Kismet was gone. Just like that he was completely and utterly alone, abandoned. The only wolf left in the world that he had trusted, the only one he had thought still cared? Gone. Though how could he blame him really? After all Soren was pretty sure the reason he had been abandoned so many times was because of something he was doing or saying, it had to be his fault, why else would everyone keep leaving him? First it had been his own mother, seemingly forgetting them, Valhalla and now his brother? He had had to get away, he couldn't seem to breathe in that new den of his. Those thoughts that had been plaguing his mind since Glaciem were only stronger now. He wanted to scream, to cry, to charge off and try to find his brother. He did none of those, instead settling upon talking a bit of a walk. In the end he had ended up at a lake, one he had never visited before. A great stone structure jutting from its center and after a brief but chilly swim he was now stretched out upon the rock. The boy stared blankly into his own reflection, the slight rippling of the water distorting it. Soren sighed, well he truly was utterly and completely alone. "Speech"

Azalea walked through Valhalla, head turning left and then right every now and then as she searched for her boys. Soren had come home but Kismit? Where the hell had he gone? She didn't want her Kis to become like Soleon. A child who left and never came back. The lake was coming up on her right and as the foliage fell away she spotted Soren basking on a large rock, staring rather morosely at his reflection. She couldn't help but pause for a moment and wonder if maybe her overly clean child had become a narcissist but then pushed that thought aside. No, he was just too damned bleak looking. Not that that made her feel any better. She moved quietly, sitting down behind him, a good ten feet from the rock. Giving him space. He had gotten so big and it only served to remind her of abandoning them. Clearing her throat she hoped to get his attention. She could tell he was avoiding her, she wasn't as blinded by love like her own mother had always been. "This is where is all started, you know. Your grandmother gave birth to me and you uncle right by this lake." She grew quiet, exhaling through a conflicted look. "I love you, Soren. I know you probably think that I just abandoned you two but please, please don't feel that way. I was so angry over what they did, how they could just take you two away from me like that. If I hadn't have left then I would have fought Artemis until one of us ended up dead. What then? I wanted you to have someone to come home to." She sighed. 'I'm not trying to make excuses here, believe me. I did, however, expect Isardis to treat you two a lot better. When I came back and learned that you had been imprisoned the whole time... if it weren't for Erani telling me she had worked out a deal I would have been at Glaciem's doorstep fighting for your freedom." Azalea knew the boy well enough to know that it didn't matter why she hadn't done anything or what she would have done. He was a wolf of action, always had been. He had wanted her to fight for them and she had let him down.

Soren was wrapped up in his own thoughts, a dangerous place given his current feelings. All awareness of the surrounding world fell away; he wasn't even privy to his mother's approach till she cleared her throat. Slowly he lifted his gaze from his reflection, trying to shrug off the threads of thought he had found himself tangled up in. The boy felt his insides twist and clench as he realized who it was standing before him. She spoke and he nodded blankly, more out of courtesy than interest. She stopped for a moment and he dropped his gaze again, unable to face her. His mother began to speak again, and Soren did his best to hide the pain he felt. He wanted to believe her, wanted to think that she cared as much as she professed. There were things that didn't add up though, the day they had been taken she had left and never turned back. A word, a goodbye, anything would have helped to put his fears at ease but instead they had been left to rot in Glaciem with no word from anyone. For all they had known Azalea hadn't cared. "If it weren't for Erani telling me she had worked out a deal I would have been at Glaciem's doorstep fighting for your freedom." He shook his head sadly. "It would have been at least something." He muttered softly, not really intended for her. "That day, after you left Kismet went off to try and find you? He came back with no more news of what was happening than before. Then the next wolf we saw was a stranger and we were being removed from the den. There was no explanation!" He paused, finally lifting his gaze again. "You could have at least come back, explained to us what was happening. As it stood you could have agreed to our imprisonment for all we knew!" "Kismet never stopped believing we would be rescued." He scoffed lightly. "Short of that he believed we could escape on our own, I never thought that. After all as far as I could see the world was always going to be working against us." "Speech"

