Never had Bowen's legs moved as quickly as they moved when she was on her way home. The whole trip was surreal. Part of her was nervous to be returning after all of this time, but mostly she was beyond excited to be with her family again. How long had it even been? Had she had a birthday? Excitement and trepidation thrummed through the small, caramel and cream girl as small paws carried her hastily towards her family's home.

The moment that Bowen hit the land bridge between Auster and Boreas, there was a tight nervous ball in her stomach. Would they still be there? What if they had packed up and left? What if she was walking into nothing but memories? Dark russet paws danced across the sand of the land bridge nervously as she fought with herself to go forward or turn back. Maybe they were better off thinking that she was gone. In the end, Bowen gathered her courage and continued forward.

Coming to the edge of the territory, the girl could smell the various scents of the border. Some she recognized. Others she didn't. Again she danced nervously like a shy colt. What if they didn't like who she was now? Ugh. Gritting her teeth for a moment, Bowen raised her pale nose to the sky and howled for home.

"Bowen"

Tamsyn sat beside Rudyard's bed in the infirmary, watching him worriedly with tired eyes. She hadn't gone far from the infirmary since she and Kane got him back to the pack after he was attacked by the bear, only pushed away to eat and sleep by Gwynevere and Kane at their insistence that there was nothing she could do but wait. Physically he seemed stable, his wounds beginning to mend and kept will bandaged by their group of skilled healers and she knew that Gwynevere wouldn't let anything happen to her brother as long as she could help it, but she still worried. She always worried and she would always continue to worry about her children. It had started the day she knew that they were conceived and would likely continue until the day she died. The fact that he still hadn't woken worried her intensely and the sitting and waiting made her feel helpless.

The one and only thing that could pull her away for any length of time was one of her other children and she received just that when a howl from the border pulled her attention and she lifted her head slightly as she listened. At first she didn't recognize what she was hearing, but it suddenly clicked in her mind and her eyes flew open with a jolt of excited joy as she scrambled to her feet. Her inner doubt made her wonder if her own hope and worry might have made her imagine things, but as she raced out of the castle and across the castle grounds toward the border that worry was swept away. Her mint gaze landed on her cream and caramel daughter and the first relief she had felt in several days washed over her like a tidal wave.

"Bowen!" she called happily as she ran forward to meet her, skidding to a stop in front of her and falling back onto her haunches so that she could wrap her up in a tight embrace. "Oh Bowen, you're okay! I've been so worried about you!" For a long moment she just squeezed her daughter tight, tears collecting in her eyes. After the months had passed she had begun to accept that she may never actually see her daughter again, but just as she sat at the side of one child's sick bed another reappeared in her life. She pulled back to look at her with a wide smile on her lips, brushing her paws over Bowen's cheeks. "I'm so glad you're okay. Where have you been?"

Tamsyn Carpathius

Thundering paws stampeded towards Bowen as she waited at the border and the girl rose to her paws, ready for whoever came her way. Before she even saw Tamsyn, Bo heard her voice. The tiny fae rose to her paws, her body quivering with emotion. Anticipation, fear, joy. "Mom?" Bowen said aloud, trying to find her voice, then when the obsidian form of her mother rushed into view, Bowen literally bounced on her paws before rushing into the woman's embrace. "Mom!" The cream and russet fae's voice cracked with emotion as she buried her face into the chest of the mother that she thought she would never see again.

Tears filled Bowen's viridian gaze and spilled over. She wanted to release all of the pent up emotion. She wanted to tell her mom about all of the horrible things that had happened to her and how hard her life had been all this time, but she didn't. There would be time for that later. For now, Bowen basked in the joy that she felt at finally being home and seeing her mother again.

Tamsyn asked where Bowen had been and the tears rushed forth anew. The girl shook her head, raising one foreleg to wipe the moisture from her face. "I went after one of the alpacas and got lost. Then I was stolen..." She didn't want to remember all of that now. Bowen pressed her cheek hard into her mother's loving paw and a soft whine left her. "I wanted to come home this whole time, but I couldn't. They wouldn't let me." Green eyes opening again, she finally noticed the scar on her mother's face. Lifting her left foreleg, Bowen gently touched the scars on her mother's cheek with pink pawpads. "Mom, what happened?" Her brow furrowed in concern. She'd obviously missed a lot.

"Bowen"

Tamsyn kept looking at her daughter's face in over joyed disbelief even as she wiped away her own tears and Bowen's. She had matured so much since the last time she saw her, a sad pang ringing in her chest at the thought of how much time she had lost. It was hard to not try to hold all her children tight and close to her to keep them from slipping away, but she didn't want to smother them. However, as she listened to Bowen explain how she had gotten lost and eventually captured while trying to find one of their lost alpacas that's all she wanted to do. Her ears flicked worriedly at the story that she was sure hardly even scratched the surface of what she had been through.

She hadn't even considered what had happened in the time since Bowen went missing, but as she felt her daughter's paw on her scarred cheek she was reminded and her expression fell with the realization that she would have to break the horrible news to her daughter. But she wouldn't do it here or now. Something as important as the news of her other mother's fate couldn't just be dropped on her at the border of the pack. "Come on, lets... Lets go back to the castle and I'll tell you," she said with a small smile, dipping her head to kiss tenderly between Bowen's ears before getting to her paws to lead the way back to the castle.

She lead Bowen through the courtyard and brought her to a cluster of shade trees in one of the corners, settling under one of them and waiting for Bowen to join her. For a long moment she really didn't know where to begin. She rested one of her paws over Bowen's, feeling as if she needed to touch her to reassure herself that she was real. She noticed the leather bracer that wound around Bowen's leg, but she didn't question it, too caught up in her own thoughts. She tried to think of some positives that she could tell her daughter, but nothing would be able to outweigh the bad.

"Bowen, your mother... Resin... She became very ill. She wasn't herself and during one of those episodes she... she did this," she explained as gently as she could, motioning to her scars with her other paw. "Resin passed away in an attack on the pack... I'm... I'm sorry you had to find out this way," she said softly, gently squeezing Bowen's paw in hers as tears collected in her eyes again, the memories of it all dancing through her mind in bits and pieces. "I'm glad you didn't have to see her like that, but..." What else could she say? She wished none of her children would have had to see their mother waste away, but there was still something to be said about being able to say goodbye.

Tamsyn Carpathius

From the look on Tamsyn's face and the tone of her voice, Bowen knew that something bad was coming. She followed her mother to a copse of shade trees and seated herself as her mom explained the major even that Bowen had missed. The death of her mother. Viridian eyes went wide for a moment as her mind tried to wrap around the fact that Resin was dead and gone. Bowen would never be able to see her again. She would never be wrapped in those strong, protective arms again. Her mother had died thinking that she was dead.

Inside, a war was taking place. Cry or don't cry? Bowen's lower lip jutted out for a moment only to be sucked back in the next. Her eyes went from watery to hard and determined. In the end she didn't cry, though her green gaze was wide. She would do what she could to make her mother proud.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't here, mom." Bowen's ears drooped. It hadn't been her fault, but she was still sorry. What else could she say, really? Resin was gone and there was nothing that could be done about that. Tamsyn was still here though. Again Bowen moved forward and pressed herself into her mom's embrace, her eyes closing as she thought about how glad she was to just be home.

"Bowen"