Post by Zen on Jan 20, 2018 8:34:20 GMT -5
Taking place in the two days before Welcome To The World
A'zael :: Bronze Fath
She'd wanted to be buried on the beach. She'd wanted to be near the sea. She'd wanted Azora to be able to visit her. So A'zael had Fath dig a deep hole and they'd lowered her down into it. Azora stood with him and S'fin, she'd been crying, but it wasn't until they started to fill the hole in that she'd all but lost her mind. A'zael had to hold her, screaming in protest and beating on his chest, and it was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.
“I'm sorry... Azora, I'm so sorry...,” he murmured, holding the girl tightly, sure she couldn't hear him in the state she was in, “I wish I could... I wish I could make the pain stop, I would if I could.... I'm sorry....” The healers gave her something for shock, something to make her sleep, and he'd taken her back to his weyr. He couldn't let her wake up alone. But maybe he should have.
She'd woken sobbing, thinking it was all a bad dream. Then she'd slowly come around to realizing where she was as he did his best to comfort her, and the reality had dawned on her, and then she'd gotten angry. She needed someone to blame. That someone was apparently going to be him. He'd let them take her away, let them bury her. She'd raged at him, told him she'd never forgive him, told him she never wanted to see him again. He tried not to take it heart. She was... she was grieving. She didn't mean it. But he'd taken her back to the creche. If she didn't want him right now, then he wasn't going to force it.
He'd checked in on her multiple times since then. He'd promised Orana he would be there for her. But the crecheworkers told him she was just lying in her bed, curled up beneath piles of furs, intermittently sleeping and sobbing. She still hadn't eaten anything by the end of the next day, he'd been told during one of his inquiries. She was despondent. She wouldn't talk to anyone. This was what a broken heart looked like.
So he sat on his bed with his head in hands, lost. He'd promised Orana he would be there, but she didn't even want him there. She didn't seem to want anyone. Anyone but her mother. It was maddening, and heartbreaking, and he understood why rage had overtaken the girl, he was nearly at that point himself. Helpless. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. He hated feeling this way. How could he fix his daughter's broken heart?
His breath hitched and he again had to take several deep breaths to keep himself from losing it not unlike Azora had. Fath touched his mind, incredibly concerned with the state he'd been in since Orana's death. … Mine?
He didn't respond for a long moment, finding himself unable to push through all the emotions in his mind to do so mentally. His voice cracked when he spoke, a weak attempt to reassure the bronze, “It's all right, Fath.”
No. It's not.
The simple, firm, worried reply broke him. He couldn't even comfort his dragon. He pushed to his feet as his vision blurred, Fath lowered his head, and he threw his arms around the bronze's great muzzle, forehead pressed to his soft hide as he let it all go, “Why can't I ever do anything right?” Fath let out a low keen and wrapped his rider's mind in love.
