3/21/2026, 4:25 PM
Elaine
Elaine flinched when the voice struck her mind. It was sharp, impatient, too close to the one that had dragged her from the sky. The words scraped like claws along the inside of her skull. She swallowed hard, forcing her breath to steady as the fissures thrummed beneath the snow. Lik! olir drire. Her ears pinned. She hated how familiar it felt. But Sarge 's outburst tore her attention back to him. Raw, furious, grief‑stricken.
His voice cracked the air like a whip, and for a heartbeat she froze, not from fear but from recognition. She knew that kind of pain. The kind that didn't care who heard it. When he finally sagged into silence, Elaine stepped forward, slow and deliberate, as though approaching a wounded creature who might bolt or bite. "You don't owe us an apology," she said softly. "Not for wanting your family. Not for being angry at whatever keeps throwing you back into the dark." Her gaze flicked to the sky he'd cursed, then to the snow where the rune pulsed faintly in Rivers' pipe bowl. The glow reflected in her eyes, unsettling and familiar all at once. "That voice," she murmured, almost to herself. "I think it's the same one that dragged me here. The same one that pushed me out of the sky." The fissures hummed again: a warning, a heartbeat, a demand. An lose ut. Elaine's breath hitched. She shook her head as though clearing water from her ears.
"We're not ignoring you," she whispered to the unseen presence, though her tone held more defiance than obedience. "But he just fell. Give him a moment." Nevermind the fact that she still could hardly comprehend how she understood the mysterious voice in her head to begin with. Then she looked back to Sarge, meeting his sharp, desperate stare with something steady and warm. She angled her body slightly, protective without being possessive, a quiet barrier between Sarge and the cold, uncaring sky. "You asked where we are," she continued. "I wish I knew. I woke here only hours ago. Rivers found me wandering. The land is… wrong. Cracked. Alive in ways it shouldn't be. Alive in ways I've never seen before." Her tail swept once, slow and reassuring. "But we can help you find your family. Or at least understand what's pulling us through the dark. Maybe." She glanced at the rune again, its glow pulsing like a heartbeat. "And I think whatever you unearthed… it matters. The dream‑voice wants it. Badly." Elaine then shifted a hair closer to Rivers, naturally gravitating towards his presence for comfort in the moment.
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