Everything That Remains [Caroline]

Okay now that she had to laugh at. "Interesting. Yeah. That's Arecia alright." The hermit said. Don't get her wrong though; there was fondness in that tone. "But don't worry; I don't think many people really realize Arecia is... well Arecia. I mean people realize it's alive but they don't realize it's... Alive." A frown came to her face. "...Wait why do I feel like I'm making this more confusing?" Muttered the Druid. Was she? She was trying her best not to. "Ah... I mean, I guess they don't realize Arecia has... emotions? Or a level of thought that's on par with people but... something else too."

At least she tried.

"Oh trust me, there isn't a place in Arecia safe from Skjorn sitting on you." The Druid said with a glance back. A knowing gleam shown in those green eyes. A light born from experience. "Seriously; I've tried to find somewhere. It never works. Ever." The dang bear could act like a bloodhound sometimes she swore. "But I'll try my best to keep him off you. I hope it doesn't get to that point though." And there was the signature worry the hermit couldn't help but feel for her neighbor. She was getting a little better but... well she got concerned. It was in her nature (ha).

For the rest of the slightly hurried walk back (don't want to get caught in another storm, right?), Lelianna was all too happy to make small talk if Caroline wanted. Otherwise she'd focus on getting home as soon as possible.

Once the trio arrived at the druid's overgrown cabin Lelianna would lead the way inside. Despite how heavily the storm last night had raged, the interior was blessedly dry. Nature and the Magi had worked wonders to make this little hut inhabitable for a long period. "Wooo... Okay first things first; let's get you back into your little den, Stewie." Carefully the redhead dislodged Stewart from her back and held him up to one of the numerous vines running overhead. It took some time but eventually the little sloth had attached himself to the ceiling firm enough that Lelianna could move away.

"There we go..." With that taken care of she turned to address her next target: Caroline. "Alright! Um... well we should probably sit down for this I guess." The hermit stated with a hint of shyness seeping in. She'd never really... well honestly she's never talked about her parents in great lengths to anyone. Unless you counted a forest/tree, Caroline was going to be the first. Especially the first to actually see her parents back when they were alive. Technically speaking at least.

"Ah, here." The hermit moved over towards the table. She did actually have three chairs that worked (the fourth had decayed enough nature took it completely). However the table was kind of covered in her seed pouches. It took a few minutes but she made enough reasonable room for them to sit there. "There we go. You can, ah, have a seat while I grab the pictures." And with that, unless Caroline needed anything else (gosh the hermit felt so apprehensive now), Lelianna would go searching for her parent's pictures. She'd speak though as she did. "You know I... think you're actually the first person I've ever shown my parents to. I just realized that." Probably because she never had humanoid friends until fairly recently. Not out here.

A few minutes later and the hermit returned back to the table. Taking a seat, she opened a small box that contained the few pictures she'd brought with her. There weren't many but...she was glad she at least had something. As she pulled them out she scooted a little closer to Caroline so it would be easier to show her. Well, she this was it. She was finally showing somebody her parents.

Wow why did she feel nervous all of a sudden?

Her own eyes took in the pictures with a lingering sense of wistfulness, sadness, happiness, and a great deal of other emotions that would take too long for her to decipher. But eventually she did shuffle through the pictures until she had them in order. "Well ah... here we are. Um.... w-we'll I guess to start out with I can show you my mother." Unlike Caroline's well taken care of pictures all protected by their plastic covers, Lelianna's showed a bit of wear and tear from her viewing them quite a lot. They still displayed their image clearly though.

The first Lelianna showed was of a woman with vibrant red hair and piercing green eyes. In this picture she was working in some sort of garden, head turned towards the camera and this looking out of the picture with a smile. It was obviously clear she was an earth Magi from the scatting of ivy growing and weaving through those red locks. As Lelianna showed her neighbor, the hermit couldn't help but smile. "This is my mom. She was... well my dad used to say she was more of a fire Magi at heart than an earth Magi, but she loved working with plants. When we were living in Suraja she was the one who helped make most of the vegetation for our town. Anything she planted would thrive under her care." It was incredible really. Didn't matter what they grew: her mother somehow made sure it lived. Not only that but flourished. Oh the memories that came to mind. So sweet yet so... heart aching. Still she managed to laugh a little, her voice going a bit softer as she continued. "My dad used to joke and say she was more in love with her garden than him. You should have seen the one time he moved all of it somewhere else just to see what she'd do. Mom wasn't really thrilled about that."

Speaking of dad, Lelianna shuffled through the other pictures and switched out the one she was showing CarKline. This one contained two individuals: one male and one female. The male in the picture had the biggest, dopiest grin on his face as he was facing towards the camera. A scruffy red beard matched the color of his auburn hair, out of which two huge antlers sprouted with little flowers tied and grown around the tines. Riding atop his shoulders and holding onto those antlers was a tiny female form with identical eyes. Antlers also sprouted from her furious red mane of hair, though they were far, far smaller than the man she was perched upon. Curiously enough though, fuzzy little ears poked out of her mane too that matched the ones on the man. Much like the man she too was grinning like an idiot. Lelianna's nostalgic smile grew even wider. "That's my dad. I... honestly think I ended up the most like him. We wasn't so good with plants though: he was better at shaping the earth. Moving stone and stuff like that. Which is how he moved my mom's garden that one time. He took up the whole thing and moved it off near the jungle. When mom found out she made him move it all back. She wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the day and held it against him for a month." Lelianna shook her head as the memory played out perfectly in her head. Yeah her dad was a regular old goofball alright.

