Serenity had still been keeping to herself mostly. She was silent in her part of the pack, maybe slacking a little bit. But she was really struggling with coming around and getting to know others in the pack. She had met strangers here and there, she had met kind and bad wolves before. But she had never gone over a night with someone else. Everyone was a wanderer like herself, she had never lived among other wolves for a long period of time.

She did help patrol, usually at nights when they needed her. It was a little weird getting used to the changing shift now that the purple band had broken off. But she was certainly willing to do what she could for the pack, she never said no at least.

She spent most of her free time up here on the highest walls of the castle, laying over a crumbled part of the stone wall with her paws dangling over the edge. And she had a lot of free time. Staying up here usually kept her away from the others, and she enjoyed the view of the plains and the beach, especially when the night fell and she could see the shimmering shore from all the way up here. It was all she needed.

"Serenity"

It felt like life came in waves, the lulls of steady calm off set with spikes of stress and worry. The most recent roll and wave was finally tapering off once again now that Eska was mending and healing. Even though he was given a moment of calm, he couldn't help but feel like he was just waiting for something else to happen. He didn't like to live in this state of expecting the worst, but it was hard to do anything else with how things had been going. For now though, it seemed like he could begin to relax again and tried to just be grateful that Eska was okay, that his children were healthy, and that the pack was in a good place. Once Artorias finally came back from his season with the Armada they could begin to put things into place and get the pack moving in an even stronger direction, something he was greatly looking forward to. It was probably less than a year before the Carpathius boy took his place as the Aegis and he wanted to make sure the pack was in an ideal state for him to work with.

Once he was done with his last patrol he set his sights on his oldest daughter. He had spent time with Ezra and Lillith as well as have a talk with Emile, but he hadn't had a chance to speak one on one with Serenity since her first few days of being in the pack. Of course he had seen her around the castle occasionally or gave direction on when she would do patrols and those sorts of things, but he hadn't had time to get to know her. It was the one thing he disliked about leading the pack. He loved being a father and it didn't allow him the time he wanted to dedicate to his children. Perhaps if he had begun to lead when he was a younger man like he had once wished then he might feel differently, but he was so far along in his life now that he was eager to see his duty through and then hand it off into Artorias' capable paws so he could focus on the love he found in Eska and make up for lost time with his children.

He followed her scent out to the castle wall, spotting her pale, speckled form laying along a portion of crumbling rocks. "Serenity," he greeted with a smile as he approached her. It still struck him occasionally how much she had taken after him, though her coloring was a lighter and sparser version of his own. "I got done with my duties a bit early today so I thought we might spend some time together... if that's alright with you?"

Ulric Adravendi

When Ulric had found her, she looked up at him with a gentle smile. She wasn't going to turn him away, she may have come up here to be by herself or maybe that's just what she told herself. If anyone was here, really they must have been looking for her, that was somehow relieving to know that someone wanted her, or cared for her.

She stood from her relaxed position on the edge of the wall when Ulric offered to spend time with each other. She wasn't going to say no, she couldn't. And it was about time she started coming out of her shell, even if she didn't initiate it. Maybe this was the push she needed.

"I don't mind walking along the wall, if that sounds alright." She had turned to start, looking back to make sure Ulric was joining her before going forward. She had struggled at first to make any words, a quick silence before she took a noticeable breath to speak, "Ezra and Lillith's mother..." She glanced to Ulric for a moment, but it was obvious the subject had made her a little anxious, even if she was the one who asked, "What happened to her?"

"Serenity"

*

He smiled and nodded in agreement when she offered to walk with him along the wall, easily falling into step beside her. He was fine with a comfortable silence while they both tried to think of something to say. Luckily, Serenity spoke first, but caught him off guard by bringing up Azariah. His ears perked as he looked at her with surprise, his silver eyes catching her lavender gaze for a moment. His ears flicked and he gave her a sad smile when she asked what had happened to his other children's mother and his gaze shifted to look at the ground ahead of them again. "I honestly wish I knew," he replied with a sigh. That was a question he had been wondering for nearly a year now and he was no closer to finding an answer.

