Trailing through the winding trees of the Soulless forest, Aeron was chasing vapors again. Silana had become out of reach to him - she had promised him, that their spot would be a place that she lingered. The North had been their home for so long, the submerged trees that they had come to call their only place in this land that was theirs... she was not there. She was never there, he had waited and waited and... it was a lost cause. His sister would return when she wanted, when he least expected, and he would welcome her into his slowly growing heart once again.


Now, the memory that he was wandering after was not his sibling - but a girl, who was... a woman now, if time had really passed alongside the shifting seasons. Sibelle, he had missed her - missed her dearly. Perhaps he had made the wrong descision, looking for Silana and leaving all else behind. The lupine's actions often made him seem quite one track minded, but he had thought of the red woman every day that he wasn't beside her. She was so strong, brilliant where he was dull - would she accept him back if he were to find her?


Pushing away his doubts, he would continue his search, wandering a little further into the territory. He was near the borders, but the borders smelled like her - which meant that she was here, right? This was her home, she had claimed this area as her own. If that was the case, then all he had to do to find her was howl. Months of following a little wolfess without a voice and that tended to wander until she was found made that something that he never really found helpful. Sibelle though, was different - wasn't she? Hoping that she would come if he called to her, he would tilt up his chin and howl.

The howl that echoed in her skull was a distant memory. One that also didn't register as familiar. Tattered audits swiveled as she casually looked in the direction of the howl. Suddenly it clicked. Aeron. The Queen was frozen with shock, unable to move, not wanting to move. He had left her, without so much as a word. He had simply vanished like it was nothing, like she was nothing. It would take some time but she would force her legs to move, and force herself to move towards the border. Paws would press into the earth silently, her crown lifting high with indignation. What was he doing here? He didn't have the right to return. Especially to her borders. Lips twitched, threatening to reveal ivory daggers. Verdant would harden into stones as she would meet a painfully familiar dual toned gaze. He looked no different. She would come to a halt several feet away, refusing to get any closer. Muscles flexed beneath her thick pelt as the Queen stared him down. She refused to say a word. He would have to do all the speaking. Ears fell loosely back against her skull, eyes narrowing fractionally. He had been the first wolf outside her family that she cared about, and he had been the first to break her heart. But she was a Queen now. She had others to worry about now, others to care for. She had met new wolves, she had befriended Vi and Crucifix. Aeron had not been the one standing beside her. No. She had stood alone. "Talk" "You" Think

He howled for her, and waited for an answer. A response, another voice to join his own in the open air. And yet there was nothing, no one, silence had won out once more. His gaze would linger on the horizon, waiting for someone to break through, for that familiar red pelt to break the monotone of the forest foliage. For a moment, it seemed that she would not come - that she was not here. Or had not heard him. Or simply did not wish for his presence. His tail drooped, held between his legs as he fought between turning around and leaving these grounds and staying and waiting.


And then, he saw her. Her green eyes were as they were when he left, but there was something about that familiar gaze that was... different now. She did not greet him with the little french that he had taught her, only glanced at him, and even that was not the same. Coming here... it had been a mistake, hadn't it? Hatred was not something that he had felt, but the possibility of seeing it in her - it hurt. "Sibelle..." Clearly this woman had nothing to say to him... Luckily for her, this was not entirely unfamiliar to him. The time he had spent with Silana when they were young, he had filled in all of the quiet himself - and never thought anything of it. "You 'ave changed." And he had missed it - he had missed what had changed her. Who had she met? What had she done?


Surely this change could not have been brought about by him, could it?


"If you vant me to leave..." He would - and he would never return if that was what she wished. "I von't fight it - but please know zat I'm sorry." And slowly the brute would stitch together exactly what he had done. He had searched for his sister, waited for her to return - and in that, he had cast the same fate upon the russet woman. She had filled his thoughts while he was away - and the only reason he had returned was because of her. There was nothing else for him in this land... "I truly never meant to 'urt you." His ears would pull back as he lowered his head - he could no longer meet her gaze head on. Not when she didn't seem to want to see him looking back at her. Not when she didn't want to see him.

