Wyvern hadn't been to Monceros since meeting Azure -- thinking back on the incident admittedly made her cringe. She'd had a meltdown at the idea of having hurt the strange bird-beast. Being upset was one thing -- dragging someone else into it as a grown adult was something else entirely. Then again, Wyvern felt like she'd matured in chrysalis. Somehow.

Azure had also been emerging from chrysalis when they'd met, she recalled. The fact that Azure came out chiseled into a different shape but still made of the same old marble had made the prospect less terrifying. Still, one way or another -- Wyvern knew the way. It was a familiar path to carve, seeing as it had only been a handful of cycles in her mind. As forgetful as the beast had been, physical memory had always come rather naturally. It sort of had to, seeing as she was a flying predator.

Not to mention the wind roared to her from quite far away.

As soon as she was properly within the threshold of the cave, she caught a sharp updraft and began to circle near the ceiling. She was looking -- seeking. A spot of white-gray-blue, perhaps? Or maybe even the massive black monstrosity that was Dread. Certainly, a Monceros dragon would have recognized her as a stranger; maybe Dread would know her scent or description, but it was unlikely that anyone other than Aismona would actually recognize her.


@asimona
@carja (only reply if u want to!! i left carja's presence vague)

The little lump of grey on Wyvern's back perked up, a head popping up out of Wyvern's feathers. Carja yawned and shook her head to wake herself up, having fallen right asleep on the way here. She poked her head over Wyvern's shoulder and peered down, the tip of her tail flicking back and forth.

"There's her nest," she said, pointing downwards, "If you fly down to the edge, I'm certain that I can probably go get her..."

Carja inhaled and dropped down off Wyvern's back, falling down towards the ground before snapping out her wings and shooting up with a joyous shriek. She leveled out next to Wyvern before diving down again, fighting the wings to stay straight.

"GRAAAAAANDMAAAAA- GRAND-" she sneezed and spread her wings again, leveling out to shake her head,"GRANDMA!"

She looked up at Wyvern with a happy grin.

Asimona was in her den at the time, watching over the growing diamond, the half-eaten remains of her most recent meal a couple of feet away from her. She always needed to rest for a little while after eating, let it digest for a little bit before she started getting active and moving around a lot. It was nice, then, to take that time to think over things and just. Relax.

And she thought about this life that she had now. Living in a different cave, away from Pisces. She wondered if she would ever be able to return to that old nest, to the memories that never seemed to be wiped away, to the stain of loneliness that had plagued her for such a long time. Here, she was with her family. With Dread, who she saw, perhaps not as her mate, but something more then a friend. With Svartis and Bone, her beloved children that she loved with all her heart. With Bug, Blight, and Lass, who she had a motherly fondness for, even if they weren't as close to her as her biological children. And with Carja, who had found a way to completely capture her heart in one conversation, who she would freeze the world to protect.

She wondered, then, where the others were. Jotun, Wyvern, and Abeni. She hoped that they were happy, wherever they had gone, and, more importantly, that they were safe. She should have been a better mother to them. She should have looked after them better.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice in the winds. She turned her head towards the entrance, wondering for a moment if something was wrong...but no, Carja's voice held only excitement. She got to her feet, a smile spreading across her face and headed towards the entrance. She ducked out of the cave and looked up. "Carja? What's going...on....." Her voice trailed off as she looked up. At first, she spotted Carja's gray and blue body, but then...beyond that...oh, that familiar white and blue, the wings, the long tail...

Shock stilled her every movement, eyes wide as she stared up at her daughter, circling high in the sky. What was she supposed to feel right now? Happy? Angry? Terrified? It was a mixed back, too many thoughts trying to make their way through that she ended up just feeling numb. And through numbness, instincts took over. A mother's joy upon seeing a daughter, after so long apart.