"Oh, ah, and that's me." With a finger she pointed out the girl riding atop the man's shoulders. "Now you know where I got my antlers from." She said with a chuckle. "Though my fuzzy ears went away over time. It was a big joke: I traded one trait of my dad's for my mom's. When my ears disappeared my flowers started growing in. Dad pouted about that for a while. Probably because mom kept rubbing it in his face." Lelianna admitted now that she thought on it. "She loved to tease him, but then again my dad pretty much did the same to her so I guess it was only fair. That's apparently how they ended up liking each other so much. To quote my mom, dad was the only one who gave her just as much sass back as he got to her. According to dad everyone else found her kind of... intimidating."

After that Lelianna just sort of... sat there for a second or two. Holding the picture and simply remembering.

Yeah Caroline was feeling like Lelianna's first for a lot of things to be honest. But let's not dwell on that; it was picture time.

Seeing her parents again was really doing a number on Lelianna's heart. It didn't know whether to swell or to constrict. Swelling because she loved her parents and seeing them looking so happy in these pictures was bringing back good memories for her. Her time in Suraja. The visits to the jungle. Lessons with her mother and goofball sessions with her dad. There were a lot of precious memories called to mind just from seeing them again. But there were other memories too; the reason her heart felt like constricting. Memories of the riots. Flashbacks of the incident. Seeing her parents go down at the hands of hunters. Her subsequent retreat into Arecia because of it. That dream.

It was definitely a mixed bag.

Right now she was trying to focus on the positives. Caroline was helping keep the worse memories at bay for the moment at least. "Oh she was really good with plants. The sort of things she could do... She had this huge apple tree in her garden that didn't just grow apples, but pears and bananas too. She was really good with splicing plants together; combining them to make something entirely new. Well, new-ish I guess. It was still really cool to watch though. One of these times I feel like I should give it a shot. I never really thought about trying it since I got here." It was something to consider at least. Add some unique plants to her garden.

Onto her dad though. Well and her. He definitely was a good dad. A total goofball that encouraged her to be the same and just have fun. Plus yeah he really was where she'd gotten most of her personality from. Was it that obvious? "Hey! They grew out!" She protested playfully. "Besides, you were pretty adorable as a kid too, so I don't wanna hear it! I saw pictures! I have proof!" Almost accusingly she pointed a finger at Caroline, but it was clearly all in good fun. Plus she felt a little bashful at being called cute at that age. "The antlers weren't always easy though. When they first started growing in it was really hard learning how to comb my hair. Then when the flowers came it that only made it worse. My mom had to help me for most of it. Mainly because my dad claimed I'd betrayed him for losing my fluffy ears." Yeah that had happened and Lelianna could remember it distinctly.

All in all, yeah; they had been a pretty happy family. Lelianna was aware that could be pretty lucky; and she realized there was probably something to the words that applied to Caroline. But she wasn't about to pry. Not right now.

For a while Lelianna just sat with her memories. Replaying them over and over in her head. The hand on her shoulder managed to catch her by surprise, but after an initial reactive jolt she relaxed and leaned into Caroline a little. It felt nice- right even. Easy to do. Especially as Lelianna moved forward with her pictures and the weight of the other memories was growing heavier and heavier in her mind. She didn't have many more pictures; 5 in total to be exact.

One showed her mother making her own silly face to an even smaller Lelianna trying her best to imitate it. "My dad took this one. My mom could be playful and silly at times. Usually only with us or some of her really good friends. Sometimes she could beat my dad in expressiveness actually." Lelianna explained with a smile.

Another showed Lelianna and her mother yet again, but this time with a third unknown individual. This woman had dark mocha skin with nearly pitch black hair that had been braided into one strand over her shoulder. Her eyes, however, were a piercing amber color. All three of them were smiling despite the fact they appeared to be working in a garden with tools. "Oh, and that's Shiva. She was kind of like my aunt back in Suraja. Both of my parents really got along with her; she was super nice. Whenever I was too young for my parents to take me with them on their trips into the jungle or anything, Shiva would watch me. I used to call her Shi-Shi, and she told me to stick with it." Now that made Lelianna smile a little wider again. "Honestly I wonder how she'd doing. I could probably send her a letter or something from Haven. I probably should, it's been so long..."

Her sentence trailed off as she came to the final picture. It was her, older, with both of her parents. A family portrait with all of them standing together and smiling into the camera. Upon looking at this picture Lelianna simply... froze. Out of all of them this was the one that was taken closest to her parents' insistent return to Ethea. And their last trip they would ever take. Lelianna's eyes began to tear up without her even noticing as she sat and stared for a miniature eternity.

