She was real - he could feel her hair and her flesh and her muscle beneath his nape. He had thought her dead, and that perhaps this wolfess was a figment of his imagination, conjured up to make him feel better, but his mind could not create tissue and sinew... this was really Pandora, his little girl. He thought briefly that she would perhaps yell or scream at him, or pull away from hi hug, but she did none of those things. Pandora did not pull back at all, and only moved away from him once Aindreas himself had released her. With shock and awe, he looked her over. She was full grown, and while still young the transformation was incredible. Where was the fat pudgy adorable ball of fluff? So happy was he that she was alive, that the physical connection of touch that he had willingly entered into had barely even hurt him, a shock considering that Aindreas hated when anyone touched him, even his family members. All too often Adara, his sister, had done it anyway, but it was painful. He had not grown up with comforts and had never been shown love and affection as a pup. How was he supposed to know any better?

'It's been a long time... I thought you'd forgotten me.'

The ivoro's lids widened and he scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief? "Forgotten you? You are my daughter - the only remaining daughter I have and one of only three remaining pups. I thought you had sought out a new home or died like your siblings. Striker had held a pack meeting and you did not attend, and I could not find you afterward. I waited.... but..." Aindreas shook his head and his bright electric gaze faded down, drifting toward the terra his paws laid upon. Already he was reprimanding himself for not waiting a day or two longer. Would it have made a difference? "Where had you disappeared too, little one?" Slowly, his eyes raised and he swept them over her again. "Although, I suppose you are not so little anymore, are you darling?" Pandora's gaze swept the trees and he wondered if she saw it now the way that he did, if she had undergone all of her change. Her pool were different and like his, but Aindreas had not even talked to Vladimir about his own change yet - he did not know if every Tempest made would be identical. There was still so much they did not know...

'Why did you leave home? And come here of all places?'

Aindreas shrugged and coughed. Would she understand? It was a hard thing to explain... Aindreas was different now than who he had been, and different then even from before. His path through life was dynamic and constantly shifting, changing, and never let Aindreas ever get a firm hold upon it. "Moondown Shadows was your home because you were born there, but I was born in a land far from here, far from Blossom Forest even. I chose to live in Munashii Gekko as a pup, and again years later when I first returned to this place as an adult. Since then, much has happened and I have jumped from pack to pack, a few by your grandfather's decree to firm up alliances between friendly packs. Moondown Shadows was one of those places, and when Striker left, there was no reason for me to be there... I moved next to Spring Grounds and..." How could he explain his complicated broken relationship with Stormy? How could he explain to her his broken mind? That Drizzt had had to care for him as he should have been caring for Drizzt. That Drizzt was now lost yet again. "I stayed there... a while, but your grandfather had a responsibility to his puphood pack and needed to leave and asked that I take over command of this pack until your uncle Vladimir was old enough to rule."

Now it was his turn to smile faintly - how odd a term it was to be placed on Vlad's young shoulders - 'uncle', that is - considering that all of Aindreas' pups were older than Kalgalath's twins. "And now, here I am, you see. Biding my time until it is Vladimir's time. Now, Pandora, tell me of your own tales. Where have you been, have you seen your brother Drizzt? How was... how was your change" Aindreas clung to her every word - after all, was not this his chance for redemption? Aindreas had always been a broken shell of a wolf, damaged by years of solitude and too many instances of abandonment and betrayal. He had always wanted a family, yes, but he had not been ready to be one when his pups were born. He had failed them - failed to protect them from the world, failed to be a mentor to them, failed to support them and watch over them. Maybe Pandora would let him make it all up to her.

Maybe.


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