take a walk through the wreckage —clearing out my head
i hear your eyes roll right down the phone
i'm your walking disaster keep on dragging me
from self-pity —poor me
Their mother had not told stories before Risk came (though for Kelynen the time before Risk was brief and early and he almost forgets that she wasn’t always his, that they hadn’t curled together in the same womb) but now she gives them stories about sirens and ghosts and sea monsters. She says Valek’s daddy is a sea monster and that is why their big brother is so strong and handsome, even if he does not live in the lake and swim like a fish. Kelynen’s daddy is strong and handsome too, and even though mother doesn’t say so, he is pretty sure that someday he will be too. Then maybe he won’t be frightened by the stories and he can keep Risk just as safe as she keeps him.
He is healthy and strong, but generally meek and frightened by the unknown. Kelynen stays close to his brindled sister day and night. As she leads their crusade into the haunted Taiga he keeps up, shoulder to shoulder or just behind. When he is out of step with her he drops his pale muzzle to the slope of her back, or near the point of her hip so that they are rarely out of contact. A habit that has survived beyond their early infancy, absent and as natural as breathing for the pair.
The trees are vast and he slows a little as they push through fern and bracken as tall as their chests. He his learning to conceal his anxiety (Valek teases) but Risk knows him, and turns back toward him puffed up and flashing her shifted sharp teeth. He laughs, it is always funny when she shifts only this part or that becoming a melding of her leopard and filly selves. He wishes he could do it too, but that is a story for another time. Kelynen springs after the filly, bounding through the damp undergrowth and nearly colliding with her when the strange sound makes her stop. He drops his chin against her rump and then shrinks a bit into the ferns as she looks back at him. They are both frightened but she is like a sharp toothed hind with her head high and ears twitching. “A ghost!” Whispers Kelynen, pale golden eyes wide. Adrenaline prickles his muscles and his nostrils flare but before he can even think about what they should do his sister dashes off through some manzanita stealthily.
Now she is going to get eaten. Or ghost gooed. Or whatever happens when you let a ghost get you and then he will be next and Valek will laugh that he was eaten or turned snot green.
Risk bursts back through the brush and yells and he is right in front of her so it is very loud, he throws his head up and bounds close to bump his muzzle against her own. “Who is stuck? It could still be a monster. Monsters probably get stuck.” He frets. Determined to go and make sure it is not a monster before it can eat Risk and her sharp teeth Kel slides past her to push through the brush and trot the short distance to the other boy. He is older than them, but small, not a monster probably and Kel doesn’t ask because he isn’t rude.
“Let us help you, please. I’m Kelynen.”The palomino says to the boy with the big wings. He does not introduce Risk because she can speak for herself and also because he forgot to when he started looking at the feathers stuck tight. It is hard to tell how big the rock is but perhaps they can dig at it and get it free. Pawing at the damp earth near the rock, he looks at the trapped not monster boy “Do feathers hurt?” His own voice is soft, gentle without being girlish. Thoughtful, he looks back down at the rock and the scrapes he’d left in the mud. “Risk can you do the paws?” Looking over his shoulder at her hopeful and enterprising.
@[harbinger] @[Risk]