What You Lost, What You Had

His wandering across Boreas always seemed to lead him back to the lands he had grown up in. He went back to Auster to check in with his family pretty frequently, but he couldn’t stop himself from coming back to the weeping woods, the mangroves, the hot springs, sunset falls... All of his wandering always led him back here. He wondered if there would ever be a day where he could leave these lands entirely. He wasn’t even really sure what kept bringing him here. The nostalgia? Some strange protectiveness over the lands that used to be theirs? He just didn’t know.

It was getting dark when he reached the woods full of willow trees. The trek back here from visiting his family had been a long one, but it was beginning to become second nature and at the very least he could feel his muscles responding to the fairly continuous exercise all this traveling was giving him. Ulric went to one of the willow trees towards the center of the woods and laid down at the base of its trunk. The thick branches offered him enough coverage since it was a pretty mild night.

He took a moment to check his shoulder, eyeing the scratches that he had received from helping the scarred wolfess kill that lion. They were healing nicely, but he still kept an eye on them all the same. He wasn’t sure if all this traveling he was doing was going to effect his wound, but so far it seemed to be doing alright. He rested his head between his paws and for a while he just quietly listened to the sounds of crickets and frogs as they came out to fill the otherwise quiet night with their music.

It didn’t take him long to fall asleep. The physical endurance he had been putting himself through made sure he was exhausted enough to go right to sleep once he settled down. However, a noise pulled him awake and he opened his silver gaze to see the weeping woods around him again, but... it seemed different somehow. His brows pulled together and he lifted his head to look around at the normally familiar surroundings. Ulric realized after a moment that he wasn’t under the willow tree any more. Instead, he was in a small clearing of sorts. He got to his paws and when he turned around his eyes landed on a figure that made his entire form freeze. He didn’t believe it at first and logically his brain just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His ears flicked uncertainly while a whole host of emotions churned in his stomach, his eyes fixed on the ghostly form of his father.