Whisper Marsh legacy

Set at Renegade's Vigil, Borden's resting place. Time-wise, set not long after she arrived, but it doesn't need to be too concrete.
@Rook! I don't mind if he overhears or not. Reply when and if you ever can, no pressure at all, I just really want them to have a thread before she leaves <3

It had been at the back of her mind when last saying goodbye, that it might really be the last time she'd ever say goodbye. Not wanting to appear controlling or, heaven forbid, needy, she'd let them go - let them all go - without complaint, because who was she to say otherwise? Bishop, at least, had known where home was, and come back, but Trisden hadn't been enough to keep the rest of them from leaving. Was this what it had been like for them, as parents with wayward children? Trisden hadn't birthed a single one but felt the sting every time they crossed out of her borders.

"You were an idiot, God rest your soul," she said, staring glassy-eyed at the ground where her father had been buried, breathing steadily and evenly. "You should have stayed and let us look after you at home. I know Rook was worried about you, but - but you can't undo age, it's not something you can just cure with the right herbs. Nobody has that power, nobody except God, and he doesn't interfere in our lives like that."

Clenching her teeth, she looked off into the trees, and took a long, careful breath. "It was hard to watch. But I knew you before that - I've been with you almost my whole life, right at your side, and it's hard to see someone you love wear down, but... we're all mortal, dad. It's gonna happen to me one day. But I'll be dying at home, not at some relic of my past - Grizzly Hollow is history, you should have let it stay that way. What did you accomplish by coming back here? You dredged up old rivalries just so you could stand on this soil again. Was it worth it? I know you loved this forest, but you built the Reach, too - was that just a placeholder, a fakery? Why didn't it deserve to be your resting place? The Reach is so much more than the Hollow ever was and you know it, but you just couldn't accept it."

Her lips curled up in a dark, dry smile, only bitterness and grief behind it. "Was it because the Reach was always going to be mine, after you? You kept chasing for that perfect son, but none of them were right - Hocus, Renier, Ryvet, none of them made your cut. Rook, though, oh he was a darling child... I love that kid to death, dad, you know I do, but... I was right there the whole time. I've been by your side almost my whole life, I've worked for the family, I've fought for it, the Reach is every bit my legacy as it is yours. But I've always been a stand-in until you got that child you were waiting for, so I'm sorry to disappoint you but... the Reach is mine now. And I'm going to have my own children and be my own kind of leader, and not just Borden's daughter. I'm a Lyall too, you know. I'll always be a Lyall, and I've always been good enough."

With a heavy sigh, her forearms went weak, and she slipped down onto her chest, laying her head gently on the ground. Rubbing her chin through the soil, she wished it were his fur, that she could inhale him one last time.

"I wish you'd trusted me, dad."

what would you take from this?

what can i take from this?
what can i take from this mess?
what can i take from this,
all that you left unnoticed?
we once believed
in what we see...
we once agreed.
this is ours to leave
or stay.
- Joe Gil, "Leave Or Stay"

---

All the time being spent trying to lobby for Veho's affections and attention, Rook figured, was starting to grow into something of annoyance. The last thing he wanted was to be that particular someone who couldn't seem to comprehend the meaning of "sharing" or, well, "personal space" and "quiet time." Hoping that @Veho would have thought to seek out Oula or tend to the borders and other duties (like cache-counting and holding short vigils over what seemed like busy parts of the territory), the Lyall figured he would spend today on his own. The first thought to come across his mind was to visit his father - something he had not done since he had returned after he let Quil go off on her own.

From several meters away, his footsteps slowed upon recognizing what was an unmistakable string of words. A speech, perhaps, but he could not quite place the tone of it. Was she talking to someone? His nose wriggled and he dared to approach closer until he was near enough to make out her words and realize where she was.... who she was.

"Rook, though, oh he was a darling child... I love that kid to death, dad, you know I do, but... I was right there the whole time."

The youth's mouth dropped open at first, hanging there for a while before he winced. Trisden really was here; his nose hadn't been deceiving him when he thought he had first caught whiff of her. As she continued on, Rook found his heart sinking deeper and deeper into his chest. His left ear swiveled to the side and he watched and heard as she sighed and reclined forward in the soil between the old cedar's unearthed and far-reaching roots. "I wish you'd trusted me, dad." she said; and, in that moment Rook came forward, unable to keep himself at the tree line any longer.

