Chapter Text
“While all Early European humans have shown signs of hunting mammoth, homo sapiens sapiens, who are the most closely related to modern humans, have the greatest number of tools made from mammoth and other signs of having hunted mammoth (Nu & Obitt, 2006; Demesne et al, 2009). However, scholars theorize that their dependence on mammoth and other large herbivores contributed to their eventual distinction, albeit several thousand years after the presumed extinction of both Neanderthal and Denisovans (Demesne & Quee, 2008).” (From a Paper by Ahsoka Tano, ANT 412.001, Spring 2009)
Chapter 12: For the Spirit World
The lowskulls didn't stay. It was only the afternoon and there was plenty of time to travel, but the matriarch seemed to think that the cave, while still a part of the Heart, was not their place anymore. Instead, they moved on, their little pack- no, clan- walking on without any fanfare or trouble.
In the meantime, Rey left Kylo with the kids and went to the spring to refill their water. Clearly, Unkar hadn't started foraging for nuts and berries near the waterway yet. The berries, leaves, and piney nuts weren't perfectly untouched, but they'd all be taken by animals, but the way that Unkar had taught her. As she went, she pulled some of the berries and nuts she recognized to take back. They still had some food they'd traveled with, but she wasn't going to pass up food they could eat now.
When Rey returned, Kylo was struggling to mediate some animated argument between the toddler. It was more gibberish than anything recognizable, but she was fairly sure that (1) Hava had started it (2) Kylo was definitely losing.
Hava gesticulated wildly, babbling about Alynn and the wolf pelt. Te pointed from the wolf pelt in Kylo's hand and then at Kylo himself, who she assumed had decided to end an argument between the kids by taking away the thing they had been arguing about. It should have worked in theory, but now Alynn was sniffling and Hava seemed to be berating 'Lo' about theft.
As Rey stood at the entrance of the cave, watching the scene unfold before her, Kylo looked up at her helplessly and said, "how am I the problem now?"
Rey snickered, walking over and scooping Hava into her arms. Te squawked indignantly, but Rey coughed back, a low bark to remind tem the pecking order in this situation. Hava pouted, burying tes face in her smock, so she set them down next to Alynn, then nodded for Kylo to wrap the pelt around them both. Alynn grabbed at the edge with one fist, burying tes nose in the soft fur. Hava blinked at Kylo, but the alpha just chuckled, leaning forward to nose at Hava's hair, a low hum rumbling in Kylo's chest. Hava finally sighed, relaxing into their half of the pelt.
"Truce?" Kylo said, nodding to the two kids.
"Hopefully it stands. We've got to eat," Rey said.
Kylo chuckled again. He looked down at them for a moment and his smile faded, just slightly. Even in the fading light from the outside, Rey could see something pass in front of his eyes, like when a cloud passed in front of the sun. She wouldn't let herself reflect too much on what it was. There was no good answer, really.
The rest of the day passed cleaning out anything decayed or unnecessary in the cave. It was mostly limited to food that had spoiled before it was picked up by scavengers and the occasional nest of tangled twigs or branches, but the place was otherwise fine.
"How old were you when you came here, do you think?" Kylo asked, looking at the shelf they'd put Unkar's bones on, "you slept on this until you were grown?"
"I was bigger than Hava and Alynn. Big enough to make it here, at the very least," Rey pointed out.
Kylo huffed, then sat down, letting Hava and Alynn explore the bounds of the cave more freely now that they were sure the babies weren't going to wake up any ferrets huddled in a crevice somewhere. He settled with his back resting against the wall next to the entrance of the cave, watching the two of them.
"You don't get to see this often, do you?" Rey said thoughtfully, starting to build a fire in the old pit. It would take ages to warm up in earnest, but at least out of the wind and within the cave itself, they could let it burn all night without fear of it catching grass or attracting too much trouble.
"Little ones? No," Kylo said, shaking his head. He looked around, "I do see caves a fair bit, though."
"You did?" Rey asked, smirking, "Like the one we spent my heat in?"
