"Come on, I need to slow down."
"It's not my fault you can't keep up." Valkin replied with a shout, slowing himself as he spoke. He knew he could go on like this for a while longer, but Van wasn't as strong as he was.
"Let's rest here." As he spoke the white haired lion moved back to his friend and smirked, bumping his shoulder into him playfully.
"How long until we get to Xiu?" Vani asked with a sigh, sitting down beside his brother with tired eyes and heavy paws. His chest beat up and down quickly as he did his best to regain himself, though he found it hard to relax as quickly as his brother.
"She said he would be here, so I figure we just... wait? I mean, she's a goddess, she'll show when she wants to." Val laughed.
"She's our grandmother." Vani corrected, even if she was a Goddess they shared blood. He needed to remember that.
"Yeah, I know. But still, we aren't like her. We could never be." Val smirked in response, tiling his head to the side. He was aware that the Goddess was his own flesh and blood but it didn't change anything, in all truths he hadn't ever spent any real time with her outside of small visits from his cub-hood, so what did it actually matter? A title was a title but what did she ever do for them? Nothing.
"Why do you have to do that?" Vani was annoyed. It always felt like his brother was being passive aggressive for no reason, picking fights at the drop of a hat, looking for the negative in everything. It was exhausting.
"You are always so negative. Why can't you just accept that she's family." The pink lion frowned again at his darker brother, jerking his head away as he moved to stand again.
"Let's just rest here for the night, we can head out in the morning. I'm too tired to keep going like this." He didn't want to venture off again, in truth Vani just needed a night to regain his strength.
"Alright. Whatever you say." Val rolled his eyes and sat beside his brother as the pink lion shuffled about.
"It's not like it's going to matter, telling her about Ramlin." His voice seemed to change as he brought up Xiu's son, who had recently passed away from an unknown illness.
"Maybe she won't care at all." He added, the anger in his tone over powering any love he might have had for the Goddess.
"Valkin stop." Vani snarled, clawing at his brother with a raised claw. It was rude to speak about the dead in such a way, how could he be so cold? Of course Xiu Xiu would care about her own son's death, she wasn't heartless. Where did Valkin get this idea from? Why was he so cynical.
"I can feel anyway I want to about it." He frowned, his blue eyes narrowing as he looked away in frustration.
"She could have saved him, she's a Goddess, she could have used her powers to save his life." He felt anger swell within his chest as he spoke to his brother with a heavy heart. He didn't know where to put all this anger he was feeling, how could he?
"Val... that's not how it works and you know that... she might not have the ability to do such a thing. Being mad at her when she doesn't even know about it seems absolutely backwards. It feels like you just want a reason to be upset."
"It doesn't matter. I hope we find her soon, I wanna give her a piece of my mind." His fur bristled as he turned away from Val, sorrow covered him like a blanket for a moment; he felt so lost in his own thoughts. Losing someone you loved was always a hard thing, but losing them to something that couldn't be cured... it made him feel helpless and small.
Why couldn't he save Ramlin?
Why couldn't she?
"Just get some rest. You need to relax, you are exhausted. You don't know what you're saying." The pink lion replied with a soft smile. He wanted to cure his brother of his sorrow, death just hit him much harder. Vani hadn't felt the weight of it yet, in truth he liked to pretend it never happened. He wasn't dealing with his own personal sadness because he needed to be strong for his brother, he needed to care for him because he knew that he would be doing the same thing if he could. Everyone had a flaw, Val's was his ability to become overly sad quickly. He didn't want to lose him to depression again.
He couldn't lose him again.
"Come on, rest for now. In the morning we will figure all of this mess out. We have to be close now, the raven said it was this way." He spoke again, this time making sure his darker brother knew that they had a game plan. In the morning the would continue their journey. They would find Xiu Xiu and give her the news of Ramlin's passing. He just hoped for his brother's sake the Goddess would react properly. He couldn't imagine her not caring about the death of her own son, could anyone be so cold?
Vani smiled as he sat himself down beside Valkin, resting his chin on his head with a smirk.
Valkin didn't feel like getting into it with Vani, so with a deep sigh he spoke, rolling his eyes.
"We will see in the morning." It was the best reply he could give, given his current emotional state. He would figure himself out in the morning. In truth Valkin didn't know what he would say to his grandmother when he saw her, it had been years after all.
The sooner they found her the better.
~end with 1,058 words