He didn't realize that his sister had crossed into these very lands, her trek taking her down in other place than Stark had visited. They traded off who was where and when, watching the pack with a hard edged determination. He had been so preoccupied with the hunt he hadn't stopped when Mordecai and Larkspur had crossed out of their packlands and now they were missing on top of everything else. Stark gave a low growl, thinking disdainfully of the sour mess that Octavia had left the pack in. How long did he wait? How long could he hold off on taking the pack as his own, laying down a new law of actual peace and of reconciliation? 

He should have been able to focus on the wildflowers - their radiant hues and the warm tones of each pedal. Instead he was stewing, a rage in him that shifted into sorrow when he realized just how broken it all was. This wasn't what he had wanted for himself. When he'd set out it was with the intentions of making a name for himself. Not as the pacifist, not as the one to fix the messes of others. If he had to do this, if he had to take things into his own hands as he had been - well. It needed to be on his terms. 

it seemed the ghost of her choices would not leave her to rest, her gaze sunken in as she laid unmoving, listening only to the taunts echoed by her own thoughts. though she lay, she felt exhausted. it was tiresome work, becoming unloving. never had she thought it so easy to hate, it was not as morally depleting as she had thought, yet she found it a burden on her mind. 

yet, when another neared her collapsed form, a male specifically, she shrunk away from it's looming presence. males were destructive, created only to rule and kill and bed; no more no less. at least, all her experiences with the species had come to the conclusion. yet, from the way the other carried himself, it did not take much for her realise the other carried similar problems as she did. yet she was sure nothing could be worse than the state she had been left in.

"has life failed you too?" she asked, though her gaze did not hover on the other, returning to rest on the beyond where she could not see his pitied gaze upon her. instead, she lay motionless, only the intake and exhale movements of her chest signalled she still lived. she spent many days, moments on end simply laying on the ground; shadows where she could not be seen. she did not want to be seen.

He could not have anticipated finding a woman shrunken amongst the flowers and yet there she was. Stark frowned briefly, mostly in response to her words, but he took a seat and considered what she was asking him. She'd apparently seen into his soul, saw the dark mess that life itself had become, and she knew enough to call him on it. He sighed and shook his coat out, a quick glance over her body and she was still breathing although it seemed that life itself was draining the woman dry. "You could say that." He said cryptically. "There's a family from my pack missing. Father and two children, I'm hoping to find them." Not to mention that Octavia was gone too, but he didn't even know how to address that. It meant facing his feelings, it meant admitting what he had tried not to admit - and then there was the process of handling everything after. 

If he let himself feel everything properly then he'd have to deal with the outcome and everything that meant. It was terrifying to him, quite honestly, and so he was far happier to ignore it for the time being. "It's beautiful here." He spoke it in a softer, hushed tone. His blue eyes finally taking in the beauty of the flowers around them. He wondered if she lived nearby, assuming that she did, but he didn't know anything about any packs nearby. He might have asked about it, but, for now, the quiet was almost a relief.