Tracks had only led the siblings so far, deciding collectively to search for the one who left them to fend for themselves. If anything, following his steps would lead them to their mother, would it not? While she couldn't be sure, it was better than staying put. After a bit, she'd have sworn she saw eyes observing them through the tree-line.
"How many moons have you seen so far, Bleu?"
Young warrior patted herself down, filthier than she'd have liked to admit. Internally insisting to focus on the the remnants of his trail, there was a bit she chose to neglect. Wait, no, that wasn't the problem. Where is it?
She couldn't turn anything invisible, unlike her mother. He must have had it, then, else she left it behind when she brought back the hare to him. Scanning their immediate surroundings, she nearly spun in a full circle looking for the misplaced item. Face scrunched up, her icy blue eyes squished in a squint. Although she didn't say anything, she swayed, perplexed but unwilling to voice her concern aloud.
Lost in his own troubling thoughts, Bleu didn't answer.
Trees upon trees upon trees upon trees. So many trees. That's all they'd seen for a while now. Bleu still wondered to himself if all of this was a dream. Would he soon wake up to the sound of his father's violent coughing as he'd done for months now? Or perhaps the gentle chatter of his beloved clansfolk? No...this was life now. "Do you think..."He started, tiredly coming to a standstill with Sera, "Do you think Tempestclan was attacked too? Do you think Da's brother is dead?"
Sera gave another pat before pausing at his question. She’d been avoiding having to think about it entirely, removing the thought with the hope that the stranger they ran into would successfully bring back their mother. Uncle Insignious...
“Uncle? He wouldn’t...”
Yet he would’ve shown up. He would have been there before the stranger ever approached. He would have checked on the two and even assisted in fighting off the attack, right? Why wasn’t he there? And although she couldn’t see anyone past her father, what if the enemies did?
The more she thought about it, the more it hurt.
“I don’t know, I don’t think so.”
She shook her head excessively, slapping the sides of her face to regain her focus. Sera had lost something precious, something to focus on that wouldn’t hurt her nearly as much as thinking about them.
Taking a deep breath, she exhaled loudly as she walked right up to Bleu.
“We’ll find Uncle after we find mom. Okay? We will. As long as we stick together. That’s what we call a plan! Right?”
Aki crouched down in front of them, putting his hands protectively on each of their shoulders. Looking at Sera with a heartfelt frown he said, "I found the clan she was in, but I couldn't find her. A fellow clanmate of her's didn't even know where she was.. "But," He added firmly, as Bleu's face fell in disappointment, "but I left them with a message for her to meet me somewhere, once she's returned. "In the meantime, though..." Akihito watched the ground, thinking hard. "Do you know anyone else in any other clan that you could stay with? I could take you there, then go back and wait for your mother to meet with me.. "Do you know Insignious?" He asked them.
She could feel her heart drop down into her chest the moment he frowned. The news laid in a gray area of what could be so much worse, yet she still held onto a certain type of resentment. Why hadn't her mother tried to return to them if she was really where Akihito said she was?
"Uncle Siggy."
Sera answered, leaning some of her weight away from the two. It wasn't as if she hated the idea, but all those what if's...
And just what IF?
Releasing Bleu entirely, balled up fists held close to her stomach in attempts to settle her fears. At the very least, she felt as though she could hide from them more effectively than turning invisible.
"No, but mom's there! We can't just leave her... What if she ran away on purpose?"
She hadn't meant to blurt it aloud, but she couldn't help it. The young warrior squeezed her hands tight, as if holding onto the last of her hope.
A shame she hadn't known her mother's true state.
"What if we go back home and she comes looking for us? And then what if they-- what if they find here out there and take her away for good then? Or if we go back and they hurt or take you, too?"
Her concerns started to morph into insecure rambling-- something she had desperately tried to keep from doing in front of her sibling. However, with an adult in front of them, it was hard to keep it to herself. Suddenly, it dawned on her. She'd lost yet another something so quickly.
"I-I lost mom's umbrella. I only set it down for a moment a-and..."
Aki raised a hand gently, "Sera-Sera, it's alright. There's always a chance something bad could happen, its true. "But you're in more danger out here with only me. If Insignious and his clan are alright, both of you will be much safer with him. "Don't worry about the umbrella." He smiled at them tenderly. "Please trust me on this."
Bleu watched from Aki to Sera with his usual wide eyes. He always waited for Sera to make the final decisions.
Fists unclenched to allow room for her palms as she wiped at tears trailing down her cheeks. Stubbornness was in her nature, even if what the Angel said was logical.
“Wouldn’t Uncle come looking for us already if he could?”
Her questions led way to more anxiety, the tips of her fingers becoming unseen the more she spoke.
“They’ve got so many warriors, at least one of them could. Y-You know momma, so I trust you. But there were so many eyes on the way here; they were everywhere. You didn’t see them when you left.”
"There were a couple, but they never got close. I saw some when I went hunting, but they-- they didn't move at all."
Sera stared up at Akihito, mentally swearing against the pair of red eyes which overlapped against the Angel's own. How didn't she notice them before? Subconsciously revealing her own faint angelic aura, the girl noticed much more than that. Not in the aspect of Akihito, but she found more wandering eyes.
Observing the broken family, three pairs of eyes watched the company.
"Mom?"
Icy blue irises sharply turned to stare at empty space behind their temporary guardian. There were two other auras besides her own there, although both were insanely different than what she knew. Were they even slightly angelic in nature?
Aki quickly stood before the two children protectively. He wasn't sure what Sera was referring to, but he knew many things existed beyond one's sight. "Who's there..?" He asked, much softer than he meant to. Damn this angel voice. Aki glared, this time yelling with force. "Show yourself!"
There was no physical movement. Not from the forest around them, nor the eyes in which Sera maintained contact with. The intimidation tactic had not stirred them, however, two pairs of eyes vanished from her point of view.
"You can't see them?"
She whispered, her sight waning into normalcy.
"I told you, they don't move, but sometimes they'll go away. But I thought one was mom! It looked like her, so maybe she got stuck on something."
Turning head to Bleu, she searched for confirmation. Didn't he see it? Their mother mentioned it before, but perhaps only Sera had been there. One of the few times Yuuki went with her to go out hunting through territory.
"Momma said that sometimes things and people get stuck somewhere."
Young warrior frowned upon Bleu's obliviousness, which was then worsened by Akihito's need for clarification.
"It's when..."
Dashing past her guardian and twin, she huffed before crouching down to where the first and most similar aura to her own appeared. Prodding at the ground, she looked for anything that would assist her case.
"This. Sometimes it gets stuck. See?"
Leaning her head back, she held up and presented a thin sliver of long black hair. As if she'd hand-fed him pieces of a very obvious puzzle.
"There was gold, blue, and this one was red. Mom's hair got stuck, but it isn't her. And, when they're not stuck, they go away. Like the other ones did."
