. The red Aavan knew that Rask's destination would be the Cerebra, his anger getting the better of him and he kept his sibling from his own stupidity. "Let me go! Look what they did to him!"

Orange eyes met blazing green, angry themselves, but more levelheaded. "Moridyrn did not want the Cerebra harmed. You do not know if she is the one guilty of this crime. Stay your claws, Rask." Wills met, clashed, but in the end of the gold Aavan backed down, moving back to his place near the wall, looking over his brother's body again. The scars were being touched be Anesa, horror on her face and both her sons heard her grief, her fear that her daughter was suffering even worse for having been with the Cerebrae longer and she looked to the healers, mind opening to them to speak. "How long will it be before he wakes?"

"It is hard to say, Anesa. His mind is very closed to us."

"But he will wake?"

"He should, yes."

Anesa nodded, her fingers finding her son's hand again and Tac spoke quietly. "Mother, you should find father. Inform him of what has happened." The red-haired female nodded, standing and she looked to her two oldest. "You will stay with him?"

She didn't need a verbal answer to know they would before she left to find her mate.

 

[DotCom]

She thought she had been feeling what the city-dwelling Aavan felt her whole life. It was halfway through the second day she learned just how wrong she was. That's how long it took for the exhaustion to come to a head, for the full realization that she had been created to destroy, for her fear for Mori to bubble over, and for the nightmares from the gray shapes to reach their peak. That was when her mind broke in two to protect itself, and once again, Rora became something else, watching objectively as the physical creature that had been her began to spiral down a long path.

The Rora-thing screamed constantly. Though she had yet to have woken fully, the crying was constant, as was the Aavan guard who fed and watched her. Their distaste for her was clear, but honor or mercy kept them from letting her starve or freeze. There was no bed in the small cell -- the Rora-thing, too small and too broken to actually be Rora -- had lost that privilege on the first night after hurling the bed into the wall. It seemed she had hurt no one but herself. The effort, it seemed, put into destroying a city had also destroyed what remained of her sanity, and nearly her body as well.

Her captors had seen fit to put a blanket and pillows into the cell, though whether Rora-thing was aware was difficult to say. When she was not tangled in sheets, drenched in a cold sweat, still shaking from the shadow attack, she was half awake, being force fed the fruits that kept her from being able to throw beds anymore. It didn't matter. She showed no interest in attacking her captors, or eating, or sleeping, save for when a day worth of screaming and pleading exhausted her.

That was the other half of her activities, and whether she was awake, or simply dreaming and half out of her mind with fear, Rora couldn't guess. The thing that looked like her, albeit skinny, pale, haggard, even the colors on her face fading to muddy pastels, spent all its time pleading. The guards could not or did not respond. Nor did those who came to feed her. They merely shook her off, offered another blanket or sip of water, and then left. And then Rora and Rora-creature alike new what it was to be alone.

She could not feel Rora-creature's fear, but she didn't have to. It was evident in that awful screaming, the begging that restarted every time she heard one of her guard's change, and Rora had to wonder whether they, too, were affected by the sight, pathetic as it was.

It always began the same:

"H-hello? Is someone there?" A tremulous voice, half disappeared with screaming at nightmares, teeth still chattering, from residual shadows, or just from fever. And then, after a moment's cold silence, "Please...please answer me. I just want to know if he's okay. Please."

More silence. A sob entered the plea: "If I hurt anyone...I didn't mean it. I can fix it. Just let me out. I won't hurt anyone. I won't. I promise. I promise. I can't..."

Nothing. Here, the Rora-creature began to wail. "Please! Please, I don't want to stay here, not alone, please just say something, I...I'm cold. I'm scared. Just...just let me talk to him. Just a minute."

Now anger, and she wanted to fight, but the drugs kept her too weak. She'd stumbled up to the walls of the caves, beating against them until her fists bled. "Just tell me he's alive. Please tell me he's alive, please tell me I didn't...not him...not like Risa...oh, god...please...please..."

