#the Drakewood River

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[bat-snake]

Feeling ways about. How far the Sea of the Castout extends and just an extra special layer of tragedy in Leola's death.

The rivers reach the Silvergrove, almost touching the Moonstone Path. They connect to the oasis in the Midnight Desert. They even connect up to the Storm Spire to some unlabeled sea(???). The connect to lakes that go into the Uncharted Forest and the Drakewood and Umber Tor.

Before the crater, there was a forest and a vast lack of a water source in that area. Leola's fall and Aaravos' century of grieving brought water to an area of Xadia where there was none before. So much that it spread through the land with unimaginable impact - life flourishing!

And of course, the cosmic/navigational impact with her star - bright and clear and steadfast and beautiful. If not navigation, then an inspiration for art, for poetry, for song, for declaring love. Or even just remembering: Woah! Astronomy!

Aaravos was right that she would be surrounded by love. Maybe not in the way he meant to comfort her. By accident, with her death, an avenue for all other life cracked open, and where life is, love follows.

Yet all the appreciation for the water and agriculture that came from it...no one actually knows (or cares?) who the Castout was. Surely some interesting little folk stories about the giant that wept in a crater for a while and a variety of guesses to how that happened.

They don't know she was someone's sweet little girl - someone's baby. They don't know she was murdered for showing compassion to a "lesser being". They don't know she died frightened and confused and seeking comfort from a parent floating out of her reach. Her "last wish" was unspoken and yet she had a star named after it.

For all of that, for all the love springing from and for Leola's impact on Xadia, only one remembers her and loves her for who she was in life. Yes, he may be perfectly aware of everything I just said. Maybe he's heard it before. Maybe he's considered it for himself. That her death created an outpouring of life and opportunity.

But it's bitter comfort. They don't love her like he still loves her.

[jelzorz]

109.

There was a time, Rayla thinks, when talking to Callum was as easy as it was to breathe. He was bright, and open, and he wore his heart on his sleeve proudly, which was one of the things she'd come to love about him, even if she thought Big Feelings Time was dumb and kind of childish. It was he who poked and prodded and asked all the questions, he who went out of his way to get to know her, even when there was no real reason to. Perhaps she might have even gone through with killing him if he hadn't talked his way out of it and allowed her to stall.

He's different these days. She won't pretend it's not because of her.

They're on the banks of a river in the Drakewood. She's refilling her canteen and he's washing a stain out of his scarf. He's taller than her now, his jaw sharper and his shoulders broader—changes that would have felt gradual and natural if she'd stayed, but she hadn't, and now he's a stranger again who looks at her with wariness in green of his eyes.

He was mad when he found her, naturally, and of course she was mad too. The whole point of leaving was to keep him safe and he'd followed her anyway, idiot that he is—but she's an idiot too, for leaving the way that she did, and even moreso for clinging to the hope that he might still...

He doesn't, obviously. They're working together now out of necessity, not because he cares the way that he used to, and certainly not because he still has feelings for her. Who would, after what she'd done?

But Rayla is selfish, and stupid, and still in love with him, and her heart aches in her chest because he hasn't been so close to her in years, but, at the same time, he's further away than ever. Her hands itch for his, her feet want to carry her forward, her lips have never missed his so much.

Do you still love me? she wants to ask.

The question never leaves her, and the river burbles to fill the silence.

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Terry x Claudia cheek kiss (#2, Part 2)

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