In this fell clutch of circumstance
When his cub tumbles backward and Aster’s pounces upon it, she reaches to bite at her twin’s ear. Leonidas watches the cubs play, how simple the world is to those so newly created. They have flesh where once there was only wood. They use their flesh and bone as if they have always been made of thus. It is simple to watch the cubs - this small gift they have been given in exchange for the loss of their family.
He touches Aster, for she is everything that grounds him now. She is the familiar in a world that has now begun to turn so strange. Her brow rests beneath his chin and he holds her, he clings to her for else he might slip and lose her too. He might watch her forever to ensure she never leaves his sight. He might trail her until they both are just bones within a bowl of dust. He might, he might, he might… but these are the vows of a little boy and vows of little boys are either lost to time or grow with them. This is a vow woven into a scar and scars never fade.
He will follow her, always.
Yes, his sister says. Then yes again. Each one is a hurt, but only his eyes grow dim with its feeling. He accepts the wounds of her revelation with all the submission of a criminal beneath a whip of justice. He nods, as if he understands what she means - but how is a boy to know what trials life will throw at them when he and his sister are without a family? But all things are possible to a child and so he nods and thinks they will survive this.
She suggests they stay, to wait for their parents to return - when? The questions that dog Leonidas’ mind dog his sister’s also. How long will it take them? How long until their parents rip through the portal and return as if they have never left? How long until he and his twin can sleep entwined beside their parents once again?
He draws a breath and steps toward the place where his parents disappeared, where the pieces of Florentine’s dagger lay broken in the grass. He steps up to and then beyond where the portal opened. He steps through and back and through and back and feels… nothing. There is no whisper that magic even existed here… The boy sighs and returns to his sibling, his lips press against her cheek. “One of us should stay and one of us hunt,” He murmurs. “You stay,” he whispers. Leonidas turns and his cub pauses, looks to her twin and then stumbles after him through the long shrub. “What is your cub called?” Leonidas asks as Aster’s cub hesitates, torn between its twin and its familiar. “I can take it too.”
As if knowing, Leonidas cub bounces back to its sibling, nuzzles along its side and moves to push it after him. When Aster gives the name of the cub, he moves on into the distance and hopes that cubs know better that he about how to hunt.
@Aster
