What was going on with Aindreas, he could not even begin to fathom. He had been a wreck when she had left, and Aindreas had been all too aware of the fact that he had been neglecting Drizzt. All of the years between when Kalgalath had abandoned him in Munashii Gekko and when he had returned to Blossom Forest only to discover that Kalgalath was actually his father, he had resented him for that abandonment. Not to mention the fact that he had – and always would – resent his mother when she had abandoned him, deciding that out of all of her children, that he was the only one that she could not deal with handling. And yet here he was, a father of five pups. Of those, two had died, one had left him to instead choose living with his sister, and the other had chosen to live in a land with strangers. Only Drizzt remained – the pup who had originally chosen not to live with him… and yet he could not manage to be a father figure to even one pup. Not even one. It was Drizzt who took care of him – Drizzt who convinced him to go hunting, who forced him to get out of his den. But even with all of that, the reason that he continued on living was because of Stormy.

Never before had he felt like this – so connected, so devoted to another. It had been different with Genisys, for he had not truly understood emotions at that point. To be honest, he was decrepit when it came to social interaction. He had not been properly socialized as a pup… or to be honest as a teenager either. And so now that he was faced with a situation like this – one in which he had a crush on a femme and had absolutely no idea how to tell her or what to do – he was completely at a loss. Before then, when she was the alpha and he was a soldier, he had at least felt like he had some structure. There were strict rules for him to follow and adhere by, but now – despite his best tries – she was no longer the Alphess, which only further complicated everything. What was he to do? He l…loved her. And everyone seemed to know it but her. She obviously didn’t love him, but where did that leave him? Her absences had given him plenty of time to think everything over… and he had decided at long last that the best thing to do was to continue to be her soldier. Even if she did not hold the title of the pack, she still held the throne ruling over his heart.

And so, like the pathetic puppy he was, he wandered out of Spring Grounds, following her trail of paw prints and scent, trying to find her. She no doubt would be shocked to find the state of array that he was in – thin, not quite only skin and bones, but close enough. But when he reached the end of his trail, he found himself atop of Rainbow Cliff… without a Stormy there. Exasperated, Aindreas sat near the edge and looked down upon the whole of Blossom Forest, glad – and all too relieved – that it was at least a cloudy day. Without cover and shade, it would no doubt have been scorching hot up on the cliff with the heat of summer… but what was he now to do?

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