DEIMOS
He stayed because he knew what it meant, what it felt, to be left behind. He stayed because he didn’t have a single doubt about her, even in the press and churn of the blight. He stayed because he knew her, to the very depths of her soul, and that the passion, the might, the prowess was still underneath the layers of poison and venom, slashing at the ties and tethers curling, fanning, and plucking at her entity. He stayed because he understood that she’d be completely capable of conquering it, far stronger than most. He stayed because it was right. He stayed because he was the epitome of a stalwart guard, a sentinel, a monolith, a mountain, and he wasn’t about to let one of his kin go again.She wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t a foe. She wasn’t an adversary. She wasn’t an enemy. Kiada was Kiada, child of the snow and ice, no matter how removed they were from it, no matter if her mother had pulled her out of the glacial, chilling depths and placed her within the shackles of the Edge, the Harpy, the mighty, the potent.
Her thank you left him tattered and frayed, but he remained, just as he always had; in the circle of arms and alms and feathers, striving to triumph over something always billowing, always brewing, always bubbling along the surface. She accepted his embrace, then the release, and he didn’t much care about Stygian streaks down his chest, collected amongst the bramble and nettle of scars; tilting his avian head, rising through the tempestuous waves of uncertainty, shouldering the weight of sobs and despondency. He responded with strength and dominion, pieces and particles she’d recognize, she’d comprehend, she’d understand, under the perilous, scathing pestilence. Is there anything you need? The beast asked; incapable of doing much else.
"who's gonna let you?"
they asked. i said
"who's gonna stop me?"