Sometimes she was sick. Sometimes, the exhaustion was too much, and she'd collapse, shaking and crying until she drifted off again and another nightmare, indecipherable from the truth, woke her screaming. Sometimes, she ran at her captors, and they turned her back, impassive. Sometimes, they were not so impassive. In their strange, silent way, they brought around someone with the fruit she couldn't eat, and they made her eat, dulling her sense, slowly sending her back to the prison of her own mind. By now, she wasn't strong enough to fight it, anyway.

Oh, Rora could feel that. The blackness, spurred by the shadow attack, ran rampant, all the more emboldened for the lack of presence there. As if the darkness fear the return of the light and so delighted in what time it had left. The nightmares were worse now then ever before, the bloodied corpses of a thousand dead Cerebrae and Aavan alike. Risa...and Mori.

"Please!" she screamed, hoarse and desperate and so afraid, that even Rora couldn't watch sometimes. "Please, just let me see him. Just let me know he's okay, I'm sorry I hurt him, I'm sorry...I didn't...I won't do it again. Please, just let me see him. Just for a moment. Please! Please...please..."

And so the cycle repeated again and again...the screaming, the sobbing, the pleading, the crying, the quieting whimpers, the nightmares, the screaming...Even Rora lost track of the days, watching, feeling half sick with grief and madness herself. She couldn't say when the Rora-creature began talking to, and then screaming at herself. She couldn't say when the guard was doubled, half afraid the strange Cerebra might hurt herself. They began giving her more of the fruit juice, and while the crying became less frequent, the nightmares increased, leaving little more than a mass of flesh and bone.

The Rora-creature began whispering to herself when she thought she was alone, one word over and over, growing harsher and more hateful each day, until Rora learned that the Rora-creature was dying. There was nothing physically wrong with her, save for a deep exhaustion. Her sleep was little more than scream-filled nightmares. But it didn't matter. The Rora-creature was succumbing to the darkness in her head, finally. She would die young, this Cerebra.

What was more frightening still was that the Rora-creature seemed ready for death.

Rora heard the word again as the Empath rocked herself back and forth in her sleep:

"Sinitrus," she said, voice hoarse. "Sinitrus. Sinitrus. Sinitrus..."

 

[Kaisaan]

Anesa had been to see the Cerebra, the creature who only seemed able to scream, cry and rage. They could not understand her, though, they tried to speak to her. Her mind was closed to them, however, just like every Cerebrae they'd encountered. They didn't know what she wanted, what she needed and so they did their best to keep her alive, but it was clear she was dying, that something was wrong that they could not fix. Perhaps that would be for the best. She didn't seem stable enough to get back to her own people anyway and even if she could, they couldn't let her go to the Cerebrae, not when she'd been with them, not when she knew where they dwelled and could tell someone. No, she had to stay here...even if that meant she died here.

Perhaps that would be best for the poor creature.

Anesa would watch the strange female, listen to the noises she made and wonder just what she'd been doing with her son. Tac insisted that Moridryn had said to not harm the Cerebra, but perhaps her eldest had been mistaken....or her youngest had been scared, confused. Why had the two been together? Why at the edge of the Cerebrae city? And what had happened to that place? Rask had said it was leveled...

So many question and so few answers.

She could feel the many minds of the tribe, all questioning, waiting, checking in with her and Cas on their son's state often. They were curious, worried and the mother Aavan the most of them all. She wanted to know what had happened to her youngest child.

---

He woke slowly, warm, knowing he was safe. His mind immediately thought of Rora and his senses searched for her, but what he found was vastly different than the Cerebra. His violet eyes opened to a pair of green ones looking down at him, but in the wrong face. An instant snarl had his teeth bared dangerously and the eyes looked surprised, withdrawing slightly and then Mori felt something he'd not felt in a very long time; a mind knocking on his own, requesting entrance. He felt instant confusion and then suddenly there was a second pair of eyes, this time orange and memory stirred.

He knew these faces.

The black Aavan's mind immediately opened, cautious but hopeful and the first voice he heard was Tac's, a smile in it, relief, welcoming warmth as his sibling's mind filtered into his own slowly, not wanting to shock him, sensing that it would...and holding Rask back to be patient as well. That brought a slight smile to Mori's face as he looked between the two of them slowly. "Hello, little black."

Rask's voice was there then, his mind a golden glow, powerful and yet trying to be gentle though it didn't come easily to him. "Moridryn, if you ever pull that kind of cra-"

Tac elbowed his brother. Hard. "What Rask meant was that we missed you."

