Soren needed to get away, and on one of his many trip through the moor he had discovered the standing stone circle in the mist, ever since he had used the area as a hiding spot.
He had to keep himself away from others, he had to. Soren had hurt his mother, he had hurt her and now he couldn't even trust himself. He had taken his frustration out on her, she shouldn't have but by now it was much too late.
Then there was Kismet, he had heard rumors that his brother had returned, though he had not seen him yet. That was fine by him right now; Soren wasn't sure how he would respond to him, and seeing as how his last encounter with a once gone family member had played out... it was probably for the best.
Whilst Soren had been wishing to keep away from his brother, Kismet of course had other ideas. He knew that Soren had hit a pretty dark spot in Glaciem, doubting the world around him and it's need for him. Try as he might then he hadn't been able to help him, but he had of course been the real prisoner of them, not even trying to see the world beyond their cage. Now they were free again he'd hoped that Soren would lighten to his usual self, learn that others did care but if anything it somehow seemed that things had gotten worse.
Soren's scent was the most familiar thing in the world to him though, in all of their year of life they certainly hadn't spent too much time apart and he was confident that he could have still picked it up easily from a million different scents. He was right to have faith in his nose, following it now he soon found the trail was getting stronger. It seemed for whatever reason he had found himself a new cage, no longer was it the den he'd spent hours crafting, reshaping with every centimetre he grew but instead a strange stone circle. There was no chance of him hiding now, Kismet stood before him, mismatched eyes focussed on nothing but his brother.
Of course his brother would find him though, despite him wishing he hadn't. If there was one thing the boy could count on it was Kismet finding him. The most familiar scent in the world reached him, and while he could have decided to try and move away, find a place where Kismet couldn't follow him he remained where he was. His brother no doubt has his scent and would pursue Soren even if he tried to shake his brother, he was persistent, sometimes annoyingly so.
Kismet appeared before Soren like a ghost, one minute he was surrounded on all sides by mist then his brother was there visible despite the fog and the distance that separated them. For a moment they stared, each unspeaking. With a sigh Soren shifted. "You're back." He did his best to keep any sort of emotion out of that simple statement. He hadn't been all that happy to watch his brother parting ways with the ragtag group on their way back to Valhalla, and he certainly hadn't expected it to take Kismet this long to get back.
There was silence for a moment, the two simply staring at each other and if he was completely honest there was a part of Kismet that almost expected Soren to try and bolt. Instead though he remained stationary and a single comment that was lacked in emotion. There was none of the initial joy that Azalea had shown on his return or the annoyance that she'd felt moments later upon realising he had vanished to spend time with a girl. The irritation ought to be understandable though, none of his family knew how important Warja was to him and aside from explaining who 'the girl' was to his mother he hadn't mentioned Warja at all since they had played together as children on the island.
"Yes." Came his equally simple reply, not daring to share the information that he had been tempted not to return. It was a fact he knew was best not to tell his family they had been disappointed enough by his trip they didn't need to know it had almost been permanent, especially not given how in pieces they were already. He'd do his best now to try bring them all back together, not to make things worse. "I had to go any see someone. Do you remember Warja, from when Valhalla was on the island? Well I saw her again whilst we were prisoners. She was worried, I had to let her know we were free again."
Soren expected Kismet to explain, to apologize maybe though he wasn't going to hold his breath. As Kismet began to explain he felt himself growing more and more annoyed. He couldn't fault his brother for wanting to assure his friend that they were alright, but it surely shouldn't have taken him that long, right?
"Can't really say I do." He said in regards to the girl his brother spoke of. He had not exactly been all that social in that time, not that he was much better now, but he couldn't really remember many of the other members on the island. He gave a shrug after his brother was finished. "I guess it just would have been nice to know where you were going." After the sudden disappearance of his mother with no explanation he had hoped Kismet would understand why it was important he knew where Kismet was going.