"The pack used to reside in Boreas," he explained, giving her a bit of backstory so she could know the context of what happened. While he told the story he would occasionally glance toward her, but otherwise just kept his attention ahead of them. "Last winter we made the move to come down here and moved into the castle. Ezra and Lillith's litter was only a few months old at the time. Their mother insisted that there was some things she wanted to go further north to get before she moved to Auster permanently. I didn't like that she would be left alone, but with so many children to look after I couldn't stay behind with her and send the children ahead with the pack on their own. I wasn't happy about it, but I agreed under the condition that she would come join us in Auster in a week or two. One of our daughters had always been glued to her hip and she begged to let her stay with their mother to keep her company on her travels."

A deep frown pulled across his lips. "I think I regret that the most... Letting my daughter stay behind too. I should have brought her with me..." He gave a little shake of his head and pressed on, "They never showed up. I searched all around where our old pack lands were in Boreas and around much of the surrounding lands, but I couldn't find any trace of her or our daughter. It was like they just... vanished. I still don't know if she left us on purpose or if something happened to them."

Ulric Adravendi

Serenity listened to Ulric intently, even if it didn't seem that way. Her ear flicked in his direction while he spoke, but she was having a hard time actually looking at him. It wasn't easy to hear, and she was sure it wasn't easy to tell. But even without looking at her father, she could tell that they were alike in some ways. She wasn't emotional, not publicly. And brushing things off like they were nothing, making others feel like everything was okay, it was easy for her. She didn't want anyone to worry about her, especially now that she actually had others the care about. A real family, something she never had before.

They kept walking along the wall while she listened to the traumatic story. The unknown, it was probably what killed him. Did she abandon them? Did she die? There may be a time they never knew. Ulric could die without knowing, but she hoped that with his life moving on in different directions it wouldn't be the last thing on his mind when the time came. "I... got closure." She confessed. It was hard to even get words out when they first met and it was still hard. There was a bottom line to get across, she wasn't ready to give details. She didn't think Ulric even needed it ever anyway, "My mother left, she didn't want me. I know what happened. It's easier to know, it's easier to move on that way." She added, glancing at him for a second before her eyes wandered back down to the trail of her paws. She wasn't really giving him advice but maybe just a glimpse of her life, or her childhood. But it wasn't the brunt of it. But somehow she was here for him if he needed her, and she felt the same of him.

"Serenity"

He certainly hadn't expected their conversation to take this turn when he invited her to spend time with him, but he was almost glad that it had. He could ask all the surface level questions he wanted about the things she liked to do or her preferences on various things, but it was moments and conversations like these that really let him get to know her and understand what her life had been like before they found one another. As he listened to her talk about how she had gotten her closure, that she knew that her mother hadn't wanted her and that she had been abandoned, the guilt he had felt at the fact that he hadn't been there for her all along returned. He understood that there was no way he could have known, that the only mistake he had made was having a one night stand with a woman he hadn't really known, but he was still guilty.

"Knowing probably does make it easier to move on, but it doesn't make it any less painful," he told her with a soft, sympathetic smile. "I'm... sorry you experienced that. I know apologies only go so far, I just... I just wish there's more I could have done. I wish I could have been there." Twice he had children with women that for one reason or another had left their children. It was still a mystery whether Azariah's was voluntary or not, but either way it was still hurt and damage done to his children and now all he could do was try to pick up the pieces. "You're wanted here. She may not have wanted you, but I'm happy you get to be in my life now," he told her honestly, giving her a more genuine, warm glance as they continued to follow the castle wall around the grounds.

Ulric Adravendi

Ulric's words weren't wrong, and Serenity did take them to heart. She may not have really felt connected with Ulric, not yet if ever, but she could feel his genuine want to make things right, or to feel right. She honestly didn't know if she would truly see him as a father. Maybe they could one day have some kind of strong bond if she let that happened, but she didn't ever imagine calling him or anyone 'dad'.

