While spending time with Ulric and hearing about Ezra’s own outburst, Aranea found herself thinking of his children often and worrying about how they were doing with their situation nearly every day. But on top of that, Emile had also shown interest from the healers meeting so for either reason Aranea would come to spend her free time to see if Emile would want to join her for a stroll and to learn about the few herbs they could find around their pack lands. She came through the corridor where Ulric and his children resided, tiptoeing across the stone surface while her nose tried to sense where the boy could be hiding. It was early enough for any of the pups to still be around their rooms, but late enough that Ulric would be out starting his duties. "Emile?" she called out lightly, watching the rooms and hall as she slowly walked through. Walk "Talk" Think

Emile was becoming something of a recluse, he struggled to find reason enough to leave the room he'd felt had been foisted upon him. Ezra was quickly turning into a miserable wolf to be around, Jane was still living in her own blissful fantasy, and his other remaining sister? Well, she might as well have been lost along with his mom and Everlyse. If his father noticed he hadn't said anything and the only other wolf he'd ever cared about in the pack? Well, Bowen was gone now too, the only friend his age he'd ever made. He supposed Outlaw was still his friend but Emile knew well enough that an adult didn't have the time to play with him and he was struggling more and more with feeling both like a burden and abandoned. So he was awake but holed up in his room, he had poked his head out just once today, to greet his father on his way out but otherwise had returned to his partially self-imposed isolation. That didn't mean he missed the clear calls of the woman searching for him. He had known her first from the healer meeting he'd attended but more now he knew her by the scent of his father on her pelt, as the woman who had taken up residence in his father's room. A wave of resentment and guilt washed over him. It struck him as wholly unfair that after his father had spent so long focusing on his missing mother then when he should finally return his attention inward it was being given so freely to this woman... when all Emile had ever wanted, ever needed was his father. Why did she get to stay in his father's room when Emile felt he'd been made to leave? But then there was the guilt... should he not be happy if his father was? The boy sighed and pushed open his door, not saying anything but turning his gaze towards the woman. "Speech"

Art by Kolokolchek

Emile's quiet and standoffish attitude would only make her sad, not thinking that he could tell that she and Ulric had been spending a considerable amount of time with her. She thought if anything, he would remember her from the healer's meeting and she was thinking he would be the easiest of Ulric's children for her to get along with. She just wanted the bunch of them to feel better about the loss of their mother, and wanted to help fill their days and keep them busy instead of lingering on what they were missing. He only opened the door to eye her, not necessarily in greeting. But she tried to brush it off as such, instead moving on to what she had planned for him. "You are interested in learning healing aren't you?" She questioned gently, trying not to bombard him or make him feel like he needed to come with her to do whatever. "If you want, we can go to the stores and I can teach you about some of the herbs we have stocked." She gave him a smile, hoping he would feel welcome with her. She would not see it coming if he wasn't necessarily happy to be within her presence. But she would try to take it lightly, or appreciate the time he gave her which ever way the interaction went. Walk "Talk" Think