and we don’t need saving

We’re hell raising

The snow covered the ground long before Ygritte had decided to the leave the Brook again. The softness in the ground would've confused her if she didn't know where to go. Having traveled this path many times recently, Ygritte knew how to get to the Hidden Grotto without getting lost and today was different. Her push was full of herbs nd trinkets that she could offer to Maua. Her nightmares came and went, death evident in them still and the stench followed her in the real world but it wouldn't stop the blind seeres as she moved through the territories and found herself a spot to begin setting up for her prayer.

@Cerberus

code by corvus / image by kim

"Somehow, I thought that I might find you here." The low, smooth tones of Cerberus's voice reverberated within the peaceful space of the cavern a few moments before the man himself slid into the dim glow of the fireflies. He is not entirely certain of what brought him here once more - it simply holds a magnetic pull, the air heavy and yet soothing at the same time. It's a sacred place, even if the hound has not come to embrace Maua the same way that the sapphire seeress has. Its significance is different. The first place where he'd found his sister in a time of peace, the place where her children had been brought into this world, and - the first place where @Ygritte had called him 'friend.' That last event, in particular, is one that still winds a tangle of emotion around his heart, but...it's a wonderfully pleasant memory, no less treasured than the others.

So perhaps it really is no surprise then, that his paws should take him back here, in the aftermath of the tragedy, in the midst of the visions that plague his sleep. It's comforting. And Ygritte...? Her presence is the most soothing balm of all. With steps that fell just loudly enough for her to hear, the hound would draw up alongside the seeress, settling himself down near her. "Do you hope to find answers here?" Answers to anything and everything amidst the turmoil that they now seem to live in...the same answers he searches for, perhaps? His lavender gaze watched her curiously as she busied herself with preparations, his head tilted ever so slightly.

SENTINEL

and we don’t need saving

We’re hell raising

Laying out everything that she had brought, Ygritte had began to pray beneath her breath but it didn't last long as his voice rang in her ears. Why hadn't she noticed him before now? Perhaps her mind had been foggy with her own thoughts and she hadn't noticed but regardless, his presence brought a warm smile against her features as a sweet chuckle escaped her throat. Surely you're not all to surprised. A tease in her voice was easy enough for him to understand her words.

He came closer and she could feel the warmth radiating from his body. Though her own Pelt was thick, she had worn another from her den for extra warmth and @Cerberus only added to it. There are many answers I seek. She would admit as her paws glided over rocks, shells and feathers. Perhaps you would like to pray with me? You don't have to of course.

code by corvus / image by kim

Her words draw out a hint of the beast’s amused smirk, the soft exhale of a chuckle. “Perhaps not.” Their presence here, together once more, is simply one of those things that was somehow meant to be. A blessed comfort, that despite everything else, at least there was still this. Him and her and this foreign thread of blooming warmth that stretched between them. His salvaged purpose haven taken a shape that looked suspiciously like the seeress's silhouette. Knowing this…can be enough for him to keep carrying on in his battle torn shell.

For there are many questions in the world, and seemingly never enough answers. All veiled from sight, to @Ygritte and him both. A low, understanding hum rumbles through his throat at her answer, before a single dark eyebrow raises in true surprise. “To Maua?” It’s a rhetorical question, really – who else would Ygritte pray to? Surely not the other being, cobbled together from shadows and mist. It is simply that, as fascinated as he is by superstitions and folklore, Cerberus has never considered himself a particularly religious man. But when it’s she who asks…

“I suppose it cannot cause further harm.” He is not too proud to not pray for the safety of his sister’s soul, after all. For the safety of all his wayward kin. “Though I admit that I am still not entirely familiar with your customs here.” He murmurs with a hint of question, lavender gaze flicking intently over the collection of trinkets at her delicate paws.

SENTINEL

and we don’t need saving

We’re hell raising

His chuckle is a song to her ears. One only she can hear as he speaks his words and stays near her. With her trinkets scattered in front of them, Ygritte is pleased to know he doesn't flinch from her question, not that she'd see it anyways. Though she chuckled at his rhetorical question and gave him a small warm smile.

"Of course." She had seen the other God. The one who claimed Amaryllis for his own and had seen death and destruction behind him. She would not pray to him. She would not beg or plead for him to stop his destruction that he clearly wants. No it was Maua who she looked for.

