Save me from the distant past

Walk | Talk | Think

As much as Fiori did not feel like home, Eirik knew there was no other place for him. He had never been the adventurous type the way Warja had been, nor had he really made any friends outside of Secretua while he had lived there. He knew no one but his family, and those few others who had lived with them had parted ways once the pack had crumbled away to nothing. His place was beside his mother, sister, and baby siblings, where he could watch them and try the best he could to play the role of protector and big brother at the same time. It was hard, and at times he felt like he failed at both, but he cared too much to give up.

Even so, moments of respite were needed every once in a while lest he break under the pressures of his two competing roles, and it was for that reason that he traveled alone through the pack's territory. He had not given himself much time to explore the new lands that were his home, but neither did he feel a great interest in it either. Somehow he still clung to the hope that his father would show up again and take them home, no matter how crazy it sounded. As he moved, slowly and listlessly, he vaguely glanced up around him with half-lidded, rosy pink eyes, only partially aware of the territory that he passed through. Would they really be here long? Could this place ever truly feel home the way the Prairie and the Gulley had?

As he came upon the Hot Springs proper and noted a figure lowering herself into one through the mists. Though he continued to follow the path that drew him closer, Eirik wondered whether he ought to turn away and seek another quiet path to walk. He was hardly fit for company what with his dour, reminiscent thoughts stealing away his typically good mood. But...maybe forced company was just what he needed to get his mind off of those very same thoughts that were bothering him.

It was good that he had made the decision to stay; he had, by that time, gotten close enough to be seen and surely his exit would have been noticed. But rather than leave, he merely strode up and over to the hot springs, peering around at the different shapes and sizes that they ranged in before he set his gaze on the wolf that he could see was now submerged in one. "Hey," he greeted half-heartedly, offering a half smile that was more forced than sincere. "How's the water?" Having never entered a hot spring before, Eirik was not sure what they were like, though of course he had to assume they were warm.