notyetlegend | → IC CONTACT FOR eachdraidh

You're awake!

[Merida looks equally disheveled, but not for the reasons Grainne is. She gives a small sigh of relief though, even as she runs her fingers through her hair, accidentally pushing some back over her shoulders and showing a familiar pair of earrings attached to her ears.]

I'll be there shortly. Just let me take care of a couple of things first.

[The locket snaps shut and no more than five minutes later Merida comes bursting into the room with a pack of four wolfhound puppies on her heels. There's a glass of water in her hands that she hands over, telling the pups to settle before turning her attention back to Grainne with a small smile.]

Here. You'll need it, I wager.

Awake?

[For a moment, Grainne forgot that technically, she hadn't left the Drabwurld at all. It had been so long and a dream...

But she has a few minutes to think about it, so when Merida finally does come into the room Grainne woke up in, the first thing she asks is, while taking the water...]

How long has it been, Merida?

A couple of weeks, give or take a few days.

[She holds onto the glass until she's sure that Grainne has hold of it and then takes the seat near her bed, which has a blanket thrown over its back. Merida lets her arms drape across her knees and her body hunch now that she's alone with someone she trusts, sighing and reaching down to pet a puppy that paws at her leg as one jumps onto the end of Grainne's bed, the other two content to just sniff around before chasing each other out the crack of the door.]

Everyone went to war about a week ago.

The war they said was coming... [Grainne takes a deep drink of the water.] That seems like such a long time ago...

They are all gone, then?

I know th' feelin'.

[She gives her a small, weak smile and nods.]

There's a couple of soldiers still with me, but most of them left with Cu. Eager fools.

[Merida's voice sounds bitter as she raises a hand to rub the bridge of her nose.]

Diarmuid's alright. Lord El-Melloi contacted me after I asked him to check in if he got contact from either of them.

[The name, or rather the sound of it, makes Grainne flinch visibly. Flinch, and a sad look that she doesn't seem able to quite suppress appears.]

Do you know if... if the people are fairing well at the Station?

[Merida notices the flinch and the look, reaching to wrap her hand around Grainne's. She remembers talking to her about the end of their tale, about what happened, and she can only assume that's what she's gone through. She shakes her head.]

I haven't heard hide nor hair about happenings at th' Station, but at this point, nowhere's safe.

[She purses her lips together. Sorry for all the bad news, Grainne :c]

Th' Jabberwock was released a few days ago from Caer Scima by some idiots. It's still an infant, so its path is sporadic at best. We just started takin' in refugees from areas hit by its aura of rot yesterday.

The Jabberwock? There's another one?

[The history behind the last one is well known, and she's even seen the destruction the last one left, or the remains of the destruction anyway.]

Has everyone gone completely touched?

Apparently Morla was collecting bits of th' last one to resurrect it, so Lord El-Melloi said. Th' Seelie released it too early when they attacked th' Caer.

[Merida laughs a little.]

You'd think, wouldn't you? I've been runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off givin' orders to find survivors thanks to this mess.

[With a sigh, Grainne stands up and smooths out the dress she woke up in.

A hand through her hair and she moves toward the door, her gait strained and oddly stiff, as it had not been before.]

Then I will go see for myself.

[Merida stands at the same time, reaching out to take hold of her arm as the puppies take that as a cue to bound out the door.]

Take it easy, m'lady. You just woke up. It'll be a bit disorientin' for a while.

I'm all right, Merida.

[But it's obvious she's not. Or, at least, trying to not think about certain things.]

...Princess Merida of DunBroch.

Now's not th' time to be a smart ass.

[Even as she says that, she does it fondly, chidingly.]

I did give my word I would do that...

[Her tone is very gentle, though.]

I know you did.

[Her hand is placed on Grainne's arm, a small smile curling as she tilts her head in a way that makes her hair part at the sides near her ears.]

Just take it easy for th' day, okay? Th' Station will be fine, it hasn't headed there yet. Then you an' I will head there.

[Giving a sigh, Grainne sits back down, but not on the bed.]

What has happened so far? Why would there be another Jabberwock, after such destruction last time? Is there any news coming from the front lines?

I only know what's been on th' Unseelie side of th' network.

[Merida's reply is a bit blunt as she decides to take the edge of the bed instead.]

We have an idea of how to bring th' Jabberwock back to what remains of Scima, we just have no idea how to get around it's aura of rot. As far as I know, th' Seelie attacked, a team tore Scima down to its foundations an' released th' Jabberwock. I saw a blonde man at th' center before he switched his locket off - or I'm assumin' to Seelie only. [She gives a small sigh.] I've asked Lord El-Melloi to keep me updated on Diarmuid an' Cu, but so far only Diarmuid has made contact.

[Grainne looks down at her locket, resting on the small chain she keeps it on.]

Could you not use mine? It may have been easier to contact Lord El-melloi and the Hound, being a Seelie locket.

[Earlier, she had gotten away with not acknowledging Diarmuid's name before, save for that flinch, but now it is too obvious. The younger girl is sure to notice, and she steels herself for questions.]

I would not have minded, though it may not be a good idea to be seen in the Seelie messages right now.

I thought about it, but I might have lost control of my anger like I did yesterday if I had. Everyone's stickin' to Seelie an' Unseelie lines.

[A decent flush crosses Merida's cheeks at the memory and she ducks her head. She definitely notices, and her lips purse into a thin line as she wonders if Grainne would be up for questions.]

...How long was it? Back home?

Then all the more fools are they in this mad land to never question.

[Grainne had never sounded bitter before in front of Merida... or, at least, that bitter.]

Those ones would rush to whatever drums were beating just to show that they were warriors regardless of the cost. [A small noise of disgust makes its way through Grainne's noise.]

It has been two years since I saw you last, Merida. At least for the time that has passed in my world.

I tried to warn them last month, m'lady. Sadly there are fools who would just as much not listen to reason than there are those who would heed th' call of th' drums of war.

[She does note the bitterness in Grainne's voice, a little surprised, though she does smile a bit even as she ignores the churning in her gut at the idea of what she might have experienced.]

Th' same as me then. At least we're not three hundred years late. [with Starbucks]

Three hundred years... [A small worried frown appears, and Grainne bites her lip.]

The faeries would do something like that. I hope nobody would have to deal with such a thing... a few is more than enough.

There was a man who came into DunBroch claimin' he'd been down a faerie mound, once.

[Merida chuckles a little at the memory, before reaching to squeeze Grainne's hand.]

You...experienced it, didn't you, m'lady? What we discussed over th' lockets last time you called me?

[That sadness is back. The look she can't quite shake, no matter how carefully she's practiced the neutral blank expression.]

He is gone. I know that now.

He's alive here.

[Merida draws herself closer, sliding off the bed to kneel down next to her friend.]

That has to count for somethin', right?

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