Cera
_{Try to find if it was worth what you spent, why you're guilty for the way you're feeling now}

Cera had to avert his gaze as she spoke, confessing that she had been begging just as much as young Cera had. It was not really a surprise considering all that Cera knew about Midas, and his past with them. But it didn't make the knowledge any easier, that on all sides of the board the ones who loved Midas had been pleading with him to make the choice to bring them together. And even with all of that...Midas had still turned away. And Cera, Ranjiri, and Hototo had all suffered for it. He didn't doubt that Ktulu had, as well. He tried to summon a wry smile, focusing instead on what she said next and forget the sourness writhing in his breast. 

"Ranjiri didn't care for the heat much either," he chuckled, trying to summon more positive emotions to get through this already emotional ordeal. His eyes drifted upwards towards Ktulu's familiar rubies, seeing Ranjiri staring back at him. "Maybe not in the traditional sense," he hedged, suddenly feeling shy and unsure with the words he wanted to say. His eyes flicked between the space between his hooves and Ktulu's eyes. Here she was offering a family...and yet he was still nervous to propose what he wanted. 

"I...Midas was not around much with his duties. There's so much I never learned, things a mother could have taught me. In that way...could I still turn to you for guidance?" With a sigh he cast his eyes towards the Falls where it lay multiple days journey away. "I've tried to guide Ranjiri as best I can. But even I am only working on an incomplete base of knowledge." Now that Ranjiri lived in the Falls with Ktulu, she could ask her mother for advice. But Cera...he needed that too. A feminine touch, even if Ktulu didn't necessarily have an effeminate aura. 

"Thank you," he murmured, touched by this huge thing she was offering him. The sheer magnitude of what it meant to him emotionally was beyond words or definition. "I would love to meet Murtagh." He'd never be able to replace Hototo, who had been the only elder sibling Cera had ever had. But he'd be the first younger brother for Cera. And Cera would do his best to care for him as deeply as he did Ranjiri, if the boy was amicable. 

Cera had to turn his head when she spoke Hototo's name, knowing her grief was so much stronger than his but unable to deny his own. But what she was offering him. Cera swallowed hard. His face was stiff with Ranjiri's remembered words. 

"He's in the Falls... and I don't know where his stuff is. It... was all given away to someone else... another mare with one wing. I wish... I wish I had something to give you. I don't even have a feather... I'm sorry."

And here she was, offering him a piece of his father to keep for the rest of his days. 

"Thank you. Thank you, Ktulu. All his possessions...they were given to another, we had nothing to remember him by...you don't know how much this means to me," his voice is choked, and Ilaria finally surfaces from where she'd been quietly huddling behind his wing, allowing them privacy. She wandered up to Cera's shoulder, reaching out her paws towards Ktulu in offering to grab the golden chain from her mane. Cera shuffled to give the panda more room, taking the time to hide his face and try to rediscover his emotional control. No matter how he felt towards Midas, he still loved him. And any item of his would be treasured forever.