I'm just the boy inside the man

Arcus hadn't been too far away, but he'd been far enough. First, he left his son, the hardest decision he had ever made, and perhaps something others wouldn't understand. Then, he left his feather and his scent as a way to lead her to Typhoon. If it would take too long, he would wander closer to the pack, leaving other signs to entice her away from her home, to find his son and give him a life Arcus never could. And then, he disappeared, faded into the background but never far. He always knew where his son was, kept an eye on his safety. Typhoon knew not to leave where he was, because Shaye would be there soon, and if too much time passed Arcus would catch a small prey animal and drop it nearby for his son to take, but he never showed himself.

He couldn't.

After the boy's mother left, too fragile to care for a child and a dying man, Arcus was left with a choice to make. And he made it, even if the execution was sloppy. A braver man may have taken his son directly to the only woman he trusted, but Arcus was not a brave man. He was irrational, impulsive, and on limited time. He didn't want Shaye to see him this way, didn't want to disrupt her memory of him. So he kept to the sidelines, watching at a distance as she collected Typhoon and his feather, and disappeared back to her home.

And then?

Well, he was supposed to leave. He really was. That was the plan. Ensure Typhoon was taken care of, and then he would leave to let this sickness take over his body. Perhaps he would venture back to Obsidian, his one true home, and die there, alone. Always alone, but at least he'd be at the water, under the stars, on the lookout rock where he and Shaye had watched the storm and where he had spent time with Astrea, and where he and Voltage had fought, and where he and Glacier had tried to patch things up.

Too much time had passed now, and his irrationality, his impulsiveness, his very being had left him alone. And alone he would die.

Yet, he couldn't leave. Not when he saw her face, not when he heard her voice from where he had hid, not after that loneliness rang so loud in his chest if felt like thunder. So, he stayed, here at this little lake, hoping to see her again and coming to terms that perhaps this is where he would die, as close to her as he could get. He sat by the lake, staring down at his tired, old, mangled expression, and sighed. The daylight had faded to a deep, quiet night, and fireflies hung above the water, illuminating the area around him. At least it was pretty...

"Burn Baby Burn"