if we never meet again

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

"The Warden... by a dragon.."

Barely had the words spilled from the lips of the white-faced guard before Korbin was on his feet. He was still struggling to get the coat on when he barged out from the Kraai and tore down the streets, down towards the gates. Ice had replaced the blood flowing through his veins in the moment that door had been flung open. He had lived through a day like this before, and always known he couldn't do it again. Not again. Never again.

Deserted streets blurred past. Frigid wind whipped his feathers - he couldn't recall shifting, yet he flew all the same - and when the gates came into view, he was only a black streak in the air, heavy boots that landed in the snow. Stumbled, staggered. Kept running. Vaguely, Korbin was aware of guards around him. Some were reaching out hands towards him, to hold him back. Others were too busy holding in their breakfast to even notice him. But none could stop him. He shoved them aside, and rushed out through the wall, out into the white, wide expanse of the Tundra, looking around frantically for the dragon, the ursur, for his sister...

But all he found was crimson splattered onto snow. Red on white.

"Where is she!?" he demanded of the guard that had come up to him, and shook off the soothing hand from his shoulder.

"Gone... The dragon took her," came the answer.

Korbin shook his head. Refusing to believe it. Unable to comprehend what they were saying. In his chest, something painful had started. A quiet breaking, because he knew - he knew - and yet he couldn't accept it.

"No!" he snapped, as if by his refusal he could make the guard's words untrue. He stared at the blood, then up at the uncaring sky. He made a motion to step further onto the plain, to follow that trail of crimson in the snow where blood had flowed from - his blood, his heart, the only thing in this godforsaken world that still mattered - but hands stopped him. Held him back, even as he shouted and fought. Screaming to go after them, to kill the dragon, to bring her back.

Oh please, just bring her back.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

KIADA

this is your sport,

but she's not playing a game

She’s heard, how could she not? Not when the guards are shouting it, when news spreads, when everything begins to go to shit again. She tells the Grounders to remain where they are while she pulls her furs tighter and begins to sprint through the Citadel toward where she could see the bits of carnage left behind. It makes her stomach drop, yet again, and she searches for anyone she knows — Chulane, Korbin, Loren — before she eases her way through the crowd gathering and spots him.

Trying to rush toward the space and blood left behind. So she pushes harder, forcing her way through the guards and crowds, pushing her way toward him with all the sympathy she can muster. And when they try to hold her back, she shifts into that pale vulture — large wings spread wide to get ahead of them, dropping into the ice and snow as her boots crunch. And then she rushes toward him again.

“Korbin?” Her voice calls out, pushing away at the guards that kept trying to hold him back, arms outstretched to try and get her hands on him, to pull him loose and pull him into her — forcing her way in. “Korbin, I’m so sorry.”

do not think you are safe

because you love her

do not think she will not stain her mouth

red with your blood too

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

That ringing was back in his ears again. A high pitched keening that drowned out all other sound. All he saw was red on white, and that far distant horizon where nothing moved. How far would he have to go to find the dragon? How long time would it take to track it down? There might still be time to reach it, before it was too late.

Korbin was faintly aware of hands holding him back, stony and strong. More than one pair, because he was a big man and apprently they needed quite a few to restrain him. Why couldn't they let him go? If he shifted, it would be quick work to go after it. All he had to do was follow the trail of blood in the snow. So much blood...

A voice was shouting his name. It was distant, not really known to him. Unfamiliar, yet it kept calling his name. One of the guards was made to let go, and a small figure took their place. Wrapped arms around him. He stared down at the woman with eyes that were pale as ice and just as cold, wild with rage and... and he wondered why she was sorry. Korbin shrugged her off, tore himself free from the guards. They watched him, wary and on guard. He wanted to laugh. What did they think he would do? Bite them?

"I'm going after her," he said, a low growl that tore at the throat. His face was cold, wet  - was he crying? Why would he be, when there was work to do? - and without waiting to see who would follow, he began to stalk off into the Tundra.

It didn't matter if no one else came. He would find his sister. He would do what he needed to do. It was them against the world. Always had been. Always would be.

Just come back.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

KIADA

this is your sport,

but she's not playing a game

She pulses everything she can down the bond as he shrugs her off, but she lets him make the distance away from her. It doesn’t stop her from moving to step in front of him, to block his path as the guards watch on and also give them space. Korbin could overtake her in her human form, but Kiada has trained with Jigano’s raven form enough to know she could have the upper hand as her vulture form. It’s the only thing that keeps her firmly planted in the snow, staring with sorrowful eyes at the rage that roars within him.

