Behind the Mask

Gwen had decided to take a couple days to herself. She left word with Aurielle, and got a sitter for the pups, then set off for the east. She still held a vague hope that she'd be able to track down the family she had left, since they'd last been seen there, but she wasn't going to hold her breath. Finding out about her mother's death had somewhat dimmed her desire to look for them - she was afraid of what she'd find out. It was easier to just believe her brothers and sister were alive and well out there, somewhere, raising their own families.

Still, she couldn't help but be drawn there.

Kassander, the wolf in Abaven, said he'd buried her with the help of a Tornach Adravendi up at the range. She was fairly certain that was the same Tornach Adravendi who was Regulus' younger brother, so he'd have been raised thinking of Ephiphron as his aunt, if they'd met at all. That must have been difficult for him. It wasn't the same as losing your own blood family, but hard. She had the vague idea that she could ask him to show her where her mother was buried, but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to deal with the inevitable 'oh, you're my cousin!'s if he was anything like the rest of that branch.

Grandfather, you truly made a mess of this family, she thought with sad amusement. He'd certainly complicated things a great deal by adopting in so many into the family, and then Erani had complicated things even further by adopting random strays of her own and choosing to call them Adravendi.

She paused at the banks of the river, watching as a wolf paced along the other bank downstream from her. He stalked along, ears flat, and Gwen tilted her ears toward him. This couldn't possibly be this Tornach, could it? He had a similar red to Regulus, only much less saturated, closer to a russet. She'd been under the impression that Tornach was a gentle sort, but... well, everyone got upset once in a while. It wouldn't hurt to see if she could help whoever it was, though.

She slipped quietly into the water and paddled for the other side, the current carrying her downstream even as she swam strongly for the other bank. When her paws finally touched the ground to pull herself out of the water, she was a bit downstream from the other male, but not terribly so. She shook the water from her ivory fur and padded over to him.

"Hello," she called softly. "Are you all right?"