ADARA

A gentle sea breeze pushed into the sails and fluttered the flag on the top of the mast. Waves of splattered cerulean splashed against the reinforced wooden hull as Euros got farther away once more, a blot against the horizon, the longer the bells dragged on until its own song was so far out of reach it became silent. It churned beneath her, the multitudes of currents below carrying life and death both. Loops of golden chains hung at the ready to be released with them out of the volcanic barrier of Euros and the rest of the Hanekan archipelago. Hands loose over the railing, she switched her attention to Maria and Yuven, who found themselves in a deep conversation while the reinforcements for the Burning Abyss waited for new orders.

Fenrer was nowhere to be seen.

How do we start fixing this? Adara breathed in the salty taste of brine to swill into her lungs, to give her the jolt of energy needed to try and bridge the gap the Oathbound created between each-other, with Yuven too stubborn and Fenrer too fearful of judgment and both with the pain the other left in their absence. In the end, it can't be me... this is on them, this is their friendship. If they want to fix it, they're the ones that have to do it... Adara pushed her palm into her knuckles to pop out her uncertainty. But... that's not to say I can't nudge at least one of them into action — namely Yuven. Off the railing, she hobbled her way to the couple with the sway of the boat, with the two falling silent at her approach. "Ready for your first attempt? And try not to be an ass for once."

"I am not—" Yuven bared his fangs, but frowned when Maria folded her arms and glared at him, her own short hair rustling with the coarse wind while Adara tried to fix hers. "I will do my best to be an upstanding individual and not let my venomous tongue get the best of me." His feathers pointed upwards when he pressed his brow into Maria's before following after her, and she took him to the entrance into the lower cabins and they wandered the corridors with the rumble of the boat against the water. "Do you even know where he is?" His chittering sent waves of frustration up her spine, but she ignored him to go to the storage rooms below.

Adara pressed her hand against the wall to steady herself with Yuven skulking behind her. "Fen?" she asked, squeezing herself past boxes strapped with magick cords to prevent destruction of the supplies within them. One more squeeze through larger ones, she frowned at the sight of him tucked into the deepest corner with his head in his knees and his arms hugging himself. "Fen." Adara stopped off to the side to give him ample room of escape when he lifted his head to reveal the sickly expression along his face. Adara grabbed Yuven's forearm, though when he tried to pull back, she tugged him forward. "We just came to check on you."

A quiet groan was her reply when Fenrer tucked his face in his knees again. He rubbed his brow against them every time the boat swayed.

"Well, I don't think he has the capability to talk to me, so best to wait until he is over his nasty bout of seasickness..." Yuven's voice made her snap her hand out to stop him from making a hasty retreat. "...fine." He stomped up to Fenrer, who shrunk underneath his shadow. "You are aware that this will not assist? It will only make the seasickness worse—"

"Yuven."

Her sharpened inflection of his name on her own lips caused the stubborn Avaerilian to tense. Yuven pursed his lips at her, then sighed, taking a step closer to Fenrer who tried to push himself deeper into the corner at his approach, though faltered when Yuven held his hand out to his Oathbound. "Come, Molvisaliz," it came out a plea of a demand within the torn melody, and Adara scowled at him, Yuven returned it. "I do not want you to feel this way."

Fenrer lifted his head to reveal his weary jade swirls. Strands of dark brown hair stuck to his clammy brow as his attention went to Yuven's outstretched hand. His own fell limp onto the boards beneath him, and Adara frowned when he dragged himself up without Yuven's proffered assistance. Arm wrapped around his stomach, he swayed with the boat, but flinched back when Yuven stepped forward to stop his uncertain balance. Pressure choked her throat when Yuven withdrew himself at Fenrer's flinch, feathers flattened against each-other with a slight rattle to his next breath, an eerie hiss leaving his half-closed lips.

"Don't bother yourself," Fenrer mumbled and hobbled between them, though stumbled into her when the boat cracked into a hard wave. Adara steadied him, but forced herself to let go of him when he pushed his shaky hand off the largest box, using it to drive himself forward without a second glance at Yuven.

Once he was out of sight, Adara whipped around to Yuven. "Really?"

"What?" Yuven straightened himself out and his feathers followed suit. "What did you wish for me to do?"

"A bit more than telling him what to do and stating something he probably didn't believe," Adara bit. "You could have at least asked him if there was anything you could do to help him."

"What am I supposed to do when it comes to seasickness? I am not a Healer."

"Comfort him?" Adara needled. "You don't need to be a Healer to provide someone comfort when they are unwell. Besides, we both know what the real problem is. He is afraid." Torment tore through her heart at the explosive memory. Rocks from the cliffs fell into the cruel, stormy sea. Yuven's piercing, birdlike shriek of grief and pain at the loss of his Oathbound, Fenrer, the one who brought light between the three of them and provided warmth they found themselves incapable of returning. "He's been afraid ever since he fell off that cliffside, Yuven. He blames himself for a call he felt he had no choice in!" Adara threw her arms up and stomped closer to him, and he narrowed his eyes to reveal beaded pupils of stress. "And he almost died had it not been for King Reyn, who you despise on a principle."

