[private] won't you stay?

[Lepis]

the rain that falls upon your skin it's closer than my hands have been Elio doesn’t know how sharp his words are, Lepis reminds herself, but that does not make the cut from them any less painful. Not a very big change, he says, and to him it is not. To him, a move to another land is just a change in scenery. He has never truly experienced what they will be leaving behind, that particular glow that is unconditional familial love. He only has hers, and Lepis knows from her own experience that a mother’s love is not quite the same. It is enough, but it could be better. There aren’t words for what it feels like to be loved by Wolfbane, and it is not something that she can recreate, not even with her magic. So rather than explain, she presses another kiss to his forehead and smiles wordlessly at his words. We will take care of each other he says confidently, and Lepis nods, blinking back the tears before they can fall.  “We will. Always.” The smile he wears now feels more real than the ones before, and Lepis lets it soften the words he’d not meant to hurt. He is a good boy, she thinks, sweet and gentle and nothing like the monster that his father is becoming. “Well, I know there is Reia, and I am sure that your Uncle Castile has a few more close to your age running around. We’ll have to meet them together.” The dragon’s children are not their blood-relations, but the ties that bind them are no less close than if they were. Lepis considers the black and white king of Loess as much a brother as an uncle now that she has grown older, but that her children know him as she had is important to her. Elio asks when, and the dun mare pauses for a moment before answering. “Summer,” she decides. Summer will give her enough time to plan, to call together the residents of the redwood forest and make ready her departure. “We’ll go in summer, which is the very best time to play in the springs in Loess.” @[elio] lepis, comtesse of taiga queen of loess | queen of sylva | queen of the south lover of wolfbane | mother of pteron, marni, tiercal, eyas, gale, celina, and elio