After the Samhain festival when Venom had spontaneously lost her sight, Kumiho had volunteered to go search in foreign lands for a cure that might restore the Empress' lost sight. He was doing it to be a good and philanthropic member of the pack, of course, but more so he was doing it for Kitsune. Seeing how distraught she had been over her mother's sudden affliction spurred the wolf into action. He was no healer, but he was a seafarer, and he could find an answer somewhere out in the wide, wide world where no one else in Ashen could go. So, with a promise to return soon, he set sail from Boreas on his raft bound for distant lands. If there was an answer out there, he would find it.

That had been several months ago...

In that time, Iho had been to a great many places, seen a variety of strange and faraway lands, met wolves and animals of all sorts of cultures and customs. Each time he landed somewhere new, he wished he had brought Kitsune with him, but he knew his spirited little fire fox had been duty bound to stay with her mother and help look after Ashen. Each place he visited brought him closer to an answer, but it always seemed just out of reach. Like a cruel joke of a fetch quest, the sailor was sent island hopping from pack to pack, speaking with their healers and doctors, then following an obscure lead out to another location. Each time he got a little bit closer, but never quite close enough. Until finally he reached his destination and found a healer that knew remedies to help restore lost eyesight. After performing some tasks for the healer as payment, he was given a tincture and sent on his way with instructions. Kumiho set sail back to Boreas as quickly as he could, intent to be Kitsune's hero and save the day with his miracle cure from the ends of the earth!

Fate, it seemed, had other plans for the intrepid voyager. On his arrival into Boreal waters, the skies began to darken and the winds picked up into brutal gales. The gentle waves of the ocean became deadly whitecaps that rocked and tossed his raft like a toy in a maelstrom. Iho was a seasoned sailor and intimately familiar with his craft, but it still took all his might to keep the sails attached and tied down as the winds nearly ripped them to shreds. In the dark, it was virtually impossible to see where he was headed, and the clouds obscured his view of the heavens, making navigation a pipe dream. All Iho could do was hold his raft steady, keep the tincture safe in a satchel around his neck, and pray to the gods for good fortune. But the gods would turn out to be even crueler than fate. Gritting his teeth and grunting with the effort to hold the sail's ropes down so it didn't fly away, Iho squinted against the sting of rain whipping against his face. His cheeks burned and his muscles ached, but he held firm, claws digging into the wood of his raft to brace himself. Only the occasional flash of lightning allowed him to see the landmass of Boreas coming closer and closer. Almost there...!

A sudden strong gust of wind nearly jerked Iho off his paws and whipped the raft about, nearly capsizing it as a wave crashed into the side of the vessel. His paws slipped on the soaked wood, the rope ripping from his jaws as the raft was sent careening off course. Shit shit shit! Iho dove for the rope, missing it by inches as his teeth snapped down on nothing but air. The raft jerked again, almost throwing him overboard. He had to get control or he was done for! Eyes darting about the chaotic raft, he spotted the sail rope whipping about in the air like a wild snake. With one last ditch attempt, Iho lunged for the rope, and this time was rewarded for his efforts. He grabbed the rope, pulling the sail back under control. Success! Iho grinned triumphantly, giving a manic laugh of glee as he turned back to face the direction of Boreas.

He only had a second to see the rocks rising from the dark water as his raft sailed straight into them.

"Oh fuck." No sooner had the words left him, Kumiho felt the raft impact with the jagged rocks, smashing the craft upon their unyielding surface. The force of the impact sent Iho flying through the air and crashing into the sharp coldness of the inky black ocean. All at once the sailor was underwater, unable to tell up from down as he kicked and flailed, weightless in the crushing black oblivion of the sea. A brief flash of lightning lit up the surface, and Iho kicked with all his might towards it. He crested with a gasp just as a wave carried him away, the shipwrecked survivor screaming in panic before he was swallowed up by the sea again, spiraling out of control. His lungs ached for air, his whole body was cold, numb, and tired, running solely off his depleting oxygen and adrenaline. Iho kicked his way to the surface again, gasping for breath for a full two seconds before he was thrown into something hard which knocked all of the fight out of him. A rock, maybe, or a piece of his raft. Whatever it was, it was lights out for Iho. His fate was in the hands of the gods now.

