She had wandered it seemed for hours through the marketplace and through the glen after leaving the Inn only to wind back around and find her way back to the home she had kept with the brothers and Jase.
Head bowed she pressed her forehead against the cool surface as she closed her eyes and inhaled sharply of the scents around her. There was nothing more then the residual scent of the three of them, the only prominent scent in the room now was hers. The Regina exhaled an inaudible sigh as the dark gold of her eyes opened again, darkening with a melancholy that the world would never see, never from her.
What she had told David had been the truth. No matter how aloof and indifferent a cat may seem, they craved companionship. Before it was easier to manage the lack of the Pride when she had the company of Riley and Daniel, and the brothers? but now with Ghost and Darkness gone, and Riley and Daniel paired once again Melisande remembered how life was before.
A frustrated growl was restrained as she shoved the key into the door and brought it open to step within the empty room.
It was pointless but even still she could not help but wander the rooms in hopes that maybe they all had found a way to mask their scent from here and they would be there waiting for her. Once again it was the same as it always had been.
Empty rooms.
Melisande returned to the window seat and curled herself in it, basking in the last rays of sunlight that now offered her no comfort. Her fingertips moved through the caramel mane of hair as she closed her eyes tightly, trying to shut away the whispers of the past and the blame and the guilt it always carried.
?The blood of your Pride is on your hands. Why could you not have been more flexible, more willing to do what was necessary for your Pride, Melisande? Always so proud you think you could have saved them? They were dying long before the fires? because of you. If you had only did as they asked.?
The words were silenced by the Regina?s roar, the sound inhumane from the lips that sounded it out. Panting and breathless she snapped a hand out to close around the windpipe of the lion that dared speak to her in such a way. She watched as the color drained from his face even as her words were breathed out as a quiet snarl.
?You forget on who you speak to. You hold no Rex in this misfit Pride you have ordered to run around with the hyenas? you betrayed your own. Speak nothing to me of betrayal or blood. I am your Queen.?
The power was thrust into the young lion before she threw him to the side as if he was a useless toy. All of those around her that remained alive of the lions that had betrayed them all to the hyenas were marked and bloody, touched with the result of Melisande?s anguish and rage.
Everything was lost.
She could not say that she had honestly loved her husband, her Rex, their marriage bond more so for the strength of the Pride? but she had loved her cubs, and now even they were nothing more then broken corpses around her.
Her fingertips clenched into fists and she snarled out that final warning. She never needed the moon or a cycle to offer her the strength to change form. She like the rest of her massacred Pride were of the pure blood and naturally born into their duality.
It made the transition so much easier. It made death brought by tooth and claw so much easier to accept as the Regina changed to the breath-taking tawny gold lioness and ended the lives of those that remained.
If she was meant to be alone and Prideless she would be alone and Prideless, and no one would betray her ever again?
A soft sigh of mourning was breathed out for all lost. Once so long ago she had sworn to never possess another Pride, that she would never become again a Regina to the lions? yet here she was now dwelling and drifting amongst the Cats again, finding herself forging once more the semblance of a Pride awkward and different as it was.
David had been right, no matter how different a cat could be, loss and loneliness was something they would share with the humans? and the suffering was no more or less to tolerate.
Her suffering ever would remain contained, silent and distant. Melisande was the Regina, she had to be stronger then them all if she expected this new found Pride to survive.
Head bowed she pressed her forehead against the cool surface as she closed her eyes and inhaled sharply of the scents around her. There was nothing more then the residual scent of the three of them, the only prominent scent in the room now was hers. The Regina exhaled an inaudible sigh as the dark gold of her eyes opened again, darkening with a melancholy that the world would never see, never from her.
What she had told David had been the truth. No matter how aloof and indifferent a cat may seem, they craved companionship. Before it was easier to manage the lack of the Pride when she had the company of Riley and Daniel, and the brothers? but now with Ghost and Darkness gone, and Riley and Daniel paired once again Melisande remembered how life was before.
A frustrated growl was restrained as she shoved the key into the door and brought it open to step within the empty room.
It was pointless but even still she could not help but wander the rooms in hopes that maybe they all had found a way to mask their scent from here and they would be there waiting for her. Once again it was the same as it always had been.
Empty rooms.
Melisande returned to the window seat and curled herself in it, basking in the last rays of sunlight that now offered her no comfort. Her fingertips moved through the caramel mane of hair as she closed her eyes tightly, trying to shut away the whispers of the past and the blame and the guilt it always carried.
?The blood of your Pride is on your hands. Why could you not have been more flexible, more willing to do what was necessary for your Pride, Melisande? Always so proud you think you could have saved them? They were dying long before the fires? because of you. If you had only did as they asked.?
The words were silenced by the Regina?s roar, the sound inhumane from the lips that sounded it out. Panting and breathless she snapped a hand out to close around the windpipe of the lion that dared speak to her in such a way. She watched as the color drained from his face even as her words were breathed out as a quiet snarl.
?You forget on who you speak to. You hold no Rex in this misfit Pride you have ordered to run around with the hyenas? you betrayed your own. Speak nothing to me of betrayal or blood. I am your Queen.?
The power was thrust into the young lion before she threw him to the side as if he was a useless toy. All of those around her that remained alive of the lions that had betrayed them all to the hyenas were marked and bloody, touched with the result of Melisande?s anguish and rage.
Everything was lost.
She could not say that she had honestly loved her husband, her Rex, their marriage bond more so for the strength of the Pride? but she had loved her cubs, and now even they were nothing more then broken corpses around her.
Her fingertips clenched into fists and she snarled out that final warning. She never needed the moon or a cycle to offer her the strength to change form. She like the rest of her massacred Pride were of the pure blood and naturally born into their duality.
It made the transition so much easier. It made death brought by tooth and claw so much easier to accept as the Regina changed to the breath-taking tawny gold lioness and ended the lives of those that remained.
If she was meant to be alone and Prideless she would be alone and Prideless, and no one would betray her ever again?
A soft sigh of mourning was breathed out for all lost. Once so long ago she had sworn to never possess another Pride, that she would never become again a Regina to the lions? yet here she was now dwelling and drifting amongst the Cats again, finding herself forging once more the semblance of a Pride awkward and different as it was.
David had been right, no matter how different a cat could be, loss and loneliness was something they would share with the humans? and the suffering was no more or less to tolerate.
Her suffering ever would remain contained, silent and distant. Melisande was the Regina, she had to be stronger then them all if she expected this new found Pride to survive.