"Yep," Kylo said, popping the 'p' pointedly. He smirked, clearly just daring Rey to ask him about it. Rey didn't bite, but looked at him, raising an eyebrow. Something within her coiled, just slightly, at the idea of Kylo with another omega in that cave. She knew it was a common place to spend heats- and a pleasant one, more pleasant than the ones spent inside a glorified hole in the ground if the stories were true- but it left a sour taste on her tongue.
"The winter before I was 'grown' enough to actually try courting, we went North of the mountains," Kylo began, "it was the first time I went, but my father had gone more than once. He liked to take the pack north. Some of Rens's other sons had packs up there, my father's brothers that were still living were there, and the name 'Ren' still carries a lot of weight there. My father had taught me about how to court and, of course, I had sat by the fire with the old alphas when the omegas had come by carrying gifts and seeking out different alphas, so I wasn't totally new to it. We ended up in a cave system at the far side of the mountain range by early winter. It's cold there, but not in the way you'd expect, so there are a few herds who have territory that butts right up against the mountain and we got there right on time. My father was old enough that he didn't want to court. That time, Trudgen walked me through everything. I helped him, every step of the way. He taught me how to find a good cave, and how to clean it quickly and fully. How and where to build a fire, how to travel with and keep furs warm."
"Keep furs warm?" Rey asked.
Kylo smirked, "You warm some of them in the sun and put hot rocks in between the others."
Rey grinned, "I'd never thought of that."
Kylo nodded, "I tended to pull the rocks out just before I went to meet anyone. Trudgen said he'd heard of an omega diving into a pile of furs and immediately slamming her nose into a rock there."
"Really!?" Rey's head snapped up. She winced as she nearly burned her finger on the flames. She pulled her hands close to her chest for a moment, reminding herself to ACTUALLY split her attention rather than focusing on the soft rumble of Kylo's voice across the cave.
"Yeah. I was terrified of that happening, otherwise, the furs would have been even warmer when you got to that cave. Anyway, he walked me through every step until he brought the omega back, then he sent me packing. When she was ready to go, he walked her back to the edge of her territory, then had me come back and clean everything."
Rey laughed, "so you got a lesson in how to find a cave and how to clean one. He sounds like such a good older brother!"
Kylo laughed. It was one of those earnest, throaty, higher-pitched laughs that made Rey's stomach flip over. He shook his head, "honestly, I'm glad. Sometimes, young alphas will pair up, and try to find an omega with another alpha for the first time. Or you'll have an older brother who brings you along with an omega he knows well."
"You were my first," Rey said. She fed more sticks into the fire, but the slight scuffing sound told her Kylo had shifted in his place, "not my first heat, but my first heat spent with anyone."
"Oh, that makes more sense," Kylo admitted. Rey looked up and saw him nodding almost to himself as he leaned back against the wall. His eyes jumped from her to the kids as Hava let out a particularly ferocious squeal, but it seemed like te and Alynn were contenting themselves with playing with the sticks they'd found on the ground outside. Judging by the large swooping motions, the sticks were actually birds of some kind.
"What about you?" Rey asked idly.
"Me what?" Kylo asked.
Rey looked up at him again and blinked at him.
"Oh, sorry, yeah. Yeah, my first time was with a beta, actually. My gift that year wasn't accepted and no one was interested, but some of the betas had come to sniff around at the leftovers or those of us who weren't interested in courting." Kylo admitted, his ears turning pink.
"What was the gift?"
"It was a bracelet. I'd braided several different rope strands together and tied them. They were all different colors, from different places we'd been and I thought-" Kylo broke off and sighed, blushing more deeply now, "-well, clearly, despite what I thought, it didn't work."
Rey's heart went out to the young alpha. She could imagine him perfectly: a skinny, large-earned alpha carefully braiding together a decoration that would have taken months of travels to recreate, but whose simple beauty was underappreciated. She tucked another larger stick into the fire, then looked at Kylo, who was now studying his shoes.
“I don’t think ‘Rey’ is my real name.”
The words just kind of HAPPENED like she couldn’t stop them. They wrestled free of her grip and took flight before she could consider anything further.
Kylo's eyes left his shoes and went to her face now. The blush faded and his shoulders lowered slightly, “What do you mean?” he asked slowly.