- fade to black, but not the fun kind -

Daybreak brought clearer skies in the wake of the heavy storm. The roiling sea had calmed down to its gentle lull and the clouds had broken, showing clear blue spring skies and morning sunlight. It also revealed the carnage left on the Ashen shores. Shattered pieces of log and timber washed up on the beach, along with pieces of tattered sail barely held together by waterlogged rope. Somewhere amidst the wreckage, a white and cobalt body lay motionless at the edge of the surf, the gentle waves pushing him up onto the soft sands where they deposited his unconscious body for someone to find—or his lifeless corpse, depending on how long he laid there.

"Speech"

The skies were growing an ominous tone as Kitsune went about her pack duties. She grimaced at the sight of it, knowing the strong winds and rain that would likely be reaching the pack soon. She helped other wolves tie down awnings and coats in preparation for the coming storm.

When it arrived, she found herself by the ocean. Foolish thing that she was. Feeling the salt water kicked up by the wind brush through her coat. It was on days like these where she missed Iho the most. A part of her might always be watching the ocean, waiting for some sign or sight that he was returning home. She was drenched to the bone when she turned around, making a hopeless attempt to shake out her coat as she made her way back to her lonely little den.

After the worst of the water was drained from her coat, she banked her fire and curled up in her bedding. Dreaming of Iho, lost in storms.

She rose early, trotting from her den and feeling the warmth of the sun as she made her way to the beach. She needed to assess how bad the damage would be from the storm. The place she found was far different to the one she had left the night before. Carnage of vegetation lay along the sands, and she moved among it. Spotting rotten logs, pieces of rope… boards like the sort that would come off a ship. She paused, and nudged that one over, her heart picking up a pace in her chest. No. There was no way she would be able to recognise this plank of wood from any other.

She dropped the plank as if it was scolding, picking up her pace as she moved across the ocean trash. Finding the tattered sails, the larger bits of ship… the shape of a body. “No!” the Princess cried as she fell to her paws at his side. It was her nightmare come to life. How many times had she seen this in her dream since he had left her? “Iho, Iho!” She snapped, shaking his body. She pressed her ear to his mouth. He wasn’t breathing! She placed her paws on his chest and began to pump. “Wake up, Iho! You're more stubborn than this” She growled at him.


"Speech"

The world to Kumiho was little more than a swirling black void of emptiness. Sounds were dampened and distant, his head swimming in a cold abyss of nothingness. Was this what death felt like? Was this the afterlife he had been doomed to—some sort of barren purgatory he was to remain trapped in forever? Everything ached and was numb at the same time, a bizarre combination of pain and desensitization at one time. Man… death really sucked. There was no heaven, no paradise, no nirvana. There was just… nothing. Just like what he’d had remaining in his life when he’d left Ashen. Oh, what a stupid fool he’d been. He had found a good existence and he’d been reckless with it, and now he had paid the ultimate price.

In his stasis, Iho thought about his parents and family back home. They’d never know their boy had perished at sea. They’d never see his face again, never know of his adventures or see the man he had become. Or he had been, he supposed now. And Kitsune… Poor, sweet Kitsune… She’d never know what fate had befallen her poor lost pirate now. In time Iho would devolve into little more than a desiccated corpse washed up on some forgotten beach, picked clean by buzzards and crustaceans alike. The Ashen princess would go on to live her life, no doubt, and maybe he would linger as a bittersweet memory in her mind, but little more would remain of him. What a fool he had been.