His words brings another smile to her features as he decides to join her. "It's okay. All it requires is for you to speak what your heart desires." She would explain. Surely there was something he wanted to ask of Maua. There were many things Ygritte would pray for. Closing her foggy eyes, she would tick her chin in lightly. "Maua, I come to you today and ask for your guidance. There are many things going on in your land and I wish to help." She would begin, "I ask you give me the courage to also do the things my own heart wishes for. "

@Cerberus

code by corvus / image by kim

Yes, he rather doubts that anyone who could possess a smile as kind and warm as Ygritte’s could ever dare to bow their heads before the force of chaos and death that he still caught hints of in his hallucinations, in the darkest depths of his exhausted sleep. Though the hound cannot honestly say that he doesn’t find Maua’s reputation to be too good to be true…he understands the appeal. If such compassion truly can exist, then it seems fitting that Maua should be the sapphire seeress’s patron.

And as for the other? It would take an entirely different personality to welcome that beast from the mist. But perhaps, there does lie the darkly alluring idea, one that even he is not entirely immune to, that one might be able to make a deal with the devil. But who could deny that that would be a dangerous game?

Certainly not as secure as Ygritte makes this feel, though for a hound of ice and fire, even these simple instructions seem…daunting. For his heart’s desires have always been his and his alone, a dreadfully vulnerable part of himself that he dare never reveal to the cruel claws of the world. But he cannot deny that Ygritte has already seen him at his worst, had found him when he was shattered and bloodied nearly beyond recognition. “As you say.” Perhaps his expectations of Maua are unsteady at best, but…he can trust the seeress’s presence at his side. He’d be long dead if he could not.

Respectfully, the hound allows her to speak her mind (her heart) first, a hint of warmth surfacing in the faint quirk of his lips that her continued selflessness provokes. Though the silence that follows feels expectant, a dark-rimmed ear twitching as he carefully wets his lips. Hesitant. Then a deep sigh, as he mirrors her posture. “Very well, Maua…” His voice comes out in the softest of whispers. “I fear you must forgive me for my selfishness – for I pray now to ask that you might watch over my sister’s soul while I cannot, and guide her to an elysium most befitting of her.” What else could she deserve? “Grant me the strength to protect those who still remain within my heart. And curve the winds so that those who are lost might return to me.”

Could Maua know that the woman beside him now was one such soul he desired little more than to keep safe? He can only hope so.

SENTINEL

and we don’t need saving

We’re hell raising

Silence falls between them and Ygritte allows it. Seeking the silence that was gifted for a moment as she listened to the area surrounding them and the eerie feeling that came with it. However, Ygritte did not feel that this eerie feelings that crawled along her skin was a bad thing but instead a good thing and found herself letting out a sigh and relaxing beside the hounds side as he wold begin to speak.

As Cerberus spoke his own prayer, seeking out Maua to guide his sister's soul to an afterlife that was befitting of her - causing the merle lioness to smile in her silence and listen contently next to him. She had never met this sister of his but surely she had been a good woman for Cerberus to be so devoted to her. It caused Ygritte to wonder if he would ever be devoted to her if - or when - she confessed her feelings to him. The feelings that ever grew stronger with each time she was around him. But fear was a constant feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Silence once more fell between them and Ygritte opened up her foggy jewels and bent her nose down towards her trinkets. She found her feather and would blow it into any direction and didn't care if it went far or didn't go very far at all. It was gift for Maua or anyone of the afterlife. The rock did not get touched but she brushed over the shell and thought about what she wanted to do with it. And when she couldn't think of anything she would leave it where it was.

I wish I could've met your sister. She must've been something special to have such devotion from you. She would state so bluntly to him. Perhaps if she knew the emotion she was feeling - the jealousy - Ygritte would've hit it much better than just speaking out her words.

code by corvus / image by kim

There are no dramatic happenings that follow the trailing sounds of his words. No flashes of light, or trembling earth, or shrubs suddenly set alight in flame. If he’d truly though to expect anything of the sort, he no doubt would have found this underwhelming. But instead, he supposes it’s something of a relief, really, that revealing these core parts of himself had not shaken the world enough to crumble upon his head.

The waterfall still roars outside as usual, the fireflies still dance – and @Ygritte still remains a gentle presence at his side, always listening but never judging. It seems strange. But…the normality of it does lighten some of the gloom that weighs his shoulders, if only the slightest bit, easing with the release of another deep exhale.

The slight shifting of the seeress at his side beckons him to open his eyes, though he wasn’t aware of when he’d let them slide shut amidst the peace of the cavern. His sharp features angled towards her, gaze tracking her movements as she set her feather free to fate’s currents. On a whim, he would offer a puff of breath of his own to aid it’s mysterious journey as it fluttered past, its soft edges fluttering ever so slightly in the ‘breeze.’ “A lovely gesture.” His hushed voice breaks the gentle silence once more, in gentle appreciation. How different this is, from the bloody offerings that they had dealt in. “What fate awaits your other treasures?”