Perhaps Kismet should have given his family a slightly better explanation. From his mother's reaction upon his return though he doubted she actually would have allowed him to leave. To be entirely honest though a part of him simply hadn't wanted to waste any more time, not when there had been interruptions like Isardis' sudden appearance as he and Soren had left Glaciem. He couldn't have left Warja waiting and truthfully the young Adravendi simply couldn't keep himself waiting either. Though he wasn't sure quite what that place was just yet, Warja had become an important part of his life, he hoped in time his family would understand that.
He had mentioned Warja numerous times after their adventures, sharing the stories with his brother in attempt to inspire Soren to leave the den. Clearly he'd had mud stuck in his ears the entire time not recalling even her name. Kismet wouldn't let it get him down however, Soren was hardly the model example of a sociable wolf there was a fair amount of people and things he'd missed out on as he shut himself away from the world.
Kismet would sigh at his brother's comment. How on earth could he explain it without hurting Soren any further? He could somewhat understand his brother's hurt, though the stubborn boy would refuse to admit the big fault in his plan. He had needed to see Warja, why couldn't his brother simply trust that regardless where he was Kismet cared about him? "As I said I had to go see Warja. We were safe but she might not have been." Kismet responded simply. "Mum wouldn't have been too approving of my trip either, she made that perfectly clear when I got back. It wasn't like I was abandoning you anyway so I don't see what the big deal is. Even when we were kids you didn't need to know exactly where I was going so why should it matter now we're adults?" Perhaps it was the search, maybe it was knowing that despite being free Soren was still being an isolated grump but either way Kismet wasn't quite as calm as he would have liked to have been.
He realised that himself after a moment and would breath another small sigh as the guilt hit him. He was meant to be cheering Soren up not making matters worse. "You remember what I said in Glaciem? That I wasn't going to leave you. Well it may have been the wrong choice of words. We can't be glued to each other anymore, but you're still my brother, you will always be my brother. We're family and there is no breaking that no matter how far we are from each other."
Compared to the way that he had reacted to his mother only a while ago the boy might have seemed to be taking things rather well; course that would depend on how well the casual observer could read the monochromatic boy, sure his tone was even but his posture had a sort of rigidity that suggest he wasn't quite as nonchalant as he was letting on. Thoughts were flying by at a mile an hour stopping just long for him to latch onto to the emotion attached to them before racing off and leaving him without the words to express the residual feeling.
Ears twitched back ever so slightly as Kismet spoke. Despite his lack of connections beyond his family Soren could understand his brother's intentions, if he had a friend he was that close too surely he would want to assure them he was alright as well? That did little to quell the wish that Kismet had at least let him know where he was going however. Soren could find no words however, what could he say that he hadn't already?
Kismet sighed and spoke again, filling the slight silence. "I don't expect you to hold my paw as we go about our lives, I just-" He cut himself short, what could he say? The only responses springing to mind treading the line of offensive. "I'm afraid to have misplaced my trust again; I don't want to be abandoned again; I just went somewhere really dark and I'm afraid that one day I'll go there again and this time you won?t be there to pull me back."
"I believe you." He finally relented, finishing the sentence in his head: But family isn't exactly a concept I have had the chance to put much stock into.
Surprisingly there would be no anger in retaliation to his comments. In fact Soren simply stood there and took the news rather well it seemed. It could be difficult at times to read his brother, he truly was quite the awkward soul sometimes. There would be silence now and Kismet attempted to work out whether that was a good silence or a bad one, was his brother going to ignore him? Eventually though he would begin to speak and slowly but surely his brother's feelings would be revealed.
Of course not quite all of his thoughts were laid out, Soren did have a far better filtering system than the rest of his family it seemed and had held a lot back. With the gaps in between there was surely more that just hadn't been said but Kismet would take what he could get, it was hopefully a start to getting Soren to accept the rest of the family and of course the pack once more. The three final words he ended with however were enough for Kismet to see that he at least wasn't going to receive such treatment, Soren would forgive him.
"Good." He would respond simply, a small sigh of his own has he fully released that built up tension from earlier. "Now what about everyone else? Are you going to give them another chance?"