Kitsune’s voice was suddenly there, echoing in his brain like the endless echo of the sea from within a conch shell. Surely his life was playing back around him like a heart wrenching movie. Iho didn’t want to watch it though. He didn’t want to be reminded of what had been torn away from him. Kitsune’s voice called out somewhere like a distant echo again. Iho wished it would end so he could just die in peace. And then suddenly, there was a hard pressure on his chest. Gods, that hurt! It felt like someone was constantly pounding on his chest, it just sort of the dull aching pressure. It was strange and uncomfortable and Iho immediately hated it.

Then, like jumpstarting a car, another hit to his chest brought with it a burst of blinding light. Iho gasped as the light blinded him, and then just as suddenly sensation came rushing back to him. The sound of the sea and the gulls, the warmth of the all-too-blinding sun, the pain in his everything. Saltwater burned in his throat as it came sputtering back up his esophagus and his body jerked violently back to life. Icy blue eyes shot open and the larger brute thrashed to right himself, coughing and spitting up a lungful of water as he gasped for air. His body shivered and twitched as it was roused from his deathlike state, looking around in a wild panic to figure out where he was. He was on a beach—where, he didn’t know—with the storms long passed. And there, right at his side, was the beautiful siren that had rescued him from his watery grave.

Iho stared up at Kitsune from his prone position on his belly on the sand, eyes wide as he looked at her like she were some specter from his past. He wanted to speak and say her name, but his throat was still rough from ingesting saltwater and his brain foggy as it reeled back and forth between consciousness and passing out again. Was he still dreaming? Was he actually dead now and this was what heaven looked like? Surely he must be dead, why else would he be seeing angels so clearly? She looked as beautiful as he remembered her being. A little more mature now that he’d been gone for nearly two seasons, a fully grown adult (who was still quite a bit smaller than he was, unfortunately for her) in all her grace and beauty.

To her, she would see a different kind of Iho than the youthful clean cut sailor who had sailed off some time ago. His face was scruffier, with coarse fur having grown along his jaw like a lupine-esque beard, and his coat in general was longer and in need of some grooming. A couple thin silvery scars cut through his fur across the breadth of his broad chest and one of his icy antlers had been broken off about an inch from the end, remnants of his survival with an angry ursine along his travels. His body was more toned now, muscular and athletic from battling unruly seas on his own as well as the number of trials he'd faced in his odyssey. They'd both done some growing up it seemed, but he would still look like her renegade seafarer—just a little more swashbuckler than sailor now. There was only one thing Kumiho could think to say when faced with such a jarring experience from drowning to being resuscitated by a princess for a second time. "...Am I dead...?"

"Speech"

She pumped on his chest, feeling a quiver of fear in her paws. No, no! She couldn’t believe this. How many times had she imagined him returning home? Never had she expected it to be like this. She could feel tears dampening her cheeks. How cruel it would be, for him to return to her, only to die in her arms. “Damn you, Iho!” She growled, losing her meticulous air of royalty in the face of her fears.

Then he was vomiting water, and she could stop beating his chest. She rested her paws lightly against him instead. Watching as he emptied his stomach, and drew in lungfuls of air. Maybe he would live. Just maybe. Now that she wasn’t quite so afraid, she looked him over. He was the same wolf - of that there was no doubt. Even mixed as he was with the sea, she could catch his scent. His fur was the tones she remembered, but one of his beautiful icy antlers had chipped somewhere in his travels. She traced a paw across a silvery scar. Hurt, both by the fact that he had been out there adventuring and earning wounds without her, and that it had healed without her. Had another tended to him? She had not seen the scar happen, and she had not seen it heal. Too long. He had been gone too long.

His croaky voice startled her, and she blinked past her tears and glared at the half dead wolf in the sand. “Idiot!” She said, slapping his chest lightly. “Not if I have something to say about it.” She was mad at him, dammit. “Can you walk, or do I need to drag you?” Because she would do it.

