Piece by piece he felt like he was breaking down a little more, he wanted to blame it on Blackthorne, after all the brute had taken his home from his mother and father and turned it into this pit of darkness. Rotting flesh and bones everywhere, wolves with hardly any morals, covered most of the place. The place was returning to how it felt before the takeover, but everything was still different, still changed. It was too little, too late for him in multiple ways, some of which he didn’t even know yet. Still there was this little hope in his chest that being not surrounded by questionable wolves would make him better, like he had been back then. Even then though he had taken that flesh before his mother had been removed from power, so he doubted it would improve him much. Probably just make it feel like he would have to leave here too in time. Lock’s ears twitched then, his head shooting up when he heard the sounds of someone approaching.

He twisted, spotting the wolfess smiling at him her tail waving, it had been a long time since he had seen someone who was friendly like that, just Adrian maybe, but he hadn’t seen it from her since before all this mess too. It was almost foreign to him now. He hadn’t left Iromar more than once or twice since Blackthorne took over and even the wolves he met then were very different than those who occupied the Marshlands before. His pupiless eyes set on her though, watching as she moved a little closer. He wondered why she was here, what she wanted. She was the Queen now right? Like his mom had been, he was sure she was busy doing all sorts of things yet here she was at this den, and it didn’t seem like she was meaning to just pass by. He tilted his head slightly, questioning, obviously wanting to know what she was doing here when she formerly introduced herself.

Her second question tagged on to her introduction was harder to answer, Adrian was here, but she was family and not. She had her own father, but still was taken care of and raised by his mom and dad as well as Despoina of the pack. All gone he reminded himself as well. He shook his head, paused then nodded, he was sure that was a confusing array, but it wasn’t like he could explain everything that had happened, it was complicated to begin with. Adrian was certainly a part of the family, but she wasn’t family. The family he was sure she spoke of was the one he was born too and they were gone. The second question was easier to answer. He nodded quickly. He had lived here his whole life, he knew of no other place, he didn’t want to leave, but he was unworthy of them he felt. He shook his head when she asked if he had left because of the former alpha. No, he belonged here with the rest of the bad wolves, he actually ran back when his parents tried to take him off to Taviora. He wasn’t going to leave his sister here alone, and he didn’t want to go to the pack of his Father’s own adoptive family, where they stood against everything he feared he was.

The last thing she asked was a bit more difficult. Adrian had introduced him to the former leadership, maybe it would be best if he just went and grabbed her, but no, he wouldn’t bother her forever, and he had to figure out his own way of doing things. He knew the answer though. Standing up and motioning for her to follow when she asked for his name. Maybe he should just keep some around at all times. He was named after the evergreen bush Hemlock, like she was the evergreen pine and his brother Aspen, but he was well aware of a much more fitting plant with the same common name. Most older wolves knew to stay away from it, but there was natural growing hemlock of both species around. He lead her to the poisonous kind. The more fitting anymore. He motioned to the white flowered plant, beautiful in its own right, but deadly to ingest in any way. It grew in spots around here, and of course his father was careful to teach the pups to avoid it. Though Lock didn’t know it was called that for a long time to come.

He waited by the plant then, for a moment, looking at it for several seconds. Maybe she would get it right away, but maybe she wouldn’t. It was known by a few different names, but only one really sounded like a name, to him, though perhaps he was biased given that it was his own. Slowly he was already re-defining what his parents named him and why, but it was only appropriate he thought. He wasn’t safe to be around, just like the poison plant. He wondered if that was all she wanted, his name, some basic information. Perhaps she was trying to weed out those still loyal to Blackthorne or who might betray her. Hemlock hadn’t walked around the pack yet to see who had stayed, left or joined, but he was sure some of Blackthorne’s wolves probably did, though there weren’t many actively running about before Avery appeared either.