"He knows very well what I meant!" the gold Aavan spat back and Mori's smile widened a bit even as he continued to look at them, their voices slowly sinking into his mind, their presences finding familiar places in his head, places that had been empty for so long. He was crying, quietly before he realized it, but his brothers did, immediately feeling his overwhelmed emotion and Tac moved forward as Mori tried to sit up slowly, helping. "Easy, Moridryn. You've been in the blackness for some time."

The black Aavan blinked, frowning and now that he was up, he looked around again, searching, clearly searching and Rask spoke up. "Mother will be here shortly, father, too. You're home now, brother. It's all right now."

"Rora."

It was the first, the only word to come out of his mouth, overwhelming his mind, flooding into his brothers' thoughts and they looked instantly puzzled which only served to make Mori more insistent. "Rora. Where is she?" He was already trying to get off the bed as Rask moved closer, frowning. "Brother, there were no other Aavan with you..." He tried to push Mori back down, concerned for him, but was met with a snarl that made him retract his hand, recognizing the true intent to harm from the black Aavan should he do that again. This was not the brother he remembered, but it only took one look at Mori's chest, his back to understand that the last six years would have changed him.

Still, this was something deeper and the more sensitive of the two, Tac, watched his little brother carefully, probing his mind slowly to try and understand what he wanted and it was only when an image of a female with rainbow spatters across her face flashed through Mori's mind that he thought he understood. "Moridryn, the Cerebra is contained. We have not harmed her. She can not harm you now."

Mori looked at his sibling in complete confusion for a moment and then he spoke very, very slowly as he stood, something, some strong emotion on the verge of breaking loose. "Where is she?" It was very clear he wanted an answer now.

His brothers looked at each other, suddenly unsure what was going on and Rask was the one who spoke. "Moridryn, the Elders have said no one is to see her anymore. You can't-" He never finished as the anger that swept over his younger sibling was breathtakingly sudden and powerful, and it was like Mori hadn't been sick at all as he darted past them and then shifted up in the larger cavern. A roar left his mouth and every Aavan in the tribe froze, no matter where they were, as his voice rumbled with a lethal fury through their minds.

"WHERE IS MY CEREBRA!?"

 

[DotCom]

Even asleep, Rora-creature recognized the roar before Rora herself did. The immaterial Cerebrae was only just the small, rational portion of Rora that remained, the one that had been watching in quiet curiosity as the Rora-creature burned herself out in a spectacular show of rage and desperation. Rora knew the voice, recognized it, and felt comforted by it.

But Rora-creature...what was left of the Empath-Telekinetic, she heard a familiar roar and saw red.

It had been some time since the Rora-creature had woken fully. Between the rapid decline of her mental state, and the way her captors kept her on a careful regimen of whatever the pulp was that seemed to sap her strength, she had been reduced to quiet begging from the floor of the cell. It was only a rare mood that would get her up, to plead with the silent Aavan guards, or to trash against the walls for freedom. But always, Mori's name was on her tongue, she desperate pleading again, and again:

"Please let me see him...please...please...please..."

Hearing the roar, she finally knew he was alive. But in that roar, she heard a pain and longing that set fire to her veins. It was nice. It had been so long since she felt anything. She wasn't even awake before the walls of the cave began to tremble. Rora saw the creature pale abruptly. After days of fighting, and the heavy sedation, it was a wonder the Carebra was still conscious, let alone able to move things. This effort, she saw, might actually finish her off.

But Rora-creature didn't seem to care. She laid there, curled on the floor of her cell, as quiet and as still as she'd been in days as dust began to fall around her and the guard looked anxious.

When the roar sounded again, Rora-creature whimpered, then growled under her breath.

"Mori? Mori?? I'm coming! I -- " A large stone fell from the otherwise smooth ceiling, missing the Cerebra by scant inches and a miracle to boot. She lurched to her feet, half lidded eyes dull, and started for the cave.

Five guards were sent to stop her. She greeted the first two with a pout. "Leave him alone!" And then the large Aavan were behind her, in two slumps against the wall. The Cerebra staggered under the weight of her own exhaustion, pushed ahead only by the agonized roaring in her head.