"WYVERN?!" she screeched desperately into the sky as her wings automatically opened and threw her into the air. Without meaning to, she pulled the air around her to push up against the bottom of her wings. She shot up like a rocket, speeding towards the daughter she hadn't seen in cycles. "Wyvern is that really you?!" There was so much in her voice. So much desperation to believe that this was real and not some dream, her words thick with emotion and confusion. She suddenly stopped her ascent, a few meters beneath her, wondering....wondering if Wyvern wanted her to get so close. After all, their last meeting had ended with tears and screams and a very angry Wyvern leaving her nest for the next 13 cycles.

What was she even doing here?

@Wyvern

Wyvern cringed violently when Carja started screaming. "Wait--" she said, realizing suddenly that hey, they were in Monoceros Lair territory! And, more importantly, Carja (one of their own) was screaming. A child crying out like that was always scary, even if they didn't sound scared, and more importantly, only one member of this clan could reliably be expected to recognize her. Wyvern was preparing a scrambling explanation when she heard a voice that was familiar to her, and so far away.

She was reminded of when they'd last spoken -- insolent anger at an overbearing mother, the sharp break in her heart and in the aftermath (and wasn't she lucky she didn't have feathers on her chest in the first place?), how Wyvern had realized that she really wasn't grown enough to be without her-- and the ways being on her own and in Chrysalis had matured her, and how she felt ready to return, and how Asimona was stopping short and Wyvern's breath was catching in her throat.

"Hi, Mom," she breathed. All of the openers to this conversation she'd thought up before her Chrysalis-sleep, all the things she'd wanted to say to Asimona when she'd thought her mother was dead, all the ways she'd meant to start this process -- and all she could manage was, "I'm sorry."


@asimona
@carja

Carja's smile fell as the two hovered in front of each other, words catching in their throats before being thrust out in hoarse apologies and words of disbelief. She clasped her front claws together and looked between them. This... wasn't how she thought it would go. A childish image of the two embracing and snuggling up in a tight ball like she did with Lass sometimes, maybe. But not this weird awkwardness. A selfish part of her wanted it to go away, but the kindness that defined her personality rose up instead, and told her to be empathetic.

"Grandma? I um... I found her. At your old nest that you told me about," she said, eyes darting between them, "I remembered what you told me, and... I thought it would make you both happy to be together again."

She didn't understand disownment, whether it be a mother rejecting her child or a child rejecting their parent. She only knew that Svartis made her happy to be around, and he was her dad, so being with a mother couldn't be very different. Her whole life goal was to make as many people as she could happy, after all.

"Should I go?", she finally asked, "I can um... find something to eat and bring it back. And you can um... talk? Or something. Whatever grown ups do."

@Wyvern

She was quiet for a while, the only sound being the wing and the steady beat of her wings and she maintained her altitude and distance. It suddenly occurred to her how close Wyvern was. Even if they were still relatively far apart, she was here. In front of her. In the same cave, in the same space. Talking to her.

She thought she would never see her again.

Her throat had closed up and when she tried to say something, no sound came out. Carja gave her a reason, thankfully, to rip her gaze away from Wyvern, so that her voice could open back up. "That would be lovely, Carja, thank you." She didn't mention that she'd already eaten, but she needed this time, just her and Wyvern.

She made herself look back up, scrambling for words again. Instinct had faded away, leaving her with the confusing numbness holding back a tidal wave of thoughts and feelings. "Wh-why don't we go back to my den? We can talk there, okay?" It was the rational part of her head sticking through - better to talk with their feet on solid ground.

She turned and angled herself down a bit, circling downwards towards the icy ledge that led to her little cave, where she landed and waited a moment for Wyvern to touch down as well.

@Wyvern
@Wyvern

The bird-dragon made a soft noise of acknowledgement to Carja, and then a nod of agreement to Asimona. It wasn't a good idea to have a conversation like this one without your feet on solid ground. She followed her mother back down to the densite and landed steadily, glancing towards the diamond chrysalis as they ventured inside. Perhaps another sibling on the way, then -- or just a friend making use of the dragon's compassion. Wyvern fluffed her feathers out and then smoothed them to make sure they were in order before taking a deep breath and starting to speak.