Lelianna looked like she was still going to disagree with the kid fact. Caroline had been so adorable as a kid. That and honestly it had been really nice to see what she had looked like prior to... well she still looked nice now but you get what I mean. It was the original Caroline. So yes she was far more biased towards her being cuter. Fortunately the topic of her hair distracted her from protesting. "Oh yeah. I usually have to actually flip my flowers off to comb my hair. I've gotten better so they don't all need to go, but some days they get too thick so I can't even pull the comb too. Thorn brambles are the worst though. Luckily I don't get those too often, but still."

Seeing Shiva again though brought Lelianna's mind back on subject. She hadn't forgotten about the older woman but... she still felt guilty about not having written her or trying to communicate with her period. Eight years had passed... Shiva probably thought she was dead. As for her mother and father...

Well they were just getting to that.

For a long time Lelianna said and did nothing more than lean into Caroline's kind embrace. She'd gone through these moments before, but this was the only time she'd had someone else with her to comfort her. At least, someone human. Y'enthal was usually the one to comfort her when she went to visit her parents' graves. She was as thankful to the ancient sentinel as she was to Caroline in that moment. Because it still managed to hurt despite all the years that had passed. Perhaps not as freshly, but pain was still pain.

"...They were killed in the riots." Lelianna eventually said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, and it wavered a little. "When they heard the news... about the Magi trying to get out of the camps... I-I told them it wasn't a good idea but they didn't- I was only-" A child to them. Her words had gone mainly unheeded as they'd made their way back to Ethea. And Lelianna could only follow. She sniffles and tried rubbing her tears away with a free hand. "They still went. And...A-And it was just as bad as I thought. And then when the hunters-" here she choked on the word because the image came back to her head clear as day. Her mother and father fighting against the hunters side by side. Two powerful earth Magi. Who'd lost either way. "... I saw it. I could only watch." It was even quieter than the rest of her words. Barely audible at all. She didn't need to go much further into what she'd seen: it was probably obvious. A few more seconds passed as Lelianna took in a shaky breath, the exhale coming out as a very soft sob. "I couldn't even- I had to run. T-They made me run and then someone had gotten a hold on my antlers and just-" Remembering that part of the story made Lelianna physically flinch. The pain of getting her antlers ripped off had burned itself into the memory. Honestly everything about that wretched day had. "I-I kept running until I got into Arecia and hen I had to wait f-for days before I could go back to find them and..." She trailed off. Her return to the battlefield had been... well... "...I buried them all, Caroline. No one else had. But the hunters and animals...they'd taken their share by the time I... by the time I could return."

Again the Magi defended into silence. Or close to silence. She was well and fully crying by the end of it, her heart laid pretty bare now. It had been a while since she'd gone into exactly what happened that day, and even then she hadn't given every detail. But it was enough. Enough to make her lean into Caroline and return the hug, burying her face into the woman's shoulder. "I miss them." Came her heavily muffled remark, barely audible through her position and her cries.

As much as Lelianna was crying her heart out right now, and as much as retelling her parents' downfall hurt, there was a small part of her that was focusing on the hug more than anything else. It felt... nice. No not just nice: right. In that moment at least it felt inexplicably right. Maybe it was because they were on the subject of her parents. All those times she'd go to her father or mother for comfort when she felt sad. They'd hug her too. Much like how Caroline was. As if their hug along was going to be able to protect her from all the evils of the world. The Druid sunk into that hug- burying herself in as though it would do exactly that.

But even in her grief she didn't miss how Caroline herself reacted.

I'm sorry.

The hermit didn't even know what Caroline was sorry for, yet the sincerity in which the cyborg said those two simple words made the redhead forgive her nonetheless. She meant it. Whatever she was apologizing for, Lelianna knew that she meant it. You didn't cry like that if you didn't.

Though Lelianna had been the one in need of comfort initially, she gave just as much as she got. She couldn't project quite the aura of protectiveness that Caroline's could, but hers could provide something else at least. Lelianna held Caroline just as tightly, staying rooted to the girl for the time being as both of them now cried. It was quite clear: Lelianna wasn't going anywhere. And as her own concern over her friend began to win out over her own mourning- something she'd had years to deal with and come to terms with- she traded her acceptance of comfort to give it instead. She stroke Caroline's hair and back, hoping she was doing something to help, while she in turn held the other woman.

All this progressed in relative silence until Lelianna felt a little better in control of herself. The ache in her heart was still there and freshly throbbing, but she felt like she ought to attend to Caroline first and foremost. While she definitely didn't try to move out of the embrace, the Druid did lean back a little so she could see Caroline's face. Yeah, she was crying too. Lifting up a hand ito cup the other woman's cheek, she used her thumb to wipe away the tear streak from under her eye. Her own had come off a little due to Lelianna having basically buried her face into Caroline. "Hey." It came out softly. Lelianna didn't really know what she wanted to say, but she at least wanted to get Caroline's attention. The girl had been crying too: that definitely meant something. "I....Thank you. For um... yeah. Listening. And... Holding me. I really... I think I really needed that."