Waiting for the End [Valeria/Zofia]

[Vorilye]

The former alpha male had never experienced such brutal pain in his entire life.

Though Vorilye knew he would not go out without a fight, it was far more painful to fight than he might have expected. Each passing day was a surprise when he woke once more. The male often found himself lying helplessly in his own defecation. Opening his eyes each morning was a struggle; it nearly exhausted him to to roll over or whimper. He could hardly move, and without the assistance of others, he was virtually immobile. Why his children insisted on keeping him alive in such abysmal circumstances, he could not figure out. Without their hovering, he likely would have succumbed to the illness weeks before. But day after day, Valeria brought him food once more. It was touching, in a way, that she continued to care for him. They had made much progress in mending the bond the two had shared while she was still in her youth. But sooner or later, she would have to let him go. He could not live forever, and the fact he had managed to push on for this long was a miracle in itself. 

But what Vorilye truly wished was that he would have an opportunity to say goodbye to his daughters before he gave up his fight. It had been many, many months since he had been in good enough health to wander from the dens of his own volition. Now, he was lucky to sit up for more than ten minutes at a time before falling back to the den floor, exhausted. What more could he expect? He had faced off with a wolf far larger and stronger than himself, and he had lost. The result was eventually going to be fatal: Goliath had not only taken his pack lands, but he was going to take the alpha of the lands with it. Perhaps it was true; he could not survive long away from the heart of his pack lands. His heart had been left in Acerbus, and one could not exist without the other.

The time was growing near. The alpha likely would not last more than another week in his current state. So Vorilye exhausted what little bit of strength he could muster, heaving his tired bones up to an upright position. The howl that escaped his muzzle was not one of strength; in fact, he hardly managed to cry out loud enough to escape the dens. It took several tries before the male threw his head back, the pain of the movement almost blinding as the strangled cry escaped his muzzle. He cried out for his children, those who had not seen him in many moons and those who had been by to see him no more than a day before. His end was upon him, and he could not leave without saying goodbye to those he loved. The male refused to lose the fight in front of his elder daughters; he simply needed to see them before there was no time left.

---

Count | 511 words
Muse | SO SAD
Tags | Valeria & Zofia
Notes | He won't actually die in this thread; there will be a separate thread that is liquid time after this one with Saphira.

[Valeria]

Though the Seraphim had been deep in conversation with the others in the pack, the strangled cry escaping the dens set her off on an outright charge back to the crevice. Valeria had been religiously visiting her father as his condition deteriorated. The alphess often found herself lingering around, even after he fell asleep, wondering just where they had gone wrong. Through their casual conversations, Valeria learned that Goliath had been the one who inflicted the festering wound to her elder father. It further strengthened her resolve to move against Kairos, but right now, her motives were more toward ensuring her father was as comfortable as possible. It could not be easy for Vorilye to remain constricted to the dens for weeks at a time, but it simply was not safe for him to be outside. And now, the sound of his call made Valeria's blood run cold. Never before had the femme bolted at such speed as she did to respond to her fathers call.

As the femme burst into the dens, she was shocked to find her father sitting upright, the absolute pain in his eyes evident. "Father! What in the world are you doing?" she cried out in shock. Gone was the composed, calm alphess that ran the pack. In her place was the concerned daughter who had hardly been given a chance to mend the broken bridges before her father's time arrived. "You should not be up. You need to rest!" she insisted, panic creeping into her voice with each passing second. The tension was not good for her pups, she was sure; she would have to calm down before she overexerted herself and hurt her children.

But the call had not only been for Valeria; their father had summoned Zofia as well, and Val had not seen the two of them spak in earnest since their re-arrival to Kamari. The femme's stomach sunk as she realized exactly what this was: Vorilye was tying up his loose ends and making amends. His sons had been here to see him deteriorate. They had only known this sickly father, but his daughters knew different. Valeria knew of the strong leader Vorilye had once been, and to see him reduced to such a shell of his former self hurt. No one was ever ready to lose a parent, but it seemed to the Seraphim that everything was being taken away from her by the paws of Kairos.