“I think ‘Rey’ is my mother’s name and ‘Niima’ is HER mother’s name.”
“What makes you think that?" Kylo stood now, crossing over to the fire and looking at her intently. His voice had lowered and softened and his tone felt like a caress.
"Something your mother said when we first met. I said my name and she said she knew Niima. Niima was an adult when Leia was a child. The odds of her being my mother are…”
“Very slim.”
“If Niima was an adult when Leia was young then she would have had me in old age, but if she had a daughter…”
“Then Niima and your mother could have both had children at normal ages.”
“Exactly.”
“Alright, that makes sense, but can I ask why that means ‘Rey’ isn’t your ‘real’ name? Just because your mother gave you doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
“I don’t… I just feel… I feel like part of me is missing.”
“I think death just… does that,” Kylo said honestly, “loss of any kind, kind of scoops out a part of you that you just have to live without.”
"Some days, I wonder if my mother has any other children," Rey said, waving vaguely, "out there, in the world."
Kylo nodded. He ran a hand through his hair, "I've never had a sibling. I... I don't remember Anakin, but I apparently knew him. I know that having children of different ages can be special. I have- I know my brothers exist. The not knowing is..." He shook his head again.
Rey watched his expression for a long moment, "sit back." She said suddenly.
Kylo frowned, sitting back now, crossing his legs and looking up at her.
Watching the firelight dance over his face, Rey padded closer. Kylo didn't remove his eyes from hers, lifting his face to keep her in his sight, even as she stepped behind him. Rey kneeled behind him, gently running her fingers through his hair, pulling it back from his face. She carefully let her fingers lightly scrape against his scalp, which made him sigh. She said nothing, standing up on her knees as she braided his hair out of his face. She kept her touch gentle, but the braids tight, braiding the hair back. She bound a few cords into his hair, carefully braiding and wrapping them. Most of his hair was loose, which she liked, but she also liked seeing his face. She gently tilted his head up. His face seemed utterly relaxed as he looked at her, even with his throat so exposed. Rey didn't speak, but leaned forward to kiss his forehead, savoring his skin on hers for a moment. She let him go and rested her cheek against his back, watching the kids play and listened to his heartbeat.
Unkar Plutt was buried in the cave he died in. It took several days of concerted effort to dig a hole that satisfied Rey; the grave needed to be deep enough that any animal that might come later might not find him, even if they dug a den. There were a few holes already in the cave itself, but when Kylo suggested them, Rey said they collected water too easily.
As they stood over a burial hole deeper than Kylo’s knee, they set aside the various rocks and tools they’d been using.
“Is it enough?” Rey whispered, unable to meet Kylo’s gaze.
Kylo’s hand gently curved around Rey’s wrist, “it’s more than he probably ever could have hope for. He sent you away so you’d be safe, right? Now are safe and his cave is someone else’s home, right? Once we bury him, he’ll be able to see what this place is from the Spirit world.”
“I can’t believe they didn’t take him,” Rey murmured, “the other People.”
“I don’t think they really knew him, the way you did. They might bury him like he’d have buried one of them, but you know him. You’ll know what he’ll want in the Spirit world.”
Rey nods. They’d bundled up many of his remaining tools, weapons, and even a jar for water into two pelts. Rey stepped into the grave, gently arranging a mammoth pelt under him. It was his oldest, she thought, but also his favorite, judging by how he’d slept on it. They arranged his bones as carefully as they could, so he could enter the Spirit World at least somewhat whole.
Kylo lowered a hyena pelt down and Rey held it for a moment. She lifted Plutt’s forehead to hers one more time.
“Farewell, Man. Farewell, Papa” Rey whispered in the language of the People. She set Plutt’s skull down, then pulled the hyena pelt over him. They buried him with the jar, tools, weapons, and even a fine pair of shoes. After that, Rey and Kylo added soil and heavy plates of stone from inside the cave before covering both in soil again.
“Even if we don’t stay here, he’ll be here,” Rey said, nodding reassuringly.
