burr was dead, his mother'd been a ...mess and cyron had receded away from his parents for a bit. he had to process his brother's death on his own and without the burden of his mother's mental instability as she brought home a baby fox and started calling it burr. whether she'd came out of that delusion or not cyron isn't immediately aware of. mawk had went off to play gallant hero and cyron thought he heard whispers of his sister returning home but he is content to isolate himself. he patrols borders and he works on improving his hunting skills and feels a small victory each time he is successful. he's learning that basic skill a little too late but it comes naturally enough to him and soon it will become second nature.

cyron putting himself first probably looks a certain way to others and to his family but he offers no apologizes for it. he's heading to a food cache when he becomes aware of the approach of soft footfalls. his ears cup forth atop his skull as his dull chestnut gaze lifts and he takes in the figure. she is both foreign and familiar to him. last they'd seen one another: they'd been young children. still, she looks the same. just older. cyron's steps cease as he appraises her from the distance that hangs in the air between them, his curled tail twitching once with his uncertainty.

cyron does not mean to come off so cold shouldered and cynical. yet, he holds onto the understanding that this is more or less exactly how he comes off. distanced. cold. cruel, even. he keeps everyone at a safe distance away. he doesn't share what happened during his time in captivity and offers no explanations for the night-terrors or his behavior otherwise. explaining it would mean he would have to tell of the terrible things he's endured and those ...those are private things. things that he has to live with and endure on his own.

cyron does not keep everyone away because he's scared — what is there left for him to be scared of in the world? it's already done the worst it could do to him. he genuinely thinks he's doing what is best for himself and thus, by proxy, everyone else even if he isn't. he sees her discontent, he hears it but it does not faze him. what is she discontent about? that he did not rush at her and greet her with kisses? one time, perhaps. that boy had been murdered a long time ago. at the end of the day, he does not forget what his mother had told him: that they'd left him there; and even though he tries not to hold it against her ...against them and tries to understand ( in a way he does ) it still leaves him with a bitter taste in his mouth. in the end, it worked to his benefit because he found the courage and strength to liberate himself, to take that leap of faith in himself but that doesn't mean learning the truth doesn't smart. "what do you expect from me, rowana?" he asks. "to forget everything that's happened to me? to magically go back to the happy-go-lucky boy that was mercilessly slaughtered in that god forsaken hell because it would better suit you and everyone else?" cyron demands, verbally lashing out at his sister. it shocks him for a moment but in the wake of shock all cyron can feel is relief. he's been carrying around everything that's happened to him and what he believes to be the disappointment of his family for a while now and rowana's look of discontent is the tip of the scale. "don't you dare give me that look." he spits at her. it's possible he's entirely misconstrued what that look was intended to convey but he interpreted it how he thought it was meant to be interpreted and he had no intentions of taking back his words.

cyron expects to feel better ...or if not better than at least some measure of relief as he airs out the burden of disappointment he carries around like lead weights. he doesn't. instead, he feels heavier than he had before. he feels like he's drowning, like he's trapped in a riptide carried far out from shore and his legs are tired of treading the water to fight it, to stay afloat. rowana speaks that she doesn't want him to forget, and it's great and all but it's not as if cyron has a choice. you didn't just forget that kind of grueling hell ...no matter how hard you tried or wanted to. forgetting had never actually been an option. cyron shifts his weight and lets the silence lapse between them not sure what to say or do. he knows that he feels suffocated and while he is sure that isn't the intent of anyone knowing that it's likely all in his head doesn't make him feel any different. "what i went through ...its not something you can forget." he speaks softly, so softly that he'd be surprised if she even heard it at all.

just as cyron thinks that they will part, here and now, as the strangers they'd become to one another over the course of their separation from one another — something that was out of either of their control — rowana speaks again, bringing up what he'd deduced himself. they are strangers. they share blood, they are siblings but they hadn't grown up with one another. it's not rowana's fault that she remembers who he used to be, the boy before the kidnapping ...just as it's not his parents fault. the broken man that returned to them was a stranger and even when cyron managed to piece himself together into something more he knows that in the end he would be what blackfeather woods had made him to be. he could not rip out of himself what they'd placed there; and he knows that he's left facing two options: to let those pieces of himself — their influence — make him a good man or a bad one.

"to be fair i don't really know myself." cyron's scarred lips part as he eventually replies. it was a harrowing journey of self discovery that cyron tests the waters of with a deliberate slowness. it's not anyone else he's afraid of. he's afraid of himself. coming to that realization brings with it a certain amount of relief and for a moment he feels buoyant and lighter than he has in what indefinitely feelings like a magnitude of lifetimes. it does not linger long. his sister is making an effort and though there are things he will not share with her, many things that he would like to keep close to his chest, he does not want to suffocate with guilt anymore. his ears taper back, fluttering against his skull and his curled tail gives a minuscule twitch behind his back as rowana speaks to him again telling him that she wants him to talk to her and that she needs to talk to him. cyron considers this for a long moment and then contemplates whether he's strong enough for it.

the conclusion is that cyron isn't sure but he sees that there's something still left between them and his sister is holding out a hand to him. "we're good." cyron concludes, affirming it with a quick albeit firm nod of his head.

the siblings talk for a little bit more though cyron is not overly forthcoming and deflects any questions she might aim towards him that delve too deep into the category of topics he does not wish to speak. eventually, their conversation comes to a natural end and the pair part ways.