At that faint touch upon my muzzle – my own child lapping away my blood – the screeching ceases. My paws drop to the cold, stony earth and stop their clawing at my ears. Bloodshot eyes peer up at the stoically staring face of Castiel as he had requested an answer to a question only moments prior. I simply stare back at him for the longest moment as I take in the silence that now surrounds me; a quiet that is soon disrupted by the life that thrives outside of my cavern. Yet my mind is no longer tormented and for once I have a moment of clarity.

I move to rise above my child now – the size of the den capable of allowing me to stand upright – and step over him as I tend to the newborn I had neglected. He lays squirming and grunting in displeasure of his situation, though from a touch of my muzzle he quiets and I move him to the warm place in which I had just been reclined upon. I take a few steps toward the entrance of the stone den only to stop right before the patch of sunlight that stretches inward toward me. ”Your very existence has always been because I willed it to be so. Your reason for being here is to allow me to become immortal even when I have died.” I answer him in a deep, feminine timbre as I stand so still.

The boy has always seemed to be more attached to myself and Elijah since his birth than any of the other children. His demeanor the exact opposite of Kairos even. There is some sliver of appreciation for Castiel’s yearning for his purpose and his loyalty thus far in his young life. I know that my end will be drawing near soon as I revel in the eye of this storm that has overcome me. For how long I will have this lucidity I am unsure, but I will do what I can with it until it is gone again. > I speak again as I turn my head slightly to peer at him from my peripherals. ”You have much to learn...”

And so little time left with me.