Spring had come and with it Dragon's new resolve. He had promised his pack would rise again, but he had been enjoying the time away from leadership responsibilities that he had taken his time. His mind had changed, however, when a wolf by the name of Enigma had shown up with two children. Dragon had been in shock and disbelief then, but he had come to accept it. He was a father of three, and he didn't even know it until recently. One of the pups were missing, however, but Enigma had promised to look for him and bring him back should he find him. Honestly, Dragon couldn't believe what he had been told. But he believed it. He tried hard to think back to that day in the hallucination caves, and with Kimahri's help, they had pieced together from what they could remember. It wasn't much, but it made sense now. At one point, Dragon had thought it was Iskra that whole time. He thought maybe he had driven her away on accident, but now he knew that wasn't true. Still, why hadn't she returned? He hadn't seen her for an entire year, and decided he ought to look for her to at least get an answer...or some closure. Problem was, he had no idea where to look. Was she still in Auster? Had she joined the Abraxas? He had no idea. It would be hard for him to track her down while he was blind, but he had to try right? He had left his pups in the care of Shiva and his mother. The small group that still followed him often changed locations, though the majority of the time they remained in the North and at a cove in the East. This time though, Dragon traveled South. Hoping that the warmer weather had drawn his mate to seek it out. Or...well, whatever she was now. He wasn't sure what to label her anymore. Walk, "Talk" Think

Gryphon had been slowly making his way across the bottom parts of Boreas as the year began to progress into the warmth of spring. He wasn't really willing to go back to Auster, not when the last he'd known his family members had all made the journey north. He didn't know where in Boreas they all were, but he suspected that most, if not all, were still in the northern continent. He'd been the only one to inherit his father's thin desert coat, so the intense cold that had hit Boreas this winter probably hadn't bothered Dragon or their mother at all. He, on the other hand, had determined it a good idea to stay put in the deserts to the west until spring hit.

Now that it had, it was definitely time to head out again and search for his family. Who knew what kind of mischief would befall them if he wasn't there to protect them? Dragon especially seemed to be a magnet for bad luck, though Gryphon thought to himself with a sigh that the older brother really just threw himself into situations that were asking for trouble. Maybe that Iskra had settled him down, but he rather doubted it - she'd seemed like more trouble than Dragon and Kharnage and Lykos combined, though to be fair it was mostly the girl she'd adopted that bothered Gryphon.

He took a deep breath and huffed it out on a sigh, but then froze, one foot in the air as he took another searching sniff. He hadn't been wrong - that was definitely Dragon's scent. And his male jaguar friend, too, unless he was mistaken. Good, Gryphon didn't think it was a good idea for him to be wandering around blind without someone around to guard him.

The sleek earthen male trotted through the orchard after his brother's scent, calling out with a bark, "Dragon?"

Dragon's senses were swarming with the smell of budding flowers and the sweet scent of the fruit around him. He couldn't remember the last time he had been her. It had been so long ago, he could hardly remember being a pup. Breathing in the sweet scents, it slowly took him back to the time when he was a kid just enjoying himself and getting into trouble. A time when he and his siblings played, though Gryphon and Kharnage had been mostly den-ridden due to illness. Still, he missed the short days when he and his brothers got along...now though, it seemed they hardly knew each other. It made him sad to think that they didn't have the strong bond he had always hoped for, but perhaps it was his fault as well. With all that stuff concerning his estranged brother, and just feeling distant from his brothers overall...he wished he could go back in time and start over with them. He wasn't entirely aware as his thoughts about his brothers seemed to take over his mind. How were they? He hadn't seen them much, if at all since the pack had been challenged for. As much as he hated to admit it, he sorely missed them. Even though they were all grumpy for the most part, he missed it all. He thought back to the few times he and his brothers had talked, even if they weren't the most pleasant talks...he swore he could even hear Gryphon calling him an idiot now. His chest grew heavy, oh how he even missed when Gryphon was telling him he was being an idiot. "Dragon?" Brows knit together for a moment as he came to a stop. Did he really miss them that much that he was starting to hear their voices? He turned about, scenting the air. Sure enough through the sweet smell of the orchard, he could smell him. "Gryph?" His heart began to beat faster. Was he going crazy? Or was this real? His brother's scent grew stronger, but he wasn't entirely sure from which direction his brother was coming from, so he stayed put and waited. "Dragon"||Kimahri||Shiva

Gryphon had never been prone to playing, though a large part of that had stemmed from a sense of responsibility for his family that had forced him to grow up much to fast, and part from having missed a great deal of his childhood cooped up in a den from illness. Yet perhaps it was the spring air, or maybe the way the orchard triggered memories of the time between sickness and pseudo-adulthood, but as his brother's voice answered him back Gryphon dropped into a hunting crouch, a sudden light of mischief sparking in him. He'd always excelled as a hunter. Now he used every bit of that hard-won skill with all the glee of a pup stalking a leaf.

