you were a shot in the dark
and aimed right at my throat
Maybe it was the ocean sadness in Warden's eyes that threatened to swallow her. She has always been terrified of sorrow. Anger as an emotion has always made her think of fire; it burns and razes. But so many of her stories and legends have been built around that. Even if the world is reduced to ash, there is always something to rise from it.
How she pictures sadness is the dark churn of ocean water, the obscurity of shadows that moves (trapped) beneath the waves. She has no stories or legends about what happens after a soul has been swallowed by sadness. Sorrow is the emotion that had driven maidens from cliffs and grief-laden souls to walk into the ocean.
For some reason, there is hope after the anger. But sorrow? In all her stories, she has only heard that sorrow swallows and drowns. There is no coming back from sorrow.
Her pleading is answered by silence. The memories of her children stop, slow to a still, and then finally an emptiness. The fevered, frantic pace of @[Warden]’s prophecy leaves the Redwoods as well and the pair looks to the other for answers that can’t be found. At least not in Taiga. There is a cold sense of dread that runs down her spine, making her want to shiver. (Is this how Warden feels, knowing that something is coming and feeling powerless to stop it?)
It doesn’t matter. He has already seen her there and so she knows her future; she knows that she leaves Warden sprawled on the snow-laden ground and turns North to face a fury that she can’t fathom beyond the few images he has shown her.
Healing pulses beneath her skin and what she can craft right now, here at this moment (the present), she reaches out to touch the warmth of his cheek. If she had more time, Lilliana might have been able to do more. It’s enough to dull the pain, she hopes. It’s enough to ease his shoulder even if she has run out of time to heal his wing. A journey on hoof to Tephra is longer than by wing but it is better than not making the journey at all.
In the dark, she whispers: "Thank you.”
And then she is gone, running towards a future that they both knew must always come.