Having no sleep had really messed with Metas' head. If he had just waited he would have known that he really was safe, and even more so in numbers.
Had the waterfall blocking the entrance to the cave not drowned out their sounds, Silas would have found them immediately. Instead, all he heard was a garbled set of sounds that mimicked that of the yelps of small, fighting animals.
"Ow, ow ow ow - why!?" Jess complained as her ankle twisted underneath Metas' weight.
"I'm sorry - I... Silas is outside, I thought he could see me," Metas stammered.
It was here his stomach dropped. He had honestly never felt like this before. Usually his cool was like frosty ice on a cold morning, but for whatever reason - in this instant - he was a blundering idiot.
"Get off of her-" Veltar said a little roughly and actually shoved Metas up and out of the way so that he could pull Jess out from under the weight of the Alpha.
"Hey. Don't snap at him," Myranda warned as she crawled her way towards Metas and the rest of the group as she awoke from all the sounds echoing in the cave - groans, cries, grumbled, and Jyirah's yawn.
"Don't land on my ma-patient, then" Veltar argued as he looked at Jessie's swelling ankle before he looked to her with worry. "Are you alright?"
The silver-haired beauty nodded and wiped the tears leaking from her orange eyes using the inside of her wrist.
Myranda watched in awkward silence as she realized that those two indeed had some kind of connection already (again) - it was just solidified now. This was absolutely something Syranna would wish for, or try to make possible with her last act. To give her lost mate to one who had never found another.
"What in the hell was all that about, Mets?" Lara complained as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"I am sorry everyone... I'm just not right in my mind at the moment," Metas said with a daze.
Myranda frowned at her lover and reached out to stroke the side of his face tenderly with her hand. "It's okay, you're just really tired. You need to sleep," she cooed gently and tried to lure the large male away from the cramped area of everyone else with tender tugs from her finger tips.
He stalled at first, still kind of dazed at his actions and the reception of them from his own self. He wasn't at all used to being out of control.
"Hey, come on - its okay," Myranda whispered in his ear and finally persuaded him to move backwards and stare to the ground.
"You need to take it easy, or you're going to wear yourself out -- and the rest of us too," Ajax complained with a frown and drooped forward with a tired anger that was raising from the constant lack of a good day's..well, night's sleep.
"I'm sorry. I am in the same situation as you all, I swear it. I was going to go and get some work done and start to collect things around the forest to prepare to build up forces, but Silas is out there. In my haste, I hurt you. I am so very, very sorry," Metas apologized again and lowered his head in guilt, and a little bit in shame as he shook his head with regret and displeasure.
"Woahkay, Mets..." Lara started with with a soft shock as she watched her best friend dissolve into something she had never seen before. Even in the worst times, Metas was a rock. She and Myranda glanced at one another and shared a same concern.
"You know what? How about we make sure you can get some sleep so we can get some sleep?" Ajax suggested with more snip to his tone than he meant, but he was intensely grumpy and couldn't care less about what anyone was feeling. He wanted to sleep.
"Don't be an ass," Lara hissed towards her mate in warning.
"I'm not! I'm being factual - it's not my fault that the truth hurts. Metas needs sleep, so that /we/ can sleep. If I go one more day without a nice, calm sleep - I am going to go outside and walk into the demon territory," Ajax said with a pointed, angry voice that was so quiet, but so perfectly enunciated that it could be heard with the deep rage it was bubbling from.
"Stop it, and just everyone SHUT UP for crying out loud!" Jyriah shouted out above everyone, which caused the pack of them to jolt and go silent.
"Thank you," the red head replied with a sarcastic smile on his flat face. He turned to Joss and gestured to him with a real smile before he spoke out sweetly, "as you were saying, my handsome prince?"
Joss gave his mate a warm, grateful smile and then turned to everyone as he spoke quietly, but enough for everyone to hear in such a tight space.