"Please...don't..." she begged again, suddenly a child, despite the destructive power she'd weilded only moments before. "Don't hurt him...don't..."

And then the next three Aavan, two in their large form, one in its small, a large vial of the powerful toxin that had worked so well in dampening the Cerebra's power and was doing nothing against the perceived cries of pain.

She lifted a hand to throw them all aside, but the two large ones found her first. They'd received careful orders not to harm her, but that did not keep them from pinning her down, and while the Cerebra was formidable, she was weak from fear and exhaustion, and her powers could only do so much under the suggestion of the toxin.

"No," she moaned weakly, trapped beneath the two larger creatures, even as a third uncapped the vial to force the stuff down her throat. "Leave him alone! Don't hurt him, don't...don't...don't..." And then she was choking on the too-sweet juice, and the walls were ceasing their trembling, and all three Aavan were relaxing in some relief, though none back offed yet.

The Cerebra was only half conscious, still fighting weakly against the larger two that held her, all the while asking for something in a language they couldn't understand.

"Don't hurt him, please...please don't hurt him...I just want to see him for a minute, I just...don't hurt...don't hurt him..."

 

[Kaisaan]

He heard her.

He didn't know if it was in his ears or in his head, but he heard her and suddenly Mori was moving with a speed that should not have been possible in his weakened state, but protective fury and possessive care gave him a strength that was beyond anything normal. He raced through the tunnels and the few Aavan who tried to stop him, recognizing what he wanted, where he was going by the mental connection he'd opened in his anger, were met with a hurricane of claws and savage teeth that sometimes landed and other times missed entirely as they were smart enough to move aside.

There was and would be no guilt from the black Aavan for his actions. Every tribe member knew what they risked trying to hinder him, he didn't hide it from them, and so the ones that chose to stop him anyway were liable for their own actions. There was no thought in Mori, no desire stronger than getting to Rora. She needed him. There had been so much desperation, so much grief and pain in that faint call that it drove him to the brink of his sanity, not knowing where she was, what had happened to her and then everyone trying to stop him, voices in his head, calling to him. He ignored them all.

They were nothing, meant nothing.

Rora was all that mattered and he came upon her suddenly.

His violet eyes took in everything in an instant and one second more saw him putting everything together with a lightning speed that was terrifying just as his thunderous roar was. It nearly shook the stone, rage seething and dangerous in the sound, in his storm-filled eyes as he advanced on the open cell, a savage, bloodcurdling snarl tearing at his throat as he leaped. His claws tore into the back of the first guard he hit and a pained roar went up as the white Aavan scrambled away, bleeding sluggishly.

"MINE!" It thundered through every Aavan in the cavern and without, the emotions behind that one word so very intense that it nearly took on life of its own as Mori's body came over Rora's smaller one protectively as he roared again, lightning flaring over his scales.

The other two Aavan - the three injured ones were already out of the cell - looked completely shocked and then swift, startled understanding came over their faces as they looked down at the Cerebra and up to Mori. They were quick to retreat then. They couldn't reach him, knew they couldn't and they stopped trying. No. Such a thing would be very, very foolish. No, they fled back up the tunnels, racing for the Elders, but Mori hardly cared.

He gave a deafening roar after them, a warning before his attention shifted downward and it was like a switch had simply flicked as the anger completely drained away in a flood of care, affection and worry as he brought his muzzle down and softly puffed a hot breath into Rora's dark hair, his tail curling around her small body, drawing her close to his heated belly as he laid down. "Rora, my little rainbow...oh, my Rora...it's all right. I'm here. I'm here....everything will be all right now... I'm here, Rora. You're not alone."

 

[DotCom]

She wasn't sure at first whether she was dreaming or dead, and in that moment she didn't care. Her mind was one place, but her body was another, and it took another few moments of whimpered, "No...don't hurt him, leave him alone...please don't hurt him..." before she realized the body pressed up against her was familiar and warm and alive.

Green eyes flicked open and found familiar violet, and in that moment, she'd have gladly sworn that purple was her new favorite color for all eternity. A dopey smile split her face, the toxin already settling in, and she didn't care at all, because this was the nicest nightmare she'd had so far. She was dying, she knew, but if she could die now, even seeing a memory of Mori, she'd be happy.

