lambonthealtar:
Emmett chewed the inside of their cheek as he recounted the story, heart aching. It might be ignorant of them to think the whole thing so senseless, but when Axel admitted that none of them even knew why the clans were fighting anymore, it made their muscles tense in frustration and protective anger.
Look how Axel had been hurt, and for what? What had it accomplished? Emmett might not have experience with Strigha venom, but they’d seen the rare timber rattler bite before. Axel had to have been in so much pain, been so afraid. She could feel the echoes of the past wrapped up in the retelling and the burr of his voice. They hated the person who tried to rob him of it and everything else.
“Anybody can be vicious.” Emm murmured in soft defense. “And can choose not to be.” The choice was important. Someone had made the choice to hurt him, and her, with intent to kill. Even having seen Axel fight, seen him in the dirt and grime and snow and blood while she was at her worst–he hit. He kicked. He threatened. And nobody died.
She cried so easy anymore, but she was trying not to right now, worried he’d censor himself to save her feelings. She could not help the tightness with which she gripped the coffee cup and his hand. “How did you live? What happened after?”
Axel spared a warm smile at her before his free hand found her side and gently rubbed it in a long vertical motion. “Didn’t think I was at first. It was the worst pain I’d ever felt. They dragged me to a hospital next door. Luckily there are Strigha on staff there, other clan members, who were able to grab me before humans could. They had some antivenom on hand. For all the fighting we did, it was understood that both clans made donations of venom to the hospital for that kind of thing. The guy who got me had a family member on file for it. I got lucky.
“I was in the hospital for weeks. Had to relearn how to walk, move, talk... did a lot of physical therapy. It gave me a...” He trailed and flicked his wings in an unspoken bout of Strigha body language. “... Appreciation for that sort of thing, so I decided to go to school for it.”
He squeezed Emmett’s hand. Axel wasn’t accustomed to trying to explain his deeper feelings about what happened because he didn’t trust himself with words that well, but he’d make an effort.
“It changed me, in good and bad ways. Felt like I was two different people sometimes. And, y’know, before then, I thought we weren’t so different from humans. All the fighting was just posturing, right? But when that happened it felt like I was seeing what I was for the first time. Something vicious. Dangerous.
“Guess that’s when I lost my place in the world. Thought maybe I could prove to myself I could be something else... but you know how that went.”