"Father, I hate them," she cried out with anguish. "We have just found each other again, and Kairos is taking yet another thing I care about away from me!" The Seraphim was more emotional than she had ever dared to admit, but in the presence of her father, and likely soon, her sister, there were no secrets. This was the male who had raised her from birth. Though she had always favored her mother's teachings, Valeria had grown to be more like her father than she ever imagined. She was his doppelganger, and as much as she hated to admit it, the thought of the pack going on without him shocked and terrified her more than she ever imagined.


Word Count: 532 words
Tags: Vorilye & Zofia
Notes: N/A

[Zofia]

A weak howl stopped the ivory and gold she wolf in her tracks. She had been stalking a hare but now her attention was elsewhere. Though she knew who the call was from, it was still foreign to her. Last time Zofia had seen Vorilye aside from when her and Valeria had returned to Descai’s lands was back when she was a yearling. Back then, Voriyle was a strong leader and seemed to be indestructible, but now, he was completely different. Her father was now fragile and so weak to the point where he couldn’t even take care of himself. Valeria had been making daily rounds to take care of their dying father and Zofia still had yet to see her father. She knew that his time was limited but she honestly thought that her father hated her for leaving him without so much as a word, but now Vorilye was calling for her and she knew that she couldn’t avoid him any longer.

Upon entering the cave, Zofia saw that Valeria was already there. This caused Zofia to feel resentment against herself because her sister had more of a vendetta against her father than she did, but yet Valeria was the one who stepped up to help take care of their father. Given her personality, Zofia would naturally be the first one who would step up because she was an extremely caring being, but instead, she was a coward when the time came. All she wanted to do was cry right now and she could already feel the tears beginning to well up inside of her as she moved closer to her father and placing herself right beside him as she laid down right next to him.

“Daddy….I am so sorry,” Zofia sobbed as the tears began to roll down her face. Her tears began to consume her as she began to cry uncontrollably. This wasn’t fair, none of this was fair. Though she had never been to one to truly despise someone, she couldn’t help to feel some hatred towards Kairos. Even with them taking their lands, Zofia wasn’t too mad about it, but them causing her father’s demise, that angered her. “Valeria is right, they are taking all that they love away from us. Taking our land was one thing, but taking you….that’s the worst thing that they could ever do,” she said in between her sobs. There was so much more that she wanted to say, but Zofia was sobbing to much right now to the point to where she could barely breathe, so she buried her face into his side, hoping that her doing so wasn’t causing him any pain.

OCC: This is so sad
Words: 445
Muse: Okay
Tags: Vorilye Valeria

[Vorilye]

There were many things Vorilye expected from his daughters. The two frantic femmes before him were nothing he could have imagined. Vorilye coughed in response to Valeria's insistence that he remain down, nearly eyeing her with remarkable irritation as his lip curled in a partial snarl. "I am dying, not dead," he bit out with a wheeze. "And I cannot lay in that filth any longer." The former alpha had fallen so far from his place of grace that he could scarcely figure out how he had allowed himself to get in such poor shape. Why had he not just wandered away from the pack while he was still well enough to move and died away from the strains of his family. But he knew deep down that his daughters would never forgive him for pulling such a stunt, but this coddling had to stop. He could not continue to live like this.

The golden and black male's eyes flitted over to Zofia, who promptly burst into tears, languishing about being sorry. There was no reason for her to be; she had done nothing wrong. "Zofia, do not be upset," he murmured, eventually succumbing to his body's weight and sinking back to the floor to lay calmly. "This is not your fault. But this... this has to stop, my girls." His golden eyes were remarkably calm, considering his next request to his daughter. There were many things he wished he could continue to do, but his illness prevented him from doing so much that this life was no longer worth living. "Valeria, you cannot keep bringing things to me. I was meant to perish long ago." The words were painful, but so was the strain his body was under. The Seraphim had been plying him with sustenance, but that simply was not enough. The chronic pain grew bolder every day, and his body could not support itself any longer. The only reason he was still here was because his family was not yet ready for him to depart.

