The femme had finally worked up her courage again to keep going. She padded closer and closer to what used to be her home. Her dulled eyes were set ahead and there was silence in the cold air. It was snowing and dark. She had left off in the middle of the night from her temporary den, there was no need to put this off. Her eyes had bags under them and she was sure every ounce of her issues sleeping showed visibly. it mattered not though. She bounded, leaping high up over where she knew the border used to be, not even smelling if it was faded or fresh. She didn't want to smell how faded it was. She knew in her mind it would break her to no longer smell the border. She was quiet and careful not to disturb the wildlife as it all bedded down for the freezing cold, snowy night. That didn't mean all was quiet with her though. She flinched as her mind shouted at her. She could hear the voice of Kuzon, sharp loud and clear. Stupid girl, didn't I tell you, they're dead. Get over it. She knew he was right, but they deserved a burial or a shrine at least didn't they? She paced forward her eyes on the horizon. She knew where her day would end, had thought through it and planned it through. Step one. Find the skeletons of her family. Step two. If there is no bodies then construct a shrine. If there are bodies bury them. Step three. Go to the cliffs... the rest was self explanatory. She stopped walking outside a familiar place, the last den she had slept in when she had been a baby here. It was vacant, she could tell. Her eyes settled on it, and a dampness trekked down her face. Her lip quivered and she sucked in a breath of frozen air. She should check there first, she knew but what if she found something? Mindless wandering "Hopeless words"

There wasn’t much that could get past the borders without Rhyme’s notice. He had too much at stake to allow himself any skirking of duties. He was on patrol when the familiar but twisted scent alerted him to someone having crossed the border. He called out to alert Theory and started his pursuit. Blue and lavender eyes fell on her tall form as she lingered outside the den Eulogy had birthed the pups in. Not long before their world had been turned upside down by the eruption. The world really had ended that day.

”Poltergeist.” He knew her, even if he hadn’t laid eyes on her since she was small. ”You’re alive!” Rhyme for a moment wondered if he was encountering a ghost. This wouldn’t have been the only wolf to torment him from beyond the grave. The once alpha moved forward cautiously, he was afraid she would simply disappear if he inspected her or moved too fast.

She knew the voice on the wind but to her it was as much a whispered memory as it was a ghost of the past. Her haunted gaze didn't even lift from the den she was trying to find the courage to enter. He was dead just as much as the rest of her family. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Kuzon had never once lied to her so his words were the truth in her fracture mind. Good girls didn't question what they were told anyway. She never questioned the man, nor fought back against an anger she knew sometimes she deserved for spacing out on him.

Even as Rhyme appeared she didn't shift those thoughts. This was a trick of her mind. He wasn't really there. "It's just your mind again...." She turned her garnet gaze from the man who she had known as a pup, not even bothering to scent the wind still or attempt to touch. The tall and lean girl was nothing if not a broken soul. Kuzon had died before her journey started for her old home and that left her with nothing. She stood there staring at a vacant hole in the ground, debating her strength to go inside. Her paw lifted, revealing to the man a solid print in the snow under it as she tentatively took a step towards the den. Her head was down and with her courage fading her tail tucked slightly.

What if she found them inside? She was already broken, could one break anymore in a lifetime? She knew she could turn around and head back into the north of boreas, but if she did was she a coward? Kuzon would of thought so. You are a coward, your right. Your a pathetic, useless bitch. her form she knew already was that of a weakling that if she was tackled here and now wouldn't stand back up, wouldn't put up any kind of fight.

"Speech"

ooc: sry wanna get rolling on this

The girl before him had been gone from home for a long time, and from the subtle cues she gav off Rhyme could feel himself transported back in time. He’d been a captive for a large portion of his life, almost longer than he had been a free man. He’d seen wolves look just like her in many repressed memories. She couldn’t even bring her eyes to him and the listless movements told a longer story. Rhyme approached her carefully when he didn’t get a response from her, as she stood transfixed with the ground Rhyme would aim to gently press his shoulder to the tall girl’s hip.