"I found you," she said quietly, beaming up at him through a haze of exhaustion and delirium. He was weak and tired, she could feel, and she frowned, momentarily afraid. "Did they hurt you? I asked them not to hurt you, I swear, I asked over and over, and they...no one listened, I tried, I screamed...I wanted to get to you, I tried, but they put...they made me eat, and I got so dizzy and -- "

A violent tremor swept over her body and she shivered and whimpered and rolled weakly to one side to press herself against his belly. If she was going to die, she wanted to be as close to him as she could.

"I thought you were dead," she went on, hardly even aware she was speaking. One trembling hand stroked the softer scales on his torso, wincing as she drew over the scare from the desert-snake. "I just wanted to see you for a little bit, I thought..."

Her head felt heavy, fuzzy, like her brain had been replaced with wet cotton. She shivered again and felt the all-too familiar blackness move in closer. She shied away, still curled against his belly. He wasn't really there, she knew. This was the final stage of madness, but she loved it. She hadn't realized until now how she'd missed him. She hoped, wherever he wasn, he was okay. It ached to think she wouldn't be able to protect him.

"I killed Risa, Mori." The words were matter of fact, but she whimpered again anyway. "I killed Risa, and that Keeper that tried to hurt you. The thing in the desert, and all those other...the other animals there. I felt them die. And...and at the village, when you were hurt..."

She broke off, shivering. "I killed all of them. I thought...I thought they were going to kill you."

She felt a sudden movement at the far mouth of the cave, unidentifiable, foreign, and her heart raced.

"No," she whimpered. "Don't take him yet, please...just a bit longer, I won't hurt him, I won't hurt anyone, I promise. Please don't take him, don't hurt him, don't -- "

And then, realizing she was asking the wrong person. "Mori, don't....don't go, I won't hurt anyone else ever again. I'll keep you safe. I can do it, they just...I ate it, and now I'm tired all the time, I don't know how...I can still save you, I can fix it, just please don't go, don't..."

Her hands, bloodied and bruised from hours beating at the walls, scrabbled uselessly against the scales of his belly as she trembled quietly against him. She was babbling, she realized, the madness sweeping up again, but she didn't care. If she died now, she wouldn't care, as long as Mori was safe and there and holding her.

"Don't go. Don't...don't...don't go..."

 

[Kaisaan]

Stars, what had they done to her?!

Each word, each whimper and plea, each scared, desperate movement tore into him like claws trying to shred into his chest and Mori tried to shush her softly, but she didn't even seem to hear him and his heart broke into a million pieces word by word. The things she said, they were burned into his mind and the way she said them made him want to cry, hold her and savage everything in sight all at the same time.

He settled on the second option and even as she chanted, he shifted down and he pulled Rora into his arms. She was so incredibly cold, so pale and weak, and he hated it with a passion that burned hot in his belly. She should not be this way. She should NEVER be this way and he held her against him, hating the way she shook so very badly, so scared. "I'm not leaving, Rora. I won't leave."

Even as he spoke the words, though, he knew she wouldn't understand them, wouldn't hear them, wouldn't let them absorb. She couldn't. He had seen her enough times like this to know that he could not reach her with actions, with words and he didn't want to waste time trying. He'd helped her before and he would do it again. He would not lose her! He brought his hands up to her head then, pulling her back just enough to press his forehead to her own and this time Mori didn't think. He didn't temper his mind, didn't try to ease in, didn't calculate or doubt. He simply acted on the screaming longing inside him, the instinct that told him to HELP HER, to save her, to care for her and claim her.

His mind flooded into Rora's like a wave, blue washing over everything, seeping into every nook and cranny it could find. It didn't yet try to make sense of anything, didn't try to decipher memories or thoughts, it simply covered the Cerebra, wrapped around her like no blanket ever could, savagely protecting, driving out the darkness that was coming over her with a fury unmatched. She'd called him. She'd called to him, her mind to his and he was answering, cradling her, giving her his strength, chasing away the haze of the drug from her mind - he couldn't take its effect from her body - so that she could think, so that she could understand that he was here.

He was here.

