Totes forgot about this :c want us to backdate this, oooor? Whatever works best for you!
THE MOON IS FULL AGAIN
Secrets lurked everywhere, in the darkness he had feared as a child. Today he was a man, though there were still times when he thought he saw the dark god move in the corner of a silver eye. He had accepted his sins, though, and had found satisfaction on the dark side. He had been born with Tak’s colours, so it should be natural for his morals to be… slightly twisted. He didn’t care too much about what others would think, but he knew his mother did not yet wish to make anything public. He wasn’t bothered. What mattered was that he was content, and their new relationship left him generally pleased. But it wasn’t Eris he had loved in a unique way his entire life.
His onyx pelt didn’t hold on to his mother’s scent. The lovers were careful not to leave too much of a trace of each other. Well, Pandemic didn’t worry as much as Eris did, but he followed her instructions and didn’t slack off. The home he shared with Salsola’s young leader was empty. Not even the lynx was here. It was tranquil and quiet for sure, but Pandemic did prefer the company of family, especially Salvia’s. But she was such a busy lady lately, and it frustrated him. As children, things had been smoother. Salvia’s brother wasn’t her first priority anymore, and it was a hard fact to swallow. He could blame the people who had sent him away, but what good would that do. The damage had already been done.
A quick peek outside their haven revealed a maturing evening, and with that the improved chance that Salvia would return home. His day had been relatively dull without a row of interesting incidents, and so today’s inactivity left him slightly restless and a bit frustrated. He didn’t know if his sibling could lift his spirits, but if her day hadn’t been too pleasant either, he could definitely try to lift hers.
The sun sank low into the horizon, bleeding orange over trees still standing despite the fury of the storm. Darkness came from under each of these and spread. Night came quickly in the old woods. It was cold for an October night. An owl hooted from deep in the forest and something larger, spooked, trampled through the underbrush and over ground still spongy from rain.
Shadow stirred in darker shadow. Salvia was not made for true night, and the ghostly specter of her hair proved such a thing. It was the pale, faded color of dead wheat and sun-bleached to white in various streaks. Yet her fur was timber-wolf in its truest nature, if only paler. Winter had come into her heart and sucked the very life out of what had once been a summer-hued body. What walked between the pines and over brackish water was a monstrous thing shaped out of war, winter, and the true mind of a killer. There was no madness in her, but there was no mercy or morality either.
It was a swift-footed, silent shape that loomed in the night and came to the back door. She was alone, but this was not uncommon. Abendrot would hunt until he was satisfied and slip in sometime in the deeper hours of the night. The coyote slave would be along shortly—she had been injured by the collapsing building and limped now, so Salvia allowed her more time to travel. Axi rarely dared to be out long past dark these days.
When Salvia entered she found her brother inside. He was nearly the spitting image of their father; only the lack of white on his chest and face and his quicksilver eyes were different. He smelled different too. Even if he was not involved with Eris (and Salvia suspected this, though in a vague, uncertain way) their mother’s scent would always be a part of them. She no longer knew what to think of the woman. She no longer knew what to think of this man who had once been her confidant, her companion, her everything.
Salvia’s world had changed and she with it. Mantis eyes regarded his form with a strange sense of envy, but she would never admit such a thing. Instead the Tigress merely watched him. She was acutely aware of their solitude; TaeKyung had been swept up in the storm somehow and the coyote was not yet back.
Her entrance wasn’t softened by a greeting, though he supposed he could make it his job. He was careful not to assume anything anymore. Black, wolfish ears swiveled to lean back toward his slicked hair, though was the only possible sign of his slight hesitation. ”Welcome home.” TK didn’t accompany her today either, and he knew he preferred her absence. Although the slave seemed to be Salvia’s trustworthy ally, Pandemic had never quite warmed up to the slave. TaeKyung’s status didn’t require such, but he knew he didn’t feel completely comfortable when she was around. He’d never spoken of this to his sister though, for it seemed to be clear that she did prefer having the black lady there.
The corners of his black lips curled slightly, careful yet genuine. The slight size she lacked was made up by brainpower and personality. He had never been fond of their uncle as she had. His pride had been magnificent to behold when she stepped up as Boss. He knew he didn’t have such greatness in him, and was content with being a mere supportive brick in her game. Yet, he did wish things hadn’t changed between them. It was as with the other siblings, and the dark man pondered if it was his forced absence that had crippled their relationship. Or, if it was something else. Although he should have been able to, he could not guess the reason.
There was something fundamentally wrong with her, she sometimes thought. The way she functioned was on a level so beyond what she saw in other people that had thus convinced her of her superiority. Sirius had known something of it—but what blackness lived in him was corrupted by frivolity as desire and avarice. Salvia did not yearn for things, and whet her hunger when it rose. She was well fed and untouched by all things. She would carry on when others fell to the winds and rains.
So while he looked to her as he always had, she felt a peculiar distance there that had not been. Once he had been her world—she had kept him in her eyes. Misery had taught her how to do such a thing. Salvia had never tried to capture him as she captured the wills of other, lesser beasts, and now wondered if she ought to have done so. In mercurial pools there was nothing for her to consume. Something had taken him to a place that she could not go; she was herself climbing high through an ancient, terrible, lonely mountain.
Yet her face turned to reflect his, a small and secret smile, one saved for him and him alone. It brought heat to her eyes, though it was yet itself changed. “You need not wait on me, brother,” she scoffed, and flipped her hair from her shoulder. “I have servants for that.” Though neither were present, of course. Seizing the coyote from her mother had proved Salvia’s superiority. Owning the nanny that had raised her (and Pandemic) was a strange thing entirely.
He was almost insulted by her words. ”I know that,” the dark man rumbled with his intact smile. Unlike the slaves of Salsola, he had the freedom to choose what to do. It wasn’t anything strange about waiting for someone wonderful. He had once feared they would become disconnected in such a way as this, though now there was only acceptance and the will to fix. He just didn’t know how, for he knew not exactly when they had gone wrong. ”Servants wait because they must, but I wait because I want to.” It was no secret that TK was in fact, a good slave, but she was still a slave. There was a difference – he needed there to be one.
The man paced over to the newly arrived woman to give her the typical Salsolan greeting, offering her a simple kiss on her cheek. He wished she knew that he was trustworthy and loyal as ever. Things had changed, but he hadn’t, really. He was the same as always, and his heart was devoted to those of the same blood as he. There was much left unsaid between him and Larkspur at the time of the man’s death, and it would always remain a sore ache. None of them were immortal, and it was important that they knew that Pandemic would be there for them. ”I’ll always wait for you. You know that, right?” He wasn’t certain if she needed such insurance, but he knew he did. He needed to know that she knew.