“Exactly,” Kylo said. He pulled her into his arms anyway, encircling her completely and kissing the top of her head. Rey didn’t cry this time, but just reveled in the closeness.
“Kylo?” Rey mumbled into his tunic.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad it was you. Out of anyone else I’d trust to take care of the kids, of me, to take this journey… I’m glad it was you.”
“I am, too.”
“Tell me about the herd,” Kylo said, leaning down to pass a cut piece of fruit to Alynn as the two of them sat on an old tunic. The two of them sat in the shadow of a tree as the two adults gathered nuts, herbs, and other food that had grown back, even abundantly, in the years since Rey left.
“What about them?” Rey asked.
“I know my mother and I know you, but tell me about your friends. They all came after me. I knew Kaydel, but she was a child when I left.”
“So were you,” Rey points out, pulling several nuts free of the tree. A few of them weren’t in good condition to eat, so Rey tossed them aside, leaves rustling as they landed.
Odd.
She’d always tossed them the same way, now that she thought of it, and she realized that, instead of tossing the notes into an empty little spot between trees, she’d thrown them into something. Something new had grown here in the years she’d been away. Rey dropped the nuts into the basket and crouched down to peer at the new plant that was growing up where none had been before.
“What is it?”
“This… this is the same as that, right?” Rey asked, pointing from the tree she’d been gathering from to the little sapling in front of her.
“Yes?” Kylo said, dropping his berries into a basket, “why?”
“This is new. I-” Rey grinned, “I did this, I think.”
“You did what?”
“This tree. I used to toss nuts here. I think one of them made a tree.” Rey said, sitting up to look up at Kylo.
“If only you could do that on purpose,” Kylo said, grinning right back. He seemed to be humoring her, but nothing could shake her earnest pleasure. There was something incredible about being the cause of something new. It was like completing a piece of jewelry or new shoes. She’d done something special with her hands.
Rey looked down, “I bet I could. If you know what makes what, you can choose where something goes, find a good place for it. If I did it on accident, you can do it on purpose.”
“And what about the years you’re away?” Kylo asked.
Rey shrugged, “it’s not up to me what grows or doesn’t. That belongs to the Spirits of the Forest, but…” She paused, “I wonder if they thought it was for them, so they made it grow.”
“Okay, run that one by me again,” Kylo said, looking down at her. He looked from the tree to the ground, “the trees drop acorns all the time. Animals eat most of them, right?”
“But not all of them,” Rey countered, “what if they drop these nuts and seeds for the Spirits. The Spirits take their due and make things grow?”
“And then the forest thrives, yeah,” Kylo said. He looked down at the berries in the basket, “so, if that follows, then…”
“We should find a place for some of the stuff we’ve gathered, yeah.” Rey said, nodding.
“How do we know if it worked?”
“We probably won't,” Rey said, “but we can take care of the gifts of the spirits when we see them, right?”
“Yeah,” Kylo said, nodding. He looked around, “what do they need? What can we do?” There was something so him about that that it made Rey laugh again. Now that he had a rough idea, something to do, he wanted to rush headlong into it. It also made her think of Hava, who did the exact same thing with tes head when te was looking for something. Their noses even looked the same from this angle, now that she thought of it.
“Let’s just leave a few of everything we gather in the ground, let the Spirits know its theirs.” Rey said.
“You think the Spirits are different from our Mothers?” Kylo asked.
Rey shrugged, “maybe they’re the same, maybe everything in the forest has a mother, too.”
Kylo nodded, “okay, yeah.”
His smile, his absolute trust in her ideas and the possibility she
be right, compared with the way he’d fought her about the birds a few weeks ago made something in her heart glow. It was like the sun itself had taken up residence in her chest, filling her with comfort and making everything inside her radiate warmth and light. She stood up suddenly, her hand cupping the back of his neck.
Kylo blinked, stopping immediately. He didn’t speak, but watched her intently. Rey pulled him down gently, kissing him, which earned her a soft noise of desperation and adoration folded into one. Within a heartbeat, he was leaning her against the trunk of a tree, kissing her back. She closed her eyes, her hands dropping her hands to his waist, his hands skimming over his ribs, the muscle of his back, which made him sigh into her mouth.