She can’t blame him, after all, hasn’t she been like that before? When Ru’in was taken from her the first time?

“You can’t, Korbin.” Kiada says gently, almost as if she’s trying to corral a wild animal. “You can’t go after her. You have people that need you. Here.” She pauses, trying to encroach in his space again, head tilting up to look at him. “You can’t.”

She gets it, she does so intimately well, but there was nothing but death awaiting him should he leave now to chase after the ghost.

do not think you are safe

because you love her

do not think she will not stain her mouth

red with your blood too

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

He didn't feel anything of what she sent down the bond. It was all swallowed up by the yawning void that had opened up inside, where the last pieces of his heart had been. All he had left was emptiness, and that one insane, desperate purpose.

To find his sister. Bring her back. Fucking rip that dragon to pieces, who thought it could lay hand on his family and get away.

Kiada with her sad eyes and soft words was swept aside by a large arm, like she was nothing more than an annoyance. "Get out of my way." If she wouldn't help, fine, let her stay behind. This had nothing to do with her. She was an outsider, and Outlander and as far away from family as anyone could get. Let her cower inside the walls and do nothing. But damn, if she got in his way..!

Korbin's form shimmered as he shifted, the vast dark wings of the raven already beating by the time his form became clear again. A singular purpose drove him off in the direction the dragon had vanished, with no room left in his mind to spare for anything else. Or anyone else.

Everything that mattered to him had been stolen away by that dragon. Fuck anyone else; if they weren't Weaver, they did not matter.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

KIADA you think that i'll be the dark sky so you can be the star? An arm sweeps her aside, and despite the sorrow she feels for Korbin, she can’t help the slight hiss that leaves her with it. “No.” But then he’s shifting, and she clenches her jaw, turning to chase after him in the blood stained snow, boots crunching against the ground before her own limbs are replaced with pale feathers tipped in black, blood red crimson eyes that zone in on the dark raven like a speck of black against the light skies. She takes off after him, her large form far bigger than his, and she uses this to her advantage to try and get beside him, to corral him away. Stop this. She shouts down the bond toward him, trying to get her voice in, so he can hear her. You can’t do anything other than die as well Korbin. Stop. Please. And if that isn’t enough, she lifts herself up a bit higher, trying to knock the raven out of the sky. i will swallow you whole.

KORBIN

Leave my loneliness unbroken!
- quit the bust above my door!

He didn't reply. Nor did he let her corral him back towards the Citadel. What was left for him there? His home was flying away, carried off on white wings. Let him die if that was how it had to be; he would rather end than sit and rot and do nothing.

The raven merely dodged aside and kept flying. He would have been content to ignore her completely, but Kiada had wings too, and her large vulture form was far heavier than himself. Korbin tried to dodge, but was taken off guard, and she barreled into him with enough force to knock him askew. Tumbling through the air, the raven lost several feet of height, but though it was rattled and aching from the impact, it did not stop.

He just kept flying. Had no words for her; what was left to say? She was nothing to him but another face in the crowd.

She was not Weaver, and thus she didn't matter.

Quoth the Raven,
"Nevermore."

KIADA you think that i'll be the dark sky so you can be the star? He tries to dodge but she manages to get him down a few pegs. It’s not enough though, and she curses as he zooms ahead again, wondering what the guards at the edge might be thinking of this avian tango. Naapa kwa miungu. She hisses in her native tongue, before she’d focusing again and trying to slip up behind him. She lowers herself, spinning to try and grab onto his talons with her own, to grab him within her reach and take him from the skies once more. Somewhere where he couldn’t go and off himself. I get it, Korbin. But this isn’t the answer. The Harpy thinks of everyone she’s ever lost, of them worlds she’s fallen through, of the creatures she’s had to deal with and learn from. And so she pleads with him again, hoping either her actions or her words would reach him. She doesn’t expect either to, but she’s hopeful. So, fucking, hopeful. Naapa kwa miungu — I swear to the gods. i will swallow you whole.

KORBIN

Leave my loneliness unbroken!
- quit the bust above my door!

