lay me down

He was starting to fear that this was hopeless. A season he had searched with no results - his mother and siblings might as well have vanished into the wind for all the luck he was having finding them. And it frustrated Castiel - he knew his mother would have never abandoned Valhalla; she had loved it, he remembered that much, and they would not have left their home as he had. But they were as good as gone, as far as Castiel could tell, and he was afraid now more than ever that he was entirely alone. His father was dead and the rest of his family missing.

The white male slid back onto his haunches, breath escaping his lungs in a heavy sigh. This was exhausting, but he could not comprehend giving up. He had to find them; he had to tell them. His mother deserved to know that much at least. But he had no leads; Valhalla had been overtaken by a stranger and its members disbanded. His mother and sisters were surely long gone, he had to admit. They would not have stayed in that foreign place. Erani's loyalties had been to the Valhalla of his past, not this strange, foreign thing that now stood under its banner.

Fighting the urge to sigh again (it would accomplish nothing, after all), Castiel let his bulky form flop towards the earth, golden eyes closing for a long moment. This was hopeless, wasn't it?

"Speech"