"I don't," she huffed a little bit, maybe showing a little frustration with how he may have felt. Like he could have done something, like he could have done better, "Blame you." Her eyes rose to and wandered the sky as they walked, "I guess I always wondered what you were like, where you were, what you did with your life. She had always talked really bad about you, but I couldn't believe her with the way she treated me."

She paused for a moment as her eyes slowly moved back to her path ahead of her, "There were a lot of men." Her brows furrowed slightly, while she was pulled back into some memories she didn't want to remember. But when she realized she was thinking maybe a little too hard, she relaxed easily again, rolling off the thoughts like they were nothing.

"Serenity"

He had never felt like she blamed him for what happened, but there was still his own self-made guilt over the situation. That's how he was for everything in his life, always wondering if there was something he could have done better or different choices he could have made. It was trait of his that he was constantly battling against. Could he have stepped in and stopped his father from going to that fight somehow? Could he have supported his sister better? Could he have prevented Azariah and Everlyse from going missing? There were so many slip ups and set backs that it was hard to figure out if there was something more he could have done or if life just went the way it went. Eska was helping him live more in the present and less in the past, but he still got lost in the "what ifs" pretty often.

His brow furrowed when Serenity mentioned how badly her mother had spoken of him, his ears flicking. It seemed awfully bold of her to speak like that of him when they had spent such little time together, but at the same time he supposed that she was the single mother without a father to help with her children in this situation. He quickly tried to shrug the fact off though it was difficult to do, feeding into his tendency to put blame on himself. He did wonder what kind of things her mother might have said, but in the end he supposed it didn't really matter as long as Serenity hadn't taken them to heart. It made his blood boil to hear how she had been treated badly. Pups and children held such a treasured place in his life that the thought of treating any pup badly just refused to sit well with him, no matter the reason.

His frown deepened when she brought up the fact that there had been a lot of men involved. By now he was watching Serenity almost from the corner of his eye, occasionally glancing at the path in front of them just to make sure he was watching where he was going. He didn't really want to ask what she meant since he could tell from the look on her face that these weren't exactly pleasant memories, but the uncertainty of it made him uneasy. Her mother being with a lot of men was one thing and even though that wasn't something that a young wolf like her should be exposed to he couldn't really dictate how her mother lived her life. But if anything else had happened he just wanted to be able to give her the support she needed that it seemed like she had never gotten before. He was quiet for a moment before he told her, "I won't ever force you to talk about any of it, but if you ever want to talk or want to get something off your chest I'm happy to be an open ear for you."

Ulric Adravendi

She chuckled singly in almost a huff as he spoke again, a gentle smile put on her face after she was lost in her thoughts. Ulric was seeming, or at least becoming much more like a friend than a father. But she preferred it that way actually. In an adult age, she couldn't really imagine wanting to be cradled by a father she never knew. Maybe if they had met long ago when her mother abandoned her, but not now. Though really she didn't feel all that dependent on someone else. Didn't need to be cuddled, spoiled, whatever. But maybe it was because of the way her mother treated her. It was nearly all ancient history now. It hurt to have a mother that didn't want you, but Serenity had been over it a long time ago. It hurt that she didn't want her, but it was better that she left her.

"I'm uh, well over it, you know?" Maybe she was trying to reassure him or something, but it wasn't a lie. "It was easy to be over it, and move on. It's easy for me to move on." She spoke mostly nonchalant, like it was easy for her to talk to Ulric as uneasy as she was when they first met. But when she realized that she was kind of saying it was easy for her to run, she let out a little nervous chuckle, "I mean, not to worry you or anything." She paused for a few seconds, but didn't give him much time to respond, "I've been on my own for a long time." She confessed, but he already knew that. "Strangers are easy, being close is hard." She looked at him for a second in their walk, "But I can guess you already kind of know the feeling."

"Serenity"