〔❁〕I hold on tight to our frayed bond...

It's emo hours fellas.
Takes place the same day as this thread, but in the later hours.

---

---

❁

  Izumi did not turn back after she'd left the mountains of Vanderfell's towers; not even when the words she relayed to @Reiko were words she wished to take back.
  -- and while self-doubt had still glued her to the floor once or twice to look back in regret, the cranebird's decision was set about one thing and one thing alone: she cared for both Reiko and Kuhn and couldn't picture herself caring more about one more than the other -- and that is why she would no longer find herself being chained to either side again.
  No longer to be used for the purpose of one or the other's thoughts and actions.
  and it was time for her to take her leave....
  Yet no matter how far Izumi had traveled, she couldn't find it in herself to make peace with her decision just yet. Not until she brought it back to the place it all started; here...
  ...she shouldn't have come
  Her heart already ached enough, and seeing this place again after so long only drove a deeper hole into it.
  'Do you remember the day we first met?' Izumi would ask Reiko -- because she remembered it all too clearly. Seeing an ethereal woman in white amongst the flowers, who searched desperately for her children and beckoned her to follow along with the promise of a home among them. A promise that she kept even to this day -- even if things weren't the same as before.
  Even if the complexion of the flowers didn't seem all that bright as they were before....now that home was no more.

 

...

  It was dark outside now.
  and somehow the rain had become even more aggressive than it had been earlier. Thunderstorms -- lightning -- winds that pulled the rain in every which direction. It's as if the sky itself mimicked her emotions.
  Izumi stood amongst everything, her fur slicked down against heavy fall, ears pinned at the harsh sound of lightning, and the floor beneath her paws beginning to flood over her wrist. It was not safe for Izumi to stay out here for much longer, yet time seemed to sit still where she sat.
  It was here, where her friend had first met her with kind eyes and an equally benevolent smile. She wasn't here now, however...
  A single strike of lightning shattered the sky in the backdrop, illuminating the land before her and revealing a single flower that floated atop the water's surface before her. As the crane sat up from the ground her muzzle gently lowered to pick it up. As a keepsake, if Izu were ever to return on a better day.
  Before finally, the dame turned, flicking her tail heavy with rainwater, and retreating to find a shelter for the night...

---

---

 

- -

the staff team luvs u