Rhyme didn’t know what to do, he felt lost and mostly he felt like a failure. How could he let Motif just disappear like that? He should have been able to find her or at least a trace of her. She was gone. The slate alpha was a wreck, his fur was disheveled and he hadn’t rested properly since his daughter was discovered missing. He didn’t know what to do now, he was about to go to every pack, and hope that they might have found his young lost daughter. Or seen her, or had any information. He knew he was inviting criticism, but he needed to find Motif.

He hated thinking about where she might be, that she might be enslaved or dead. He couldn’t stomach the thought and hadn’t had much of an appetite either. He couldn’t give up though, he had to find Motif. He had to bring his daughter home safe. Rhyme lifted his head from the chilly water of the rapids, and after only a short nap he was going to go back out and look. The sores on his paws and the exhaustion of his body be damned.

The stress of losing Motif, and as the days slipped by and she still had not returned, let reality sit in. from the panicky, blink-blanking fear that had overcome her when she realised Motif was gone, to the desperate, aching feeling in her gut now that she had not returned to her. A part of her hoped she had found Canni, and that the lion was keeping her save, and giving her adventures, but she knew Canni would have brought her home safe.

How would Motif be fairing out there, she couldn’t hunt more than Salamanders. Where would she sleep? She got frightened of the dark sometimes. Her birds had failed to find the girl in the lands surrounding Abaven, and both the Alphas had worked in grid searches in their attempt to find the girl. The truth was, Motif was simply gone.

Missing her daughter like crazy, and needing to find Poem to smother, she began to head to her den, when she instead found Rhyme. Chilling in the rapids across the path she had taken. She made her way to him, saying nothing she moved towards him and placed her head against his back, knowing he felt the same exhausting fear and worry she did.

He hated the feeling of helplessness. There was nothing he could do but continue searching. He would scour Boreas inch by inch and he would find his daughter. Before his long gait was able to take him off again, he felt Shaye’s gentle touch against him. He paused, unable to meet her gaze for a long moment. He shifted slowly, but aimed to position himself so he might wrap his neck around hers. She was the only one who could understand exactly what he felt. He held her close, something he refrained from these days, and felt tears well up into his eyes. She was gone and they had not found her.

”What are we going to do?” He muttered into her fur, taking his turn at being the one who was lost. A stark contrast to the moment they knew she was gone.