The long way around

Gloom felt guilt flood through her at Audra's question, her face flushing and she couldn't help the sheepish look that came over her. "I am." She admitted softly. She loved her family, and she and Spirit had long been so dependant on each other the time they'd spent apart had been palpable. But it was tinged with a sadness she still couldn't identify, a longing to not have to give up either her family nor Audra wrapped around her. "My family has been the only wolves I could really handle being around for the majority of my life." She began to explain, hoping to take her mind off the conflict currently raging in her heart. "Mom... Had a hard life and it's safe to say that a few of us inherited her anxiety." Somehow the thought summoned a small sad smile. Void was really the only one of the trio who had had confidence. The other pups she could remember from her childhood, her missing siblings? She wasn't sure how she'd react if they re-entered her life now... She would be happy to see them but... They were practically strangers to her too. "For a while it was just me and my brothers Spirit and Void. We kinda had to raise each other. Something bad had happened to mom and she couldn't be around. Void was the adventurous one, he would go out and meet new people." She smiled wider this time, thinking about her brother who'd spent so long trying to pull his siblings from their shells. "He was the one who dragged me and Spirit out to try and find Mom, somewhere along the way he'd met someone special to him. They have kids now."

She looked at Audra and felt a familiar tugging in her chest. She'd once wondered what it had been like for Void when he'd found Plague... Was she experiencing it now? "Spirit and I- We spent as much time as possible with each other, I think we felt more safe together. I've been worried about how he's been handling my absence." It was an admittance that came with guilt again. "Eventually Mom found her way back to us and- Well it's more or less history." There had been the collapse of Abaven of course but in truth very little had actually changed for her, just new scenery to surround her nervous hiding.

Gloom frowned. Here she was, talking so lovingly about her family and yet she couldn't help but feel the need to delay her arrival... She felt shitty.

"talking"