Her name would roll off his tongue, his accent singing in her ears. It had been so long since she heard his voice. She had changed. It was true, there was no deny that. "I'm a Queen now." Her words were flat, lacking emotion she once had. Pain swelled in her chest as promised to abide by her wishes. But did she want them to? He was sorry, he didn't mean to hurt her. It was the common apology that always spewed from lips of those in the wrong. Did he mean it? He had always been a kind soul, he wouldn't harm a fly. But why had he left? Why did he abandon her? "Why?" Why did you leave me? The question was clear. She longed to reach out and touch him, to fall into his embrace. But she kept herself frozen in place. Would there still be a spark? Would she still find that intoxicating bliss when his flesh brushed against hers? Or was it gone? Had it all left with him? She knew that if they wanted to find out, he would have to take the initiative. He had been gone for so long that he had an up hill battle. The Queen remained still as a statue. Never had she imagined his return. Since he had left, she had met Valerius, a sweet Valhallan man, and then Crucific. The pale and charcoal colored man had captured her attention, ravished her in unspeakable ways and had planted a small seed of unanswered feelings. But Aeron had been the first. The first to catch her attention, and the first to break her heart. Could she live with that? Could she accept him back into her life knowing that he had left without so much as a second thought? "Talk" "You" Think

A Queen, she had become a ruler while he was gone. Had built herself a pack, what some believed to be a family - so many wolves, it was not something that he had experienced for long but he knew the support it gave to a rogue during winter. She had that of her own, and it was with that answer, that he knew she no longer needed him at her side. Still, he wanted a place beside her, because without her he found himself quite empty. Devoid of Sibelle, he was just less... but without him, she was a matriarch, a ruler - a queen.



He was proud of her, but now was not the time.



Her question would be a single word, but it was enough. Why had he gone - what reason could he have had to vanish for so long. The answer was one he was not ashamed of, as Silana was a part of him in a similar way the russet woman was but... but not in the same way. Silana was family, she was the same as he - a phantom, that would always wander in and out of his life the way he did others. Yet Sibelle was a natural part of him, the only lupine that he had met and wanted to know, that he cared for and craved. "I lost Silana again, when she left I searched, and vhen I couldn't find her I... vaited." It was the honest truth. "I don't think she is coming back zis time." He would not leave in search of her again, not even if she were to return to his side and vanish once more.



"I thought of you constantly vhile avay, I never once abandoned you, Sibelle." It was not an act of abandonment, not in his mind. "Returning to you, vas always vat I 'ad in mind, but I shouldn't have left in the first place. Especially vithout telling you... for that I ask your forgiveness." He would meet her eyes for these last few words, gathering resolve as he tried to express himself. "I missed you dearly, Dame Roux." His smile was not forced - as he was happy to see her for the first time in too long, but it hurt - just a pin prick, because it did not seem she felt the same way. If she did not forgive him, he would not force his presence any longer - but he held hope that she would accept him back, and then he could finally brush against her side like he had longed to all while he had not.

His sister was gone, disappearing once more. She had never met the girl before, but she seemed to make it habit of disappearing, which often meant the Aeron was not far behind her. An almost inaudible sigh rolled off her tongue. What was to say that he wouldn't do it again? Her gaze would leave his, only to return when he started speaking again. This time claiming to have thought about her constantly and always planning to return. But had he returned to late? His smile was contagious, pulling lightly at the corners of her mouth, though she refused to give in fully. He had missed her, and she had missed him for a time. But did she still miss him? She didn't know. Her ghostly smile would fade away, leaving her russet face once again expressionless. She would sway on her paws, her weight rocking back and forth as she tried to decide what to do. She needed to think, she needed time. Jaws would part, though words didn't come out right away. "I need to think. You may stay if you wish." She would turn away from him, limbs carrying her back into the mist. She needed to talk to Maija. She didn't know how to make sense of this. She didn't know what to say to him. "Talk" "You" Think