Feathers folded against his ears, Yuven pulled back his lips into another fanged sneer, though sucked them back in with a sigh. "I do not know what you expect, Adara," he replied with a quick shake of his head. "I have tried to tell him I do not hate him... he just doesn't believe me."

"Why should he? We both lied to his face." Adara sent a prod into his chest, and Yuven swatted her. "Don't just tell him. Show him. You're the man who wants action instead of words? Instead of trying to backtrack, at least stick to what you believe in. Gods." Adara stomped her heel with a huff. "Keep trying. Keep showing him until he starts to believe it. Fenrer so desperately wants to believe it, but until he has proof of it, of course he won't believe it just because you, the great Yuven Traye—" Adara wiggled her fingers into the air. "—says so, because I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you don't know everything and you're not always right, you inflated rooster."

"I thought I was a nuglet."

Adara shoved him. A swirl of a misty white glyph smashed her in the face and sent her onto the ground in time with the sway. Yuven brushed himself off and dissipated the glyph while her tailbone complained from the impact. "You are under the assumption that I do not want to try, and you are wrong." His nostrils flared when he stepped half-over, half-around her with a flick of his longest feathers. "You wish to inject yourself and solve a problem I created, I hate to tell you this, Sazaka." He twisted around to her, nose in the air. "You cannot solve this. You do not understand what being an Oathbound entails.

"I know." Adara got up when the swaying ceased and she rubbed her hindquarters. "But if I don't you two won't do anything. I will make sure you will keep trying even if I have to annoy the shit out of you—"

"Which you do anyway without much effort—"

"And!" Adara raised her voice over his. "I know you care about him, I know that you don't hate him, but most of all, I know you are not good at this. You are not good with people, Yuven Traye. You are brash, stubborn, and in a crisis, in an attack, the best person to have." Adara came closer to him, and he tensed again. "I understand that now. You do what you have to to win, to get the best possible result with the odds stacked against you. That is a lot of responsibility for someone to shoulder, but you need to get it through those thick feathers of yours, in matters of people and emotional duress, you truly do have the capacity of a spoon." Her hand waved past him where Fenrer disappeared. "You don't know how to provide comfort, to be gentle, because you are not built for it, you do not have the temperament that makes it easier. If you need an example, look at anyone around you in your life that gave you such when you were at your worst." Lips sucked between her teeth. "Because that's what Fenrer needs now. Not his Oathbound to be his usual, ready for attack, expecting a crisis at every corner trying to plan out everything in an instant. Fenrer doesn't need that. Fenrer needs to be shown that his world isn't ending."

Yuven fell quiet, his feathers crinkling against each-other with his face betraying no emotion. "I do not know how to be that way," he muttered. "After Turns of fighting for my life."

"Perfect chance to figure it out, even if it means making mistakes along the way," Adara pushed. "I am trying to help, I know I can't fix this for you two. Fenrer's done so much for the both of us, for you. I think it's about time you support him back, because I know you're capable of it." Adara bridged the rest of the gap the moment Yuven relaxed. "I'm not asking you to change who you are, I'm just asking you to take a step back. This isn't a battle. This isn't dealing with Derelicts. This is your best friend and family. You need to take a different tact. If all your other methods aren't working, it might be time to choose another one even if it grates on you to do so because not everything is a nail that needs a hammer to beat it until it's in place."

In the stretched silence, Yuven let his arms fall loose at his sides with a misty plume of a sigh. "I will try," he repeated and stepped away from her, and she followed him out of the storage hold. "But I cannot make him reach out to me."

Adara faltered on the way to the ladder up into the cabin area. "He wants to fix this, Yuven."

"I know, you said that before we left." Yuven shook his head.

"He misses you. He's just scared of being hurt by you when all he's ever wanted was to help you." Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and threatened to break a dam of compassion and empathy. "You're both lost. You're Oathbound, you two understand each other on a different level even in situations like this. You know what to do, Yuven, and if you don't, you'll figure it out."

His feathers fell towards his ears when he slumped in the shoulders. Without another word of the melodic song of his Irimountian dialect, he crawled up the ladder and left her in the shadows of the storage hold. Adara crawled out after him, but Yuven tucked his hands on his belt and stomped past Fenrer's room, putting his back to the closed door before returning to the upper deck. Adara faltered outside it, then slowly opened it to check on him.

Fenrer set himself at the tiny table, his hand against his mouth while he stared outside the porthole with a quick acknowledgement of her presence. Drawn forward when the sunlight scattered across his dull, jade, swirled irides. Hand out, she carded her fingers through his hair to try and comfort and combat his terror-induced seasickness.

He simply sat there in silence.