He stole closer, setting his paws with exaggerated care, knowing that any crack of a twig could send a blackbuck fleeing and leave the pack hungry. He moved in fits and starts, so that the rustling of bushes blended into the general rustle of wind in the leaves. After all, a dik-dik would run from any sound that wasn't natural. His gold-brown pelt didn't blend as well here as it would in a different landscape, but it wasn't like this particular prey could see him - assuming that a certain spotted cat was amenable to playing along and didn't give him away.

Body lowered, hindquarters coiled beneath him and ready... with a silent huff of effort Gryphon leaped through the last bush screening him from where he had heard his brother, paws extended to clasp around his brother's neck, jaws ready to clamp onto his scruff or ears.

Partway through his leap it occurred to him to hope that said spotted cat took his stalking in the spirit it was intended, or he could very well find himself with a few sets of claws and teeth in his face well before he landed.

He stood there, head turning as he tried to locate where his brother was. His intact ear moved back and forth as he tried to pick up the sound of pawsteps, but all he could hear was the rustling of the vegetation, birdsong, and the soft breathing of his companion nearby. Brows furrowed with confusion, where the hell was he? He could smell his brother, but he couldn't hear him. Maybe he really was going crazy? "Kimahri? Did you hear that voice at all?" The Jaguar, of course, had spotted Gryphon moving closer. "Nope. Maybe you're just hearing things." He moved away and climbed a nearby tree and flopped onto his stomach, one foreleg crossed beneath his chin as he watched the goings-on. Dragon frowned as he heard Kimahri's claws scraping against the tree and figured he had climbed into one. Well...guess I'll find him on my own then.. It seemed that during the time that his companion had climbed the tree, his brother had initiated a surprise attack. It wasn't until he felt his brother's forelegs wrap around his neck and teeth gently clasping onto his intact ear that he realized what was going on. Dragon fell backward from the sudden surprise impact, landing clumsily onto his rump with a hard thud. He sought to try and catch himself from falling completely over by seeking to hook blunt claws into the fur on either side of Gryphon's shoulders, but it didn't work out too well. The momentum had forced him to fall the rest of the way rather ungracefully, but he didn't mind. This was perhaps the only time anyone had caught him off-guard, but only because it seemed his companion had played along with his brother's shenanigans. "Gryphon! It's so good to see you!" Walk, "Talk" Think "Kimahri" Shiva

His attack was successful, tumbling his brother to the ground in a flailing tangle of limbs. Gryphon used one paw to pat his brother affectionately on top of the head before releasing him and rolling away to come back to his feet. Dragon's words, though, brought crashing back the reminder that nope, Dragon couldn't ACTUALLY see him again, and the lighthearted playfulness vanished back beneath the maelstrom of worries and stress. "Yeah. You too," he said quietly, looking away. "How have you been? I lost track of you and Mom, and the kids." Vereux's kids, their half-siblings. He'd only just been starting to get over his aversion to the idea of them went their whole way of life had gone belly up. "I'm so sorry I haven't been around to take care of you guys. How is she holding up?" The pang of guilt was so strong, Gryphon tasted it like the metallic taste of blood in his throat. He was supposed to be the responsible one, the one who took care of everyone. Yet here he was, off playing the lone ranger while everyone else was left to fend for themselves.

His tail thumped against the ground as Gryphon aimed one more playful pat to his head before he stood up and shook himself off. It felt so good to be around his brother again, even though they had clashed in the past, he didn't care. He was still his brother and he loved him regardless. In fact, he wasn't sure where he would be if his brother wasn't there to tell him when he was being an idiot every now and again. "I've been well, thanks. And it's alright, I'm sure taking time to do things on your own was much needed. We've been mostly in the pines up north, sometimes at the bay in the East." He shrugged, "I don't blame you for not wanting to come up North, it's cold and I know you don't like the cold very much. But I think we might be moving...mom's bored to death, and I think it's time I get back to work on giving us a proper home again." His mind reeled with all the new faces he'd met as a loner, and wondered if that would still be a thing when he decided to take up the reigns again. Riva, Acapella, and--oh yeah...the two new kids he had. "Oh yeah...there's some...other news, that you may or may not like. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it, so you might as well like it." He would wait for his brother's reaction to that before continuing. Walk, "Talk" Think "Kimahri" Shiva

Gryphon absently nodded along, less in agreement and more in acknowledgement since there wasn't really anything to agree or disagree with, up until there came a too-casual 'oh yeah...' and Gryphon's green eyes narrowed suspiciously on Dragon. He could feel his muscles tense in anticipation for what, judging by the words that came after 'oh yeah', would undoubtedly not be a pleasant surprise. After all, logically if Dragon anticipated that it would be a pleasant surprise for him, he wouldn't have prefaced it with the whole 'whether you like it or not' spiel. He fixed Dragon with a Look. "Oh? What have you done now?" he asked, his voice so very carefully neutral that it may as well have sounded accusatory because it obviously was hiding exactly that. He shot the damned cat in the tree a Look as well for good measure, because Kimahri could have at least made his kitty-cat self useful and kept Dragon from doing worse than trip over his own feet, so where had he been while Dragon was off doing... whatever it was that was obviously going to be an unpleasant surprise? ""