The boy had gained some confidence since his small little group hunt with Astrid a while back. He had started hunting more regularly on his own but still he was often lonely. He had no real friends to speak of, not that he could really speak anyway. His older siblings were his lifeline usually. He would come home at night and revel in their bond and then they would take off on their separate paths for the day and return. While he had more confidence to wander he still wasn’t sure how to approach others outside his family. He preferred to walk the forest and explore the lands rather than meet others. For now he was content with that… He had his older brother and sister to take care of him though really he knew very little about his father, litter mate and mother anymore. He had memories of course but they were sparse and slowly fading behind the curtain of new memories. He didn’t think he would see them again and part of him resented it slightly.

He did, he cared for his parents but they left him taking the only non-broken one of them along…. Perhaps Luk was all they wanted, they didn’t want the others… that being them. He didn’t get the attention and care Tuari and Yoska had as a child he had gotten most of that from his older sister at this point. It wasn’t like he hated Luk, he cared for him and convinced himself he either didn’t know or was taken along. He didn’t hate his parents he just felt a bit betrayed… and as he walked through the forest he barely even recognized the scent that brushed him.

Jinan paused when he scented it not exactly sure what he was smelling at first until he smelled his older sisters and brother’s scents gathering around it. He moved almost cautiously, moving towards the den where surely their scents were converging. It was funny, he always thought he would be excited for this moment, happy to see his father home but now it felt… conflicting. Was he really happy? Or was this just an unwanted bump in the road? Jinan’s brown form made it to the path, trotting towards home not nearly in the rush his sister had, but slower, and much more even, feeling each step moving the dirt about his paws, his heart throbbing in his chest beating faster and faster with nerves.

He spotted Yoska first, paused a bit away from the entrance and wondered if maybe he was somehow mistaken, but his nose was rarely mistaken like that. He moved into the den’s small clearing just behind Yoska and paused, looking around his older brother in an almost nervous fashion and looking up at the much taller male he felt he barely remembered. It had been over a year now. Jinan wasn’t even a year old when his Mom, Dad and brother vanished and now he was closing on his second year. His form slender and gangly so different from what he surely looked like as a child. His dual toned green eyes moved up to the nearly pure black brute, there wasn’t a doubt not with how he was being greeted by his elder sister. She seemed so happy… and he was so… not but he didn’t know why. It was his father he should be happy but he couldn’t bring a wag of his tail or a smile to his face he just felt… blank. How was he supposed to respond to this? He didn’t know and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out… He didn’t even know his father’s scent was lacking his mother’s and he wasn’t sure he cared about that either… how was he supposed to take seeing his dad again after being left? He guessed he would just have to wait and find out.