Time went on, and things grew worse. Huckleberry thought it was over, he thought that losing Blackberry was finally what would release him. And it had, for a while. He'd felt freed of her oppressive aura that had permeated Eridanus for a while, the acrimony of their short discussion finally trickling out of his thoughts. Shiny had helped him, and he'd even contributed a bit to the garden - he'd discovered that putting a bit of electricity in the ground made mushrooms grow more abundantly.
But it wouldn't stay so because now Huckleberry was afraid again. He feared because Jayberry was still out there and the looks Rift sometimes gave him, probably unconsciously, made him quiver. He didn't like it. He didn't like being here. He liked Mercurius and living in his garden, but he didn't like being in his own skin. He hated it. He hated himself.
He just wanted to lose control sometimes.
Shiny sometimes heard these hateful thoughts and had him take more walks, filled the silence with gentle chatter. It helped sometimes, but others, when the dark clouds hung over him thickly, not even her chipper, loving voice could pull him out of it. He instead sauntered on, weaving through the undergrowth without a care, hating every second.
They'd ditched Jayberry somewhere a long time ago and hadn't returned to the tunnel ever since. She'd pleaded for them to stay but at this point, Agony was fucking down with her sniveling uselessness, always crying about how Blackberry had abandoned her and way too depressed about Shimmerberry. Yeah, that had sucked a lot, but that useless sack of shit had died cycles ago and she was still all worked up about it.
Fuckin' annoying as shit.
So. With no reason to be sticking around anymore besides those loving familial bonds, Agony hit the road and hadn't really stopped. There really wasn't anywhere to stop, so they just forged ahead aimlessly, sometimes pausing in places for a while, a few days at a time, although they'd taken it easy in Orion for a full cycle, but they always picked themselves up and continued.
What a boring, pointless existence.
Wrapped up in dull, mindless thoughts, they almost missed Huckleberry through the trees. They'd been in Eridanus for a couple of days now, just kind of walking around. They'd passed by the Kingdom's garden, but had avoided it pretty widely. Flowers weren't really their thing, but there were at least plenty of easy, lazy mice around.
But they jolted to a stop when they caught sight of the strange hybrid because thought immediately sprung to mind. They could just barely see the blue set between their eyes and it sparked an old thought into their head. They needed a better look.
It looked a bit like a young moose, with wings and clawed feet, and it immediately connected in Agony's mind, after all the stories Jayberry told about her dumb family, that they had to be facing one of her siblings. It could be...Elderberry? No, that one had a long neck and a bird's beak. Oh, and he was fucking dead. Perhaps Baneberry? She was more moose-like, no? But Jayberry had called her massive, as big as their father. This one was barely taller then Agony. Then it must be Huckleberry.
Huckleberry flinched at the obnoxious voice and instinctively stopped, turning around to face the strange creature awkwardly hobbling through the bushes to reach him. He blinked and stepped back, a little revolted, at first, at the sight of it. Never before had he seen such a horrific mesh of creatures. It was like five different species had been crushed together with varying degrees of success, the worst at its feet, horribly deformed lumps of flesh to stand on, and useless paws hanging limply.
And the black skin and patches of straggly fur immediately slammed the panic button in his head.
Jaws gaped, but then a soft voice chimed in his ears.
But...how did it know his name?
For the second time in less then a minute, Huckleberry descended into panic mode.
Agony sneered. So maybe Jayberry was actually onto something, calling Huckleberry some useless whelp. He basically freaked out when they showed up in front of him. Agony's paws folded over their chest a little angrily at the less-then-warm greeting from a family member, but they supposed it only made sense, since they were, uh, not really a typical hybrid.
In fact, they very much wanted to see how shocked they'd be when they told him their dead name. Ah, yeah, that'd be funny. To be honest, if they attacked, Agony probably wouldn't mind. Dying would be nice. So they uncrossed their arms and opened them up, giving him a crooked smile.
Huckleberry's panic came to a very swift halt. Agony? If this guy was a Bloodberry, they would have been given a berry name. Unless they'd thrown it behind, like Azure had. Huckleberry had considered doing that too, but they couldn't see themselves with any other name. But 'Agony' implied a lot, especially if it was a chosen name.
A lot of those implications weren't exactly good.
Huckleberry's ears pressed back.
Yeah, okay, there was the answer. He froze. Eyes widened with shock. Jayberry's offspring. That's why they looked like her. The scraggly fur. The ears. The paws. Everything else was alien and strange, but half was definitely her. His jaw fell wide and he stepped back, terrified. Any child of Jayberry was going to hurt. She probably told them to come here and kill him, because he turned his back on the family!
Agony burst out laughing at Huckleberry's reaction. Oh, yeah, that was good! That was excellent! They haven't seen a reaction like that in a long fuckin time!
The expression passed a moment later to just an arrogant grin.