This was probably the first decent place Ricochet had been to since she stepped foot on this continent. Until now it had seemed like she'd been a magnet for all the shittiest places. It was a relief to finally find an area that wasn't sticky or creepy or reeking with the smell of tar and rotting flesh. Yeah, those tar pits. Ricochet suppressed an irritated growl just at the thought of that place. That was where she'd met the cannibalistic piece of crazy. If Ricky never saw that bitch again it would be too soon. She huffed out a sigh and shook away the thoughts, looking around with interest at the place she'd found herself in today. Woods, a little creepy and quiet but certainly not the creepiest she'd seen. In fact, once you got used to the peace and quiet, you could almost feel a sense of magic here. Up ahead there was an odd structure built entirely of white stone, grown over in some places with ivy and other greenery. Mismatched eyes moved all about as Ricochet walked through. Her heavy steps seemed disturbingly loud here, so she stopped walking and just sort of looked. It wasn't like the woman to become awed by things like this. But this place felt sacred, and for a few moments it had even this brutish woman ensnared. "Talk" "You" Think

The boy no longer cared where his paws brought him. With no place to call home and no permanent spot to rest his head he just kept moving. He was older now and at least knew how to hunt for himself. He'd picked up on a few things while living in Donostrea and he was no longer the sniveling pup that had been left on their borders. He was a little more serious and a lot more sad, but he was almost over the depression part. It'd been months since the pack had just mysteriously disappeared and he'd had a long time to grow the hell up. There was only so long he could mope before he realized he actually had to take care of himself even if he was all alone. More than anything he still missed Seraphiel. She'd promised to be his best friend to the end and then she was just gone. If they'd left why didn't they take him with them? It was hard to forget you were all by yourself when everything was a painful reminder of it. He slept by himself now and it was almost like he'd forgotten how to talk. He hadn't spoken to anyone in what felt like forever. A part of him wondered if he would sound weird when he finally did have a conversation with someone. The loneliness he could cope with but it was hunger that was bothering him. Anyone who had known him before now would realize that he'd lost a bit of weight since the disappearance of the Elementas family. Of course any traces of puppy fat were now gone and he'd long since reached his full height of forty-two inches. What was once fat had turned into hard muscle. Between having to hunt for himself and often spending long arduous hours chasing after something worth catching was certainly enough to build up some mass. The rest had been by having to defend himself from the rest of the unforgiving predators stalking the lands and all the traveling he'd done in the past few months. Thankfully the Winter had been a mild one and he'd been a bit more fortunate in finding food so he didn't look like a skeleton. He could tell spring was right around the corner also so that was a relief to the boy. Prey would certainly become more abundant and with mothers surely about to have their young they'd be slower. He'd have a better time of feeding himself for sure. In the mean time Mortar found himself thinking about the territory he was traveling through. He'd never seen anything quite like it. It was eerily quiet and yet it was serene in a way that convinced him that he shouldn't be making any noise. So he walked as quietly as a two-hundred plus pound animal could. Everything seemed to be white too between the trees and stones that littered the ground. It was like something ancient lay buried here somewhere and all it took was an adventurous soul to come find it. He could imagine Seraphiel would have loved this place. She would have made a grand story of it and then they could have gotten into all sorts of trouble together. He'd never had a knack for story telling like she could, and had also lost any form of his childish nature he'd once had, so to him it was just some mysterious and mystical place he was passing through. His gaze wouldn't remain on the scenery for too long as the sight of a wolf caught his attention. It was a female, nearly as big as he, with rather familiar dark form and gray markings. The scent was different, older even, but she was clearly the same age as him. The boy came to a standstill ten yards from her with his bi-colored gaze locked onto her in utter shock. It couldn't be! He was positive they'd ll perished. After going to long without seeing any traces of his family he'd been sure they'd all died at the hands of the enemy. Yet here she stood. It was almost as though he was seeing a ghost. He almost didn't want to speak for fear that she'd vanish. Maybe this place was just playing tricks on him and all she was was an illusion. He had to be sure though? "Ricochet?" He could barely get his voice past a whisper. He was scared it wouldn't be her. He so desperately wanted it to be her. He was tired of being alone. Walk, "Talk" Think