She speaks then, and her words bring Cerberus’s breath to stutter in his throat. He has been hesitant to speak of her aloud, ever since…“You could say that. There exist few spirits who are as…free, as hers was.” And wasn’t that the cruelest part of it all? That someone who’d loved life as much as Aidoneus had was destined to have it cut short. “She’ would have liked to meet you as well, I think.” They were not so dissimilar.. Ygritte too, was one of the most unique women he might ever come to know. How else could she have carved out a place so near the hound’s heart so easily, otherwise?

The silence settles again, further words captured upon the tip of his tongue in another bout of hesitation, before he finally gives in with a sigh. “She was the first to break herself free from the wretched place that we were meant to call a home. I…There were times that I thought I hated her for it.” Absence marking her as the easiest scapegoat for all the cruelties they’d inflicted upon them. The non-choices they were all forced to make, until finally the gilded chains had chafed against his skin too much. “But when I journeyed here…I simply wished that I could’ve been a better brother to her. As I was intended to be.” If any are to hear these secret regrets of his, it’s fitting that it should be Ygritte.

SENTINEL

and we don’t need saving

We’re hell raising

The ear closest to Cerberus twisted on her head as she heard the soft huff of his breath and she could only assume that it had been for her feature as it drifted away from her. A smile formed on her features at the gesture of helping her feather move further into the Hidden Grotto and to wherever it would eventually end up at. His question about her other treasures causes for Ygritte to brush the pad of her paw over them once The shell will be returned to the ocean where it belongs, and the rock.. I'm not sure yet. It was only fitting that the shell be returned to its 'home' but the rock? The rock could've come from anywhere so perhaps she would keep it.

He spoke of his sister again. Of her free spirit compared to others and how she would've liked to have met Ygritte. All over again a smile formed on her features and Ygritte chuckled softly, Perhaps one day I can meet her. If her spirit doesn't leave Amaryllis, maybe one day I can learn how to summon her. She would state, though now that she had mentioned it Ygritte wasn't sure it had been the right thing to say to @Cerberus who was still healing from it emotionally. But Ygritte felt like he deserved to know that there was a chance for him to see his sister again.

He began to speak again. He mentioned cruelties and how she had broken free of them and even though curiosity dug itself deep in her mind, Ygritte wouldn't ask what kind of cruelties he had to endure where his sister did not but instead focused on other things. You were a good brother to her, Cerberus. No one is perfect. Ygritte could count for that. She barely knew her own siblings as it was.

code by corvus / image by kim

“The moon will appreciate your gift for its tides as well.” He murmurs with a hum, head dipping in a nod of approval, though he knew she could not see it. “It would be nice, to see the ocean again.” How long has it been, since he’s laid eyes upon the vast, blue space so central to the Peithos’ storied history. Not since that day where it seemed that all had been lost to him, he remembers that much. If Ygritte doesn’t mind company on the way to that other sacred place, he certainly wouldn’t mind the journey. The rock at her paws, however, seems to be a conundrum all its own. “Perhaps it should simply be offered to the earth then? Buried in a place that only we shall know.”

It is difficult to describe the web of emotions that threaten to strangle Cerberus’s throat when @Ygritte speaks of this most miraculous use of her gift. Is he even breathing anymore? He cannot be bothered to keep track of it, if he is. “Is such a thing truly possible? That…you could ask her to – to speak with me once more?” When he wanders through the underworld’s gray dreamscapes at night, it is always one of the few things on his mind. That if he could just find her there…he could have that one last conversation with her. Gain some semblance of the closure that had been so violently ripped away.

For he has much to apologize to her for, even if Ygritte seems to disagree. Another chuckle spills past his lips, though this one is harsh, a mere mockery of the mirth that such a sound should hold. “Perhaps. But I could’ve been better still, had I not allowed myself to remain blinded for so long.” How much time had he wasted, playing guard dog to the cult's whims? Stubbornly turning his nose away from the path he knew his heart desired, simply because he’d been told that that was how it should be. It’s all so terribly…pathetic. “I don’t intend to make the same mistakes again.” He rumbles firmly, his gaze flicking intently back to her clouded eyes. “My promises shall be kept.” And he’d promised that he would remain to keep the precious seeress safe as well, had he not? He can only hope that she can believe him, despite the evidence of his previous failures lining his pelt.

SENTINEL