The way she felt about Praetor was confusing, to say the least. Aithne did not desire the company of many males. She had a strange fascination with Malikye despite his own sick nature and she had found a companion in Kneph, yet he had disappeared from the marshes. Maybe he had been driven by his own ghosts and maybe that was a good thing that he had left rather than reveal them to her. Indeed Aithne thought him a bit touched in the head because her mind could not wrap itself around the idea of such supernatural things. To her things were practical. Ghosts in your head? That was your brain telling you something or short circuiting. Her own demons came in the form of memories that haunted her, that made her breath catch when a male came too close, that made her blood boil at the very idea of their touch. Praetor, with his bond, soothed her of such worries. She knew how much it took for him to withhold his touch from her - she could feel the ache of it in her chest. Maybe it was because she was so unused to connections that her connection with him was so strong.

While it was true that she should have stuck around to make sure they were more settled into their temporary abodes, Aithne had not been able to keep her own demons tamped down for long. She needed the privacy and also the company of Praetor to help sooth her injured soul for the sting of her wounds and the rawness of her stomach had brought memories of filth and torn innocence (if one could ever think Aithne innocent).

There is an ease this morning that she would not have felt without Praetor's presence in Iromar but also that of Vesper. Aithne remembered their time in the cave with the ripple of water and the pale fish. Their conversation of strange creatures the other had eaten; maybe the fates had brought them together that day in preparation for this very moment. Either way it had happened. Tesseract had fallen and Aithne could not feel bad for that because in her own land she had landed her imprint and her friend. And easy smile of genuine pleasure cupped her muzzle the moment Vesper broke from the den and her tail wagged in a relaxed manner that is unlike Aithne.

"I will, Vesper. I hope that, if you choose, you may call this your home as well once you have seen it." Aithne moves towards the south and away from the border before angling her head to glance at Vesper as she fell into step. "I am sorry about the loss of your home. Do you know much about this usurper?" Her voice holds a true amount of empathy for Vesper, even if she does not feel sadness for Tesseract. After all, she did not know him well and something about him was strange to her and unsettling. As they talk she leads them towards a water-bogged area where gators often collected for the shoreline offered them much room to lay in the beaming face of the sun.