Boy, Look at How You've Grown

When he lowered his paws from his bleary eyes, he looked around and saw the strange mist that was all around him, but he wasn't in the mist exactly. The area immediately closest to him was clear, but if he tried to look more than a few feet away it got difficult and clouded. He frowned and slowly started to sit up while he tried to figure out where he was... when he heard a familiar voice behind him. It made him freeze for a moment while he tried to decide if he had imagined it or if maybe his mind was playing tricks on him, but when he finally made himself turn his head to look back over his shoulder there he was.

He didn't believe his eyes as he got to his paws, turning to face his father with disbelief—but he wanted to believe it. Even if this was all a dream and fake, he wanted it to be real. His dad walked over to him and spoke again, mentioning how big he had grown. Arcturus looked down at himself and back at his dad again, realizing that he was having to look down at his father to look at him now that he was over a foot taller than him. The last time he saw his father Naiche had still seemed larger than life and Arc had hoped that he would grow to at least be as big as him one day and now he had far surpassed that.

The emotion that was building in his chest made his chuckle in response come out sounding a little choked up, but he fought against the tears that were threatening to build up in his eyes. "Yeah... Yeah, I guess I did," he managed after he swallowed past the lump in his throat, giving his dad a smile. At first he had no idea what to say. For so long he had thought about what he would say or do if he had one more chance to see his dad and now that he had it he was at a complete loss. It was so overwhelming, but in the best way. "I've missed you," was the first thing that he could get out of his mouth, but it was probably also the most true thing he could think of to say.

"Arcturus Indarra"