"I'm not sure if you heard Metas - but he said Silas was outside. We should stop yelling and arguing, and just take a deep breath," the male twin of Jessie said and tried to live by example by sucking in two lungs full of air and let it out slowly.
"We're all on edge. I understand that. We're tired. We're hungry. We're all mad at someone or something or just the situation in general and we don't need to fight." Joss couldn't help but then turn to his twin and ask, "are you okay, Jessie?".
The female counterpart nodded and leaned onto Veltar reflexively for comfort, but immediately moved her head from Veltar's shoulder when she saw Jyriah look their way. She expected him to comment off something sarcastic, or mean -- but he didn't.
In fact, he agreed with his sister and had a vivid dream that he got to speak to Syrana one last time the night she died. He could have sworn she said, 'it will all be okay, just let it be' - and he was pretty sure this was what she was hinting at.
Who could know, though? Like all sentient beings, Jyriah was just plugging in what he knew into the vague images. No one truly knew if dreams were real or not - but some who did would argue that she had used the last of her energy to reach out to her older brother and give him one last message.
Jyriah didn't care about if they were real or not. He cared that to him, it meant to not give Veltar or Jess a hard time about wanting to be together.
"Could you please stop staring at me?" Veltar asked with an expression of discomfort scrunched on his face.
"Oh - yeah, I zoned out. Like everyone else here, I'm tired" he said with truth. He hadn't meant to stare. He was going to give them his good wishes, but before he could, Ajax elbowed his way in with another complaint.
"So can we somehow sleep? Please? I'm dying. I was the one up the latest keeping watch," the emerald eyed male sighed out hard in annoyance.
"You are absolutely the worst when you don't get sleep. I need you to lay down, and stop" Lara grunted and darted her eyes to the mate she loved, but was not pleased with at the moment due to his attitude.
"Excuse me. Silas is out there. What are we going to do?" Joss reminded them again as the subject continued to get bounced around.
"We are going to shush, lay down, pretend its all normal and worry later. We're being too damn loud," Myranda hissed from Metas's side. He was laying on his stomach as she ran her hands up and down his muscles tenderly in hopes it would help him relax.
"No one meant to hurt anyone. Let's just leave it at that. I'll be look out for a while since I fell asleep the earliest. I'm pretty awake now, anyway. You all sleep, and I'll do my duty as Luna so that our Alpha can rest and get back to himself. Is that a reasonable?" Myranda asked with a tired air in her words.
She was emotionally and mentally drained, and really, truly, deeply - she did not want to deal with anymore drama. Everyone needed peace or they were going to kill each other, or worse - break apart and make enemies of one another.
"Of course, my Luna" Jyriah replied first with a half respectful, half mocking tone that caused Myranda to grin a little. He then followed up quickly with, "no, I am being serious - it's a great idea. You're strong enough to watch over us. I trust you."
"We all do," Lara added with a nod. Her disposition was still somehow unshakably positive. It was weird, but it was certainly welcome.
"Are you two okay?" Myranda asked to Veltar and Lara again with a frown.
"Yes, I'm healing already. My bone has regenerated, but my muscles are taking their time getting rid of the swelling. Thank you, my Luna" Jess replied respectfully and bowed a little.
"Oh no - no no - none of that. You're basically family. Myranda is fine," the growing Luna offered and gave Jess a sweet smile.
"So can I call you that, too - Mandy?" Jyriah teased.
".....I will get back at you later for that. Now be quite, and go to sleep. Everyone." she said finality and gave her older brother a glare, but relaxed her eye lids a little when she saw that he actually was doing what she commanded.
They all were.
'Oh... that is a new feeling,' she noted to herself with awe and surprise. The last thing on her list of things that she thought would happen to her in her lifetime, was someone actually listening to her commands without any complaint.
For the very first time, Myranda was able to feel like she was actually leaving her old stage of being a stubborn, scared teenager behind - and now blooming into what she was starting to realize she wanted to be all along -- a good leader.