Reunion Angels {Varildes, Open}

[Tracy]

Lani stood there with “Tar,” but wasn’t quite sure how much longer she would have the willpower to stay on her feet. She didn’t know how to handle this situation, and the enormity of it hadn’t quite landed yet. Still, in Lani’s mind, none of this could be possible. Either she was dreaming or all them were severely mistaken. Getting through the fact that her twin sister was gone had been devastating and nearly crippling. After such an ordeal, Lani couldn’t just stand there and accept this new haremaid was the sister she’d lost.

Backing away slowly, she had to fight the urge to leave the room. Instead she found a stool some distance away from her siblings and took refuge on it, all the while staring at Tar. If nothing else, they’d definitely found Lani’s doppelganger wandering about in the wild.

Tar’s retractions and apologies fell on deaf ears. Lani was as sarcastic and abrasive as anyone, and she never expected apologies, just as she was never really one to give them. Water under the bridge really. She didn’t even hate this Tar hare, her sarcasm and spiteful comments were just… her way.

Even if they were right, even if, somehow, this hare was the twin she’d lost at sea, she had not returned the same hare. Lani just kept staring at Tar, bright blue eyes wide with speculation.

Finally she spoke, slowly, quietly. “How did you end up on the slaver’s ship? How far back can you remember? Anything about how you were captured?”

”I’m useless.”

She hesitated. “If you’re really-” Lani was still hesitant to say her twin’s name out loud. “If you’re really a Varilde, you’re far from useless.”

[Nicodemus]

Nico recoiled as if he had been struck from Lani's words. Looking hurt, he took a few steps away from his sister and let his ears droop slightly. "If she's not, then she's jolly well not." He muttered. "But there is always hope if'n ye look for it; how could ye even suggest that Crys is gone for good, eh?" When Lani and Tar stood next to each other, though, he did not move a muscle except to-very slowly- close his eyes and put his face in his paws.

"Crys." He mumbled. He was on the edge of crying: Lani's reply followed by the revelation of who Tar really was was a bit much at that moment. He got himself together again a moment later, and pulled his paws down just far enough that he could peek over the tops at the two haremaids. "Crys." Then he was himself again.

"Lani, East, South." He sent them a meaningful look. "Don't bother her with that right now. There will be plenty of time for memories-" Nico almost choked on the word. His memories were not things that he particularly wanted to bring back up. "-later, when all are well and Lani and East have rested a bit more." Tapping his foot, Nic nodded decisively. "Yore all I got, and I'm bloody well not gonna lose ye t'a bunch o'vermin, wot wot!"

It was just as well, then, that Tar didn't seem to remember too much of what had happened that night that they lost her. If she did, then she might remember the faces of her family as they tried to protect her. She might remember that Nicodemus was not one of those people.

The forced smile came back, though only partially: it was more of a lopsided grin than the warm, reassuring smile that it was meant to be. But it was there all the same, and Nico wasn't about to let up his guard now. He had kept it up for all these years, he could keep it up for half an hour.

[Grath]

" Well, if I'm this Crystin. Then how come I can't remember a bally thing wot....I try rememberin' past the ship, but I hit a black wall! The only things I can sort o' grasp are in me dreams....Voices? But I can't tell what their sayin'...Rain maybe?...Eyes. Defiantly eyes. Red ones.....But who knows if they are my past? Probably made them up.”

“Err…” East scratched the back of his head a little apologetically. “I’m afraid that was probably me, wot…”

“How did you end up on the slaver’s ship? How far back can you remember? Anything about how you were captured?”

“We were traveling back to the mountain from Southsward when the ship ran into a storm. Ye were on deck an’ Pa went out to get you…we lost you both overboard.” East sighed, he was merely reciting facts that he’d been told, he didn’t actually recall the incident himself. South told him that he’d had to knock East out to get him below deck..

”I’m useless.”

She hesitated. “If you’re really-” Lani was still hesitant to say her twin’s name out loud. “If you’re really a Varilde, you’re far from useless.”

“Well, its not likely that a Crys-replica is runnin’ about t’world, now is it?”

"Lani, East, South." He sent them a meaningful look. "Don't bother her with that right now. There will be plenty of time for memories-" […] "-later, when all are well and Lani and East have rested a bit more." […] "Yore all I got, and I'm bloody well not gonna lose ye t'a bunch o'vermin, wot wot!"

Eastpaw looked around at his family, whose faces and postures ran the gamut of emotions: pain, fear, distrust, hope, joy. Love, self-disgust, worry. Exhaustion. He forced his own tired muscles to move into a grin. “Ach, o’ course not, ye great silly Nico! A bunch o’ nasty vermin can’t keep the Varildes down! Now go on ye two, let us rest. Lani, Crys, back t’yore beds now, wot!” He moved back to his own bed, then turned to Lani as she settled down. “Lani… are ye ok?” He asked softly. It had been really hard on her, losing Crystin, part of the reason she was fighting so hard about Tar being Crys, he thought.