"Speech"

Any thought or misconception of this being his moment his soul was taken into the forever beyond were instantly shattered when his seraphim's angelic expression of worry and love shifted into a righteous fury, and then... Smack! A dull thud landed on his chest, not enough to hurt, but enough to earn a throaty oof! from the male as he was forcefully snapped out of his delirium. Kitsune's sweet voice was chastising him, punishing him verbally for being so reckless and refusing to let the gods claim his soul so long as she had a say over it. Then came the question of if he could walk or not. Kumiho groaned again as his muscles protested the experimental movements he tried to do, but overall he was still able to move without any pain. Just a lot of soreness and aching throughout his body. "No, leave me to die. I deserve it," he groaned dramatically, flopping out across his back and staring up at the bright blue sky overhead. Anything so he wouldn’t have to see those tears on her face and feel his heart break knowing he had been the cause of it. "I'm sorry, Kit. I meant to be back so much sooner, but I did it! I-"

A moment of cold panic washed over Iho from his brain down through his body as a paw lifted to his neck, feeling about for the pouch he had tied around his neck during the storm. When he felt nothing there, his heart missed a beat. Icy blue eyes shot open wide and he scrambled to right himself, gasping in horror as he realized there was nothing hanging from his neck. "Oh shit! Oh no no no! Where'd it go?!" The arctic brute scurried about in the sand, looking around nearby in vain for the pouch that had disappeared from his possession. It was only once his gaze lifted out to the sea, its waves lapping calmly at the sand like some kind of cruel joke did he realize the truth of what had happened. "No..." The cure he'd found for Venom, the fix for Kit's mother's blindness... It was somewhere out there, likely sunk to the bottom of the ocean and completely ruined with saltwater. His mouth hung slack, staring blankly at those glistening waves. All that time… All that effort and struggle to try and be a hero for her… just gone.

Iho’s body slumped back onto the warm sands, his shoulders falling along with his collapsing emotions. His heart sank into his stomach as the cold realization that Venom’s one shot at regaining her sight back had been stolen away by a vicious twist of fate. He had been spared a watery grave only to lose the sole reason he had ever left Ashen—and by extension Kitsune—behind. That time he’d never be able to regain, all gone to waste with one wave. It was almost too cruel to imagine, and incredulous tears started to appear at the edges of his eyes. "It’s gone… It’s totally gone… I- Kit, I-" Iho stammered, not sure what to even say in this moment. How did you go about apologizing to someone who you’d promised a miracle, especially when that miracle had been found. He’d fucked up badly. Now Venom would likely remain blind for all her days, Kitsune would hate him for being gone so long and failing so epically. And who would blame her?

"Speech"

The small Princess blinked back the burning in her eyes. Taking a deep, steadying breath. She was feeling emotional, but her training as royalty had taught her to move past it. It still took a few more breaths before she could really look down at the alpine wolf at her paws. He had flopped over, telling her to leave him. “As if I would” She said grimly. No, he was stuck with her, whether he liked it or not. And she would drag him back to her den, even if she had to do it by his ears.

Before she could get serious about dragging the larger wolf, he suddenly started scrambling at his neck and looking around. She instantly leaned forward. Wondering if there was an injury she had missed, something wrong. Her heartbeat, which had just begun to slow, sped back up again. What was wrong, what was it? “Iho! Iho stop, what are you doing?” She asked, as he started scrambling in the sand. He was frantic, and Kit could feel herself getting frantic too.

When tears started at the corner of Iho’s eyes, she was confused, and worried. She leaned forward. Placing her smaller paws on his shoulders. Trying to offer him some comfort, despite her own confusion. “What’s gone? Talk to me Iho, what can I do?” She pleaded. She hated to see him like this.


