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I’m not entirely sure what I was trying to do. Cling to her, hold her or try or search for the attacker I was sure had to be a few strides behind. After all, as much as my Celeste and I are close it is rare she come screaming at such speed for my love and fatherly protection and as such I had convinced myself there was an enemy to find- my mind undecided as to whether I should start searching for them or wait for them to come to me before unleashing my unholy wrath. If even a hair on my child was out of place, one single hair- I would utterly annihilate them. I am a trained assassin, I have fought and killed beside Devil May Cry, I am the son of Heyel, a veteran of the war against Iromar in which I fought two wolves at once to attain a victory. Anyone or anything that had cause my child undue distress would be clobbered for it. When I found them. The blue violet of my gaze searched rapidly in near every direction for…whatever it was that had brought my beautiful Celeste running, my form very near coiled around her still like a physical shield from everything bad in the world. Alright maybe I did baby her a little, maybe Andro was right to worry she would never move out, find a mate, have a child or even get a job and yet I was entirely assured her job was to be my child, to be beautiful and wonderful and follow about in my footsteps like she did as a puppy. Fine- maybe I miss having small children, maybe I miss puppy paws racing after my own and squeals of delight when I come home in the evening. We have a big family and once we all lived in the same den. It was loud and nosy and cramped and hard and yet I loved every minute of it and Celeste……she was the only one I still saw every day now that we lived outside Diveen. Celeste was the last one I still had with me and I didn’t want to let her go and I didn’t want to admit it to my mate either. She probably knew. Andromeda knows everything- I think. The sooner we got back to Diveen the better, at least Guardian would be close then too, even Ambrosia.

Celeste somehow managed to detangle herself from my grip as I pivoted once more, tail held high and ears pricked forward, alert and prepared for each and every threat even despite the fact nothing in this world would ever have prepared me for the words she was about to say, for the realisation of a truth I wasn’t ready to accept. I would remember this day for the rest of my life, I would remember this single moment and the very beat of my heart as it seemed to slow- like I couldn’t hear her words, as if no part of me truly wanted to. Grandfather was dead? It’s like I heard the words and didn’t all at once, they sat in my mind and meant nothing as I simply stared at her, blinking (probably more rapidly then one should blink). My features were blank, all emotion and expression seeming to drain from them as I simply….stared. Heyel was dead? For a moment I almost laughed, I wanted to, I wanted to snort at how ridiculous she was being- that whoever had told her was surely having a joke. No a very funny one and one I would thump them for all the same and yet some tiny part of me didn’t believe it, some tiny part new this wasn’t a joke or a lie. He had not gone to Spirane, Isola had been looking, searching- I just……I just…..I was sure he was fine. Heyel was always fine. He was the damn definition of fine I…..I didn’t even know what I felt. How do you know what to feel when something immortal dies?

”Arghhhhh!”

Hysteria, it would seem, is infectious, Celeste’s screaming somehow managing to permeate what little of my mind was still functioning to respond in exactly the same manner. Heyel was dead. Dead. If this wasn’t the end of the world I’d like to know what damn well was! Maybe I never professed to love him, maybe I never could be the son he wanted but he was my father……I always loved him. I….I never told him. What were we going to do?! I..I….I….

”He can’t be dead, he cannot die, who told you he was dead? Are they sure? Did anyone check?! I demand a healer, all of them, ALL THE HEALERS!”

I never claimed to be good in a crisis. This really was more Andromeda’s field then my own. I think I may have been feeding the hysteria but my mind truly had no idea how to handle this. I had no plan, I had no reaction I…..I….refused to believe it. Was I going to die?! I must have started to pace, long strides rapidly sending my form back and forth, wrecking a path across the ground as I circled and paced, circled and paced atop the earth until I’d very near worn a track in the ground.

”NO I AM NOT DYING! I….it wasn’t a disease was it? An illness? Was it that puppy killing virus? Heaven help us we could all have it! Don’t talk to anyone, stay away from everyone, it’s an epidemic and it’s spreading! I knew this forest couldn’t be trusted, the trees probably have it, touch nothing Celeste, nothing! I won’t leave you darling I will never leave you! He can’t be dead, he can’t….what will Isola do? The pack, Diveen, I….I…this wasn’t in my training. Where is he? Where is Heyel?! I feel…..faint.”

I must have worked myself up a little too much, between Celeste screaming and my screaming and then my frantic pacing I guess I exerted myself a little too much- because that is when the world went black. It was the first time I had ever truly fainted (in a long time), eyes rolling backwards as my rather astounding white form simply crumpled to the ground. I can hardly have been out for long, waking almost as soon as I hit the, eyes growing wide once more. How on earth had I ended up down here?


AZRAEL

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"14 years ~ Andromeda ~ Sire of Meryl/Starfall/Guardian/Celeste/Iophiel/Mithos/Ambrosia/Elara/Zaphkiel ~ Diveen "