Elias could feel his limbs shaking as his adrenaline levels died down now, this was a familiar feeling to him. He sat down to hide the shaking as best as he could and to give his muscles a break from their exertion. He could see Vale responding, becoming calmer.. and then he started to speak.
Elias lowered himself, not caring that he was now lying in a pool of blood and soil. He needed to rest, he was tired- but his eyes never once left Vale and his ears never once let a word go unnoticed. He was completely attentive, as these were things he was most curious about with Vale.
When he asked if they might have been his parents, Elias lowered one of his ears.. drifting off on a thought for only a brief moment. When Vale looked away from him and turned his attention to the dead cougar, Elias followed his attention. The carcass was bleeding considerably slower now, but he listened as Vale spoke up again. When he mentioned he enjoyed it, Elias grinned again.. teeth still pink from their work. He mumbled his words, but Elias caught them.. however, for as much as Vale seemed to doubt himself- Elias couldn't stop grinning. "No, they were meant to be like you. Their anger, their rage.. they gave into it and did not harness it like we have. They were stronger than you at the time, but they were weak-minded. You are not weak-minded. You just gave in to all your rage, all your anger- you let it all out and overcome something that was trying to take your life from you. That is stress that would make anyone snap, not just men like us. Yet, you calmed yourself down... you are standing here before me, making sense of your memories. I get them, too."
He shifted slightly, keeping the side that had lacerations across it off of the floor as his thick neck laid out across the damp ground. A sigh left his nose suddenly, creating ripples in the little puddle of blood around his face while his ruby eyes found Vale again. "My demons show me things from my past all the time, but what I find is.. they're almost always relevant to something I'm going through in the moment. In fact, when we were fighting that cougar- I heard the voice of my mother. She was telling me something. A long time ago, I was the alpha of a kingdom known as Ruina. I inherited it from my father when he passed away, and one of the very first things that happened during my time there was the invasion of a cougar. It attacked myself, my sister and another wolf in our company. The other wolf tried, but he was practically useless after the first couple hits from the cougar. He served as a good deterrent, but my sister and I finished it off and it made us put a lot more faith in each other. We looked at each other after it was dead and we just knew we would have each other's backs." He felt his chest heave with all the nostalgia from the emotions he'd felt, remembering the bond he'd had with Eliana. He missed her, but now was not a time to dive into that feeling of sorrow.
"My mother told me just now to remember that bond, and that it might not be so different from the bond that I will have with.. you." He lowered his ears, it was a lot to confess such strong attachments to a man he barely knew, but this is what he felt fate was weaving. "I don't think it's a coincidence that your demons are telling you of your sister, too."
He lifted his head, looking up to Vale with a feeling of intensity behind those gleaming red eyes, "I want to bring back Ruina, Vale. I want you to be there with me. I was never going to leave you, these have been my intentions for you. I haven't run with another wolf in a long time, but something about the day that I met you told me it was time to start again. I do, however, have other things that need to be done before I can lay claim to new land."
As much as he didn't want to, he groaned.. pushing against the floor of the cave and forcing himself to stand. He shook his pelt free of whatever blood he could manage to convince to leave his pelt with his shaking. He stopped and stood before Vale, the edges of the fur on the front half of his body clumped messes. "I need your help, Vale. The ram we took down that day was the start of a turning point for me, whether or not I realized it at that moment. I need you to skin this skull and bring its bones back to me as in tact as possible. My.. pack.. we believe in bonds and we take them very seriously. I want you to be a part of this, but I need that skull. I'll explain when I meet with you again in the East. Find the burning mountain, it sits at the southern line of the tallest mountains in all of Boreas. Wait for me there. I would come with you, but.. I need to find my brother, and I need to.. settle things with my family in Lirim."
