The TwiceBorn

Who Am I?

"I push You away, still You won't let go...you grow your roses on my barren soul"--Need To Breathe

Blixen was nothing but a vexation and part of her lack of patience was due to the fact he was her only company. She'd never needed company before but maybe that had never really been true. Loki had always been with her. Always. There was a hollow pit in her stomach that opened and spread at the thought of him. She missed all the little things. The nudges, his tricks, his way of just being...

...a part of her

And Alderon never would be. So far,his little tricks had proven to be dangerous to her very existence. A lump in her throat suddenly made it hard for her to swallow.

And here she'd thought all along that she needed nothing and no one but herself.

And,of course,Islinn.

Always Islinn

Islinn had shown her light...and need...two things she secretly abhorred but was now a victim of and it made her feel...she searched her mind, puzzled.

Weak

In some ways, yes. But in other ways...she felt...accepted. And needed. Not in the way the peasants needed her; the sleight of hand they paid for, not realizing they were only buying more grief gleefully delivered by her hand. No...needed in a good way. Needed because she made things better for Islinn simply by being...Alora. She glanced down at Hack, and listened to each slow breath he still drew, all of them ending in an odd whistle.

Why was he hanging on?

She felt a twinge of annoyance. The fact she was thinking about the possibility of there being something good within her while she waited for someone to die so she could work her dark magic upon him was something that never occurred to her.

"What's taking so long?" Blixen, as if he'd read her mind, stood by Hack's head, brows drawn down in a scowl. One little scabby hand reached over and sealed Hack's nose shut.

"Stop that! He has to die on his own, don't help him."

Blixen snatched his hand back and put them both behind his back with a contrite expression. His eyes kept cutting over to Syrus and he finally couldn't contain himself any longer. With a happy chirp, he took off and began to whuffle and paw at the body. His pressed his little baggy nose tight to Syrus's skin as he busily explored every inch of him, only pausing to dance a happy little jig he couldn't contain then race around the body, his tail excitedly flipped up over his back.

Alora watched him and couldn't help but smile. His happiness seemed so out of place. Death and the sound of death as Hack stubbornly clung to life, Alderon watching everything with his head dropped down with that strange stare, and all the shadows growing long in the firelight, and all of it serenaded by Blixen's happy trills. She thought about what she was going to do. More darkness to add yet it  brought a wider smile to her lips. But it wouldn't work if she missed his last breath. She tore her eyes away from Blixen's celebration and stared down at Hack.