Kylo pulled away after a moment, pressing his forehead to hers. He breathed her in, grinning into her hair. Rey smiled back, but it faded. She wasn’t sure how she could ever put these feelings into words, but she felt like the entire world had been shrunk down to this little clearing. This alpha, the children behind them, and the dappled sunlight streaming through the trees, felt like they’d last forever. It was like nothing else could possibly exist ever, like no one else had or could understand this feeling, this all-consuming feeling.
Behind them, Alynn squawked angrily. Rey looked over to see that he’d thrown some balled up something off of the fur and now wanted it back, although it had rolled into the brush. She shook her head, unsure if she was glad for the interruption or not. The unspoken words still sat, tight and heavy, behind her teeth. It almost hurt not to try to stumble over them, to try to make herself really understood, but she didn’t know what to say, how to say it, what she could possibly want to say. Instead, she stepped around the tree and walked to crouch next to Alynn, “see, there it is. You can go get it, right?”
Alynn grumbled, but walked into the bushes to pick up the ball and Rey shook her head fondly as Kylo turned back to his work, too, chuckling.
Part of Rey wanted to step into the circle of his arms again, but the moment had passed. She gathered nuts in silence for a while before Kylo finally said, “this place seems wonderful. Leia had chosen good territory throughout my childhood, but this place seems perfect. What made you? Made you leave, I mean?”
Rey methodically stripped a branch of nuts, then leaves for no good reason, just to delay having to answer, “well, I was getting older, for one. I’d already had two heats and I knew I’d have no children unless I met an alpha- one of my own kind. But I wanted to raise any children that I had within a herd. I don’t remember my herd very well, but I do know I was safe. And I was loved.”
Kylo’s voice was soft now, “do you know how old you were when you lost them?”
“Not really. I was old enough that, when I was found, I could speak our language to Unkar and he could understand me. I was old enough to run and forage on my own, but young enough that I still had more than ten winters until adulthood.” Rey said, shrugging. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him, remembering the dream she’d had of her faceless mother and her own facelessness the night before she’d met Leia’s herd.
“You said you remember your Mothers. Do you remember anything else?” Kylo asked. Something cracked, probably a stick, Rey thought. Considering the awkwardness of the topic, he’d probably settled for breaking a branch apart to give his hands something to do.
“Some, more a general sense. I remember my mother telling me to run. I remember counting the days on my fingers and toes and then running out of room before I met Unkar. I *think* I came from the West, since I think I ran into the sunset, but I can’t be sure. I probably got turned around, if I’m honest. The fact that I found enough food and water to survive and that no animal got me in my sleep is only due to the Mothers, really.”
“I can’t imagine,” Kylo said, his voice tight, “I would be wary of doing that
. Traveling with no supplies or help, but you were a child.”
“I think I was near death when I found Unkar,” Rey admits, finally moving to another tree that let her see Kylo’s face as she looked up from her work.
Kylo looked at her, “I didn’t know that.”
Rey nodded, pressing her lips together, “if he hadn’t brought me inside the cave, given me water, and let me take what I needed, I’d never have made it.”
“That’s… I knew you lived with him, but I never realized…” Kylo looked down at his hands again. He had apparently taken up shredding leaves, too.
“I miss him,” Rey murmured, peeking through the trees to where she knew Unkar’s cave was, “I didn’t expect to, but I do. He wasn’t warm or particularly pleasant, but he was there. Without him, I’d be dead.”
“It’s okay to miss him,” Kylo said, “the things you feel don’t belong to anyone else. They’re just yours.”
Rey nodded, pressing her lips together, “do you miss your father?”
Kylo’s hands grew still, “my father… my father was very tough. He could even be hard to live with. He demanded excellence from all of his sons. He had us practice hunting, fighting, and craftsmanship to the point of exhaustion sometimes. Even his sons who had sons of their own were never really free of his teaching, since they usually turned into examples or training partners for the young ones. There was never a break from his control, since he was also the leader of the park…” Kylo trailed off, staring at the tree in front of him like he couldn’t even see it.
