K'airos walked back to where she had dragged Antimony to. Her armor was quite loud, so her approach was heard even by the dead. The older woman did not react to the noisy approach. She sat slumped in the dirt and dead grass, half bowed over her knees and very still. K'airos kneeled behind her, placing one hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." she started weakly. "Aijeen's just trying to protect me." Antimony only shivered when K'airos's hand touched her, but she otherwise did not respond. “She's just...Aijeen's...she's like she is. I'm sorry, but...I'll change her mind! I'll remind her what it is to have a mother, and to love her. And then we may...we may find her and...be together...†She tried to pull Antimony up, her speech interrupted by intermittent sobbing.
Antimony accepted the pulling passively, standing half under her own power and half supported by K'airos. She did not look at the young woman; in fact, her gaze was not focused on anything immediate at all. K'airos took one of her hands between her own before continuing, "I will stay in Drybone and...and you can come visit! Even if I can't...if you aren't...we can share stories! And remind us of what it was back then. And maybe we'll...we'll think... Promise me you'll come see me! I don't care if you aren't mom. I don't care what Aijeen thinks. You are so like her! Please!â€
Antimony let out a faint sigh and a few breathy words barely audible, "I need to..." Her eyes shifted slowly to K'airos's hand on her's and she quivered.
K'airos didn’t seem to be paying attention. "Please! Please come visit me! Maybe, when we get...to spend time we...we will banish any doubt and...and find it's real after all." Still holding her mother, she drops her head until the forehead hits Antimony's shoulder.
Antimony made a thin, strangled sound and, features twisting as though in physical pain, she tore away from K'airos and choked out a, "--go... I need to go..." And so she made to do so.
K'airos let her go, her mouth hanging open. She said nothing more. In the silence, Antimony fled and felt as though she were killing a part of herself.
Antimony accepted the pulling passively, standing half under her own power and half supported by K'airos. She did not look at the young woman; in fact, her gaze was not focused on anything immediate at all. K'airos took one of her hands between her own before continuing, "I will stay in Drybone and...and you can come visit! Even if I can't...if you aren't...we can share stories! And remind us of what it was back then. And maybe we'll...we'll think... Promise me you'll come see me! I don't care if you aren't mom. I don't care what Aijeen thinks. You are so like her! Please!â€
Antimony let out a faint sigh and a few breathy words barely audible, "I need to..." Her eyes shifted slowly to K'airos's hand on her's and she quivered.
K'airos didn’t seem to be paying attention. "Please! Please come visit me! Maybe, when we get...to spend time we...we will banish any doubt and...and find it's real after all." Still holding her mother, she drops her head until the forehead hits Antimony's shoulder.
Antimony made a thin, strangled sound and, features twisting as though in physical pain, she tore away from K'airos and choked out a, "--go... I need to go..." And so she made to do so.
K'airos let her go, her mouth hanging open. She said nothing more. In the silence, Antimony fled and felt as though she were killing a part of herself.
"Song dogs barking at the break of dawn, lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm; and these streets, quiet as a sleeping army, send their battered dreams to heaven."
Hipparion Tribe (Sagolii)Â - Â Antimony Jhanhi's Wiki