The entirety of his trek home from the greenhouse, Tilney's sightgivers were stuck with a  worried glance to the sky. The weather had been so pleasant with birdsong only weeks away it seemed - of course a storm had to ruin that pretty prostpect.
It was not often that he adandonned his work even for family, but he had thought they might spend some time together. To be cooped up inside would be an awful shame, but it would be quality time nevertheless.

The patriarchs cloven hooves took him winding through the trees, fretting (as usual) for dear Maude. He'd given her a lot of free rein as of late and allowed her ot venture away from the greenhouse with her friends. To be stuck in a storm at her age could make her very very sick... or worse.
He shouldn't worry - she was impeccably sensible. If she wasn't at home she was most likely over the hill at Tutis home or hulled up in the greenhouse. As soon as the splats of rain and sleet began she would find shelter.

It was only when the storm started to truly pelt down that his pace quickened, rushing for home. With elven precision the stag weaved through the trees, his heavy frame occasionally slipping in the mud. It was when he approached the home tree that the fog grew the thickest, and, with the help of his lantern, he was only just able to make out the figure of his love.
"Nin mel" was the lovers breathless whisper, a smile easily forming on his lips upon beholding her face in the lantern light.

she had taken his mond once again it seemed and he had forgotten they stood in dense fog and a storm - with a giggle the stag took the lead and guided her through the fog to the entrance to Trewdwellan. Crawling downwards into the great cave, Tilney shook off his coat and looked over his shoulder at the one who held his heart. "Are you well, Arah?" he spoke.

nin mel = my love

His devoted pair of split hooves took him along the sand-like cave floor, bright eyes watching with curiosity at the small stream that flowed in through the caves entrance and down into the cracks below. There was no telling where those cracsk lead, possibly to more caves and wondrous rooms but eventually the rain water would join the sea below once again. There was no drowning out the waves when you stood this close to them and in the Worlds Edge the sea was always at your side.
How do you fair had been his love's question, causing his maw to twitch with a smile, but still his gaze remained ever so slightly troubled - it was not his own wellbeing that was on his mind.

Tilney was sure Maude would be hulled up somewhere safe whther that be with Gawen in the greenhouse or Rexanna and Tutti; she surprised him countless times and day after day with her initiative. Maude's well-being was hardly of his concern even in this violent storm.
It was Arah and how she would take the news he carried.
Tilney wouldn't ask her to explain her absence, she needn't explain herself or any element of her dissapearance. The patriarch didn't need any reason or wish for any reccompence, he was simply overjoyed that she had returned to them.
Tilney's only wish now was that arah could take the betrayal, the humiliation that was sure to come with the news he had no choice but to deliver. Surely Maude would tell her eventually and besides, he had a duty to those two colts in the Dragons Throat.

Her velvet lips upon his neck and her sort nostrils beathing in his scent wrre completely undeserved. Scrunching his own nose and clenching his eyes shut the flaxen physician peeled away from the one he loved the most, pacing away frigidly to the back of the small cave. "You look well" was all he could manage to utter, shy green gaze fumbling to find her own of gold.

A oment or two passed before he oculd explain his odd behaviour; lip trembling and a shake radiating through his skull.
"Arah... I have done you so wrong" was his shaky whisper. How on earth could he begin to explain the extent of his betrayal to her?

No anger burned in the eyes of the one he loved - only pain.
Arah's brooding gaze had followed Tilney upon his escape to the back of the cave, watched painfully as his nostrils scrunched and his eyes tightened with a soreness of his own. Tilney wished with great anger that her words stood a chance at putting him at ease, or could even begin to comfort him. The reality was sure to be quite on the contrary.
The darling doe had no real clue what he had to say to her; she had done her best deduction it seemed thought was sure his words had meant he blamed himself for her demise in the wilds.

What if he did not? Was it selfish of him to blame the gods and the elements and the rain for stealing her for so long he thought her dead or begging estrangement? Whatever his wishes or beliefs, his actions had ruled that he was never to blame for Arah's disappearance. The wonderful mare's bleats about his innocence cause a snort to escape his tightened nostrils; all this was so untrue. While he had not a thing to do with her demise, he was far from innocent and the hand of righteousness.

