Fool's Gold Chasm you saw through me, didn't you

Backdated to 5/12, taking place directly after Rhaegara's death thread. All welcome to any FGC wolves, with special mention to @Enera, @Marrah and @Adelard for relevance.

Everything was getting to be too much, and Woya was beginning to grow scared. Truly, down to her core, scared. She'd never been so large, so uncomfortable, so disabled. Everything about the pregnancy had been wretched enough on its own, but without water she found herself earnestly considering the possibility that she was hurtling toward death. She was both dreading and hoping for the birth, for the horrible thing to just happen and be done with or for her to at last be past it, her body her own again. If she could just see them into the world without having to lose her own life, they would be able to manage the rest with ease.

Her thoughts drifted to Rhaeagara as she lay cooped up within her own den, dug into the cool, dry earth and large enough just for herself and possibly another smaller frame. It would be her time soon, wouldn't it? Could come any day... and Woya wasn't going to be able to be there. Despite whatever it was that had crawled up the other woman's ass and gotten her so upset with the Macieo, the newly elected leader couldn't help her own care for the Rayvne. She'd wanted to go through all of this with her, not at odds with her. She sighed, and curled up more tightly into herself.

If only she could sleep away the rest of this sentence.

(This post was last modified: Jun 05, 2022, 04:21 AM by Woya.)

Let me know if I need to change anything involving other characters!

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

There was a terrible balance between grief and nothingness inside the newly orphaned yearling as she carried her sister, so small and still wet with their mother's blood, as much as Enera had tried to clean her, toward Woya's chosen den. She glanced behind to her check that Marrah was still behind her with Sovanya, the pair marching toward their leader with leaden feet.

It was the longest walk of Enera's life, each step away from her Mama's body a pang in her heart. She wanted to curl up around her and tell her stories until she started breathing again, wanted to never let go. But she had her sisters to look after now; she'd promised Mama. Even though they were the ones to take Mama away from her, Enera couldn't hate them. They were all she had left of Mama; her own flesh and blood. She would raise them the way Mama had raised her - except for one thing.

They finally reached Woya's den and the lead yearling gently placing her crying sister on the ground. She took a deep breath and softly called, "Woya? I... I need you. Mama-" she choked, unable to say the words. "Can you help them?" she said instead.

Enera could not nurse her sisters, but she hoped that Woya, their leader and her childhood fear, would.

I’m Done Putting Out The Fires You Start

Marrah had done as asked when Enera had requested her help in transporting the little murderers to her aunt. Her stomach still twisted and turned painfully, and when her jaws had found their way around Sovanya she had had to swallow bile down again. It felt like miles that they were traveling between dens, but it could not have been, the child in her mouth an immeasurable burden.

When they finally reached where her aunt lay, waiting for her own torture to begin anyday now Marrah watched Enera set the pup down. The yearling was intending to follow, gently, she really was. Something inside her suddenly snapped and she felt an overwhelming urge to squeeze her teeth together, end it all right now, take a life from one of the life takers. She knew that whatever had happened to Rhaegera was going to happen to Auntie Woya, and how was she supposed to sit around and let that occur?!

Her jaws tensed and the tiny child in her grasp squealed unhappily, bringing Marrah back to reality. She placed her down, hastily and probably a little roughly, and stumbled to the side. Amber eyes squeezed shut painfully, she couldn’t look at the scene in front of her. Could not be part of asking her beloved Aunt to nurse the demons that had taken a member of their pack in such a twisted and violent manner.

When The Cranberry Vodkas Hit A Little Too Hard

Much to her annoyance, Woya was painfully aware of the sounds that managed to funnel down the throat of the den into her ears. She was unable to tune any of it out, ruining her chances of finding peace in sleep. When she recognized the sound of paw steps, she sighed and lifted her head, resigned to the opportunity being lost.

Then she heard the soft mewling of newborn children, and she was jarred from all normalcy. The pieces fell into place violently as Enera's broken voice called out to her and one of the whelps cried out but no matter how loud and forceful they were she refused to believe such a horrific picture.

Can you help them? I need you. Mama.

Woya fought against the ungainliness of her bloated frame and crawled toward the entrance, the dirt pressing in around her body in a way that felt suffocating as panic strove to rise up within her.

"Where's Rhae? En, what happened to your mother?"

In the moment, she couldn't think what she was asking of the child. All Woya was capable of was blindly hoping that Enera would prove her assumptions wrong and that Rhaegara was still with them.

(This post was last modified: Jun 05, 2022, 04:30 AM by Woya.)

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

The short journey from one den to another had taken nearly all of Enera's energy. She was ready to collapse, but there was still so much to do. Once her sisters were settled there was mama...

There was a short squeal behind her and Enera turned just in time to see Marrah drop Sovanya to the rough ground. Her ears dropped back, but she was stopped snapping at her friend by Woya's voice as she wriggled out of her den to stand before them, asking questions impossible to answer.

But answer Enera must. She swallowed, her voice threatening to fail her again. "She- sh-she's..." Enera sniffed, fighting the desire to sob. She couldn't say it. The words wouldn't come. Her back legs finally gave out and she sat hard, head hanging. She took several rapid, deep breaths before she could glance up at Woya again. "C-can you take them? Please?" she asked weakly. "I don't... I don't know what else to do, I can't- they- without mama- she promised never to leave me!" she finally wailed. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair that mama was gone and left her to care for sisters she didn't know how to raise. They were going to do it together, tell them stories together, she wasn't supposed to be gone, Enera wasn't supposed to be alone!