He was not leaving. He was never leaving her again.

And for the first time, his mind spoke directly into her own. Not a whisper, not a thought, but speech that would echo warmly in her head with every fierce emotion he felt. It would not harm her. Nothing he did would harm her. But he had claimed her. She was his and if she chose to move her mind along the many hundreds of blue strands he'd made, reaching into her mind, then she would be claiming him, too.

"I'm not going anywhere. I am not leaving you. You will never be alone again, Rora. I will never let you suffer alone again. You are mine and I will protect you. You are mine now, little rainbow, you always have been and you always will be."

 

[DotCom]

She opened her eyes, and as she did, everything changed forever.

She could not, and would never be able to say what had happened. Everything that had led up to it did little to clarify, save for one simple fact: it was Mori, everywhere he could be, becoming and protecting her with a quiet, powerful grace. She did not know what magic it was, and didn't care. She was so tired, so confused, but she knew, knew in that moment, something was different. The darkness might never leave. It might wax and wane on into her later years. But as long as Mori was alive, she would never face it alone again.

She drew a shuddering gasp and opened her eyes and when she saw him there, not two inches away, and knew she wasn't dreaming, knew he wasn't dead, knew she wasn't, and would never be alone again, it was all she could do not to melt into his arms then and there.

As it were, she had no words. What thanks could she give? She could try for the rest of her life, speak a hundred thousand different languages and still never be able to say what she was thinking. And so she showed him.

The blue flood in her head had a source, and cautiously at first, and then with a robust certainty she'd never experienced before, she followed it back. There was no fear the the darkness would stop her or find him. There was no fear anywhere, save that something might interrupt this moment of trust and peace she could never have imagined.

There was acute exhaustion here. The Cerebrae village had weakened them both. Her body ached from days in containment. The toxin in her blood made her slow and stupid. None of it mattered. She'd exhausted her powers, but she'd have sworn she could wrangle the suns if he asked it of her. That they had been almost enemies just a few short weeks ago never entered her mind. It no longer made sense. Hatred was not something she could even imagine. What was was Mori and Rora and nothing else. His words echoed in her head, a resounding promise of comfort and warmth she knew would never leave her.

She looked into violet eyes and smiled and said again what she'd already said, modified only slightly now that her mind was clear. The toxin made her tongue lazy, and her eyes unfocused, but she didn't care. She meant it this time, foolish as it sounded.

"Hi," she said almost shyly. And then, more poignantly: "You found me."

 

[Kaisaan]

He felt it, the moment her mind touched his own and pure, untainted bliss washed over the Aavan, finding every corner of his mind and the longing that had been a wordless, demanding cry for so long was satisfied, it stilled and knew peace. His mind knew contentment in a way it never had before, in a way his own people, the Nuathal, no one had ever been able to provide, to touch on. He shuddered with the relief it brought and every ounce of tension drained from his body, sagging with the profound knowledge that he would never feel that way again. He'd never feel rejected, abandoned, alone again.

He would never feel that painful void that could not be filled because now it was. And it always would be. He was claimed. He was as much hers as she was his. One heart, one soul, one life. He cared for her more than he could express in words and he didn't have to try, he merely sent it along the woven strands of blue and charcoal even as the strands slowly started to converge, braiding themselves into a rope. It would take days, maybe even weeks for that process to be complete, but the bond would not be severed now.

It was too strong now even as it was new.

And Mori opened his eyes, knowing at any moment she'd open her own green. Their gazes met and he smiled freely, without restraint or reserve, joy bubbling up inside him. He held Rora's head, cradled it really when she spoke and he nodded slowly, the affection, the fondness in his violet eyes so very obvious it was a wonder it had hidden itself this long. "I will always find you." It was a promise, the blue of his consciousness lapping in new waves against her mind, soothing, comforting, assuring her of his words.

He would never harm her, would never lie to her, would never leave her.

Mori released her head then and instead his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close again, his head on her own. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I didn't know." His mind filled in where his words could not, strong impressions of being asleep, of waking and discovering she was not there, of searching and anger, of horror and heartbreak imprinting on Rora's mind, telling her everything as he'd known it, no untruth in it.

 

[DotCom]

"I know," she started out of habit, then found she didn't have to.

