11-04-2018, 09:24 PM
Oh. Oh god. Kali had clung to her Khari’s side from the moment they got back, tighter and tighter the more they learned. How their tiny little week had been so much longer for Kylie, long enough for her to grow up and have babies. How Mommy and Reilly and Baddie were missing, no sign of them in just as long.
And then ohgod the scary sound in her head of somebody who was VERY not Khari calling-yelling-pulling-demanding she obey and come to Pangea and kill. Her Khari had had to hold her down to keep her from answering the way it sank claws into her head and pulled and tugged and made her limbs want to follow. He’d helped drag her free of it, but she’d been in so deep she’d still caught flashes of the bloodshed and she’d started shaking all over again, lost in panic as it melded with memories of Taiga on fire and flooding and the screams, god, the screams.
He held her back until she stopped fighting and burrowed against his side again, and then he just held her as the world shook and rearranged itself and new lands took shape, as more voices flooded her mind telling her home wasn’t safe anymore. She’d shrunk down and climbed into his hair and started crying clinging to him and shaking and burying her face in his mane.
She hadn’t spoken again since, had barely left the safety of his mane. The whole trip to a strange new island that rose up out of the sea, she’d held tight with tiny monkey hands and feet, trusting him to do his best to keep her safe. Even if safe didn’t feel very possible anymore. He’d held onto her the whole while since, even managed to coax her into a very reluctant shift back to her horse shape and let her curl up against him and hide her face in a way that was becoming all too familiar.
She clung just as tight when he snuggled her and brushed his lips over her forehead and told her he was getting up so Mom could come snuggle her and love her too, didn’t want to let him go, so scared he’d get old without her too while he was gone. Don’t go far? she begged, wide brown eyes tearing up as she looked up at him. Or what if he got caught up in magic time again and she had to grow up all alone without him too just like Kylie! Oh, her poor Kylie, she must have been so, so lonely!
She curled up and clung to Mommy the second Mommy was close, nuzzling into her side and hiding her face again so she didn’t have to see the place that wasn’t home, the way the colors were wrong and the beach was wrong and the whole island was wrong and not theirs. Mommy kissed her neck, and that helped a little, eased something inside her that had been so, so scared ever since Taiga, and even more scared since she found out Mommy was missing.
Kali gasped in a shaky breath as Mommy kept talking, about how everything went awry and how confusing it all was. She nodded and wiped sneaky tears on Mommy’s shoulder. It was so, so hard and scary and confusing and Kali didn’t understand any of it, not how any of it could happen.
It helped, though. That Mommy was here and safe and still herself. Still smelled like herself, still sounded like her, the way she blended gentleness with sass and stubbornness and love all in her voice at once. Kali nodded again, catching a few quick breaths as she fought a losing battle against more tears. The gentle murmur of Mommy’s voice was just enough to push her over the edge, and she nodded again and sobbed quietly against Mommy’s shoulder. They’d find a way through it. But to what?
And then ohgod the scary sound in her head of somebody who was VERY not Khari calling-yelling-pulling-demanding she obey and come to Pangea and kill. Her Khari had had to hold her down to keep her from answering the way it sank claws into her head and pulled and tugged and made her limbs want to follow. He’d helped drag her free of it, but she’d been in so deep she’d still caught flashes of the bloodshed and she’d started shaking all over again, lost in panic as it melded with memories of Taiga on fire and flooding and the screams, god, the screams.
He held her back until she stopped fighting and burrowed against his side again, and then he just held her as the world shook and rearranged itself and new lands took shape, as more voices flooded her mind telling her home wasn’t safe anymore. She’d shrunk down and climbed into his hair and started crying clinging to him and shaking and burying her face in his mane.
She hadn’t spoken again since, had barely left the safety of his mane. The whole trip to a strange new island that rose up out of the sea, she’d held tight with tiny monkey hands and feet, trusting him to do his best to keep her safe. Even if safe didn’t feel very possible anymore. He’d held onto her the whole while since, even managed to coax her into a very reluctant shift back to her horse shape and let her curl up against him and hide her face in a way that was becoming all too familiar.
She clung just as tight when he snuggled her and brushed his lips over her forehead and told her he was getting up so Mom could come snuggle her and love her too, didn’t want to let him go, so scared he’d get old without her too while he was gone. Don’t go far? she begged, wide brown eyes tearing up as she looked up at him. Or what if he got caught up in magic time again and she had to grow up all alone without him too just like Kylie! Oh, her poor Kylie, she must have been so, so lonely!
She curled up and clung to Mommy the second Mommy was close, nuzzling into her side and hiding her face again so she didn’t have to see the place that wasn’t home, the way the colors were wrong and the beach was wrong and the whole island was wrong and not theirs. Mommy kissed her neck, and that helped a little, eased something inside her that had been so, so scared ever since Taiga, and even more scared since she found out Mommy was missing.
Kali gasped in a shaky breath as Mommy kept talking, about how everything went awry and how confusing it all was. She nodded and wiped sneaky tears on Mommy’s shoulder. It was so, so hard and scary and confusing and Kali didn’t understand any of it, not how any of it could happen.
It helped, though. That Mommy was here and safe and still herself. Still smelled like herself, still sounded like her, the way she blended gentleness with sass and stubbornness and love all in her voice at once. Kali nodded again, catching a few quick breaths as she fought a losing battle against more tears. The gentle murmur of Mommy’s voice was just enough to push her over the edge, and she nodded again and sobbed quietly against Mommy’s shoulder. They’d find a way through it. But to what?