She hadn’t wanted this. The pain of hiding was ripping away at the tattered shreds of her heart. This was woman she had desperately sought for, fought against every odd, she deserted a home she had been handed to, and she had left behind her father. Although at the time of her departure she had not so much cared about leaving Pierce behind, she knew that her absence might crack the last of shell that was remaining. Just because Sabelle had shut her father out of her own life, didn’t mean she hadn’t seen the effects it had on him. She loved him no doubt, but the anger and betrayal she felt when she looked at him was too much to bear. There had once been an unwavering kindness, love and unbridled support from the alabaster knight. But it started to dwindle and eventually it dissipated into the thin air of the rugged mountains which they lived in. And with it had disappeared what little empathy Sabelle gave to her father. She was his daughter. She ought not to be burdened with his painful secrets that had everything to do with her mother and Athene. And maybe the pain of hearing the somewhat hateful language her father used when speaking of Athene had also driven her away. The resentfulness that had built up when he had taken her away was only exemplified when he spoke to cruelly about the only women Sabelle had ever had as a mother.
Sabelle loved Athene, although time had seemed to render her incapable of showing it.
Somewhere within her body there still remained a fragment of the small girl that had once wanted to run endlessly and explore the world at the side of her mother. Sabelle even now could feel the tug of it somewhere deep within her soul, but Athene’s words and the calculating questions had shut it back into a box somewhere. Too scared to venture out and see whether or not the bond it had once had with Athene’s own soul still remained. Sabelle wanted to rescue that kinship, the mother-daughter bond that they had once had. Part of her wanted to break down crying and tell her everything that had happened to her. The breeding, the love she’d found in another woman, the way her father had slowly closed off and become a cold figure. Whose sole purpose had become to groom her for the throne, her duties rather than being the loving father that she needed so desperately. All of this and more. Maybe then she could release this cold, calculating façade of poise and grace. But it wasn’t that easy was it? Life couldn’t just snap back to the way it used to be. Maybe one day, but even that hope felt hollow.
Instead she stared blankly at the antlers that had just fallen from her crown. Athene tried her best to explain what had occurred in Sabelle’s absence but it made no sense what so ever. Yes she had seen the destruction of her birth pack, but such disasters were bound to happen. She had never seen the other packs of Blossom Forest, so their change whatever it may be, might as well have been the way they looked before she had left. Sabelle absently nodded her head testing the weight of her crème agouti crown. It was normal once more but there still laid the antlers at her paws, the only way to know if they might come back would be to look at her reflection for the stubs of their bases, like those she had seen on the deer wandering around here. The only way I can think to know whether or not this magic will truly render us entitled with crowns of antlers is to see if there are stubs of growth now protruding on our own crowns, like we would see on the young cervidae we hunt. Sabelle padded towards Athene quietly, she arched her neck to try and get a better look at Athene’s own crown looking for signs where new growth would come in. There are reminiscent traces of the bone growths and so I would assume that once season changes we will once more be decorated with antlers. A soft sigh left her maw as she backed away from Athene. She sat down and reached up to her own paws feeling for the nubs. There were two small bumps on her crown.
Since there is really nothing to be done about these new growths, we might as well try to continue as if nothing has happened so odd as this. Sabelle spoke directly, although the connotation of these words might have meant more than the denotation. Sure the antlers were a distraction but so was the distance between them in body and mind. It was Sabelle’s subtle way of trying to reach out to her mother. Athene didn’t want weakness, but Sabelle wanted her mother so she would try to reach out without releasing the walls around her memories and emotions.
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