Rosin

3- Cage

The forest was wondrously still. Calm.

With no wind to stir the lake waters, all was quiet. This time was a breather for everyone— no harsh weather like in winter, no floods of autumn. Spring was defined by the way all warm afternoons eventually gave way to a chill, the wax and wane of the sun. There was no warm in summer, just hot days, hotter afternoons. Skies so blue it made the wind hurt, the space between the trees hazy and humid. Summer was the time when everyone had to hide away from humans, not just the tribes but the animals too. Aria had once told her son that even flowers sometimes hid from the human beasts for fear of being trampled.

But it wasn't quite summer yet. Rosin had always liked this period of calmness— the brief few weeks of sun before the humans came. So had Aspen, not that she knew that. The two of them had a lot of things in common. Silly things like enjoying spring and preferring to sleep under the weight of heavy blankets rather than thin sheets. And also the absurd belief that crying somehow made you weak.
They didn't talk though. And neither Rosin nor Aspen were in the forest to experience their favourite time of year.

In fact, Ronnie and the scouts were coming to the slow, reluctant realisation that maybe the two of them had been gone too long... that maybe they weren't coming back. Ever. Not them or Azure.

Micah, sitting at Kovu's feet, was trying and failing to stop crying about that fact. A part of him wanted to go home, but the other part wasn't sure where home was. He knew that the people from his tribe would be worried about him. Maybe they had heard about the Hollow being destroyed, maybe not. But he didn't want to leave this place. At least the scouts here were nice to him. Nice to him like Azure had been...
It was a struggle for the boys to know who they should be more worried for. Their Captain— no doubt hurt and weaponless, gods know where, surely with that monstrous human— or their sister. As lonesome and independent as Azure was, she was still their sister. They were supposed to look after her, protect her from dangers, but they weren't with her now, wherever she was. And every one of them knew that if that human ever got his hands on her again...

A very, very long way away from the boys, Rosin Magnolia was imitating Micah's attempts to hold back her tears. She had turned her face from the monster, refusing to let him see her cry. The girl, Faelyn, she didn't mind so much, but that human was another story. Him with his oversized hands, feet that had no doubt trampled smaller creatures than her, hair as black as the stone Kristin's weapons were made of.
He would know what to do. She cast her face into her hands, Kristin always knew what to do. But he was not here, and he would never be here, so never again could she ask him for advice. She would have to try and fix this impossible situation on her own.

A heated discussion was going on behind her, hurried and tense ideas being passed between Lucius and Lyn, ideas about the very thing Rosin was trying not to think about. What everyone was trying not to think about— Aspen and Azure. Where had they disappeared to? There was no way to know. Nothing she could do to bring them home... and knowing that made holding back tears near impossible.

Wren Agraulis and Aria Fenland, though separated by an entire lake of water, were feeling the exact same feelings. An unceasing, gnawing despair, panic, an agony they didn't want to accept. Wren didn't want to believe that Rosin, the only person they had ever felt this way for, ever loved... was not coming back. And Aria... it would have been impossible to describe exactly the pain she was feeling.
First River. Now Aspen. Her son, her little boy. Stolen away...

The humans had taken everything from her.

Aspen- that was the name in everyone's minds. Especially Azure's. Her only thought as she mapped the sprawl of the city was him. No matter how the rain beat down, her desperation to find him could not be diluted. She was unceasing in her search. Unceasing in her love.