truth is beautiful without doubt; but so are lies (ralph waldo emerson)
It seemed that both Enderly and Sanguine did not take well to abandonment. Of course he was much older than her and had lived without Naamah for the majority of his life so he could always revert back to that. Her disappearance had left a bitter taste in his mouth and darkness to his heart, crumbling what walls he had built for the future and forcing him to reevaluate things in his life. Sanguine was just a pup, barely weaned really, and he had never expected her to up and leave her daughter behind. Yet wasn't that just in the nature of the goddess plague? To create something and leave it behind, to fashion a love and devotion then to crush it in one fell swoop? It was doubtful she had ever carried any sort of love for Enderly. She was just as good as a manipulate as he prized himself on and this time he had been taken in and left standing in the cold.
Nonetheless he is infuriated to see his own child whimpering in the corners of the grotto alone. Her mother was gone and had left her own child to suffer the cruelties of the world. Enderly had never been particularly fatherly - in fact the time he had tried she had pushed him away, claiming Samil to be her father, yet where was the devil? Nowhere to be found.
It is clear that the girl is distraught yet she pauses a moment in her musings at his voice and he watches her small skull lift, her head tilt, and the lighting of her eyes. To say Enderly is shocked is an understatement. On this day he has stumbled upon a sight he thought never to see and received a blessing he thought never to get. Daddy, she calls him, and Enderly's silver eyes widen in shock as she bounces to her feet and races towards him as if he is her savior. As if she had not once told him that Samil was her father. Perhaps Naamah had finally spilled the truth, perhaps she had done at least one good thing in all the bad.
Beneath his legs she goes, rubbing against him affectionately and he dips his neck and angles his head to the side so he can peer at her while he listens. So she had left their daughter for him. As furious as he is at her leaving he feels a moment of relief now. He never expected to want children, had been disappointed in their reaction before, but in this moment is all his chances to make up for it. Still that cannot undo the look of loss in the eyes of his daughter and Enderly presses his nose into her small face quickly before seating himself with her still perched almost between his forelegs.
"I thought she had taken you with me, Sanguine, or I would have been here sooner dear one."
He feels a strange sense of possession in this moment, looking at her, surrounding her. Even with Naamah he had not felt so completely strong for Sanguine's fate was in his paws and with him she would stay, safe, and he would make sure of it.
"But.... I do not know why she left. I.. cannot claim to know what your mother ever has thought," he states, pausing somewhat because it is true. Once he had thought she might chose him. Once he had thought her feelings rivaled his own. Once.
"But it is fortunate that we are both here and out of the storm. Even if she does not come back you can come with me. There is much you haven't seen beyond these caverns, daughter, a whole world to explore."