Ricochet stood in silence, just admiring the structure before her and the silence all around her. It was really kind of nice. It made her feel somber, almost reverent, and that was not something that was easily done. She was just starting to think that she might want to explore the place a bit, see what mysteries it held. But then the silence encompassing her was shattered by a voice speaking her name. She tensed, hackles pricking up a bit out of instinct. Caught up in her rare moment of contemplation, Ricochet wondered for a second if she had imagined the voice completely. It was not a voice she recognized, after all, why would it know her name? But finally the large woman turned around, eyes full of confusion and a bit of wariness as she look for the source of the voice. And there, a short distance away, was a young male. Larger than she was. That was the first thing to catch her off guard. The second thing was the fact that he looked so... so familiar... It hit her all in a rush, like a crashing wave forcing you under, blinding you and taking your breath away. Those eyes. They brought her back, to the day of the siege, the day that still haunted her though she would never ever admit it. Those eyes, those same exact eyes filled with terror as their kidnappers carried them away. Those eyes disappearing never to be found again, even when the rescuers came. Those eyes she never thought she'd see again. Mind you, Ricochet was not an emotional woman. She was probably the most carefree, detached, don't-give-a-shit wolf you would ever meet. But when she saw those eyes again she couldn't breathe. "Mortar..." she whispered, the wonders of the building behind her entirely forgotten as she stepped closer to her brother. Her brother. "I thought... I thought you were dead. What happened? Where... Where were you?" "Talk" "You" Think

Fiery eyes would watch as the other wolf's hackles raised and the boy instinctively stepped backwards in case she turned hostile. While he would defend himself if he had to, he wasn't looking for a fight and would have no problem fleeing if she ended up not being his sister. Time seemed to slow down for him as he watched her turn to look at him. He watched back attentively staring with so much intensity and worry that it was a wonder that his head didn't explode. It'd been so long but he wanted it so bad to be her. What were the chances he'd run into anyone that looked exactly like her? Of course she was much larger now so it wasn't like he had any proper memories to compare her to. His assumptions were correct though as realization seemed to flood into her eyes. He remained frozen where he stood wary of approaching her still. Even when she breathed his name he felt like he couldn't move. Lucky for him she seemed more willing to close the gap between them which compelled him to remember to how to use his limbs. He slowly stepped forward to help close the distance and paused again as she launched a question at him. He'd been expecting, had he ever ran into any of his siblings, he knew they'd ask. Feelings of guilt washed over him. He'd hid like a coward when everything happened. He hadn't done anything when the siege happened and his siblings had been captured. He'd felt so useless and yet he knew there was nothing he could have done to help them. More than anything he was happy that she had lived. It then brought the question to mind: if she was alive then did that mean that the others had lived too? Were they here as well? "I don't know..." He started off not knowing how to explain it. "Everything happened so fast... I just hid and when I saw an opportunity I ran like a coward." They'd been only pups but still... he felt like he should have done something. "I'm sorry... I always wondered happened to all of you. What happened after I left?" He had to know. How did she survive? Were any of their other siblings alive? What about their pack? There was so much to catch up on. Walk, "Talk" Think

