The moment they had disappeared, fear had seized her throat. She had taken to the skies, though she had known even then it would be useless. They had not stayed in Taiga. Only a fool would have, and whatever else she might believe of the pair that had stolen her son, she knows they had not been fools.
The only thing that had kept her from flying farther, from trying to find them immediately, had been the bone-deep need to protect her other children. (As though she could if they decided to return for the rest of them. It’s silly to believe she could do anything against magic, but she would try. She would always try.)
When she had returned, she had gathered her other children. Had led them, despite their disgruntled protests, to the deeper, darker parts of the woods. Most would find these reaches eerily dangerous, but she knows they would be safe here. And she knows regret, because she should have done it sooner. Should have been prepared, somehow (even if it had been impossible to know something like this would happen).
Leaving her children now is harder than it ever has been before, but a wild keening claws at her breast. Lumi and Ellie and Bravely and Saffron are safe here. Bolder, though… her imagination conjures the worst sort of images, and she knows she will not be able to rest until she finds him and brings him home.
As she draws near the sheltered glen they normally call home, Noel looks north, heart splintering inside her chest. She should go to Nash first. She should, but he is far to the North, hours in the opposite direction. Her eyes prick with tears, but she locks the sobs deep inside her chest, refusing to allow them to surface lest she begin second guessing her choices.
When she hears her name shatter the darkness of early morning however, everything she had been shoving down as deeply as she could suddenly surges forward, battering the dam she had built. She would recognize his voice anywhere, even when he bellows in a way he never has before. She doesn’t hesitate (doesn’t even question her sudden desire to throw herself into his steady embrace).
There is a wildness in her dark eyes, written across her pale features as she all but crashes into him. But Noel can’t even allow herself the comfort of his familiar warmth. Everything she’d been suppressing for hours comes tumbling from her lips. “Nash, they took him.” Her voice is unsteady, desperate even in her own ears. “They took Bolder.” Abruptly she closes her eyes, forcing herself to take several deep, steadying breaths. Forcing herself to shove everything back down before hysteria could claim her. When she speaks again, her voice is calmer, though it still trembles. “Gale and Mazikeen. Bolder said he knew them.” When she opens her eyes to look at him again, there is a desperate sort of pleading in her gaze. An ache in her voice. “Why would they do that if they know him?”
- noel
@Nashua