“‘But’?” Rey added softly.
“But everything he taught me is how I got you and the kids here. It’s how I learned how to be a good alpha. An alpha worthy of fatherhood.” Kylo said, looking away from the tree to her, “and he’s the reason I have so many brothers worth having.”
“It’s okay to feel both things,” Rey said, nodding.
Kylo looked at her, then down at the food they’d gathered, “yeah. I suppose it is.” He looked at Alynn, who had happily settled back on the pelt and playing with the toy again, “I just hope to teach the lessons he taught without having to be him, you know?”
“You will,” Rey said immediately, stacking the baskets so they could carry them back to the cave, “you will.”
“You have that much faith in me?” Kylo asked, passing her the basket of berries and walking over to pick up the kids.
“Yes,” Rey said automatically, “always.”
Kylo’s smile, for once, reached his eyes. It warmed Rey down to the tips of her toes.
“Wanna be tall, ‘Lo! Higher!” Rey looked up at Hava’s squeal. She saw both her children balanced on Kylo’s broad shoulders, each held up by one arm as they giggled and cheered.
“Mama! Mama I wanna fly!” Alynn declared, waving his arms at her. Finn was known for making the little ones ‘fly’, where te’d toss them out of tes arms, letting them have a hand’s breadth in the air before they were caught. It was very popular. Rey had her own version, where she’d lay on her back and let them lay on her shins so she could lift them up for longer periods of time, but Rey wondered if Kylo would invent his own kind of ‘flying’, just for them.
Rey stood up to take her alpha from Kylo’s shoulder, but a noise caught her attention. She heard a low rustling noise and walked as quickly as she could quietly manage without too much noise and listened again. Something massive was moving through the forest, crushing leaves and shoving branches along the way. It was so loud Rey could hear it from her position, but couldn’t see it through the canopy between them and whatever it was. It had to be huge, whatever it was. Rey whistled at Kylo, sharp and short. His head snapped in her direction as she scrambled back from the edge, grabbing Hava from his outstretched arm, bundling tem into the back of the cave.
“Rey, take him, too,” Kylo added. Rey turned to grab Alynn from Kylo’s grip and bundled him beside his sibling. She tucked them behind the boulder, pulling a bag in front of them. When they made chirps of protest, she barked at them softly, a short reprimand from the back of her throat. They recoiled, sensing her fear and responding accordingly. They huddled together instinctively, knowing that noise wasn’t for anything that wasn’t extremely dangerous.
Rey stood, grabbing their spears, hurrying after Kylo, who was crouching at the entrance of the cave. He kept his ears pointed at whatever the noise was, “I don’t know what this is. Do you know?”
“No, I don’t. This doesn’t sound like aurochs. You can usually hear the lows by now.” Rey murmured, “I can’t see from here. I need to get into a tree.”
“How is that going to help?” Kylo whispered.
“Wind direction and I can see through the canopy, c’mon.” Rey said, already spotting the tree she wanted to climb. She slid down the sandstones, jumping down and reaching for the lower branches.
“Rey-” Kylo hissed
“Lift me,” Rey ordered, pulling off her shoes. Kylo nodded, helping to boost her to a branch higher. Rey clambered up and looked around, trying to spot the source of the noise. “I’ll call if I need it. Go back to the cave. You can circle anything, okay?”
Kylo grumbled in a way so reminiscent of Alynn that it made Rey want to laugh and cry. He put his hands together, giving her a foothold and helping lift her up into the tree. Rey grabbed the branches, lifting herself the rest of the way, bracing her bare feet on the branch and holding herself in place.
“I’ll see you, I promise,” Rey promised.
Kylo held her gaze for a moment, “if you die, I’m going to follow you to the Spirit World just to tell you how pissed I am.”
“Good,” Rey said, grinning back, “now go.”
Kylo ran back towards the cave, disappearing through the trees on the main deerpath. Rey held herself in place, trying to hear or smell anything, but sadly, the wind was pulling all of the scents away from her. She could still hear the same large noises, but couldn’t hear what it was clearly. It just sounded like
in the undergrowth, not like anything in particular.