His footsteps were quiet, but they were loud enough for her to discern that someone was coming. He had been young when he had proposed his quest to find a cure for their father, even younger when he and his oldest sister had been the best of friends. Oh, how the times had changed. Both parents in their own right now, Rook could only wonder how Leadership suited her now. Between the two of them, it was painfully apparent that she was the better choice. The words she spoke were not those of his much older playmate but that of a Leader.

"He did trust you," he revealed, his own voice on the same note as hers. It was disappointing that his sadness over Borden's death still lingered, but, being the emotional sort, Rook felt he had no choice. It was probably no coincidence that he had come this way. All those words left unsaid all the months ago, now had the chance to be said and heard. Somewhere to her right, he took a seat, drinking her in with his eyes as if this would probably be the last time he would ever see her again. After all this time, he thought he would never see Trisden, not after he decided he would remain with Quil... with Veho... with the legacy that Borden had sought to rebuild.

"And, you were always good enough." His head bowed down now to try and look upon her own masked face. "I don't know if you knew but... Renegade's Reach was never to be mine. Dad..." He had to take a breath, to look away for a minute to collect himself. "Dad might have wanted it so, but he trusted you, he knew you could do it. Bishop and I had been so young then, the Reach could not wait for me to come of age when you were already there. Ready."

"He would've been proud y'know; and, he missed you a lot. When he was here, he'd ask me to get you, and it hurt every time. Sometime later, all he could see when he looked at me was you."

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Feeling raw, the sound of approaching pawsteps put Trisden immediately on edge, for she had so wanted to be weak and vulnerable in private. This was between herself and her father, and nobody else-

Oh.

Her eyes widened at the sight of her youngest brother, the hostility which had flashed through her body vaporising, and then he spoke words in direct response to her own and her chest and throat tightened, caught by an immobilising mixture of embarrassment and love and resentment and relief.

She pushed herself up as he walked closer, unable to take her eyes off @Rook as he walked, a weariness in his step, in his face, staring into those two-tone eyes which she could never escape and feeling gratitude that she'd had another chance to see them. He had not been there to greet her when she called, which she had felt haughty bitterness over, but at the time had assumed his duties kept him busy. Now she knew better. The questions which flooded her were overwhelming, and the force of them, coupled with the purposeful way he sat, he inhaled to say more, kept her totally silent. What happened to you? she wanted to whisper, but just sat there, jaw ever so slightly slack, as Rook responded to almost every one of her voiced concerns.

How long had he been listening? If it had been anyone else she may have lashed out, but this was Rook, her baby brother Rook, and she loved him just as much as anyone else had, if not more. Her jaded views may have included him, but they were not directed at him.

Just as she had had the opportunity to speak freely, so she allowed the same for him, her only movement to edge towards her younger sibling as he spoke and the numbness which had initially held her tongue faded away. As he spoke, her slack expression melted into a wryness, a smile of regret that Rook felt beholden to tell her these things, that all this weight had come to his shoulders. He was right, he had been too young - and was too young still, by all accounts. It wasn't fair that he'd been burdened with it all when there were other eager and willing shoulders ready to take it, and as he touched on their father's last moments, how he had asked for her, had seen her in Rook, her heart was constricted anew. Her ears flickered back as she heard it, all too able to imagine Rook's pain, knowing what it felt like to be looked through to another sibling behind. For all her resentment, she had never wanted any of the others to endure that feeling.

"I should have been here," she whispered, and closed the gap between them, wrapping her neck over his and laying her chin between his shoulder blades, pressing into him with eyes tight shut, torn a hundred ways but none of it mattered when her brother was in pain. "I'm so sorry." You shouldn't have left, she might have said, but it would have been cruel, and Rook may have heard her say it already. No matter his failings, his shortcomings, Rook was precious and a sensitive heart, and Trisden's own broke when it imagined him struggling with it alone, trying to be everything their father wanted him to be while caring for an old, ailing, dying wolf. Either one of those expectations were gargantuan in isolation, let alone combined.

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity