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She dreams of ravens. Black, ominous corvids caw and squawk in a deafening wave of sound that hits Vex’ahlia like a crashing ocean breaker, drowning her senses. They’re flying around her, circling her kneeling form as she feebly covers her ears with her hands to mute the noise.
Some swoop down, buzzing her shoulders, her head, but never quite touching her. Her untamed hair gets caught in their wake, whipping around her head chaotically.
They never touch her.
They just taunt.
They always taunt.
She doesn’t see Vax’ildan, but she feels observed. Her spine tingles, the fine hairs on the back of her neck prickle to attention. Brother, is that you? Are you one of these Gods forsaken birds? Are you the one who comes the closest to touching me in a dive? Or are you the one who soars off farther away from the others, letting loose awful, scratchy noises but never coming close enough to really see?
They swarm closer now. More swirl around her form as she presses harder on her ears to muffle the sounds they won’t. stop. making.
Vex wants to swing her arms wildly, shooing the cursed birds away from her.
One dips closer, nips at her gown.
She can’t move. She can’t move. They just taunt.
Another dips and picks at a lock of her hair, attempting to fly off with it. The action tugs her head in the direction of the raven, its flightpath temporarily stalled. It releases the hair from its beak in shock and flys away quickly, out of striking range.
She can’t move. Her hands are plastered to the sides of her head. She can’t move. They just taunt.
A raven lands near her knees, cocking its head as it looks at Vex. Her eyes meet the bird’s, she wills it to fuck off but it just stares and croaks in curiosity. It nips her leg, pecking into the soft skin at her thigh.
She’d flich, but she can’t move. They always taunt. But now they touch.
Two more corvids join the one at her knee. They squawk to each other, raspy and raw. One digs into her thigh, rooting its beak into the wound. The other hops onto her other leg and pecks at the cloth covering her belly, pausing to inspect the slight swell of her stomach beneath the fabric. It cocks its head and screams “Ca-cawwww!”
A third swoops down from somewhere behind her and lands on her shoulder. It pecks ferociously at the hand covering one of her ears, cutting into her defenseless fingers.
A fourth flutters down from the maelstrom of birds above her and perches on her head. Vex feels claws grip into her scalp, steadying the bird on her crown. It bends low, now upside down, in an attempt to look into her eyes.
She can’t move. They always taunt. And now they touch.
More land near her now, nipping, pecking, cutting into any part the scavengers can manage to access. Vex is covered in beak-shaped wounds, black feathers, sharp claws, and thundering wings. She squints her eyes shut, tightly, tightly, tightly, tears squeezing out from beneath the lids and wills the birds to vanish. To stop. To leave her alone.
She can’t move. They always taunt. And now they touch.
But she can scream.
Her shriek echoes in the wall-less dreamscape that surrounds her.
The ravens pause, but make no move to fly away. One by one, each bird turns its head to look at the panicked Vex’ahlia kneeling before them. One by one, each bird begins to caw quietly until they’re all making one low drone. The din begins inaudibly but starts to crescendo quicker and quicker and faster and louder until the noise reaches the pitches of pandemonium.
She can’t move. They always taunt.
“Stop! Please! PLEASE!!” she sobs, begging to them, to Vax, to Her.
They do not stop.
And she can’t move!
“Vex? Vex’ahlia!”
-=-=-=-
I need you to roll a... Strength Saving throw.
14 6 = 20
DC: 8 6 1 = 15
-=-=-=-
Vex gasps awake, breaking her paralysis in a flail of arms and legs. She kicks heavy blankets off her feet, but her upper body is still covered, draped with bed linens and held tightly by arms and a torso…
Arms and a torso?
Her panic doesn’t dwindle as she shoves the body away, extracting herself from limbs and scrambles to a seated position against the headboard of the bed. Vex’s clipped, ragged breaths fill the room, nearly drowning out the heavy thumping of her heart in her chest. She brings an unsteady hand to her breast in a futile attempt to calm the agitation that seethes inside her.
A warm hand cautiously comes to rest on her upper leg. “...Vex? Are you—”
“Don’t,” she chokes out, brushing his hand away. “Just… just give me a moment.”
Percy understands and makes no move to comfort her. He instead rests his hand beside her on the bed, there if she needs it. It’s not the first time he’s woken her up from a night terror… and it won’t be the last.
Her heart pounds in a rhythm she can’t control, and her breaths catch as the terror begins to wane and drain from her body. Flashes of what she can remember from the dream play behind her tightly closed eyes. Ravens. Again.
Vex slowly inhales a breath through her nose, out through her mouth, attempting to ease her anxiety. Another round of breaths, slow and steady. In… 2… 3… 4… Out… 2… 3… 4…
Just breathe.
Her free hand slinks down beside her to find his, interlocking their fingers in a tight, shaky grasp. “I’m so sorry, Percy…” Her voice vibrates with unease and nerves. “...I couldn’t move.”