The wind changed, bringing a scent she did know. This was people, Threefold people, too. Rey opened her mouth, her mouth flooding with the scents of omegas and betas- a herd. Her heart tightened: Could it be?
Another scent hit her: alphas. It wasn’t Kylo, since his scent was now as familiar as her own. But there was no reason for those three scents to be together.
Rey braced her arm on the branch and let out a whistle, her free hand cupping her mouth to amplify the sound. She whistled the tune she’d been taught by Leia when she first arrived: “look out, I’m here”
She held her breath, listening for the response.
The other half of the tune rang through the trees: “I hear you. Where are you?”
Rey climbed down as quickly as she could without hurting herself. She grabbed her shoes, pulling them on. She rushed down the path, pausing only long enough to cup her hands around her mouth, making her favorite bird call.
A cackling caw answered her.
Finn.
It was Finn! Te was alive!
Rey broke into a run, repeating her bird call, then realized she was about to run
Finn. Te was on the main path, which would bring them right past the cave.
Rey broke through the brush, “Finn!” She called.
“Rey!” Finn shouted, tes voice sounding like it came from both in front of and behind Rey. It made her heart ache, knowing te was so close and she couldn’t see tem yet.
Rey skidded to a stop on the sandy path, looking around wildly.
“Rey!”
Rey turned, looking upwind and seeing Finn. Rey whined involuntarily, surging into a run again. She raced back up the path, not caring that her legs ached and her chest burned. All of the exhaustion and fear of the past seemed to well up in her at the same time it flowed away. Finn was here and so were the others. Everything would be okay.
Everything would be okay.
Beyond Finn, someone was whistling the safety song. Rey choked back a sob as she reached tem and practically threw herself into Finn’s arms, a whimper escaping as te lifted her off her feet, hugging her tightly. Rey grabbed tes tunic in her fist, unable to speak around the lump in her throat. Hot tears burned her eyes.
As soon as Rey felt Finn’s strong arms around her and looked up to see that the entire herd was here and safe, all hope of holding back tears failed. Finn just squeezed her more tightly, a low and comforting hum rumbling in tes chest.
“We’re here, it’s okay,” Finn promised, “we’re here.”
Rey sat back and nodded, half-blind with unshed tears. She frantically wiped at her eyes, but Finn gently held her hand in both of tes, then lifted it to kiss her knuckles, “it’s okay. It’s okay.”
At this, Rey completely broke down. All of the horrible possibilities that she’d refused to entertain suddenly had washed over her, now that they were proven false, and the relief surged like a flood. Rose raced over, hugging Rey around the waist as Rey leaned forward against Finn.
“You’re here,” Rey whimpered, “you made it.”
“We did,” Finn promised, tes grip tight, “we did.”
Rose’s scent filled her nose and Rey turned to hug tem tightly, too. Te buried tes face in her neck as if trying to remind temself she really was there. This wasn’t a dream. Rey understood the feeling.
Another set of footsteps echoed in her ears and Rey lifted her head to see Poe’s face, white with agitation and worry, appear over Finn’s shoulder, “where is he?” Poe blurted.
“Poe,” Finn said, catching his arm in one hand, “give her a moment.”
“Where is Kylo?” Poe insisted with all the passion that Finn had shown seeing she was alive.
“Where are the kids?” Rose suddenly asked, looking around.
Rey whistled again, calling Kylo from the cave, “he’s there.”
Poe scrambled up the rocks, desperation adding a sourness to his scent. A tall figure appeared at the sandstone ledge near the cliff. Poe sprinted across the top of the ledge without any hesitation to grab Kylo by the arm. He hugged Kylo, standing up tall to throw his arms around Kylo’s neck. Alynn squeaked, squirming against the alpha’s pressure. Kylo leaned back, trying to give the babies more room.
Finn rubbed Rey’s back, looking from the two at the top of the ledge to Rey, “he- the kids are okay?”
“Yes. Kylo and I have been keeping them safe. They’re fine.”
Rey looked up at the people coming closer. She could see Kaydel, who carried a giggling, squirming omega in her arms and it made her want to cry. She leaned against Finn, more tears welling up in her eyes, “are you all okay?”
