Marika
She rode Torrent hastily back to the place she had known her knight had gone to do battle with the old guard that blocked their way. She had much on her mind and even more that needed to be expressed to her lover. Her hair flourished wildly in the rushing winds as Torrent's hooves clattered against rock and earth. She had grown excited despite the lingering anxiety. She felt hopeful again.
She was not prepared for what she would find. Torrent's gallop soon turned to a steady trot as Marika came onto the battlefield she had left to her lover. The first was a massive horse carcass thrown against a pillar, bent around and broken by its own armor, and pinned to the thing as if a storm had thrown it with ease. It still dripped with blood.
She looked further up the long stone stairwell and found another of the large knights pinned against the main door they had originally guarded. His own axe planted through his chest and his head missing. His armor was broken seemingly along every tiny crack in its build like she had known precisely how and where to hit it. She touched the armored foot gently, confused as to why they had not turned to dust yet. These were sacred guardians of Leyndell. No one more deserving of the Erdtree's favor. So why was there a body?
Slowly moving by the cracked door, she heard the loud and messy chop on metal against flesh as the remains of a once warrior gargoyle caught her eye. Barely crumbled remnants with its spear rammed through where its torso would have been among the rubble. It's about as violent and messy as a rock being could be to the eyes of flesh and blood.
Her gaze drifted up slowly to that of her knight. A hand tightly gripped to her own head with her weapons still sticking out of the corpse beside her. Still warm, and its final breaths emerged as she saw the other knight and horse. At least what was left of them.
"Luna...?" Marika whispered as she slowly led Torrent towards her knight as the moonlit knight slumped against the small Erdtree sappling that sat in the center of the stone plaza. Her eyes snapped open and fixated on the golden goddess, a deep red to her schlera while the blue centers visibly rattled like hail in a storming hurricane.
She let out a terrible growl that made Marika's blood turn cold before her eyes began to regain focus. The red began to fade, and the blue began to finally calm down. It did not stop Marika from noticing the trail of blood coming from her panting lips and soaking the golden scarf around her neck.
"Marika... I.." a hint of shame entered her voice as Marika quietly gulped. Another savage lover dressed as a noble. She should have suspected all along. Yet...
"It is alright. They.. They were our foes," as she brought Torrent closer and dismounted, "you did what you had to."
The knight's eyes turned softly to a haze of misty persperation as she quickly rubbed her face off of her armor, only to look at the stained scarf. "I... I can explain..."
Marika gently cupped her cheek and pressed her forehead against her knight. A moment of quiet between them as they closed their eyes and let the worries melt out of each other. When it was over, a gentle sigh escaped the knight as she grasped and kissed Marika's hand. "Thank you..."
"Whatever this struggle is, you have.. We shall face it together." Her words echoing a lump in her heart at the thought that her lover knew a pain even she rarely admitted to having. She would not press yet. Not until she knew enough to truly listen, and she was certain her knight would open up given enough time. "Breathe. This will not break us." Echoing words spoken to her so very long ago. Her knight took slow and deep breaths as she calmed her raging thoughts. She whispered gently to her knight and soothed the burdens of anxiety as soon as they cropped their cruel heads free in her whispering, panicked tone.
Her eyes drifted softly up to the grand stairwell to their left by this sapling tree. She could feel just how close they were now to the Erdtree itself. To her former throne. To finally undoing all of this at last. She could see it now, a future free of godhood. Of all this pain. With a hand subtle rubbing her barely grown belly, she kissed her lover's head as the last of those terrible shakes left her hands.
"Thank you, My Flower." Whispered softly, followed by a gentle kiss they shared.
"A.. as..."
"Asvala." Her knight whispered, smiling at her attempt to speak one of her own strange languages.
"Asvala. My Rain." For she had come, and washed away her sins.
"Est Hunay." She responded in a slow and patient tone. "It means 'And Evermore.'"
"Est... Honey..."
Her knight giggled warmly at that, kissing her cheek in a tender and affectionate manner. "Close enough for now." They shared a moment of warmth before both turned and remounted their companion steed.
"I wonder where Blaidd has gone." Her knight mused out loud as they strode up the stairs.
"I am sure he is alright. He's a bit foolish at times, but his arm is nearly as strong as his heart." She answered confidently.
"See, that's what worries me."
...
Blaidd
"Shit shit shitshitshitshitshit!" Kept mumbling out of the wolfman as he held the little one under his arm like a gripped up parcel. She was wrapped in his cloak he had ripped off and remade into a blanket and peacefully snoozing. Fortunate given the three separate rune bears that had woken and seemingly decided to make Blaidd's continued breathing their problem.
He rushed forward through broken and living tree alike as they crumbled like glass behind him in the wake. Admittedly, he had taken the stockpile of random mysterious meat he and found buried, but in his defense, he had no thought an animal could bury food like that. At least not any that weren't canines. Maybe he should ask Ranni to teach him to read when he got back.
Leaping over a swiping claw with a sweating expression, he caught one hand onto the branch of a tree and flung himself into the canopy before bolting across the top branches. Several crashed behind him, but it wasn't long until he managed to get far enough from the sound to know they had lost his trail.
"Phew..." wiping off his trousers of leaves and dirt. "Thought we were winter snacks for a second there. Right." Turning his nose upward and sniffing, he finally caught onto Marika's scent. It seemed a little different, but there was no mistaking the aroma of honey, flowers, and blood that clung to her. "Gonna take you to go meet your granny kiddo." He said excitedly to the sleeping babe before leaping quickly across the few trees left as he finally made his way free of this forsaken canopy.
He was rather excited to see what his friends would make out of this meat stache. Oh, he could practically taste the kebabs now. He hoped the knight had some of those delicious spices that made the meat even hotter. He couldn't wait to show his little one the wonders of good food. Nothing cured sadness, and sour days like good food and better company.