there are workers upon her at once and as soon as they take stock of the situation, several orders are given. a request for medical instruments and an alarm sent to freya's phone. 

freya, who flies far, far above ever grande, practicing her aerial falls off of dragonback. she twists through the air in her sygna suit, fingers fumbling at the cape, her dragonair spinning through the air at her side. they twist down, corkscrewing, until finally she reaches out and aeris' wide wings fan, draconic spirit flaring to lift them back upwards. 

she hears gwen before her dragons begin their roaring. 

on the ground, she dismounts aeris at a run and an attendant is there to meet her, moxie in her arms and another pokeball in her palm. 

"gwen," she says and though she's still by most means a stranger to physical comfort, she reaches out her arms to ground the panicked woman in a hug. "gwen, it's okay. what happened?" she looks past her, at the gabite as he's pulled away to be tended to. 

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

her arms, strong and packed with lean muscle, catch gwen as she collapses. she grips her tighter, tugs her close, wonder if her hold is awkward and if she should be doing more. her anxieties stretch away from the girl, callously toward the dragon she once called her own, and sees gishath bleeding from the mouth. 

lyra is released from her ball and the illumina dratini slithers off of freya's shoulders to join her - life dew and wish help assuage the worst of the pain so he's more compliant as her team goes in to address the wounds. 

she kneels, taking gwen with her so she can draw her back, hold her face in her hands.

"he's a dragon, gwen. he'll do what he likes." she offers a wan smile. "don't blame yourself for his nature, or for whatever monstrosity did this to him."

how many of her own has she lost to ignorance? to futility? if she hadn't pushed herself to the brink, the moxie of her dratini's namesake would still be here, alive. if she'd paid more attention on the field, howl, her charizard wouldn't have been ripped apart.

she wants to press. she wants to examine the wounds. but before she can do that, she needs to get gwen under control. so she rubs circles on her back, checks her over for wounds, and tries her best to soothe her. 

"but he needs you now, gwen. and you need to tell me what hurt him like that."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

gwen paints her a picture of dark facets flashing with brilliant colors, but what should be hard black crystal is prismatic watercolor, echoing pains her body does not remember because it has not experienced it. if she hadn't poured herself into remembering, it might have blindsided her now. 

relentless onslaughts, a waking fear, a restless searching for a way out of that doomed, terrible place.

then it's gone, slipping away in the way memories do. her lips are a thin line. she is staring down at gwen, but she is still far away, digging for a name. digging for anything. coming up with nothing. 

"you haven't let me down, gwen. i - "

"miss morningstar, all of his teeth have shattered. we'll need to put him under and remove what remains of them."

she nods tersely. 

"he'll be okay," she says sharply, down at her, wanting to explain but stricken by the news. her fingers have tightened. she sees a body, gutted down the middle, viscera floating in the sea. a twisted grimace, rigor mortis freezing thalia's final snarl.

exposing lacerated gums and teeth shattered beyond repair. 

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

frustration gathers acid in the back of her throat. if she's not careful, it could catch fire and if it catches fire, gwen will get burned. this is why she's never wanted kids. delta has always been mature for her age, has never been reduced down to an emotional mess like gwen, but she's still a kid and more than anything, she's taught freya patience.

so rather than snap, freya swallows her frustrations and raises her palm to the back of gwen's head, thumbing through her hair in rhythmic strokes.

"gwen, you can't change the past and you're going to kill yourself thinking of all the things you wish you'd done differently. all you can do now for yourself, for gishath, is move forward."

she looks down at her, jaw set, pale golds filled with intensity.

"he chose you, gwen. don't forget that. and don't do him, or me, the disservice of slandering yourself like this. what do you do now? you keep working with him. you keep training him. evolve him and he'll get his teeth back."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

gwen regains her composure and freya keeps her hands outstretched in case the poor girl falls back over herself. when that threat has seemingly passed, she gets to her feet. 

gishath has a long road ahead of him. his pride will be wounded and it won't be easy to push him to evolve. gabite are resilient creatures, though; their scales themselves are invaluable curatives. those properties live inside him and she knows for a fact if he can just push through, he'll be okay. 

but he's no longer hers. gwen will have to make that journey with him. 

"don't apologize for asking for help," she says, blinking away from the scene and back down at gwen. "i told you - i'll be here if you need me. don't ever forget that."

don't do what i did. don't pretend you can shoulder the world.

"moxie and lyra can ease his pain and help him heal. he'll be back on his feet in a few days." she scratches the back of her neck. "even my own dragons disobey me, gwen. sometimes you need to trust their instincts. if he had listened to you, i think you might not have gotten out of there alive."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

that itching persists. every time she goes to grasp the thought, it leaves her. it's been like that, ever since she stopped obsessing over the diary. ever since she stopped belaboring herself of the memories that would never be hers. 

she looks onward too and finally, after all of this, she smiles. she clasps a hand on gwen's shoulder - softly, gently, afraid she might tumble at a moment's notice - and she says with her crooked smile, all teeth, "we'll find it. whatever it is."

there is always a fire there when freya comes alive. the beckoning of battle sings in her bones.

"and we'll make it suffer for what it's done."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

a pained look stretches over her face. she knows anger all too well. she knows what it means to want to make someone hurt. 

"hold onto that anger, gwen, but don't let it consume you." similar words she'd spoken recently to her newest project - Caleb Harcourt. is this her lot now? to forge, in dragonfire, a weapon for these wayward souls, hurt time and time again by forces larger than themselves. 

"you don't owe me," she snaps, forgetting herself. she does not know what it means to be gentle. 

"just...promise you won't go after him without me."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