Blackfoot Forest somewhere inside, I hope you still see me just the way I was before I walked away

AHH, SORRY FOR SUCH A LONG WAIT! < / 3

Night had yet to fall over the lands when he first departed from the woods, drawn away by a sudden need to get away from everything. Things were strange now, with Blackfeather often seeming as if it might be on the verge of becoming nonexistent. Still, he remained, loyal to the blood within it, though so much of it was not his own. And although this was the case, his mind wandered with his legs, soaring beyond the Teekon Wilds and back towards his place if birth, curious of the status of his northern family. Always might he wonder of them, yet, never could he leave to sooth his curiosities. For the last time he had ventured so far away, all had been lost to him. His family, his daughters, his pack, his heart—the Inuk remembered the time back when he’d had it all, and knew well that he could not get it back.

Kove’s travels took him beyond the mountains, bringing him into the same valley that he’d left behind so long ago. In the back of his mind, he dimly recalled having promised a journey away from home to Astrid, but knew it too late to turn back and return for her now—nor did he even really want to. It was alone in the darkness where he thought best, evaluating his life up until that very point and taking note on each and every time that he’d messed up; unsurprisingly, the number grew considerably after his initial arrival into Teekon. So terribly lost within his own thoughts, it was not until the other was well within his line of sight that he’d slowed to a stop, copper eyes trained on her with some spark of recognition igniting deep within their depths. The fire, though steadily building, had yet to reach the surface, and so it was with simple neutrality that he said, “Hello.”