Rook {B.B} (3)

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Ye Who Enter Here (3,1)

Tyra and Loukas parted ways as soon as they saw to it that the sky people made it as safely as possible back to camp, a bed already waiting for Bellamy thanks to Marcus radioing in beforehand about his injury, even if Bellamy downplayed his pain by a lot.

She considered going in with him to make sure his leg was properly treated, or even just as moral support. But Tyra had something to do before war was formally declared with Azgeda, something she had been putting off in favour of Loukas' health, but she came to the conclusion that it was time to face her ghosts.

"I thought you would leave with pretty face." Tyra pushed a branch out of the way before she kept walking, making Loukas believe she was clearing a path for him, only to get hit in the face by the exact same branch.

"Bellamy can handle himself, he has Octavia. But I need to do something else with you first."    

"Do what?"

"Go home."  Loukas snorted, jumping over some fallen trees that Tyra passed.

"I believe your compass is a bit off today, sister because we're already in Trikru."

"I don't mean Trikru, I mean... home, our home," The words finally sunk into Loukas making him stop in his tracks.

For both obvious and not reasons, they had both been avoiding that house, letting it crumble in on itself rather than sleeping inside. In fact, they had been sleeping in various spots of the forest just to not have to go back inside.

"You don't have to come if you're not ready."

Loukas hadn't been to the house in years, possibly a decade. But even then, he could already recognize the path, the difference in the trees, the small carvings close to the ground on some of them, even the different flowers that had somehow not wilted between the marked trees, so they would always know how to get home. He was as ready as he'd ever be.

"Let's do it."

Tyra went up first, stopping right outside the garden. The front door seemed miles away from her, a whole lifetime away. Even the wilted garden with plants that desperately required some sort of human care was already such a daunting feat.

"You were stood right there when they came to announce Moussa's death."

Tyra had grown so used to no one understanding the pain of losing both her parents and siblings, that she had almost forgotten Loukas had gone through the exact same thing. Maybe he hadn't been present when the feat happened, but it was even worse with how he had to come back and realize his family was gone, and he never got to say goodbye, unlike Tyra.

"And for Hadyn's, and Siva's, and yours," Loukas took a tentative step by his side, as if the same green grass below his boots which was holding him upward would give out on him any second.

Tyra took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the musky scent of the woods while she spotted the small hole in the door that was used to open it, only big enough to fit a finger. "Ready?"

Loukas gave her shoulder a squeeze, answer enough for the both of them to begin to approach the porch.

It creaked under their weight, Loukas' foot nearly getting stuck between the old wooden steps as they gave out under him. Though neither really noticed as they were too busy staring at the door, an object Tyra had seen a thousand times before, but it seemed different when it was the only thing separating her from the inside of her childhood home.

She pushed the door open.

Just as expected, the ceiling was practically crumbling down, between the weight of all the fallen branches and the continuous rainfalls that knew no mercy, there were holes all above the roof that allowed light to peak in from over Tyra and Loukas' heads.