Vorilye wanted to speak kind words in the face of his impending death, but he could not help but agree with his daughters; Kairos was to blame. Had they not intruded on Descai's business and home, he never would have succumbed to this treacherous existence. "You have promised me you will bring justice to Descai's homelands... Swear it again, Valeria," he commanded, though the force that used to be behind all his words was no longer there. "Promise me you will drive that filth from my home."

---

Count | 430 words
Muse | Pretty good considering he's dead in another thread x.x
Tags | Valeria & Zofia
Notes | N/A

[Valeria]

There was no longer any denying it. Their father was dying.

The pain Valeria felt at the thought of the pack existing without him was unimaginable. She had never thought she would see her father again after she left Descai, and now she was struggling to imagine the pack existing without him. Somehow they had managed the last year without Vorilye, and now they would have to manage the rest of their lives without him. Valeria's rage toward Kairos grew steadily with each affirmation of their fault in this matter. Goliath had injured her father and taken his home. Though at the time she had thought nothing of the act, Valeria now knew exactly what that had been for her father: a death sentence. The male before had put his life on the line trying to preserve their birth pack's lands. He was a hero in the true sense of the word, and now he wanted to leave them alone.

With pain-filled eyes, Valeria turned to her sister. "We Cannot make him stay," she whimpered to Zofia, offering a loving nuzzle to her litter mate as she winced. There was so much she had hoped to talk to her father about before he was gone, and there were not enough hours in the day to take care of everything. She was now in charge of their joined packs, and there was a daunting weight with that responsibility. She, and she alone, was taxed with the preservation of their family's legacy. And with the death of her father, a new generation would rise, but he would never be forgotten. No one could ever forget Vorilye.

"On my life I swear it, Father," Valeria declared, her golden eyes glinting dangerously at the thought of taking on Kairos again. Though her intent before had been good, she now had a cause behind her anger and an outlet for her aggression. Before, her fight had been in defense of her home. Now, that fight would be to honor her father's memory. The one thing that simply destroyed the Seraphim was her father's request that she cease bringing him food. Without that assistance, he would die quickly and surely. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Valeria had hoped he would recover in time, but the weeks passed without any signs of improvement, and even she had to admit now that he was wasting away. "I love you, Father. Never forget that," she murmured to him, sad eyes falling back on a distraught Zofia. They would get through this together, but it would take much time before Valeria would be able to see a world without her father there. He would be gone, but never forgotten.

Words Count: 457 words
Tags: Zofia & Vorilye
 

[Zofia]

Even though her father said that his dying wasn’t her fault, Zofia still couldn’t help but to feel guilty. She decided to hide her guilt for now though since it was pointless to dwell on it. Whether she liked it or not, Vorilye was dying and she had to concentrate on cherishing these final moment with him that she had.

Vorilye’s next words were more so directed to Valeria than to the both of them. Even though their father was calm as he spoke, Zofia knew that his words were almost like a plea, for he was basically requesting that both her sister let him die so that his suffering could end. That meant that he wanted Valeria to stop bringing him food to eat since that was what seemed to be keeping him alive.

Once their father was done speaking, Zofia turned her gaze to her sister. “We cannot make him stay,” whimpered Valeria. At first, all Zofia could manage was a nod in agreement to her sister’s words because in all honesty, the ivory and gold she wolf was still in denial about what all was going on. “I want your suffering to end, father,” she finally spoke as she nuzzled her sister.

Finally, Vorilye asked Valeria to promise him that she would get justice for Descai, and to Zofia, that seemed like he was making his dying wish. The ivory and gold she wolf wasn’t surprised when Valeria promised their father that she would get justice. Though she wasn’t a born fighter, Zofia wanted to help her sister fulfill her promise to their father in any way that she could. These series of events had caused the Mackenzie Valley she wolf to change slightly. Though she was still going to remain being her bubbly self, the desire for revenge was now planted inside her and she planned on fulfilling it.

“And I too love you father and I will never forget you,” Zofia whimpered.


OCC: The end
Words: 327
Muse: x.x
Tags: Vorilye Valeria