Ah, how distracted he had been in the face of so much change. The last year had been quite a surreal experience and it had kept him busy. Sometimes, he thought how nice it might have been to be able to return to his former self, a child obsessed with silence and death like his brother Erebos and yet, he had done irreparable damage to that child. He had killed him, even, and in his wake was a man who had worn too many secrets to know his own face. Yet, things had changed again. It seemed like all things ever did was change.

Ehiyeh's accident against Taviora had been known and though little had come of it, Elohim took it upon his shoulders in order to keep it from crushing her; he had felt some part of him twist in the night and with it, the name of the woman from the fields so long ago had vanished, her face little more than a smudge of white among the grass; and now, Asteraia had began to change too. Halcyon had issued his leave and Aster had not which left her alone in a crumbling empire - that had drawn him out from Glorall though he did not entirely understand his own motives. Had he come to be amused or had he come to ensure her safety? Or perhaps he had merely come to ensure those that did not ask for such things - that quiet little child - did not suffer beneath the influx of newcomers? Or perhaps curiosity. After all, it had stirred such a fierce hunger. Who might come out on top? The temptation of a pack begging for a leader was not a common thing.

And so he had found himself a place amongst the forest by the edge of Asteraia's western borders; he perched atop a broken trunk, able to see the badlands between 'free' and 'pack' as his eyes hunted for those that might come and go. The sun had risen behind him and now, it had begun to wane in the late afternoon sky; shadows were deep and dark and he remained in the light, unashamed by his persistent watching. Like the sun, he had sunken down, his paws hanging from the trunk as his head rested in his paws. He wondered, though idle in thought elsewhere, if anybody else had grown curious enough to come so close and wait.