Brigand was growing like a weed. Muriel loved him so intensely it hurt, and as she watched him find his legs, find his soul and grow into it, pride blossomed ever stronger. He had been the product of what she'd once considered a mistake. Oh, she had been endeared by Gull. She even thought that perhaps, somewhere in her tentative heart, she loved him. He had been so broken and disoriented when she had happened upon him, and they had comforted each other in carnal, whimsical ways. But she had stayed with him for weeks, had traveled with him until the island had exploded in war and ruin and they'd been separated. Her wings had carried her safe and far, as she had always trusted them to. But she had not seen Gull again.

And oh, Leliel.

She still loved him, in her little girl heart. He had been her prince charming, surly and unwilling though he'd been for nearly their entire lives. So many long years of his disapproval, his frustration and irritation...but Muriel had loved him to ruin and back, and when she had been with Gull, the abandonment that was actually for once not abandonment had not seemed so intense. He had been her shelter, in the storm that losing Leliel when he'd finally promised to love her had been. But Leliel had returned, and with it he had brought back and replaced the pieces of her heart that he had taken with her. And she was left with a heart torn two ways. It seemed only Brigand could hold the entirety of her love, and though she once had hated him, the moment she'd seen his tiny newborn frame she'd never looked back.

Would Gull love him, as she did? Muriel could not comprehend an alternative. Her heart loved too deeply to envision anyone not loving her precious baby boy. But, Muriel and Gull had not anticipated their mating to come to fruition. What if he was not ready to be a father? What if he did not feel the similar echoes in his heart that she did, the ones that resonated a little too much like love?

Muriel sighed, gazing down into the ever burning fires, her four wings wide and bathing in the warmth. Brigand was near, she knew he was, and with him must be Leliel. She did not fear ever losing them, because she so rarely let them out of her sight. Brigand's growing frustration with it made her ache, because he could not understand her fears, her desperation. "I need you, Gull," she whispered into the rising sun.

@[Gull] and @[Brigand]! This is Muriel's last thread before she dies, so please keep it moving if possible!