He wasn't listening. Her voice was no more than a nagging hum at the back of his mind, whatever emotions she threw at him lost in the jungle of tangled emotions within himself. There was nothing she could say that would fix this.

Again she tried to stop him. The raven tucked its wings in and barrel rolled away, just barely escaping being grabbed like some pigeon. The talons of the vulture raked him, sending a shower of black feathers to wards the ground. A few drops of crimson followed, but the cut wasn't deep, only a scratch.

There was no attempt at retaliation. The rage he felt was not directed at her. The grief wasn't either. All in all, her presence or absence was of lesser importance than the howling wind, and he paid her as little heed.

All that came from the raven through that bond was that yawning void, an echoing sense of nothingness. Because that's all that was left of him. Without Weaver...

Without his sister, he was nothing.

Quoth the Raven,
"Nevermore."

KIADA you think that i'll be the dark sky so you can be the star? She needs him to stop, and all of her attempts so far begin to fail. And so her frustration grows evident; and she grows more intense with it — pulling up and flying above him with a decent amount of height, similar to how this form would fly up high and drop bones atop rocks to break them apart. Only that’s not her goal, her goal is to stop him. And so she dives, wings tucked in tight to try and barrel into him, to push him more fully out, using all of her weight in this form to try and push him to the ground. The emptiness she receives from him aches her, it reminds her so much of her own silence, of her own tragedies, and it fucking hurts. Please. So she tries and tries again to get the raven to stop, the vulture doing whatever she can to stop him before they pass the edge of no return. i will swallow you whole.

Lonely shadows following me
Lonely ghosts come a-calling

Korbin didn't care if it hurt him. Or if it hurt her, to keep this up. He was clean out of fucks to give for anything or anyone. Let the world burn. Let the Citadel crumble to dust. Let Halo finally freeze over and what litte life there was vanish forever. Let Ludo claim his soul here and now, or never reach for him at all. He didn't care. He didn't care.

This time, he didn't dodge in time. The foce with which she slammed into him was bone-breaking, and he would have crumbled to pieces under the force of it. But his body shifted back on him the moment his bones began to creak, and instead he was sent plummeting to the ground in his own skin, with nothing but snow to break the fall.

Fortunately, he never had time to regain that altitude lost, and the fall didn't kill him. It did knock him out for a while though, along with every last ounce of breath in his lungs. A few ribs were snapped, but it should have been a small price to pay for his life.

Should have been... except he didn't count himself as lucky for being left behind.

Alone. He was all alone now. There was no one left but him. One by one they had all been taken from him, and now nothing remained of what had once been a warm and loving family.

If only he could have gone with her. Weaver... How could he live without her?

Thousand voices dead at my feet
Now I'm gone, now I'm gone, now I'm gone

KIADA

this is your sport,

but she's not playing a game

It works, but at what cost? She barrels into him, hard, and it hurts her hollow bones just as much she’s sure. She dives toward him, following as he hits the ground, wincing at the damage she’d caused, but at least he was done and down, and wasn’t alone. He wasn’t alone.

She shifts back into herself, holding her side as she does so, feet hitting the ice and snow hard as she moves toward him to check on him and ensure she hasn’t accidentally killed him. But he’s breathing, if not knocked out cold, and she reaches for whatever part of him she can to try and drag him back the short distance to the line of sight.

He’s heavy, though, and it’s slow going. But when she can see the destruction in her vision, she calls out for the guards to come and help. “Take him to the Kraai.” She says, doing her best to pant through the cold, hissing against how her own bones had groaned when she’d knocked into him. But she’d gotten him out of the sky, and that’s what mattered.

do not think you are safe

because you love her

do not think she will not stain her mouth

red with your blood too

Lonely shadows following me
Lonely ghosts come a-calling

He'd had a dream, once, where birds flew down from the clouds and lifted him up on their backs so that he could touch the moon. It was before he learned to grow wings of his own. Weaver had laughed and said that being carried by dragons would be much more interesting.

Now, would he ever see a dragon without hating it? Would he ever sit by a fire and be at ease? Could he ever sing without his voice breaking, knowing that she would never chime in and twist his songs off course?

Questions followed him into the void, and the unconsciousness brought him neither comfort nor rest. Korbin didn't stir or wake at all until he was left at the Kraai.

------------

- Fin

Thousand voices dead at my feet
Now I'm gone, now I'm gone, now I'm gone