“Everyone made it. We’re all here.” Finn promised, pressing a kiss to her temple.
Rey nodded, her lip trembling. She looked up at Poe and Kylo, who were bringing both the kids down the rocks. She looked at Finn, “he saved us, Finn. So many times. He’s the reason we made it.”
Finn nodded. Finn walked over to Kylo, extending an arm, “thank you. I don’t- I haven’t had a sister in a long time, but she- you kept my sister and her kids safe.”
It was suddenly like someone had cast stars into Kylo's eyes as he looked from Finn, whose hand he shook, over to Rey. It struck her with the force of a punch, stealing her breath.
"Rose!" Hava waved tes arms frantically from tes place in Poe's arms. Rey laughed, a hiccuping, tear-filled noise, as Rose raced over to scoop Hava into tes arms, letting the little beta bury tes face into tes gland, rubbing tes back and humming in unrestrained joy. As much as Hava loved Rey and seemed to have bonded with Kylo, te had always had a special place in tes heart for Rose. Rose, despite having a sister and her children to care for, had seemed to bond with the little beta just as closely.
"How come te can get tes name right, but not mine?" Kylo joked, settling Alynn more firmly on his hip, "I've been 'Lo' this entire time."
"I mean, you have to admit, it's kind of cute either way," Finn said, opening tes arms as Alynn noticed them and wordlessly reached for them. Finn hugged Rey's baby close. Alynn sniffled with a barely-contained relief that made Rey's heart twist. The little ones had suffered along the trip, as much as Rey and Kylo had tried to shield them from all of it; it was impossible to hide weeks of stress all the time, particularly from children who knew their scents so well.
"Rey!"
Rey looked up the path to see Paige and Kaydel sprinting towards her, packs and children left in their haste and their desperation to see her. Just a little ways behind them, right over their shoulders, the rest of the herd was right behind them. Rey braced herself as the two omegas rushed at her, hugging her tightly. The tears came back, brought on by the overwhelming scent of relief and comfort that enveloped her, first from her friends, then from the herd behind them. baby was in the arms of a beta, waving
hands at her. Fyral's children circled around her, babbling and greeting her, trying to get close enough to hug her, instinctively wanting to smell confirmation she was okay. Everyone mobbed her, Finn, and Rose, noses buried in her hair, arms wrapping around her in their turn to pull her closer, to confirm she really was there and really was alright. Even Temiri, who seemed to be huddling closer to Snap, came to see her, hugging her tightly around the waist and pressing his head into her side. Rey had been one of the omegas who had done the most foraging with him, helping him identify plants by sight, which they'd both found particularly interesting.
As Fyral and Donali descended upon her, each with a baby on their respective hips Rey wondered, distantly, if this was what being hugged by her mother was like. This absolute safety and relief and joy. They had the least leftover dregs of anxiety, only the comforting scent of relief that seemed to wash over Rey. She rested her head on Fyral's shoulder as she spotted Leia. The matriarch had let everyone else hug her first, even though it was her right to greet them first if she wanted to press herself to the front.
Rey came forward and the crowd seemed to part around her. She didn't hug Leia, but kept her head down, eyes fixed on Leia's feet. She kneeled down, lifting her eyes to Leia's shoulder rather than her face, showing her a deference she'd not known how to do the first time.
"Finally learned some manners, huh?" Leia said, chuckling, "if I'd have known a tumble down a mountain is what it would take, I would have pushed you over myself. Come here, child."
Rey stood up. The wind left chilly paths on her cheeks where her tears were brushed away, but she didn't care. She hugged her matriarch tightly, feeling wrinkled but still-strong hands at her back.
"My son?" Leia murmured in her ear.
"Safe. Poe's got him." Rey promised.
"Mama."
Kylo's voice cut through the babbling crowd. He'd only ever called Leia by her name or title. He gently pushed his way towards the crowd. He looked so tall next to her, but Rey suddenly saw the little alpha, all gangly limbs and ears, who had left. Leia had let him go grudgingly, but now he was back. He'd brought one of her omegas back, too.
End of Part Three