”Poltergeist.” He greeted her again, more firmly this time. He could almost feel the negative energy rolling off her in waves. He had no way to know what happened to her or how broken she might be, but her response wasn’t normal and he had little doubt there was a reason she hadn’t returned before this moment. ”Polt, do you know where you are?” He pressed softly, knowing the three wolves that were out there looking for her and the other missing members of the family.

The moment her mind had made itself up and her uncle came forward seemed like a daydream to her. The girl was a pup in her mind and the moment his voice firmly cut into her half dazed world and his shoulder pressed into her hip, she was snapped out of her mind. Her eyes shot to Rhyme quickly, half expecting someone else. She half expected the bite of fangs into her from dazing out on a man she knew no longer existed. But they never came. She was startled more than anything, but her eyes drew to where he touched her. It was warm, not like a ghost would of been. Her mind was struggling to put the pieces together. The man before her had been dead, she knew for almost two years now. His voice demanded her attention once more but she couldn't find her voice in the moment. Her face was a mixture of shock, disbelief and like something was shattering inside. That's what she felt like. Like her world had just been shattered in that tiny moment. She wasn't alone. Rhyme had survived too. She moved from frozen shock to action as quickly as her lithe body could. She aimed to turn around and press her head under Rhyme's neck to press herself into his chest and she seated herself there, not willing to let him go. Even if this was only a dream she didn't want to let him go. If he was all she had now she would take it and keep him. "Its mom's grave isn't it....." her voice was soft and felt like it had taken forever to muster an answer to the dark man who was her uncle. Her ears pressed and her shoulders shook as tears fell from her eyes. Her existence hung on every word he said and she knew it. Mindless wandering "Hopeless words"

She woke from a nightmare. It wasn't often that she had those any more - not since she spent most nights with Thalia. Not since the thread of Winterfell's coup had sunk to a distant memory. But tonight she woke in a cold sweat from a dream she could barely remember. There had been smoke. And screaming. The details weren't important, but the feeling of dread and terror lingered long after she'd fully wakened. Sighing softly, Theo rose to her paws and stepped gingerly over her sleeping partner. Few things calmed her nerves like a routine patrol. Looking back into the darkness of the den fondly, she committed Thalia's sleeping form and her heady scent to memory before heading out into the darkness. It didn't take her long to pick up Rhyme's scent. She followed his trail automatically, hoping they'd run into each other sooner rather than later. A girl was never too old for soothing words from her father.

By the time she happened upon him the feelings of the nightmare had sloughed off of her like a good springtime coat shedding. In fact, she was almost back to her cheerful self when she laid eyes on Poltergeist. For just a moment her tail raised in alarm before the familiar coat and scent reminded her that this was family. Oh, she'd thought the worst. They all had. There had been so much death and destruction that it was all rolled into one, painful loss; her face was one among the many they knew or assumed had passed on. "Polt?" she murmured. Her siblings were out looking for her and Eulogy as they spoke. Theo wished she knew their whereabouts so that she could call them home to witness this near-miracle. She approached slowly so as not to startle her missing cousin and stopped just short of joining their embrace. "Welcome home."

Rhyme wasn’t even sure that Poltergeist knew who or what he was. She peered up at him, as though in disbelief, before curling against him and tucking herself beneath his chin where she belonged. The old man closed his eyes tightly and held her there quietly a moment before she spoke up, questioning the place where they stood. Eulogy’s grave? ”No.” Not yet. Rhyme was holding out hope that they would find his sister.

The Theory appeared, a question that she was truly seeing what her eyes were telling her before she welcomed Polt home. Nearly two years had passed, and they had assumed her dead. Her return was nothing short of a miracle. ”We thought you were dead.” How could they not after the eruption? Rhyme squeezed her lightly, still astounded that she had somehow found her way back.