'Tilney, you have done nothing wrong'

"Ú, Arah" the stag bellowed, giving a great stomp of his hoof. Tilney had hardly ever been so gruff to his mate before, not ever. "I lay with another! Not once but twice. There is no excuse for something so despicable, my only reasoning being that I thought you had left me and abandoned Maude"
Lifting his quaking green eyes to finally meet hers, Tilney felt as he could finally speak to her with sincerity. The truth, or most thereof, was out.
"Nothing you have ever done has warranted this..." was the chestnut's pained, tearful whisper to the one he loved. How dare he wrench her through so much turmoil again after all that she had been through? She diserved the truth and the whole truth as far as Tilney was concerned. However, soon he would wonder if it may have been kinder protecting her from these vicious facts.

Ú = No

The healer could not have expected any more or any less from Arah and her tattered emotional state. In shreads her life lay, swirling like fish in a barrel. It was a constant source of wonderment for Tilney now - if he'd ever be able to mould her back and pluck her from the pond.
Like bubbles, the power rose in her voice and her eyes, forever aglow like a tigress. Magic loomed behind them and dwelled in her skull, slinking up between her hooves and her lungs. It wasn't hard to see her brace and wane away from her own power and it would be a fatal underestimation to deny it. Arah was a Princess, a Queen even, trapped in the body of a woman who had just been dragged down a mountain after months of starvation and torture from the elements - and yet, still she managed to overwhelm any passer-by with her beauty and cause Tilney to quiver at her prowess.

The ginger one recognised easily who stood before him, even if she did not think the same of him. It was why he completely adored her for one thing, and perhaps the fact she felt the need to fight him to find the old Tilney once again was what caused that love to amplify. He too wanted to find himself again.
"Tilney, please, what else?"

Once again clenching his eyes shut Tilney recalled the final act, the icing on the cake to this whole wonderful confession. He wondered how he'd let it go this long without telling her and given all else she had been told this evening, woudl she even be shocked?
Clearing his throat and shaking his mane the stallion straightened his spine and looked directly as his mate. "There is word of twin tree-stamped colts in the Dragons Throat" was his solemn utter, eyes now cast down with shame "Until we found you I had intended to find them and bring them here to raise along side Maude - I am concerned for their wellbeing. If you would prefer not to I completely understand."

Like a flood of blood from a wound the guilt flashed within him, building up inside his skul and his ribcage. The feeling was indescribable, though still he searched his mind for a way to fix it as if there was something he could actually do or say to mend the descruction he had caused. It felt just out of reach! A solution to this travesty.
In reality it had been - months ago.The solution was to simply not do what he did. As if searching for a power within his mind or an object to unlock time, Tilney clenched his jaw once again and thought. hard.
There was no way out; this was the storm, a dark hour, and it was inescapable.

The woman he loved remained standing in all her fierceness, the valor and beauty he loved her so much for. It seemed as though this had not ruined her like it had him - a blow or a knock to the knees perhaps but still she stood tall with her velveteen chin high. Surely behind her infallible visage there was a weeping woman, one who had seen too much and braved too much to finally be struck with this... or perhaps that was it. Arah was battle worn now, her heart hardened against the faintest possibility of loss or disappointment; The the heart of the ice princess was now frozen completely solid.

The woman's words were like swords, her instructions like a shield. Tilney could only nod with the urge to bow at her feet, his viridescent eyes quaking at the sight of her. Could he ask for forgiveness? it was much too soon.
As his gaze tightened upon her own the stag fixated upon her thoughts, wishing to know her every breath and sigh, her every whisper. what did she think? was she merely putting on a brave face? Perhaps the moment he left there would be a violent relapse of emotion, an ensuing rage. It was as he concentrated on her own mind that the whispers came to his ears like a scratch to the back of his head. Arah did not speak them, her lips did not move an inch.
Silently the stag stood, shocked and bewildered as the voices of his lovers mind came to him.
It felt as natural as a heartbeat, yet as foreign and fearsome as a wound - was he actually hearing her thoughts?
"Arah, I hear you!" Tilney uttered breathlessly "I hear your thoughts! Never before have I been able to do this"
to say this night had been overwhelming was putting it lightly.