[Mista P]

“Err…I’m afraid that was probably me, wot…”

Tar, who now was begging to call herself Crystin, looked at East strangely. "You?...." she said very quietly, looking into his eyes. As Crys looked at them, she tried to imagine them red. Yes. It was East. Even thinking back to when East and Lani rescued her. He had the same red eyes."Yes....They were you....but how?"

“We were traveling back to the mountain from Southsward when the ship ran into a storm. Ye were on deck an’ Pa went out to get you…we lost you both overboard.”

Crys thought hard. East's story, it seemed like fact more than the true tale, but still. It meant something to Crys, but the dark looming wall in her mind wouldn't let her penetrate to remember. It would make sense, the rain, the voices. How East's red eyes came into the mix, Crys didn't remember.

“How did you end up on the slaver’s ship? How far back can you remember? Anything about how you were captured?”

Crystin's ears flapped up then down once as she thought about the ship. "Well, I remember being really wet when they found me. I might have been in the water. I remember them laughin' at me, calling me Tar. I think I thought it was my name,or they told me it was my name and not knowin' I believed them. That's as far back as I can solidly go. The next memories I've got are being chained to an oar bench and being whipped and starved to oblivion." Shivering to herself Crys semiconsciously rubbed some of the scars upon her arms, remembering the pain of their deliverance.

“If you’re really- If you’re really a Varilde, you’re far from useless.”

Looking up at Lani, Crys almost smiled. That was the first time she could remember Lani giving her a complement. Maybe, she forgave her. If Lani was indeed her twin, Crys thought to her self, than she wouldn't want a different one.

“Well, its not likely that a Crys-replica is runnin’ about t’world, now is it?”

"Lani, East, South."[...]"Don't bother her with that right now. There will be plenty of time for memories-" […] "-later, when all are well and Lani and East have rested a bit more." […] "Yore all I got, and I'm bloody well not gonna lose ye t'a bunch o'vermin, wot wot!"

“Ach, o’ course not, ye great silly Nico! A bunch o’ nasty vermin can’t keep the Varildes down! Now go on ye two, let us rest. Lani, Crys, back t’yore beds now, wot!”

Crys tried her best to give East a weary smile. Laying back down upon her bed, Crys looked up at the celling of the Infirmary. She had a family! She had a real name! She had a twin! All of it was so much for one hare. She was rid of the vermin, she wouldn't be hurt any more. She wouldn't be Tar anymore. She was Crystin!

The Black wall of memory still pledged Crys's mind. What if she never regains that memory? What if it grew and blocked more than her past? Crys shoved those thoughts aside. I'll just make new good ones! She thought to herself.

Lying comfortably in the cot, Crys let her eyes close and gently drift of into a blissful sleep. One of the first comforting sleeps she had ever, that she could remember. No dreams of pain, no longing inside. Her heart was at peace tonight....

[Tracy]

Lani stayed separated from them a bit still, staying on the stool and watching the reactions of her siblings, and particularly Tar’s reactions.

"Don't bother her with that right now. There will be plenty of time for memories-"

Lani ignored Nico’s remonstrations, looking intently at the other haremaid. It was hard to tell if she’d even heard her brother. She was on a mission, and Nico, with his quiet and polite nature was far from being the one who was going to stop her.

Although she listened to the other haremaid explain what little she could remember, it was the way she looked at East that really got her. The other haremaid had no memory of them, their childhood, of the storm that separated them, but there was an unmistakable and unaffected flash of recognition. Her explanation of red eyes wouldn’t have swayed her even, because they’d both just witnessed that only hours ago, again. No, it was completely the look of familiarity on her face.

She had nothing to say about it. As East beckoned them all back to bed, she hesitated, still watching… Crystin, she supposed, and the look of peace that had overcome her. Sliding slowly off the stool, she walked over to her bed and sat on it, but didn’t look much like she wanted to sleep. Lani didn’t sleep well in beds that weren’t her own, and worse still with everyone around her. To appease her older brother though, she tugged the blanket up to pretend she was going to get some rest.

“Lani… are ye ok?”

She nodded, fidgeting with the hem of the blanket, picking idly at a loose thread. “I’m fine,” she replied. And she was. But she had a lot to think through, alone, outside the emotional and crowded confines of the infirmary.

[Rorgus]

Southpaw tried to take it all in at once. He watched Tar/Crys look at East almost as if recognizing him. He remembered having to knock him out and carry him down to the cabin. He saw Lani back away and sit down in a corner. He went over to her and sat down next to her putting a comforting arm around her he said.
" Is anything wrong Lani? You look troubled, aren't you glad to see your twin?" He wondered if she really WAS glad to see her.

She'll get over it in time. It will take us all a bit of time to get used to having another family member. She's just nervous. When she gets used to it they'll be just like they were before. He thought.

He thought back to before they had lost her in the storm, of when they had all had wonderful times together, and of when they all used to play with their father. He wondered how things would turn now that they had Crys back. He knew in a season or so they would all be back to normal and having a good time. He got up automatically and, feeling a bit tired after running for Lord (Dont know who's badger lord) he decided to go to bed.