"Speech"

This couldn’t be happening. Of all the cruel twist endings that this journey had to take, losing his prize right at the finish line and failing in such a spectacular way almost felt like a personal slap across the face from fate. Kumiho’s panic seemed to set off Kitsune’s own worry as she frantically demanded an explanation from him and asked how she could help. Iho just shook his head, still reeling from this emotional whiplash as he tried to wrap his head around reality and process his thoughts and feelings. "I had it, Kit. A cure for your mom. For her eyes… I found one far across the sea," he began to explain, feeling his throat grow tight as he admitted to his success and his ultimate failure. "But it’s gone. I- I think I might have lost it in the storm and now it’s ruined and gone and… and…"

His words stammered off in his shock and disbelief. Iho dropped to his belly in abject defeat. He felt like he'd just been punched in the gut when only yesterday he had been riding such a high on the thought of coming back triumphant to be Kitsune's hero. "There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. I don't even think I could find my way back to where I found those wolves and get the medicine again. I..." Iho's head fell to the sand, his eyes glassy and distant while he watched the waves before him, almost mocking him as they pushed more broken pieces of driftwood from his destroyed raft ashore. "I'm so sorry, Kit... I tried so hard. I saw how upset you were about your mom and I just wanted to help and... I failed." Saying the words out loud felt like he was retching up the words, it was so painful to admit. Now who knew if Venom would ever regain her eyesight? He'd not only let Kitsune down, but all of Ashen too. How could he ever show his face around the pack again?

"Speech"

I had it… She hadn’t believed he would get a cure. It had seemed such a slim hope, and one that took him so far from her. Then Venom’s eyes had naturally healed, and Iho had stayed gone. Stayed lost to her. Now he was here, and he was clearly injured and frantic… how could she tell him it had all been for aught? The words choked in her throat, and she felt herself flinch. Luckily, his attention was on the sand, for the gesture had been anything but Ladylike.

“Iho…” She said, easing herself down onto the sand beside him. The wreckage of his ship around them. “Iho, I don’t know how to…” she shook her head hopelessly, and pulled her body around him into a hug. “Her sight is back, Iho.” She said at last, half choking on the words before falling silent, resting her head against him.

"Speech"

Kitsune’s comforting touches did little to help assuage the agony of utter failure that crushed Kumiho’s soul. If anything, they exacerbated the pain, the arctic male feeling wholly unworthy of her tenderness. He had failed her, failed Venom, failed Ashen. He didn't deserve any comforts in his defeat. She spoke his name softly and settled down in the sand beside him, but Iho didn't look up at her. He couldn't bear to look into her eyes right now. Even as she hugged him close, he just felt like a loser—at least, he did until Kit's final statement broke the silence between them. "Her sight is back, Iho." A feeling like a lance driven through his chest shocked Iho, his body going rigid as he slowly lifted his head and finally looked at Kitsune, incredulity breaking through the haze of sorrow in his icy eyes. Venom's sight... had come back? Just like that? No miracle cure or prayers or nothing?

Iho stared hard at Kitsune for a long moment, half trying to assess if he had heard her correctly, half trying to discern if she was telling him the truth or just trying to make him feel better. When neither her response nor her expression changed, Iho felt something in his mind break. He snickered, the corner of his lips turning up in a little smirk. That snicker evolved into a chuckle, then a laugh, and before long the saltwater-drenched wolf was full on belly laughing at the insanity of the situation. Of course it would be his luck that Venom's sight would come back after he embarked on a harrowing journey across the world! He'd done so much excessive work to find a cure when all he had to do was wait. Iho laughed almost manically as a combination of disbelief and relief washed over him, laughing so hard he could scarcely breathe and couldn't bring himself to stop.

"Her... Her sight... came back... just like that!" he repeated, his words broken up by uncontrollable laughter. "So I didn't need to leave at all!" Shaking his head, the white wolf sighed, caught between wanting to laugh more and wanting to beat himself up for ever leaving in the first place. "Kit... I'm so sorry. I tried to be a hero for you and I just ended up making a fool of myself and being gone for much too long. I'm sorry, I'm such an idiot."