He squeezes in support, feeling safe enough to adjust how he rests on the bed. Turning on his side, keeping their hands together, Percy moves his free hand to hover over her midriff, above the barely visible bump underneath. “...May I?” He knows she feels his presence there, so he doesn’t feel the need to expand on his request. But her permission is necessary, especially so soon after waking from a bad dream.
“Yes… yes, of course.”
His hand makes soft contact with the swell of her belly. He hasn’t been lucky enough to feel it move yet, though Vex says she has been feeling the flutters of movement more and more lately. Maybe soon…
“Do you want to talk about it?” Gentle. He doesn’t prod. Sometimes she shares her experiences in a form of catharsis.
“There were so many ravens. So many. They soared above me in this… this storm of birds. Their calls were so loud and I couldn’t escape them.” She releases a trembling breath and repeats the previous exercise to slow her racing pulse. “I swear one of them… one of those fucking birds… I swear one of them was… Vax.”
“He visited you?” Percy knows from experience this could be a dangerous conversation. She dreams of Vax often, now that he’s gone.
Sounding deflated, “It felt like it. I could… feel his eyes on me. He watched as the others… as the others pecked and poked and scavenged me. Percy, he did nothing to stop it. Nothing!” She turns to better face him and his hand drifts away from her stomach. “Why wouldn’t he stop them?”
Percy remains silent but present. Her question is rhetorical. It’s one she’s asked numerous times before, all prompted by the same resounding theme of her dreams. Comforting, he brushes his thumb along her hand and wrist, soothing her the only way he can at the moment.
“I don’t understand… why do I dream of him only to receive the silent treatment from my own brother…” she trails off, slumping down into the bed and curling inward into a fetal position. She buries her head in a pillow and groans. Muffled, “...Gods, I miss him.”
Their grasps are released as he moves to collect her wilting form against his own. Arms encircle her once more, this time to soothe his still-grieving wife. Only a few months have passed since the battle with Vecna, and their subsequent treks to rescue Grog and sort out Bob. Things are still very fresh in everyone’s minds… especially hers. “Vex’ahlia…” It’s whispered, but heavy with emotion.
Vex shrinks with a sigh into her husband’s grasp, nuzzling her face onto his chest, and lets the stress drain away with every moment that passes. “...I’m sorry for pushing you away. I know you were only trying to help.”
Percy’s hand moves from around her back up to her hair and threads between the loose parts of her night braid. He scratches bluntly against her scalp and massages down her neck. He’s gifted with a hushed moan. “There’s no need to apologize, dear heart.” His hands move back up her neck to lightly massage the back of her head. “You have done the same for me… countless times.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever nearly pushed me off the bed, darling.” Her muffled laugh is self-deprecating in an attempt to bring some levity to the conversation.
“No, you’re right,” he hums thoughtfully, “I’m more of the ‘wake up drenched in a cold sweat, screaming’ type.”
With the intent to soothe, Vex’s hand snakes its way up Percy’s chest, lightly ghosting over the sunken scars on his skin, causing him to shiver underneath her. She knows each one by memory, via hands and via lips. Each one a nightmare in and of itself.
“You haven’t in a while, though.” Her arm moves to hold him tight to her. “Your demons have been taken care of.”
“And for that, I’m beyond grateful,” he murmurs as he presses a long kiss to her hair.
The adrenaline of her nightmare finally teeters, replaced with an exhaustion one gets after they’ve stilled their thoughts and reconciled their emotions. She not-so-subtly yawns against Percy’s chest and snuggles up as close as she can get to him, draping a leg over his. “Can you get the blankets, darling? I’m sure we’ll be chilled soon.”
Under normal circumstances, he’d take that as a sign to extract himself from her to stoke the barely-burning fire in their bedchambers. And under normal circumstances, she’d grumble and groan until he got back into bed so that she could re-tangle herself with him. But she’s too comfortable, and tired, and needy right now to let him get up. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Percy’s free leg executes a deft maneuver to kick the blankets that still remain at his feet up and over her leg that covers his, and with his free hand, he’s able to grab the linens, coaxing them over their sleepy forms. He tucks them both in the best he can and relaxes under the weight of his wife, his love.
“Percival… I say this with the utmost respect darling, but if this baby learns to kick that, I don’t know how I’ll survive. I won’t have to birth her, she’ll just fight her way out!” Vex angles her head down to speak to her stomach. “No acrobatics until you’re at least walking. Deal?”
Their soft laughs fill the space around them, and they both reflexively breathe a sigh of contentment.
Wait a second. “‘Her’? ” he questions. “...Did Pike…?”
“It’s just a feeling. I haven’t asked Pike… I just feel it.” She’s not quite sure how to explain it. Call it a mother’s intuition.
“That’s… amazing.” A tight hug punctuates his tenderness. “Try to sleep now, dearest. For both of my loves.”
It’s not long before they both find themselves drifting off to sleep once more, the only sounds in the room are their quiet snores and, distantly, a single raven’s scraggly caw.