Again, she thought she had known what it was to share the feelings, emotions, thoughts of another separate being, to have them be yourself almost more than you were. Again, she was proven wrong.

That the images he sent her were of exhaustion, loss, and anger meant nothing. That they flowed to clean and clear, and more importantly, that they flowed in both directions was what mattered.

"It's alright," she continued aloud, honest and content. Her own mind sent images of their own. It wouldn't have mattered if he had known where she was, or if he'd been half a world away. What mattered was he was here now.

It may have just been the new joy, the ecstasy flowing between them, so pure and bright and clean after days of chaos and darkness. More like, it was a combination of relief and new warmth and safety and exhaustion. He held her, and she held him, and it was more difficult to stay awake than it was to drift off. There was a brief thrill of fear that they would close her in this cold dungeon again, but she soon realized she didn't care. He was with her, and she knew he wouldn't leave. From there, they could throw her into the ocean or upend a vat of magma over her head. She didn't care.

"They're confused," she said dozily, letting the toxin do its job now that she knew they weren't hurting him. "All your...your people. I hope I'm not going to get you in trouble."

 

[Kaisaan]

Her reassurance touched him, wrapped around him and Mori let the guilt go. It had no place here and he instead focused on the spurt of fear from her mind, soothing it immediately, without even having to think. She wouldn't not be staying here. He would not let anyone put her in here again. Even as that assurance wrapped around her, he stroked her hair and then gently moved away from her, his mind staying right where it was, silently telling her he wasn't leaving at all.

His form shifted, grew upward and his tail wrapped around Rora then, placing her in that familiar spot on his face. The end of his tail brushed against her cheek, pushing her hair back when she spoke before he started to move out of the cell and then up the tunnel that would lead them out. "They will not be confused for long, little rainbow. They will recognize a Heart-Bond when they feel one. They can not discipline me for such a thing as it is beyond my control."

The knowledge he had then came into her own head, his mind already knowing how to do this, how to share and protect and soothe...and soon her mind would, too.

Heart-Bonds were when two individuals were drawn together from the day they were born to the day they died, no matter the distance or the trials, no matter how long it took to find one another, they always did. Sometimes the connections were easy, other times they were hard and took time, but they were always meant to be. They came in all forms; brothers, sisters, friends, lovers, guardians...there was no one way to have a Heart-Bond and such a relationship and all it entailed was left up to the two individuals who shared it. To try and take one person from the other was to ask to be killed, to try and separate their minds was a death sentence for both individuals.

The moment they claimed each other, they were two vines growing so tightly together that to try and extract one tore the other. There was no distinguishing them anymore, no one without the other even as they were still themselves.

Such was what Mori knew about the bond they new shared and so such was what Rora knew now, too.

The black Aavan was hardly focused on that, though, as he finally reached the great cavern and was immediately confronted with the stares of his kin, some wary, some angry, more simply curious as they looked to the small figure on his back, causing Mori to lift his wings slightly to shield her, protecting. She wasn't ready to meet them. They were not ready to meet her and when the first Aavan approached him, Mori snapped at him with nothing but a low, warning growl. The other backed away again, snorting back, thinking him rude, but the black Aavan didn't care as he started to move again into familiar tunnels that he'd used for years, his whole life.

His violet eyes caught those of his brothers', watching with confusion and thought his actions, but Mori didn't have the energy to explain it to them yet, not even in impressions and while he knew they followed him, he could also sense it was to protect him, not to hinder him and the black Aavan sent nothing but an exhausted gratefulness back. All he needed, all Rora needed, was sleep, time.

So Mori followed the tunnel that led to a large cavern. A roughly woven rug - giant - was on the floor, but Mori didn't use it as his tail wrapped around Rora again and he set her down on the bed in the corner - on clean blankets, too - his bed in his room and then shifted down again. He still wasn't wearing a shirt, but he didn't care, knew Rora wouldn't either as he crawled into the bed and curled around her. The Aavan placed a kiss to the top of her head, but he said nothing. He didn't have to as the blue washed over her mind in an endless, soft wave, a lullaby in and of itself as he coaxed her to sleep and the shared exhaustion, the wonder of her mind in his own did the same for him.