[SE] Fear is the mind-killer

Alys

Sascha curled herself around one of Boreal's legs, disturbed and unsettled, and allowed herself to be washed as the humans talked overhead. Despite the dragon's reassurance, the little cub didn't want to stray too far from her bonded just now - or, perhaps, ever again.

Alys, for her part, was inclined to agree, and as she dropped her hands from Tal's face, she hugged herself around the middle as though trying to hold herself together. It was easily the most shaken she could remember having been, and she wasn't looking forward to trying to sleep out here now that they'd seen the nightmares that lay in store. "We should send word back home," she said, her brow furrowed. "Deimos warned me that strange flora had been appearing. He'd want to know about these flowers."

In the meantime, though - "You're soaking wet. You need to change before you catch a cold." It was easier to give orders than to linger on what had just transpired. Those memories would leave her shaking for many nights to come.

gather 'round, here's how to get what you want
introduce a new religion of feeling like a boss

Boreal wasn't moving from her spot beside both humans either, but as much as she might want to knock her human down and sit on him to keep him safe, she knew it would only make things worse right now. She did what she could to fill their bond with love even as she shared it with Sascha in a mothering way, trusting Tal to do the same for Alys.

Tal let his friend's hands go reluctantly, especially when she moved to hug herself in a way that made his heart lurch even as he wanted nothing more than to do the same for himself. He managed to hold himself back, only wrapping the fingers of one hand around his other arm and rubbing reflexively at one of the places the roots and vines of the dream-flowers had bound him. "Mm." He offered a noncommittal agreement to her suggestion; the warden's name was the last one he wanted to hear just then, but he nodded stiff agreement. Personal preferences be damned, someone in charge needed to know about the danger. "You should prob'ly do the writin'," he mumbled, then blinked in surprise at the tone of command in her voice.

He didn't have a smile in him at the moment, but he gave a more natural nod, for once not in the mood to argue. "Yeah. Yeah... an' then I'm movin' the ship. Darkness be damned." It wasn't the cold that made him shiver as he spoke. "I'm gettin' us high upwind o' those flowers. Just in case. Even if we don't do much sleepin' tonight," he added, a grim wryness in his tone.

He ducked back into the cabin to towel off, and Boreal was clearly torn between her desire to follow him and his request for her to stay outside and protect Alys and Sascha. He re-emerged in a fresh shirt and trousers, bringing Ays's coat with him on his way to the anchor, a look of grim determination on his face as he set to work preparing to sail the Peregrine across the treacherous Sea to a section without black lotuses bobbing in the vanishing water.

The night was long and sleep was even farther off than morning as they huddled together beneath the Peregrine's thickest blankets, sharing warmth and what comfort they could find in the cold desert night.

~Fin~