the unfortunate events of fate

 There are two things Aelia hated more than anything in the world; one was being apart from her family, and two was change. And not the kind of change that morphs your mentality into another way of thinking —, no she loved that, she lived for that kind of change — but not the kind that rips you away from your whole life. Everything and everyone you've ever loved or known just gone. She hadn't realized the full extent of what she'd gotten into yet and always thought the stories her mothers told were more warnings or an acid trip gone wrong — she never thought it'd be in her lifetime that she would transcend one reality to another.

 It began with a feeling, briefly, as if floating on air. And then another tumbling one that whirled in her stomach as if she were falling, descending rapidly. Aelia's eyes flew open, gasping for air as she grasped the sure ground beneath her and arose from purple and pink wildflowers to face out to a vast lake. For a second, there is relief, and about to chuckle with it, but there is a sudden realization. Realization that this was not the lake she'd grown up next to her entire life. In fact, the lapping quietness of it is enough to make her want to scream to fill the void where the waterfall was supposed to be.

 Lunar eyes fly to the ground beneath her, heart thumping as she noticed she was on the cliff's edge, overlooking the vast body of water. A ripple of nerves pulls tight through her chest — what were the Five trying to tell her? It was a quick thought, one that didn't matter as she stumbled backwards, slapping right into a stone pillar, its crumbling edges threatening to spatter onto her if she wasn't more careful. “This... This can't be happening. No.. It's a dream... A dream, yes.” There were a few times she was able to tell that she had been dreaming, and usually, once she figured it out, she would wake, right?

 The reprieve of waking didn't find her; the Daystar's hope was starting to dwindle. Her golden body started to tremble the longer she waited, staring out at the lake, fear starting to gobble at the sparks of hope.

@Augustus

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There was a difference in the way they operated. Augustus — well, he was used to being displaced. To not having anywhere in particular to call home. The Vale had stopped being that early on, and their family in the wind. Augustus ventured far and wide, but he always returned, and in the end, his home was a person, not a place. He returned to his little squirrelled away makeshift abode because he knew Aelia would be found.

Home was golden fur and grey eyes. Home was rambunctious banter and wayward smiles, sharp teeth and passionate feelings.

Home wasn't trees or dens or stone. Not grass or flowers.

Home was her, and for him, this couldn't rattle his bones.

For her, it would. Aelia had always had a home in the Respite, both her parents had been alive and well and none of her siblings were died. Home had been a place, and now, without a choice, she had been snatched from it.  When he woke, Augustus' blood was set ablaze by the unknown, the danger that could lurk, and the way he could actively let his past remain forgotten. His grief and longing left in another place.

It was her words that drew Augustus to stand, thick legs trembling for a moment as he came to properly, and he wanted to grimace at the way Aelia was crumbling. Not from frustration, but because he couldn't fix it. Not this — never this. Tiberius had been plucked just the same a time or two, and so had Augustus. He knew that there was no control here, no wishing upon a star and it was granted.

"Princess," he hedged, walking up to her as she stood, flush against the stone pillar that looked like it had seen better days. "Ya awake," Augustus rumbled, supposing that if anyone had to tell her, he was glad it was him. He could take her anger or whatever emotion that came from it, and in the end, he'd have wanted to kill anyone else that may have been in his place, anyway.

"C'mon, move away from tha stone," he told her, not wanting to see it crumble on his Piss Princess.

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 A glaze had overtaken her eyes, dwindling hope that dries them and forces her to squeeze them shut. The quiet lake offers no sign — at least, not a clear one, as if it would be that easy. The Five's lessons never were.

 'Princess,' her heart seizes, she doesn't even have to open her eyes to know who the voice belongs to: 'ya awake.' The sequestering panic ebbing throughout her body starts to lessen, his tone, though raspy and thick, soothing to her core, whether she particularly liked it or not — in this instance, she grappled onto it like a safety rope as she finally forced her eyes open again. “Awake? No...” Her voice is quiet, unlike the sure woman she was growing to be. “This is a dream, Gus.” She tries to fool herself; even dream Gus could send her shivering — she'd known that from previous dream encounters.

 Aelia hadn't even noticed how unsturdy the stone was; all that she'd felt was the cool rock against her back and something that kept her from tumbling to the ground. She felt her head lift, the crown of her skull against the rugged stones, seeing the cracks in the fixture, none soon to tumble, at least, not to her eye. Her focus slid back down to Gus, “It's just a dream, it wouldn't hurt me.” Further convincing herself, trying to cope with the foreign landscape. In fact, she's tempted to prove that it is and lean further back into it — but instead her gaze fixates on him, scared to let go.
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