Firefly Ravine rusted

She was silent while she collected herself and Buchanan was patient, understanding, wondering if his own mysterious mother suffered the very same. Perhaps she, like this woman, had searched for him. Cried for him. He turned away from those thoughts. They brought him no comfort. No solace. He did not remember her and it was not his fault. There was little sense in torturing himself for things that had been out of his control. What was in his control at the moment was that he could extend his help to this grieving mother.

Buchanan was silent as she recounted the tale to him, his expression contemplative as he took in her words and began to analyze them. There was no evidence in her tale that the boy had been taken from her. Surely she would have heard the approach, and unless it was someone the child trusted he would have tried to alert her. It sounded to Buchanan like the boy had simply wandered off like children were wont to do, struck by their insatiable curiosity of the world around them. She had begun to walk towards the water after she had finished, glimpsing back at him. Buchanan followed, close but not too close. He was not a fan of invading personal space. With the exception of Banner, the assassin had a habit of keeping everyone an arm's length away.

“Perhaps it is no comfort to you,” Buchanan drew softly, inhaling and letting it out in a deep exhale. “but it sounds like he wandered off. Perhaps something had intrigued him, or he thought he could find his way back to you,” He drew the dots together from the information she had given him. “Have you checked with the packs near your own? Perhaps they have given him shelter until you come for him.” Buchanan wasn't sure how friendly the wolves of the Wilds were, especially towards strange pups. If a pack had found him and temporarily taken him in ...well there was hope for her. If not, the alternative was gruesome and bitter and not something the dark wraith felt comfortable pointing out to her. A young child on his own for too long would not feasibly survive. There were plenty of adults that didn't survive being lone and they could hunt for themselves, at least.

“Checking with the neighboring packs is a good place to start, if you haven't.” If her Seff was with a neighboring pack — following the optimistic path — Buchanan wasn't sure how easy it would be for her to get him back, but he didn't voice that, either. Why dampen the hope there was to be found in this awful situation? He had a tendency to examine both sides of the coin, to consider them both as possibilities but Buchanan had no desire to shatter what slim hope the mother might have held onto. He was a lot of things but he liked to believe that heartless wasn't one of them.