Ramiel could not have helped it even if he had tried so desperately to do so. Instead, it felt like an instinct - he watched her eyes, the way they dragged across his very existence. He had to wonder what she saw, what she liked, what she disliked. Why did such things matter? He could not say. He felt too much at once. He simply could not register it all. All he wanted was to do something to make it make sense, or to at least make her smile. So far, he had not failed in that at least. It gave him comfort and gave him the strength to stand before her, bare and open to her scrutiny. If it were scrutiny that she looked him over with, however, then surely it was the most gentle judgement he had ever felt. Like a warm breeze warming him from his paws up.

Sorcha. Her name made him breathe a sigh of relief, as quiet as it might have been. Finally, he can put a name to her face, and the syllables become a part of him just like that. However, her next question caught him off guard. It made him frown in thought for a moment, attempting to make sense of the feeling so that he might have any hope of comparing it. Perhaps that was a comparison in itself - his next sigh spoke volumes of that realization.

"Never."

He could not help but answer so directly, shaking his head slowly before he fell back into a moment of thought.

"But I have felt the opposite before: an emptiness, as vast and hollow as the void."

Void of the night. Void of the sky. Void of death. It didn't matter which void: they all felt like her absence. That feeling, at least, had made sense the moment he had seen her. It made his loneliness feel so much deeper than ever before; it made the nights in the past so much colder. Everything felt more. And now, the joy he felt being back on the mountain had become something new, something much more powerful. If he wanted to, he'd surely be able to move the entire mountain. If only she asked.

She moved then, and once more he had been caught off guard. He sucked in a breath as she landed, holding it with every step she took closer. He dared to take his own step forward, his paw a shaking mess almost before he found the determination to do so. It brought him evenly within a foot of her. He finally released his breath. It was replaced with her scent - fresh, like grass beckoning the rain forward. Wild like the forests beyond this world. If he had been more like his mother, he might have sworn he even smelt the very air of heaven and all of the clouds above it. It made him relax visibly - his mothers become uncoiled, his face losing its worried tension. Could she touch him? He didn't need to answer. Instead, he stepped forward, placing his forward against hers. It made his skin hot and cold all at once. It felt right, though.

For several moments, he stood that way. He pressed lightly against her, breathing in her breath and scent all at once. Finally, he moved to pull away, though his eyes could not have found the strength to leave hers.

"Do you... understand this?"

If she didn't... what could they do?