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"Sister, look at me."

The pale women stood so close that they shared the same breath, and might have shared the same skin. In the grey of dusk, the differences that distinguished them were erased; in stillness, they might have been mirrors of one another. But then one stirred, the dusky cloak of her mane falling over her eyes as she lowered her head, glancing reluctantly at the reflection that stood beside her. The rhythm of her lungs broke as she met her sister's gaze, and Greyhound inhaled a fraction of a second before the other exhaled. The salt-tanged air was fresher than the breath she'd been recycling from Bloodraven's lungs, and tickled in her throat like tiny grains of sand. She would have to get used to it, and soon.

A ripple of agony traveled through her as her heart began to separate itself from the one that beat beside her, tearing itself away from the whole.

"Greyhound. Don't do this," the palest mare continued, her white tail cutting scars in the grey sky. "Forget this madness and come back with me. It - it won't be so bad. Please, sister."

The dark-haired sister released the breath she'd been holding in a heavy sigh, bathing the skin of Bloodraven's neck in warmth. She reached forward then, peeling her lips back to place her teeth where her breath had just touched, and traced a gentle path to the hollow of Bloodraven's throat. "Would you stay, knowing your life is held thus? That a single impulse could end it?" Greyhound's jaws tightened for an instant, pinching the pale skin between her teeth until her sister made a strangled sound of pain that transformed into her name. "Greyhound...he's not like that. Our - I mean my - father, he was angry when he found out, but he doesn't blame you. You didn't choose the blood that binds you to another man."

"No," Greyhound agreed, withdrawing her teeth from her sister's skin. "But our mother did, 'Raven. And I am a living reminder of that fact, a bastard of that betrayal."

Silence enveloped them for a few seconds, filled only by the soft murmur of the sea as it crept toward them. Tugging at the dark-haired mare's hooves, pulling her into its cold embrace. Greyhound surrendered herself to its numbing waters, walking forward until she was immersed up to her breast. The pale-maned woman who had stood beside her hesitated before she stepped forward too, a shudder traveling the full length of her spine. "Grey...I don't care who your father is. I don't care. Don't leave me, Grey. Please - I need you, sister." Bloodraven reached forward to grab a length of her Greyhound's ashen mane between her teeth, pressing her lips tightly together as if she could bind her sister to her by sheer force of will.

"Let - me - go!" Greyhound roared, wrenching herself from her sister's grasp. A deluge of seawater was thrown into the air, then arced back downwards to soak them both. Panting, the grey grulla found herself facing Bloodraven now, watching the waves wash over the distinctive mark on her sister's chest that had given Bloodraven her name. She pressed her muzzle to its edge, and whispered into the bloodstained skin. "Be strong, 'Raven. Be strong and go home. You have a family, a place where you belong, and I - I must make my own."

Greyhound reared, whirling her body against the push of the waves, and surrendered all that remained of her to the sea.

When she scrabbled up the rocky shore, there was nothing left - nothing save a name, and the strong will that had carried her here. She clung to them both, clutching them close to her heart as she shook the last remnants of the sea from her pale coat. They gave her the strength to keep moving, though her limbs felt as if they had been infused with lead. After a journey that felt far longer than it was, Greyhound found herself in a starlit meadow. The shadows of her own kind pressed close to one another in one corner, sheltered from cold and solitude, but she did not seek them out. Instead, she stood and relished every shiver, every frigid breath, as tributes to the sister she had left behind.

BLOODRAVEN
rise and rise again