This Endless Battle

Orin Takekuro · 12-30-2011, 02:13 PM

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Word Count :: 700+

She laughed softly at the thought of their children being born on the same day. Wouldn’t that be a hilarious twist of fate? The women’s lives had already paralleled each other enough as it was. Maybe it was mother nature’s strange way of letting them know that they were always meant to be connected?

At Sky’s ok, Orin’s palm pressed gently on her lower belly. They were growing fast and strong – well, for all Orin knew they were – and after a long moment she finally felt a little twitch. She gasped and grinned, her eyes turning to Sky looking as though she had just witnessed a miracle.

“He didn’t even tell you where he was going?” Her hand dropped and the light in her face faded. “Why would he do that to you?” Sure, Orin should say something comforting right now, but she was notorious for saying the first thing that came to mind.

A darkness was reflected in Orin’s eyes as her thoughts turned to Liam. The last crumb of her smile faded as she cast her eyes away for a moment, thinking solemnly about him. That monster was still out there… somewhere… “I don’t understand why he was allowed to live. Skye… I trust her completely, but that doesn’t mean I don’t disagree with her. It makes me wonder… would she have let Argul go if he had been caught?” She shook her head slowly. “I shouldn’t think about such things. I’m sure she wouldn’t have… and there’s no reason to dwell on what if’s that never were.” Her shake turned into a slow nod. It didn’t matter, Skye was not the leader when that happened and there was no reason to poison her view of her Capitana now. Each crime was an offense all its own, and Skye had her reasons for everything.

“It’s not even the same, anyway. Argul wasn’t related to anyone in the pack. I’m sure when Skye ordered Shawchert off it was only to spare Taliesin...” An image… Taliesin appealing for a murderer’s life. Anger stewed in her gut. But then… if it had been Juliet or Titania, wouldn’t she have done the same? …the difference was it never would have been Juliet or Titania. Her daughters would never do something so cruel.

Despite the conclusion many would draw from the incident, perhaps Skye Collins had not been remiss in her duties as an alpha that day? Yes, she chose to let a murderer go free, and on the surface anyone would be appalled by that decision. But deep down, she had let Liam walk because Taliesin needed it. Remembering Taliesin’s desperate, mournful eyes that day… if his son was killed, he would have shattered. A father losing not one but two children; one executed as a criminal. No one wanted to remember their child like that. If Liam lived, at least Taliesin could cling to the hope that one day the damaged boy would repent. Letting Liam go was Skye’s way of saving Taliesin, and preserving her pack. What other alpha would have the strength to do that?

She had to stop thinking like this. Sky spoke of justice and she clung to every word. If the Rhiannon wife could be so hopeful, couldn’t she? “No, we can’t let one scar bring us down. And with as many as we’re collecting, d’Arte will be the toughest pack out there in no time. A force to be reckoned with...” Her eyes returned to the uneven gaze of her pack mate and she felt in that moment why they were together, as pack. They brought strength to each other in a world that would otherwise tear them down.

She was silent for a moment, letting the last of it roll off her shoulders. A subject change was in order, but she wasn’t sure how to approach it. She took a couple steps away from Sky and leaned up against the house, her hands poking out from beneath her pink cloak so her fingers could wring and play with each other. The fur, normally stark white, on her fingers had various stains on them. Forest green, lavender, indigo… She had been making pigment again, and despite her best efforts to keep clean some wayward dye had stained her fur.

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