Things were so different now. And how could they not be? I did my best to enjoy the time I spent with my sister, learning from her the things that my mother should have taught me. The things I should have given her the chance to tutor me in. And though I strived every day to not live in the past, to accept that my future would be a much more difficult one than I had ever envisioned, I still found myself wandering closer to the mountain. It happened frequently, when I was out hunting or looking for plants that Orca had told me about, that I would look up and find myself standing in the shadow of my former home. Today I had drifted closer to Aplos River as I stalked a doe and her injured fawn. But when I caught the scent of Purge marking the borders of Spirane I recoiled and revealed myself to my prey. I did not even bother to give chase, there was no point. Turning away, I began the trek back towards the valley that I now regularly rested my head within.

That was when another scent flooded my nostrils that I had not expected to come across. I stopped dead in my tracks and lowered my nose to a paw print that was freshly left in the dirt. Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes and let it wash over me. And then my head snapped up and I set off in a full tilt gallop. I followed his trail as surely as I had chased down any prey before in my life. When his scent grew stronger, though, I did not slow as I would when stalking dinner. No, I ran forward, paying no heed to the sticks cracking under paw that would clearly give away my approach. I reached him and I bowled into him, giving little thought to the fact that he was now slightly larger than me. It made little difference. I threw my full weight against him, hoping to topple him to the ground mid stride. I would roll with him if I was successful and quickly push my hind legs against the terrain so as to right myself and place my forepaws on either side of his head. My jaws snapped at his face, closing mere centimeters from his nose. A snarl gurgled in my throat, and although my body language and vocalizations spoke to the inner rage that I harbored, all he need do was look into my eyes to see the pain that encompassed me entirely.

“Where have you been?” I spat. The effort to stay angry at him was so great. All I wanted was to playfully banter with him as we once had. For that fire that had always kindled between them to roar into a full blaze. All I had ever wanted was for him to be there for me, as I had always tried to be for him. But he hadn’t been there. I had searched the shadows for him in the aftermath of my parents’ passing, and he had not been there. But he was here now! So why hadn’t he been there when I had wanted him to be there most?