The Light Before We Land

Lenora had agreed with her, but there was no relief that came with it...her mannerisms coaxed that forever festering sense of dread. A day of celebration in Aberdeen faded into the background while the rest of her world had swiftly plummeted into a nightmare turned real right before her eyes. It was a Hell that she somehow continued to find herself, words brandished into blades sliced into her, pinned her in order to offer no escape from reliving her own crucifixion.

Merrin recoiled beneath the impact of each strike, her eyes growing wide as tears spilled over, shock palpable in her expression. “Lenora, I...I-I wasn't well! I-...please, you have to understand...I...” Oh, but the elder woman had been here before with her eldest daughter...there was nary an explanation that would mend what had been done, what she had utterly failed to do.

The flowers, that before had been labeled as ‘cute’, were now an object of Lenora's ire and resentment. This left Merrin speechless, opening and closing her mouth, floundering for any way she could fix this broken heart made of her flesh and blood. The older woman deflated, flinching as she was struck her over and over. She had not attempted to reach out...she had not tried to travel back to her daughter...it was all, because fear kept her prison to the sea caves of Aberdeen. Those choices that she did or did not make, stripped the ugly truth and laid it out bare before her.

Merrin stepped forward, lifting a paw to reach for her daughter as the executioner's blade was raised. It dropped with foreign sound of her own first name on her daughter's tongue, removed entirely from the title of ‘mother'. Lenora turned from her, leaving her in a state of shock, frozen as she blinked back tears to see her child walking away. “Lenora!" She called out, knowing that it would do little to phase the soldier. She coughed lightly, her vocals strained already from yelling once. Without thinking further, she spurred her legs forward to try to catch up with her daughter. She crumbled in front of her at her feet as she sorrowfully shook her head crying, “Please, Lenora! Please, don't leave, not like this!" Merrin wasn't sure what else to say...she just knew that she could not fathom watching another child walk away from her and not do something...

@Lenora

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

Far too late, Merrin finally responded. After standing there like a gaping fish, stammering over words that ultimately didn't matter anymore, the frail woman chased after the soldier with tears glittering and falling from her eyes. She scrambled to stop Lenora, putting herself in front of her and essentially groveling at her white paws.

And she simply looked down at her in more ways than one.

“Please, Lenora! Please, don't leave, not like this!" It was now that her lip twitched; a sign of the annoyance that festered beneath the surface of her carefully crafted mask. The mask that had been sculpted by the hands of not just her own, but Rykers as well. She wore it with the grace of a trained warrior. This is what you wanted, she wanted to say. Did she expect anything else from a daughter of the Army?

Lenora looked down the length of her nose, but now she refused to meet her birth givers eyes. Her form was immaculate; standing strong with her head raised high and her tail level with her spine. While she stopped in an effort not to trample over the woman before her, she didn't cow or bend to help either.

"You've made your choices," she replied, monotonous. "It's time you accept the consequences. It shouldn't be hard to leave me again, right?" she paused for a moment, as if considering saying something else, but then her robotic movements took over. Stepping over Merrins smaller body - ironically careful not to actually step on her or cause harm - Lenora then ran, knowing she wouldn't be able to keep up. She ran harder and faster than she ever had before, letting the tears spill from her eyes and glisten down her cheeks while hoping they'd be dry by the time she got back home.

-- exit Lenora for realsies this time --

table by ferus, image by sylvirr, bg from unsplash

When Lenora looked down her nose, Merrin didn't recognize her...not anymore. It tore her apart to realize that she had just witnessed a once kind and gentle Argent, willingly shed that part of herself like an unwanted layer of filth in order to embody that which she surrounded herself with...Verlice. It was difficult for her not to cower at the drop of those harsh words, the weight of them akin to stones piled upon she who had sinned.

Merrin's eyes were glued to her, tears flowing despite her inability to form words, watching as the soldier stepped over her as if she were as insignificant as a mud puddle that might sully her clean paws. Lenora took off running and this time, she did not call out for her. There was no more that she could do without causing further harm.

What had started as a tender reunion between mother and daughter atop the rolling hills of the Highlands ended with the women parting ways as perfect strangers. Merrin simply lowered her aching body to the ground, trying to find comfort in the coolness of the earth. She curled into herself shivering lightly, resigned to laying where Lenora her left her, silent as the grave that she had become.

[Exit Merrin]

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven