the dead are gone
She’s not entirely sure what to do with herself anymore.
Sometime after being knocked out during the battle, Lexa had woken up in the Jungle with a carbon shell at her side. She’d been frozen at first. Numb. She’d lost everything. Her mother and sister, gone.
After some time, she’d finally worked up the courage to dismantle the shell - her sister deserved a proper burial - and had discovered the truth. Larken was alive, somehow. Alive, but very much changed.
Her little grullo sister had turned pitch black, with a vibrant silver mane and tail. And the moment the carbon fell away, the sky had begun to storm overhead. Clearly a magician (likely Larken’s ‘other mother’) had been up to a few tricks.
But it’s easier to recover someone who’s throat has been ripped out, than someone who’s been burned to ash. Larken may have been brought back to life, but Lyris is gone. And Lexa knows that there’s no way to bring her back.
She’s kept to herself since the battle, except for her interactions with the somehow still ridiculous Larken (how had the girl not learned from dying?!). She’s embarrassed, horrified with her loss of control. She’s lucky Lagertha had knocked her out. She could have done so much damage.
But she can’t hide forever. The Jungle needs her, her queen needs her, her sister needs her. As much as she’s still hurting, she can’t allow herself to disappear into the remote reaches of the Jungle to grieve.
Steeling herself, she returns to the Jungle’s central clearing, and settles in to the shadow of an old Kapok tree. Maybe she’ll run into Lagertha, or Draconis … or maybe someone new.
and the living are hungry.
lexa.