"I suppose I ought to start at the beginning," she said finally, feeling quite a lot like she wanted to pace around but mercifully restraining herself. It wasn't like this was her home. The den in Pisces wasn't even her home anymore, not really. Wyvern closed her eyes for a beat, mustering everything she could say before starting. "I don't regret leaving, but I do regret what I said," was where she started. "... I needed time to breathe. To make mistakes, and to learn who I was as my own adult rather than as a crying child. I wish we could have left each other on better terms, of course, but... well, I am not solely to blame for that." She eyed her mother for a moment, giving her time to speak. It would be better if this went as a more... back-and-forth sort of thing.


@asimona
@carja (rejoin whenever u want to i think lmao)

Carja swooped forward to give them both a nuzzle before diving down and quickly disappearing. She'd come back... later. Maybe she'd bug Svartis- or even ask him to come! That sounded fun!

Temp exit Carja.
@Asimona

Once Wyvern had landed in the den, Asimona paced into it and turned around, forcing her hindquarters onto the ground so that she didn't start pacing and get agitated. She always felt most calm when she could feel the cool floor seeping into her body, a soothing cold that didn't quite have the same effect when she was on all fours.

She was quiet at first, listening to Wyvern speak, thoughts trying to peak through the numbness, but the ones that broke through were the memories, of that last day they spent together. Yelling and arguing, Asimona begging Wyvern to stay, hysterically trying to keep her daughter from leaving her alone, accusing her of abandoning her, while Wyvern, furious and frustrated, claimed that she was done being her baby, that she needed to live life on her own, without her mother guarding her every step. Accusing her of holding her back, of being too protective before flying off in a fury. She'd thought about it a lot since then, regret and sorrow and anger, both towards herself and to Wyvern's rantings before settling on cold acceptance that it had been her fault that her daughter had been driven away.

Wyvern's gentle prod at Asimona's own faults broke a corner of the barrier in her head. The first thing that rushed through was prideful indignation. She was her mother and she had ever right to raise her the way she wanted. It was the same overbearing way of thinking that had driven Wyvern away in the first place and she stifled it quickly, instead choosing to allow the guilt to rush forward and fill her up instead. "I know," she whispered. "You had every right to be mad at me. I couldn't see you as anything else then...then that little baby that I had sworn to protect with my life. What I said...I don't have any excuse. It was wrong of my to keep treating you like a child when you were ready to be an adult." She swallowed. "But I missed you a lot. I...there were times that I thought you were dead, because you never came back. Not to visit me or to even make sure that I was still alive." Her mind flickered briefly to some of the horrible things she'd seen...the horrible screech in that dark tunnel when Llamrei had met her end...the bird that had fallen in Hydra and the snake swallowed up the sand, and the others that had almost died so many times during the first Trial.

Hell, she could just have easily died in that cave!

But that wasn't helpful right now. That didn't matter - she was alive, Wyvern was alive, and the past was behind them. So she forced herself to take a deep breath and allowed a small smile to crease up on her face. "I'm just happy you're here now, though."

@Wyvern

Wyvern softened a little, seeing that Aismona was willing to admit where she'd gone wrong. That had been what had driven them apart in the first place. "I can understand why you thought of me that way, though," she said, inclining her head a bit. "I certainly didn't act like someone who was ready to be an adult." Maybe it was her failing, or maybe it was her mother's, but more likely they were both responsible to some degree. Then, she breathed when Asimona mentioned thinking she was dead.

"Odd question," Wyvern began, looking a little sheepish. "How long was I gone? I, ah, went into hibernation when I was... around eight or nine cycles old? I'm a little fuzzy, admittedly. I stopped keeping track of the days, I think." A beat. "I did go to Pisces as soon as I woke up, though. I was sick of letting everything stand as it did. I, ah, may have accused Carja of stealing your treasures," she admitted. "She found me there; I'd been lingering for a couple days."


@aismona