On the Hunt

At first, Kala and Virgil's expressions had started to soften as Ellie spoke. Having no choice in the matter made it more understandable. However, when Ellie told when the mission had ended, the clear pain on their faces told all. Tiara just closed her eyes, sighing. Being a mild empath as she was did not make this easy... "...That was over three years ago, Ellie... why... why didn't you come back? Why... why didn't you call?"

Ellie swallowed, and fought the urge to curl up into a ball on the chair. She continued the only way she could, like she were telling a story. "I woke up there, and felt incredibly ill. Headache, fatigued, sore--the works. I spent the morning crawling between the bed and the bathroom." She studied the weave of the denim in her jeans, "It wasn't til that afternoon that I figured it out. That I was expecting."

This news... Virgil's eyes widened in horror, but Kala's face went completely blank. Tiara, on the other hand, just looked at Ellie, her eyes starting to tear up rapidly. She closed her eyes tightly, covering her mouth and shaking her head. They waited for more... wondering how it could get worse.

Her voice trembled, the shame she felt plain as the horn on her true form's forehead. "I...I couldn't come back, or call...not when I knew that I--" her voice cut off and Ellie ducked her face a moment. "It couldn't have been your father's, although some mad part of me hoped..." She said the last in a whisper, realizing the truth for herself. She looked up again, quickly wiping her face as she chanced glances at the dragons' faces. Ellie shuddered a little, believing she must have made them all angrier. "I called an old friend and ended up living with her. My daughter was born on April 3 the following year. Still, I couldn't bring myself to go back, or to contact any of you. And I just...was scared and thought it best not to bother you. I started going on hunts again just a few months ago, and ended up running into...your aunt."

Kala continued to just stare for a long moment... then she stood, and slapped Ellie across the face as hard as she could. She didn't say a word, and just walked out of the room. Tiara had flinched at the slap, and Virgil just buried his face in his hands. Tiara, however, looked directly at Ellie. There was a bit of panic in her eyes. "Ellie... I can sense intentions, and am a mild empath... I don't know what happened, but I know that whatever it was, you are not happy about it. I don't think you wanted whatever it was... or whoever... were you raped?" Virgil tensed at that question, and Tiara for some reason seemed genuinely scared. "You need to... you need to tell me everything you can, it's important... before Bahara gets home..."

Ellie was lucky she wasn't human. She was sure her neck would have snapped and she would have landed in a heap at the opposite wall. As it was, she whip-lashed a little, and the left side of her face was imprinted with a red palm. Ellie didn't move from her spot, staring after Kala as she walked away. It wasn't until she heard the fear in Tiamat's voice that her silver eyes snapped back onto Tiamat's face. They thought she'd been raped? The unicorn's eyes locked onto her, as she thought rapidly, understanding just a little why there was the sudden scent of fear in the room--Bahara was coming home and Tiara thought someone had raped her. She drew breath as if to speak, but stopped, her jaw clenching as her tongue adhered to the roof of her mouth. Ellie couldn't move her neck, couldn't make her head nod or shake, and her whole body tensed in anger from her inability to communicate. Finally, pain stabbed her mind and she crumbled into the chair. She coughed a little, "Can I have some water?" Fucking thing always made her mouth go dry.

Virgil watched all this in confusion, and Tiara's gaze hardened. "...I see... Virgil, go talk to your sister, calm her down..." She went to go get some water, and Virgil stood up. He looked at Ellie, and it seemed he wanted to comfort her, but at the same time... it was hard, considering. He left to go after Kala, and when Tiara handed Ellie the glass of water, she sat down tiredly. "So... whatever happened, you are physically incapable of telling us what it was. THis is... problematic. Bahara is... nevermind. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Either way, it's obvious you didn't want any of this, so you know they'll forgive you for that... the fact that you never contacted them at all is an obstacle not so easily hurdled. I understand why you did what you did... you were ashamed. However... what you did was still the wrong thing to do by them...."

Ellie was heartened that Virgil even seemed to consider comforting her, and allowed herself to show him the shade of her smile in appreciation. She sipped the water given her, and thoroughly ignored Tiara's first sentence to her. Part of geas was you couldn't talk about it either. Her brows furrowed in worry for a moment when Tiamat mentioned Bahara. She spoke when she'd finally sipped enough to not feel like she'd eaten wool. "I know it was wrong, and I knew it then. I just...I don't know how to explain or if it can be. I can't ever make up for what I did. In my actions, I slaughtered a dream and that hurt just about as much as slaying a person." She dreaded Bahara's arrival. Ellie could imagine a million different reactions and none of them were good.

Tiara nodded slowly. "You'll have your work cut out for you... but Ellie, you need to understand something. They are angry... but they still love you. I think they always will. I mean... somehow, Bahara still loves me, despite everything... and if he could forgive me, I know he can forgive you. It won't be easy, but eventually, Ellie.. you'll have all of this back."

Ellie blinked at Tiamat. They might...want her back? How could they even want to risk it? No, she'd better not even think about it until she'd spoken with Bahara. She looked around the living room, at the pictures on the wall of all the things in their lives she'd missed... "Excuse me," she choked and walked rapidly into the foyer and let herself cry silently for a few minutes before going back to her chair.

