Whisper Marsh There's none left for you or for me

“And yet, here y’ are,” Kjell drawled lazily, arching a singular brow as his mother mentioned companionship.  He was not entirely certain what the woman was getting at, but he was under no illusions.  The woman who raised him was always after something, be it a small prize or a large one, and one ear tipped forward as he sought to suss it out.  It didn’t require much patience, for the next thing she uttered was a question, an interest, and his ear flipped backwards, snorting softly.  Once a mother, always a mother, he supposed – he was no longer a little boy, and yet she still inquired after whom he kept as company.

Resisting the urge to look back in the direction of the den he shared, the male rolled one shoulder.  He carried Bishop’s scent on his guard hairs – they weren’t mates, but they shared a den and very close quarters.  To deny it would be to insult her intelligence.  To admit it would be to play right into her paws.

It was better to deal with the lesser of two evils.  “Her name is Bishop,” he sighed softly, tail swishing behind him as he hummed.  “We were living south of here.  Had enough of pack life.  And that’s it,” Kjell insisted, eyes glinting like burned copper.  “She’s my friend.”

(This post was last modified: Jan 06, 2016, 07:51 PM by Kjell. Edit Reason: Borked tags. )

There were so many things that had to be caught up on, and this strange so-called friend of his was just one of them. She could hear insistence on his tongue that was not unlike his father, and knew better than to poke the bear - or the dragon as it were, head bowing slightly as if to offer some kind of a wordless apology. Struck a nerve with that one, clearly. Bishop. It was just another name to add to her list of people to track down, though her intentions for the girl were merely interrogatory, and not at all malicious like what she had intended for Kjors. "Okay." She implored. "Okay. I understand." Allowing her head to rise again she studied his face some more, only adding fuel to the fire that was her belief that it should have been him to take the now broken throne on which she had once sat. "You'll have to tell me all that you've been doing, Kjell." Much like him, she spoke with a tone of undeniable insistence, albeit with far more tact and grace than merely hissing her displeasure. "Surely your life cannot be summarized as quickly as you've just done?" Near death, recovery, survival. Perhaps it was that simple, but she wished not to believe that her offspring had simply going about his life and made do. No, she had expected great things of him from the moment he had entered the world, and while it would not have been a disappointment to hear such a simple existence, it certainly would have left her feeling like a failure. More so than she already was feeling as such, to know that this entire time her cowardice in the face of Kjors had cost her a life with the son she had adored. Had she stayed and fought, and perhaps won, the absence in her soul now slowly being refilled might not have existed in the first place. She might have had a nicer life, and not been doomed to spend her senior years on the hunt for retribution - and she was still looking for as much. The hunt for justice didn't magically cease to exist just because Kjell had survived his attack.

“I’ve done things.” He tipped his head to one side, ear twitching backwards. Did he want to share? Usually he’d not miss an opportunity to speak about himself, finding the life story of Kjell Sørenson an unputdownable novel in and of itself, but there was something still wary about him. It was almost like meeting a ghost – almost. The loner was still a bit uncertain about how he felt running into this part of his past. At least she wasn’t with Kjors, he reasoned, but it did not give him a great deal of reason to trust her after everything.

Even if he would always be his mother’s boy.

A great sigh fell from his lips.

“Look, today has been…a lot,” he decied after a moment, ear flipping back forward as he studied Avari. The same applied to her, or he rather thought it did. “I’m gonna go back to my den, alright? But, after a sleep, and something to eat, we can talk. And I’ll tell you,” Kjell acquiesced. He had no reason to withhold information from the woman outside of the turmoil of emotions; this was something the dragon prince did so detest. But with time, he knew his mind would settle, and they would actually be able to set things right, or at least, come close, between them.

Ugh! So sorry that took so long. x ___ x;; The hols were awful. Maybe one post from Avari and we can close the thread? Both of these two need the LP lol. And we can start another afterwards? :3

It was an unusual thing for anyone that knew her to think for a second that Avari was a woman with any maternal instincts. After all the things she had done in her past, those known and those kept secret, those bloody and clean the same, to consider her the kind to not only raise but care for a child was generally met with disbelief. Even she in the darkness of her den when the pain began to cripple her had her doubts. Still she had raised two boys, and one of them had turned out okay. That the other was an absolute mess? Clearly the fault of their father. Yet here she stood looking into the ghosts of her past with a sting in her chest the likes of which she'd not felt since the day that she had lost him. The tears had ended by force. Her stone face looked more like jelly as she watched, and she could see even now the exhaustion that her arrival had brought. It was much the same for her. To have these revelations brought back and slap them both in the face was no easy task. It would take some recovery. "I understand." Her nod was slight, the choke in her voice returning for a second before her pride forced it back down to the pit of her gut where it belonged. "I won't hold you here any longer, much as I would like to." Hold him here forever, perhaps. She had her own new plans to tend to, not the least of which was plotting and completing and assessment of this @Bishop she was sure to hear so much about. Only fitting of a mother to make sure her prince got the best of the best, after all. The thought of turning away was not an easy one, but she managed only after parting words. "When you call for me - this time, I will answer." She wondered, had he bothered looking at all in the past? Had he woken from his attack and assumed that she had dismissed him that easily? "I promise."