[open] And they lived happily ever after, The End. / Lepis /

[elio]

elio

some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight
and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light

To say that Elio remembers his father fondly would not exactly be a lie.

There are tiny, minuscule glimpses into his childhood just rose-colored enough for him to feel a clenching in his chest when the time comes for him to die. A mourning, perhaps. Elio mourns the father Wolfbane once was and the father he never had--the father he never will have and the father his own experiences want HIM to become.

But there is terrible anger. Anger like the depths of an ocean, perpetual and so, so cold. He feels justified and certain, convinced he can tread water in a winter sea as long as the tide is not strong enough to pull him out--but he miscalculates the moon. Her silver palm scoops him and plops him down in the middle of open water, surrounded by lapping waves and indiscernible darkness.

The anger, slick as water and just as wet, overwhelms him--as it always has.

There is carnage everywhere, and Elio cannot confidently say that he understands what is happening. It has been a quiet, lonesome few months for him, but a certain tugging in his chest pulled him all the way back to the hot winds of Loess. Perhaps a dip in a hot spring or glimpse of a colorful cactus is what called him and he never could have imagined what he wings into.

It's the flash of red and gold and navy between plumes of smoke that draws his attention. He swings his wings upward, backlegs pedaling as they fly forward. Elio's heart races with the realization.

Was this all Wolfbane's doing?

Before he can fully think, Lio is tucking his wings to his side and diving toward the earth, just barely making out glimpses of his mother and his siblings. His landing is far enough outside the skirmish for him to be away from the carnage, but not so far that he doesn't choke on the surrounding smoke. Water pools in his eyes as he desperately scans through the twisting gray and black, every hesitant step feeling futile.

When he finds them, circled around his dying father, Elio's lips fall into a hard line. He doesn't say a word, coughing on smoke and the split in his mind. Unsure if his family will notice him, Lio takes a step back, feeling all the anger and sorrow he forced himself to control at a young age welling as tears in his eyes.

This is it.

The end.

Why does it have to hurt so?

elio just popping in. he's not really doing anything other than crying lmao