Soren hardly paid her mind. Yes, he was definitely mad. If she were in position she would be too. The difference was that Azalea was not like Soleil. She wasn't overbearing and she didn't quite love her children too much. Azalea didn't want to smother them, didn't want them to avoid her like she avoided her own mother. He was avoiding her gaze, something that angered her. When she had been pregnant she thought the hell of giving birth was the only one she would have to walk through. No one stopped to inform her of all the hell that came after. Honestly, Azalea hadn't considered things past giving birth and weaning them off of her. He mumbled something, she couldn't make it out. "That day, after you left Kismet went off to try and find you? He came back with no more news of what was happening than before. Then the next wolf we saw was a stranger and we were being removed from the den. There was no explanation? " His gaze finally met hers again, "You could have at least come back, explained to us what was happening. As it stood you could have agreed to our imprisonment for all we knew!" His words cut her, it was very clear. "The hell I would. Do you really think I would do that?!" She wanted to say more but words failed her. Had it really been that terrible? How she had raised them, that he would think she enslaved them in Glaciem. She hunched her shoulders and looked at the ground, filled with a muddle of annoyingly painful emotions. "Kismet never stopped believing we would be rescued." No longer did the dark blue and white boy seem sad, he was enraged. "Short of that he believed we could escape on our own, I never thought that. After all as far as I could see the world was always going to be working against us." "You've always been so straight forward... at least now I know how much you hate me." She wasn't going to sit here and argue with him. From a very young age he had been a stubborn child and if anything he was only worse now. It was also no secret that he was convinced the world was out to get him. "I'm going to tell you a story and you are going to listen." She cut him a look, frustrated. "I pink wolf came to Alacritia and took over Glaciem. He wish to possess all the she-wolves in the land and most flocked to him. Then he met one, just a girl from Valhalla, who did not go with him. He desired her and that desire drove him to extremes. A war was waged, battles fought. He ended up getting the female but not before he developed another goal: To destroy Valhalla. The Valhallan alpha's mate was taken hostage and seeing how much her aunt was hurting, a young Adravendi went north to trade herself for his freedom. While a prisoner herself the pink king of the north took advantage of her. She became pregnant and was nearly due when she finally had a chance to escape Glaciem and return home. When she gave birth she had two beautiful boys. She loved them and that love made her hide the truth of their creation. She didn't want them to go looking for the pink male and let herself believe that he would forget about them. When those boys were around six months, Valhalla was challenged for, set up by the pink king, by a white witch. She defeated the Valhallan leader and then told the Valhallan wolves that they were all free to go... with one exception. The children of the Adravendi girl would be taken to Glaciem. Blind with rage the Adravendi girl was ready to lay it all on the line right then and there but she wasn't the best of fighters and to place that challenge would mean to end her own life. To return to her children and to tell that Valhalla was no more and that they were going to be taken away from her was too painful to bear. So she ran."

Soren remained silent, gaze flicking away again. What could he say? He had believed that, he hadn't wanted to but there had been little else to believe. He was filled with guilt as he watched her, but he wasn't about to lie to soften the blow for her. "You've always been so straight forward... at least now I know how much you hate me." He felt his stomach twist at those words. "I don't-" He cut himself off though, how could he explain it? He didn't hate her, he really didn't, he was angry and frustrated; Soren wasn't ready to forgive her yet, but he didn't hate her. "I'm going to tell you a story and you are going to listen." Listen he did, a growing sense of dread filling him. Soren wanted to look away, but he forced himself to watch, to see the play of emotions upon her face, it was his punishment. When his father was finished he finally looked away. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." He dropped his head, speaking just loud enough to be heard. "Speech"

When she spoke of his hate for her words were started but quickly cut off. Azalea couldn't know what he was going to say, though the two words that came out made her hopeful it was to contest her words. She told him the events, what lead Azalea to go to Glaciem and how Soren came to be. It was clear that he was uneasy hearing it but he needed to know exactly how she felt. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." He hung his head and now Azalea stood up, moving toward him. Her ears pulled back and then jumped forward again as she worked to steel her nerve. How he would react she didn't know but Azalea set her potential safety aside and nuzzled into the boy, grooming him affectionately and generally lending him comfort. He needed to feel loved. She smiled as she stepped back then looked out over the lake. "I need to tell you... that you will be a brother again soon." Again or more? Was there a correct term for the way she had worded that?