I’m Done Putting Out The Fires You Start

The Maceio-Tainn teen did not see her friend prepare to snap at her, or how Woya struggled to pull herself from the den. Her eyes were practically glued shut, and as the expected questions came and Enera sobbed the darker wolf moaned. This all had to be a nightmare right? But, something was different inside her now, this was a definitive turning point in her life. There would always be before today and after today.

A deep, sickened, boiling rage had woken up inside of her.

Enera could not answer the question, but Marrah could. She whirled around, uncharacteristic hatred in her amber eyes and she let out a few hot quick breaths. Nostrils flared and she cried at a decibel that was too loud for polite conversation, ”They killed her! They’re the reason she’s dead!” It was all coming out now, the emotions she wanted to keep buried.

She couldn’t stop, ”They’re evil and if you take care of them they’re going to hurt you too!” By the end of her sentence the anger was gone and replaced with desperation. Auntie Woya needed to listen to her, needed to know and refuse what Enera was asking of her. She couldn’t lose her aunt to these killers.

When The Cranberry Vodkas Hit A Little Too Hard

The relief didn't come. Enera choked on her answer, indirectly confirming the true horror of the situation. The grief pooled like mercury down her throat and into her lungs and heart, slowly but steadily beginning to seep into every fiber of her being. She couldn't recognize it as such just yet, however; all she knew was a keen emotional pain that felt as though it were searing a hole through her chest. Before she could even attempt to process, the girls were falling apart before her.

Enera broke down as the loss pulled her under, while Marrah raged back against the drowning tide.

They killed her! she screamed, and her aunt gaped. She'd never seen her niece taken by emotion so violent before, but even worse were those words. Killed. Dead. Her own tears began to course down her thin face, and as the yearling pleaded she looked down upon the infants at their paws.

Above the earth, utterly defenseless and heartbreakingly oblivious as to why. It wasn't their fault, none of it was their fault. That was the only thing she knew.

Woya pulled them to her chest, tucking them beneath her jaw. They were colder than newborns should be, prompting her to hug them tighter. Eyes squeezed shut, she tried to breathe and gather herself. As much as she wanted to fall apart, she had to be an adult for the children in front of her...

(This post was last modified: Aug 07, 2022, 09:05 PM by Woya.)

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

Enera stared at Woya with wide, pleading eyes, struggling to stand firm in the face of the flood of grief trying to drag her into its depths. Soon. Soon she could go back to mama and let it consume her, but she had to regain control and make sure her sisters were going to be okay. Woya was her only hope, this Scary Lady that hadn't been Scary in so long, who Enera had grown to care for and trust as she'd aged, who-

Marrah's words met Enera's ears like a landslide, jarring through her in a violent cocophony that took the pale girl a moment to process. She'd never heard Marrah so angry never heard her so... so... she was blaming the girls, blaming these newborn orphans for something they weren't at fault for - or at least, Enera didn't blame them. They hadn't meant for their mother to die.

Her own grief churned Enera's insides and she too responded in way she wouldn't have several hours before. She spun on her sister-friend, putting herself between her newborn sisters and the raging girl. "No they didn't!" she screamed back, terrified that Woya would listen and choose to throw them out to protect herself. "They didn't mean for her to die! They can't hurt anyone!" She was breathing too fast, too heavy; the pale girl was beginning to grow dizzy, but she could believe Marrah would say... that she could think her sisters-

This is Marrah's exit

I’m Done Putting Out The Fires You Start

The yearling stared desperately at her Aunt, amber eyes pleading that she listen. For a moment as Woya gazed at the pups Marrah thought that she had gotten through, that she would cast them aside. Lurching forward she begged, ”No! Please!” And then Enera was standing in her way between herself and the demons who had happily began to suckle at her aunt’s breast.

The sight made her flinch away as if she had been physically struck across the muzzle. Stumbling backwards, Enera’s words whipped at her, lashing her until wounds stood open and festering. How could nobody else see what was happening? Her sister friend’s mother was already dead, why was she going to let them curse Auntie Woya too? Was this all because the older woman had scared her when they were little.

Shaking her head from side to side, the Maceio-Tainn girl moaned in misery. Her world was crumbling before her and nobody was even going to listen to her and they were letting it happen. Marrah let out a loud, gasping sob, before she turned and took off through the territory. She couldn’t watch.

When The Cranberry Vodkas Hit A Little Too Hard

Enera abhorred her friend's claims, and made it known. Their energy, the pain and panic and grief that surged with it, pressed in around Woya and threatened to overwhelm her completely. Her head began to spin, and she couldn't help but think that she desperately needed a drink. Then the sounds stopped, and Marrah was gone before she could gain any semblance of composure.

"... Lard," she croaked, voice muffled as she spoke into the twins' warming bodies.

"Please... get... @Adelard..."

It was all she could think to do, and certainly all she wanted in that moment. Woya needed her husband.

good to archive here or with your next post fly <3