Tiara watched Ellie for a moment, thinking. She was about to say something when Virgil returned, a rebellious looking Kala in tow. Both of them walked up to Ellie, though Kala wasn't looking at her. Virgil cleared his throat, then spoke up. "You... why didn't you at least call? Or... or send a letter, or.... something, so that we knew you weren't dead... and that we actually mattered to you..."

"I wanted to, but I kept getting afraid to," Ellie reached into her interior jacket pocket, pulling out a rubber-banded stack of various colored envelopes. "I wrote I don't know how many letters, but could never bring myself to mail them. I kept thinking they'd be traced back to where I was, and I'd be found." She stared at the envelopes in her hand before slipping them back into her pocket.

Here, Kala turned to her, glaring. "Really? So you did care? You wrote those letters to us, and you didn't send them because you were afraid you'd be found? So, basically, you cared more about staying hidden from us, than letting us know you were even alive. Our feelings were less important than your own, is that it?"

Ellie just looked sad, "Your feelings aren't less important than mine. But yes," she paused, "It was all incredibly selfish of me."

Kala narrowed her eyes. "You're damn right it was selfish! You... you abandoned us, you selfish bitch! I don't care if you were ashamed of yourself! I don't care what you did! We counted on you, loved you, and you just cast us aside because you're a coward!" She slapped Ellie again, but this time, it actually wasn't as strong as before, though still painful. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" She slapped Ellie each time she said this, though then collapsed to her knees, gripping Ellie's top and burying her face in it as she broke down into sobs. "Why!? Why couldn't you... w-why couldn't you just... just tell us? Why d-didn't you w-w-want to be with us? Don't... didn't you, I... I thought y-you loved us... w-we love you... so why don't... you love us?"

During this, Virgil just stood there, shaking a bit as he tried not to break down into tears as well. On the couch, Tiara had her hands over her mouth, crying herself, hating seeing Kala like this.

Ellie sat there, taking the blows, staring at what she'd done to Kala. She may have said and thought she'd understood what she'd done before, but today, now, seeing them finally... Her own tears were falling when Kala collapsed. She froze a moment, not sure what to do, and then instinct told her and still she hesitated, afraid she'd be rejected. "Kala..." She cried more and lightly put her hands on her adoptive daughter's shoulders, fighting the urge to hug the girl to herself lest that just make things worse. "Kala, I do love you, I love all three of you. And I'm so sorry, I don't know the answers to why I did everything that I did. You're absolutely right, everything you said about me...and I don't deserve a family like the one I broke..."

For a long moment, there was no response. Then Kala let out a slow breath. "...No, you don't. You don't deserve it.... but I don't care.. if you ever leave us again..." She left it hanging, still not looking at Ellie, while Virgil moved closer, and dropped to his knee's as well, pulling Ellie and Kala both into a hug.

"...You're our mother... that's what you've always been... please, don't do this again... just... just stay here, with us... please..."

Ellie hugged Kala tight. She sobbed openly when Virgil hugged them both, and rested her forehead against her adoptive son's head. "I won't leave you, I won't, I won't..." Her voice became an incoherent mess of sobs, apologies, and thank yous.

After what seemed like a long time, Ellie was able to stop crying, for the most part. She sniffed, "I won't abandon you three again. But, we have to see what happens when..." she felt a chill of fear again, "when Bahara gets home."

Kala spoke up then, wiping her eyes. "It'll be okay... Dad... Dad never stopped loving you... and he forgave Aunt Tiara, I'm sure he'll forgive you.. though... you know he's going to want to kill whoever is responsible for all of this, right?"

Ellie didn't comment. She couldn't have if she wanted to, since her reaction would hint at the time she'd been gone on the mission. Instead she glanced at the clock, "He should be back kind of soon, shouldn't he?" She wiped at her face with her jacket sleeve, glad she hadn't worn any makeup.

Virgil nodded. "Yeah... about fourty minutes, I think... hey... you... you aren't upset at all... about Aunt Tiara being here, are you? I know what happened, we all do, and..." He wasn't sure what to say, really. They loved their aunt, but they also loved Ellie. How could they handle things when Ellie very likely wanted to kill Tiara?

Ellie grimaced a little. "I almost tried slaying her in front of an entire store of people when I saw her earlier today," she admitted. She glanced over at their aunt. The ancient hate she had was still there, trying to stampede its way out. "But...she got me to come back here. I can't say I'll ever like her, or will ever really trust her." She paused and looked suddenly fierce, "I won't try and kill your aunt. I know you none of you really have reason to trust me right now and I'll make any concessions you want. But, she's not allowed alone with Linnea. I can't do that."

Kala and Virgil exchanged glances. "Linnea? Is that... your child?" Tiara, on the other hand, had flinched greatly at the insinuation there at the end.

"...I'm... going to go to my room for now.." She stood, and hurried out of the room. She understood why Ellie had said that... but still, the mere idea that she could kill a child...

Ellie felt a small twinge of...something, when Tiara left the room. The goddess had convinced Ellie to come back after all. But she couldn't shake the hatred of thousands of years in one night. She made herself calm down a little before speaking, "Yes, her name is Linnea. I kept her." Could they even think otherwise, knowing of her loss? "I know she's not Bahara's, but she's mine."

Kala and Virgil just nodded. "Yeah, we kind of figured... and don't worry, we'll treat her like a sister. She's your daughter, so that's what she is. Knowing Dad, he won't hold anything against her either. Though it'll take some time before he'll be real affectionate, I think.... but not too long, I'd think..."