"Speech"

Kit was surprised how hard it was to hold Iho’s gaze. As if she had something to be guilty about. But watching the realisation dawn in his eyes was no easy thing. She was glad her mothers sight had come back. It was important, and good. So why did she suddenly feel so terrible about it? As she frantically tried to think of something to make this better, Iho suddenly started to laugh. She watched him with an expression of shock, as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head.

It got worse, the laughter wasn’t just one surprised titter, it was a full on belly-shaking meltdown. Was he in shock? She was debating slapping him when he spoke. Actually, her urge to slap him didn’t immediately let up even after he spoke. He still sounded as if he was in shock, and she was half afraid the laughter would turn into sobbing. “I forgive you… do I need to slap you? Are you okay?” She asked, her voice serious.


"Speech"

Kumiho was so flustered and flabbergasted by the drop of reality that Venom’s sight had fully returned on its own that he wasn’t even aware of how concerned he was making Kitsune. It was only once she asked if he was okay or if he needed to be slapped did he manage to look up again and see the worry on her face, as if she was afraid he might have a mental breakdown at a moment’s notice. It took a few more moments of broken laughter for Iho to collect himself enough to catch his breath, almost crying he had been laughing so hard. "A slap might not be a bad idea," he replied in between little titters of giggles that still remained as he inhaled hard to try and slow his breathing. He exhaled in a sigh, and then he was calm again, still grinning and shaking his head in abject incredulity. What were the odds…!

When he was calm once more, Iho gazed out over the sea once more, watching the surf shimmer and shine in the summer sunlight. He looked back up to Kit again, a remorseful melancholy in his eyes. She’d gotten older, more mature, all grown up… and he’d missed it. "I wish I’d had more patience… I wish I’d never left and missed all this time with you for no reason, Kit," he apologized again, not really sure what else to say. Guilt chewed him up inside. After a few more moments of wallowing in guilt and pity, he peeked icy eyes up at the fiery princess "Um… can I stand up now, your majesty?" If there was one thing that hadn’t changed about Iho, it was his snark and humor, and the roguish little smirk on his muzzle betrayed that.

"Speech"

Well, if he insisted. She leaned forward and lightly rapped her knuckles against his face. As far as a slap went, it was pretty pathetic. She left her paw there instead of lifting it. Leaning forward instead and kissing his forehead. She still wasn’t sure what to say to him. He had risked so much for her, for Ashen. It had hurt to have him leave, and she hadn’t fully worked through that emotion yet either. To have it turn out he didn’t need to leave at all was a slap to both of them.

His words hurt too, because she felt much the same way. “I guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time. You… are staying, right?” She asked, her voice dropping at that, uncertainty creeping in. “Oh… Yes, I suppose you may” She agreed, a small hint of mischief returning to her own eyes.


"Speech"

At his request, Kitsune rapped her knuckles against the side of his face—a far cry from an actual strike, but enough to make the shipwrecked sailor laugh and calm down a bit. Her paw lingered on his cheek, feeling like fire against his skin in all the best ways. Warmth and longing. He had missed this; missed her. She leaned in to kiss his forehead and Kumiho could have wept again. Gods, he'd been such a fool! So reckless and singleminded in his determination to do right by her. Kit suggested making up for their lost time, which he wholeheartedly agreed with, and then asked almost uncertainly if he was staying. Iho looked up almost shocked, their blue eyes meeting as he gave her a little smile and a nod. "Nowhere else I'd rather be," he reassured her, raising a paw to rest it over her own on his cheek. This was home to him. Kitsune was his home and he'd been gone for far too long.

When she permitted him to stand up, Kumiho began to shift and rise back to his paws. He groaned at the strain his aching muscles were unhappy to make. Swimming for your life in a stormy sea had a way of wearing one out. Once he was up, Iho gave a quick shake of his coat to free it of the loose sand, wobbling a bit on unsteady legs. He needed food, water, maybe a painkiller, and a long nap. "I, uh... don't suppose I can still crash with you, can I?"

"Speech"