He stopped dead in his tracks once his paws touched the rocky terrain that surrounded the volcano. Like a moth to a flame or metal to a magnet, Casso was drawn back to this place now that he had officially trashed the mission he had given himself. Looking up the stone covered hillside made his skin crawl and his heart race. Somehow the air here felt thick and heavy - too heavy to breathe. The idea of facing his father and having to explain where he had been and the failure he was... That pain dug into his soul. I don’t know why you’re surprised... What did you expect? Of course you failed. The lacerations around his face had barely begun to scar and were really not much more than glorified scabs. The wounds that tore across his foreleg still seeped blood from time to time as he walked, but he paid it no mind. The constant, dull ache and sting that the bite marks gave him offered a strange sort of clarity that was almost soothing. He pressed his forepaw do the ground harder, stirring up that pain and pushing the voice in the back of his mind back to a place of darkess and silence. Casso glanced down at the wounds that were struggling to heal on their own without the assistance of his mother’s healing skills and had a hard time looking away. The muddled memories of Daelos’ open jaws lunging toward him, the feeling of his teeth sinking into flesh, blood painting the walls of the den he had awoken in... A chill crept up his spine as he looked away and turned his mismatched gaze back up the mountain. It wasn’t until then that he realized the scent markers for his father’s pack were non existent. His expressionless mask broke for a moment as his brows lifted with surprise - only to immediately fall again. Of course it was gone. For a moment his entire mission and purpose was gone. For most of the last year he had focused on training and getting stronger while he tried to find his mother. When that mission crashed and burned in the most horrific way he could imagine his only thought was to return here. And now... A faint hint of a scent caught his attention and he turned to follow it without a second thought. He tracked the scent carefully while he tried to full who it belonged to out of his tangled memories. His uncle. Acere. So they weren’t all gone it seemed... at least not entirely. He followed the scent until the stronger scents of a pack downed them out. His eyes lifted from the ground and he scanned the snowy landscape that surrounded the icy banks of a river. He couldn’t quite remember the name of the pack that lived here, but he did remember that one existed here from his childhood. A flat scoff passed his lips as he settled down on his haunches. Could he even consider his first year of life a childhood? A short time of living with his family that he could barely remember before it all seemed to fall apart and he put it upon himself to set out into the wilderness to find her. He sat several feet back from where the scent markers seemed to start and watched the seemingly empty land ahead of him for any sign of life. He didn’t know what he was expecting to find... While he waited for someone - anyone - to appear into view he started to systematically and coldly file away every memory from the last few days. He tried to convince himself that all of the wounds were from the same bear attack despite the fact that the still healing slashes across his chest were completely different from every other bloody mark on his body. He felt desensitized to it all in a way that he could only describe as numb. "Speech" "Mind"

It was quiet as she moved through the territory. It seemed things around this area were lacking in life, but she found this winder weather was making that happen an awful lot lately. The pack was busy, but it seemed most of the hustle and bustle was close to the dens of the two new mothers. She was traveling close to the borders today, something driving her to run right along them. So much had happened within the first year of her life and just when things had settled more drama stirred the emotions she had tried to hard to bury. Father was back, yet he never came to look for her, part of her wondered if he even cared about her anymore. She remembered that he would always say Praetor's stick together, but he had broken that. He abandoned her. Uncle claimed he had said he left her and the pack in uncle Acere's care, but he had knowledge of the hunting trip him and Ignis had taken, with no planned return date. She sighed trying to push down her thoughts as she quietly moved over the snowy landscape. Uncle had saved her and uncle had brought her and Ignis to this pack that provided the chance to live, to learn, and to thrive. She was still uncertain of her other siblings, other then Domina who had been recently killed by their father. Dominus and Casso she had no idea what had happened to them. She still found herself missing how life originally was, when mother was around and father was in good mental health, but Actaea couldn't complain about living here within Abaven. She had a mentor that was teaching her more then she could ever imagine and she discovered that a female can very will lead a pack and hold high ranks. It empowered her intelligent self that she could someday be something more powerful. Plus living here she breathed easier and things were a lot more brighter. She still had her uncle and she still had Ignis. Through all this trauma and dark things happening she had the both of them and that is more then she had the night the coyotes closed in on her. It was the new normal of her life and she was..... okay with that. She still had some fear of what was to come now that father was back and jealousy etched away at her heart as that damn Tyranis seemed to be father's favorite, but she would survive, she had so far. As she moved on she could spy something in the distance, a hulking figure sitting on the loner side of the border marker. Her healer's nose picked up the smell of old blood, with a slight hint of new blood. Her eyes narrowed as she slowed her pace. Something was familiar, yet so entirely strange about the figure that she stared at it intensely. Something pulled her to draw closer and she did. Slowly moving forward to close the distance, yet staying on her side. When she was close enough to see the face her eyes widened in surprise and shock. "Cass?" she questioned. He looked a lot different from the last she saw him, but of course she did to. Now that she was a yearling so no longer held the runty stance she had as a pup. Long legged, elegant, and graceful she stood on her petite paws. Sure she was still fairly lightweight looking and had some filling in to do, but she finally looked like she belonged to the large Praetor line. "Speech" & 'Thought'

The day felt like it was stretching on for ages. The silence that hung in the air around him felt defining and gave the spirits that dwelled in his mind the perfect platform to rear their heads again. His fur prickled as their clattering voices rushed over him. Some were louder than others, but there was one, just one, that seemed to be louder than them all. Casso... My boy... His chest seezed up and it felt like all of the air rushed out of his lungs. The medley of unnamed demons seemed to bow to this one voice that took over his mind. His face was completely expressionless as he tried his hardest to shut down every emotion that tried to bubble to the surface... but his hackles still prickled uneasily. “Cass?” The outside voice nearly went entirely unnoticed. It took a moment for him to register that this voice was actually coming from the wolf in front of him. He blinked as his eyes refocused on the figure that was both painfully familiar and yet totally unknown. She had grown so much since he last saw her... but so had he. Casso sometimes forgot that in the time that he could hardly remember he had somehow grown into a man that very clearly showed his lineage. Take care of her... Don’t make the same mistakes again. The painfully familiar voice rang though his soul as his expression softened in a way that it so rarely did. "A-Actaea... I...” He was at a complete loss for words. All at once he was so greatful to have found her first instead of Acere. He felt so raw and so uneasy that he didn’t want to be reunited with his uncle in this state. But at the same time... He didn’t entirely trust himself to be near anyone. He realized all at once how insane he must look. Showing up just as the sun was beginning to make its way toward the horizon with barely mended bear claw marks across his shoulder and bite marks scattered around most of the left side of his face and foreleg... Blood still matted in parts of his fur - some of it his and some not. But he was insane, wasn’t he? There was no way else to look than to look like what you actually are. "Actaea, I’m... I’m sorry.” The words finally pushed their way out of his chest as his crazed gaze fell to the ground. His broad shoulders collapsed in on themselves as his whole form rattled with a sob. Of course she had no idea why he was apologizing, at least not yet, but he couldn’t look her in the eye and say anything else. He wanted to take this truth to his grave, but he also wanted his sister to know what he had become. He want her to know so that she would stay away. "Speech" "Mind"