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

Seeing Ranjiri once more had eased the sting of loneliness that he carried like a constant weight across his shoulders, these days. It would never be the same as having her there with him, as he had once had her. But he knew that she had to figuratively leave the nest. Stretch her wings. And if love had a part of that...well, Cera had never really felt love in that capacity, only had the old feelings for Sikeax to give him any sort of frame of reference, but he understood nonetheless. She was no longer a child, and he could not expect to continue holding her to that age in his mind. 

What they had spoken of had not left Cera. He doubted it ever would, for he hadn't even dealt with his own personal feelings towards his long-dead father. And seeing Ranjiri suffer was never something that Cera could easily cast away or forget. With a sigh he cast his verdant eyes to the coastline, wishing to see her again already, despite having no real reason to seek her out. He could not constantly depart from his duties, not with their other Forger now gone. And so he worked, toiling away on the church in  his spare time. But if he closed his eyes, feeling the sea breeze in his mane and the salt in his nares, well...nobody was around to see him taking a break from his duties. 

"CERA!"

It rang so fiercely that Cera startled, armor instinctively beginning to unfold from his leg brace before he settled. It was a female voice, and something nagged at his memory, not quite clicking into place as he tried to remember who it was. But they had called him by name...surely he could not leave them waiting. 

The Prince galloped forth into the surf, wings sending water spraying as he ascended into the sky. He flew low across the water, eyes keen and scouting for whoever had beckoned him from across the waves. She was immediately distinguishable, a dark spot against the pale sands. For a moment he thinks it's Ryuu, for how similar the two appear, but trepidation builds as he realizes all at once that it's Ktulu. The last time he'd seen the mare...well, it had been at Hototo's death. 

White hooves strike into the ocean before her, not wanting to crowd her by landing on the strip of land between she and the water. Head dips in respectful deference, though his eyes linger a bit boldly on her face. 

"Ktulu," he speaks clearly, wings folding at his sides lest they begin to flex nervously. The colt inside him still remembers this mare as Hototo's mother, as the strict and imposing shadow beside his father, and his consciousness cannot shake that impression even as he stands before her as a fully grown stallion. "What brings you to the Throat? Is Ranjiri okay?" And fear darkens in his soul, eyes going a bit wild with the thought. Energy races through his body, prepared to spring forth into the sky and seek out his baby sister immediately if Ktulu even hinted that she was not in perfect mental and physical health. For surely Ktulu was only here for either Ranjiri or his crafting abilities. 

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

A wince and an apologetic glance is spared for the bear he had unintentionally splashed. Had he known the creature better he would have spoken an apology aloud, but he did not want to be disrespectful by taking his eyes and attention off the Constrictor. Her stoicism seemed so out of place on a face so much like Ranjiri's, whose golden heart and easy smiles had filled his world since her birth. But he respected this woman, owed her so much for bringing Ranjiri into the world and raising her to be the sister he knew. He wouldn't disrespect her, even if this was his herd she was standing before. 

Relief swept through him like the crashing waves on the beach, the subtle tension of his wings and shoulders drooping. She's safe. While it was agony to be alone and not have his sister with him, it was torture to know that if any danger befell her, Cera would not be able to make it to her in time. He wanted to trust the denizens of the Hidden Falls, but he couldn't. He couldn't trust anybody with something as precious as Ranjiri. And Cera dreaded the day the news reached him that something happened to her. 

"Good," he sighed under his breath, barely audible with how the relieved tone swept across his vocals instead of the definition and enunciation of the word. But confusion rippled across his brow, drawing his handsome face into a somber, inquisitive look as Ktulu clarified that she had not come on Ranjiri's behalf. Cera nearly opened his mouth to speak, to prompt and ask her what it was she did need then, but Ktulu finally broke her own silence before it became uncomfortable for him. 

"I wanted to thank you."

Cera's face drew wide and open with surprise, so stunned he didn't even know how to react much less try to imagine what to say. Even if he was quick enough on his feet to do so, Ktulu was faster, smoothly bulldozing her way through (was that even possible?). A flush overtook Cera, humble and embarrassed in equal parts as she confessed that Ranjiri spoke so highly of him. He felt undeserving of such praise. He was hardly Ranjiri's caretaker, she was more than capable of handling herself. He had only tried to love and support her in all she did and would ever do. Be there for her during the nightmares and the dark hours when the world was too cruel to bear its weight. He didn't deserve such praise. 

"You never need to thank me for doing that," the stallion assured firmly. "I'd do anything for her." Cera would die for her in a moment's notice, and never regret the days and hours he would miss out on that he should have been granted. But that wasn't Ktulu's only groundbreaking surprise. As if she'd come here just to knock his world completely off balance. 

Family is never turned away.

Family.

Cera took a long moment to digest what she had said, the subtext and the implications that she wouldn't outright come and say. And he finally realized why she was here. His conversation with Ranjiri. And for a moment he's deeply embarrassed by the fact that Ranjiri had confronted her mother with such a topic. He was a fully grown stallion...it was far too late for Ktulu to become a mother to him in the way he had always needed back then. 

But it still meant something. 

"Thank you, Ktulu," he whispered, overcome by emotion but keeping it tamped down purposefully. And he didn't know what inspired him to say it, but his tongue ran away with him in that moment, spurred on by Ktulu's outstretched hand. 

"I asked Midas every day to go to you. All I ever wanted was to be an unbroken family. It...means a lot to me. Truly." And if she noticed the bitter way he said his father's name, well. She probably felt the same.

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.