When he spoke of the boneyard in that particular tone, with those particular words...Ruby’s eyes had grown hard in an instant though she did her best to keep her features neutral. He, of course, did not know the value. He had not been given an opportunity like Avery had been given when she had been taken beneath Andras’ tutorage. She tried to ground herself with that thought, reminding herself that his misunderstanding had simply been because he, a child so young, could not empathize completely.

"You may be the future, and she the present, but neither of you would exist without the past,” she said after some moments of quiet. She had watched, completely still, as he went through his motions – a snort, a raised brow, all that childish confidence and pride worn on the outside. "The past guides us all into the future. So, I will help you before you walk down the wrong path or become lost entirely.” She raised her brow in turn, giving him but a moment to absorb her silences and words before she straightened, began to pivot and motioned for him to follow with a flick of her muzzle. Or lead, she supposed. "You will not grow ill unless you eat of their bodies,” she reaffirmed. With that said, she had let him know where she had intended to go, and despite her simmering...bothered-ness at his poor choice of words previously, she would follow him if he took the lead. At least, let him believe that he was doing the leading.

It did, at least, improve her mood greatly when they began their approach to the boneyard. Even though the bones themselves had little scent left, she’d never mistake the area for another – she could smell the certain combination of still water and reeds, of mud and silt, an absence of alligators and the presence of froglets and crows. Her face had slowly begun to warm, eyes bright once more as the smallest hint of a grin began like a ghost on her lips. She had gone from a dark, muddy creature to something alive and beautiful – there was an irony there, that the life had awoken within her as they moved down the muddy paths towards death.

"There are many in here, both beloved kings and queens and those disgraced by Moladion, but all have their merits,” she said as she paused, having lurked several paces ahead so that she could rest her paws on the border between land and water. She looked into the pool, its dark water showing neither reflection nor what it hid below. On a clear day, when rain had not fallen for some week or so, one could look in and see the hint of a pale, bleached long-bone among the black silt. She had always wondered who it was she had looked at, and her stomach twisted strangely when she thought of her grandparents – had she ever seen them?

"When the land and rivers flood, the bones of others can wash in. Only those, of course, that remain here stay. It is knowing that, that I believe all worthy wolves of Iromar return to us here,” she had almost completely forgotten about Apollyon’s exact nature. She had simply begun to muse aloud, forgetting that a petulant child stood nearby rather than a wolf with the same love of their history. "Andras rests here, as does his imprint and mate, Lillith. Baphomet, Haedes too they say, and sons, brothers of them all.” She had pieced things together slowly but surely, but her knowledge had holes, a thought that made her frown as she looked back to Apollyon – though, for once, she hadn’t been frowning at him. "Andras, of course, was your mother’s mentor. He was among the first Demons to come to Moladion – my grandfather, first a pack-wolf, then second in command, then the command itself.” Her frown had vanished, replaced again with that ghost of a smile. "Your blood is linked, Little Princeling, to the bones here. Your grandmother was a wolf of Iromar, so she too may rest here for she certainly fought in the war. Chernobyl was her name, though your grandfather was of Diveen, the very wolves she fought. Can you see why your mother might have been so in awe of Andras when he took her into his tutorage?” She raised a brow, her grin having grown broader into a more challenging one once more. Ah, it truly did make her feel so much better to be near the boneyard.