The two just stood in silence for a while, staring. But when Ricochet moved forward Mortar seemed to snap out of his trance and the two of them moved closer to each other, two pairs of mismatched eyes still wide with the shock and relief of finally finding each other. Ricochet listened to every word her brother had to say, about how he'd hid and run like a coward when he'd had the chance. But Ricochet didn't think of it as cowardice. She thought of it as self-preservation. And she, being the selfish brute she was, would have done the same. And so, she held no ill feelings toward her brother. She was just so surprised and so happy to see that he hadn't died like everyone had thought. She wanted to ask more questions, how he had made it to this place and who had taken him in? They'd been helpless pups when everything had happened. When they had been separated. There was no way Mortar could have hunted for himself or defended a kill. Someone had to have taken care of him. But before the beastly woman could ask anything else, Mortar put forth questions of his own. She licked her lips and nodded a bit to show him she would answer, and then tried to form words into a coherent response. She was still so... so shocked about all of this. "Don't be sorry," she said first of all. He didn't need to feel guilty about what had happened. Maybe if all of his siblings had perished like he believed they had, then a little guilt would make sense. After all, his fleeing would have made him the only survivor. But that wasn't the case. They were all alive. And he needed to know, so he wouldn't beat himself up over it anymore. "We survived," she said, giving her brother a small reassuring smile. "All of us did. You disappeared, and then not long after rescue came for us. Members from our pack came and dealt with the kidnappers, and they brought us home." Ricochet sighed as she tried to gather her thoughts again. She needed to catch him up on everything else that had happened. "I don't... I don't know..." There was so much to say. And yet so little had happened after the incident, in her opinion. "Things were pretty shitty after that, if I'm being honest. For a little while the pack watched us all like hawks, pitying us and always asking if we were okay. But they must not have cared enough to notice... what was happening to Caliber," she said in a slightly quieter voice, meeting the mismatched eyes of her long lost brother. "He kind of lost it, after mom and dad died. He practically stopped talking to us completely. It took a lot of effort to get anything out of him, and I'll admit I was the first to give up. Arsenal tried to help him as much as he could, but," she shrugged a little, and then sighed. Time to tell him the most exciting piece of family drama. "Then one day, Caliber really snapped. He and another pack member got into it, and he ended up killing the guy. Everyone was horrified; I wasn't, it was the most interesting thing to happen to us since the siege and that idiot had it coming anyway. But they exiled Caliber and he took off, Arsenal following close behind to try and find him and help him. That's how they ended up here, and how I ended up here too. I followed, mostly to find something new. I don't know about the others. But Caliber, Arsenal, and I... we're all here." "Talk" "You" Think

"Don't be sorry," Those were the first words she said after his confession. Ears slid backwards and he held back a whine. How could she be so forgiving? They could have all died, like he'd thought they did, and he wouldn't have known. He'd thought he was the last one left for so long and that thought alone was absolutely heart breaking. They'd already lost their parents and what if he could have done something to help save his siblings? She smiled softly, saying they had survived. Ears would slowly rise once more as he stared nervously at her. She told him of how that after they'd been kidnapped the pack came and rescued them. He was glad they hadn't had to deal with their captors for long. Imagine if he'd stayed. He would have gotten to be with his siblings. He would have gotten over the loss of their parents and he would have stayed a family with them. Instead he'd ran and ended up in Donostrea and even that had given up on him too. They'd left him and he'd been so alone for so long now that it felt like it was always going to be that way. He was so tired of being lonely. His attention returned to his sister and he listened as she explained how the pack pitied them. He knew that kind of pity. Glacier and Anais had given him those looks from time to time after they knew what had happened to his pack and family. He hadn't missed the looks of worry and the space they gave him. He was surprised to learn of Caliber. A frown tugged on his lips as she explained the silence from their brother. The distance he put between them all and how eventually no one could do anything for him. He couldn't blame him. No one deserved to see their parents die that young and it had made a huge impact on all of them. It seemed Caliber had taken it a different way though. He couldn't fathom what had snapped in him to kill a wolf. Whether he deserved it or not ... well he hoped he never became like that. He didn't want to kill anyone if he could help it. He was almost glad he'd been exiled though. They were all here and that meant they could be together again. They just had to find Arsenal and Caliber. A frown tugged at his muzzle some more as he thought about it. It almost seemed hopeless and as he looked at Ricochet and felt tears coming to his eyes again as he thought about his adopted family leaving him all alone. He couldn't go through that again. Without even thinking about it he moved forward and shoved himself into her fur burying his face in her neck. He didn't care about her personal space anymore. She was his sibling and he needed her. "Don't ever leave me Ricky." He murmured. "I can't deal with it anymore. I can't be alone..." Walk, "Talk" Think