[ P ] Highs and Lows

Anthe's mind was reeling, a haphazard mix of fury at the warring monarchies and debilitating sadness that her sister was now caught up in all of this. She had hurried away from Gwydion and Orlaith's cell, red eyes flickering from strange face to strange face until... Willow... She felt her heart lurch as her gaze fell to an all too familiar form. "Sister! Oh, Willow..." she practically breathed as she rushed to the cell bars, all but slamming her body into them in her fervor to reach her littermate. "Are you hurt? I wish I had known you were going to the protests... None of us knew where you'd gone, where you've been, what you've been doing... I missed you. I can't lose you to their war... I WON'T lose you again."

Tears streamed unbidden down her cheeks as she pressed her head to the bars. She wished for nothing more than the strength to rip them from the very walls. The constant aching in her joints was now nothing in comparison to the sharp ache in her heart. She knew why Willow hadn't told her... because Anthe never would have let her sister go alone. But some small part of her couldn't help but wonder, would she have been able to help her friends, her sister if she HAD been there too? Or would she just have been another casualty of war?

W

Willow has never expected to find herself locked up, imprisoned. No choices. Just darkness. And was smelly — the unpleasant stench of fresh blood, courtesy of the protests, mixed with mold and… well, waste. It was meant to be a punishment. And they were doing a pretty good job and enforcing their rule. All hope felt far away.

A familiar voice, feminine and hushed, caught Willow’s attention from the far end of the underground prison. It sounded like — no, but it couldn’t be Anthe, she wouldn’t be here, especially now. The girl wrote off the sound as a cruel figment of her imagination.

But then she appeared, like a magical being in the blackness of the dungeon. Willow stared in disbelief. ”Anthe! What are you doing here?”

Her darker-furred sister had been sickly for as long as Willow could remember. Their adventures together has been sadly limited due to Anthe’s illness. ”You shouldn’t be here, Anthe.” She held back her emotions — barely.

”Do Mama and Mum know that I’m here? I didn’t — I didn’t want them to know I was coming here.” Whatever the response, Willow was nervous, and an anxious whine sounded from within the dark dungeon cell. ”And I didn’t want you to try to follow!” Her voice was becoming more frantic, earning a stern look from a guard near the entrance on the jail.

But the guilt of having left for months without a word — and now this? Anthe had every right to be upset, and Willow’s head bowed, unable to maintain eye contact because of her shame. ” I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would turn out this way. But I saw a big soldier biting a lady — on her neck,” she seethed.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

Willow's apparent shock at seeing Anthe there mirrored her own when Gwydion had told her the news... She listened as her sister spoke, growing more and more frantic and anxious, and Anthe wanted more desperately than ever to be able to wrap her sister up in an embrace, as Willow had done so many times when she herself was too sick to leave the den. Fresh tears pricked at her eyes, and her throat felt like it was full of fur... "I came because I heard talk that Gwydion and Orlaith were here... he told me I'd find you her too, and I just... I had to see for myself," Anthe explained, her ears angling back anxiously.

"I'm not sure if mama or mum know you're here - they don't even know where I've run off to... And don't you dare apologize for doing what you felt was right. These Royalists expect us to roll over and fight their war, to die for their golden crown- but I say piss on that," she hissed under her breath, feeling her fur rise out along her back again in frustration. "I'm going to find a way... any way... to get you out of her. I told Gwydion the same. If our parents can't help, then dammit I'll find my own way... I promise, Will."

S

eeing Anthe become so intense, feeling her rage and her sorrow so deeply, made Willow all the more anxious. What if her sister was still sick? She had come all this way… but not because news of Willow’s arrest had spread, perhaps. Anthe spoke of their mothers and Willow’s ears pinned back against her skull with anxiety and shame. Her eyes cast downward, ”I almost don’t want them to know that I’m here,” she said quietly with a soft whine. Willow did not know Kylar was already well aware of the protest, and of Willow’s role in it, in addition to her sentence and alleged crimes.


A guard near the entrance of the dungeon was beginning to look suspiciously down the hall of prisoners, his glaring gaze falling upon Anthe. Willow spoke quieter still, barely a whisper under her breath: ”I don’t want you to get in trouble, too. It’s – being here is not good for you. Or for any of us,” she muttered, eyes narrowing in disdain. The chatter and discomfort of the dungeon was all around her. And did any of them really deserve to be there? Willow was not certain.


Green eyes focused upon her sister’s ruby sights. ”But you have to take care of yourself first, okay? Please. Then we – we can go on all sorts of adventures soon,” she suggested with a bittersweet smile. Adventures had always been more a dream than reality during their lives. Anthe had always been imprisoned by the symptoms of her illness, unable to travel. Now her sweet sister was well enough to be out… and Willow was the one imprisoned. Literally.


@”anthe”

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

Willow's face displayed her emotions, the good and the bad, as clearly as the text of their parents favorite tales. Anthe could practically feel her heart cracking in her chest at the pain and shame etched into her sisters familiar, and usually joyous features... Things had always been the opposite with them - Willow had always been the one comforting her when she was in too much pain to even leave her den, and now Anthe felt powerless to do the same for the sister who had been the only constant for her in their early lives, before Kylar and Nephele took them in. She fought down a whine and pressed her forehead to the bars of the cage, squeezing her eyes shut against tears that burned at her fiery gaze.

"I know... I know I shouldn't stay any longer... just, promise me you'll be okay. We'll see each other again so soon, okay? That's a promise," Anthe whispered, her voice harsh as it battled down the emotions swirling in her gut. She briefly reached through the bars, long enough to quickly brush her paw against Willow's, before shooting her a (probably barely) reassuring smile. Without another sound, Anthe turned on her heels and rushed out past the guards and into the open air... and only then did she allow her tears to fall, trailing quietly behind her as she picked up into a frantic run in the direction of home...

(EXIT)

S

eeing Anthe’s anguish caused Willow’s heart to feel even heavier within her chest, and she nearly sobbed at the gentle touch of her sister’s paw on her own. But she was relieved when Anthe agreed to go, though the thought of being alone again in there, without any family, threatened to overwhelm Willow’s every sense. ”Yes, Anthe, really soon. I believe it.”


The wolfess watched her sister disappear behind the guards, who watched Anthe as she fled the dungeon with amused grins that made Willow want to smack the expressions off of their dumb faces.

The sadness was, at least, momentarily replaced by a glimmer of anger – as well as a glimmer of hope. To think that Anthe was finally well enough to travel…! Willow had waited too long for just this, only to be stuck in a smelly cage. The notion of her sister finally being healthy, living the life she had long deserved, offered some semblance of comfort. She was also grateful that Anthe had not been in the Mainlands on the fateful day of the protest.


”It’s good that she was nowhere near,” Willow commented aloud without thinking. The sound of her own voice startled the woman in her otherwise silent cage.


[exit]

@Anthe

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck