Whitebark Stream I tried to call you home

At the request of her player, Aphrodite has died and Taikon has found her body. This thread is for him relaying this information to anyone in Whitebark Stream who it's relevant to. @Juniper @Dawn @Artyom

For a week the prince had searched for her. The creature that he had once been a shadow to was nowhere to be found, and he didn't know what to do without her. Taikon had joined a pack solely because of Aphrodite. Her open demeanor and the beauty in her empathetic nature had drawn him to her and convinced him that no place she called home could ever be considered bad. When she had gone missing, he had feared that Donovan had taken her captive, prisoner to the Saints, he was terrified she might be tortured and killed.
It was eventually the smell of her corpse that told him of her fate. Just past the Otatso Wetlands, her body was hidden under a large shrub. He had found her laying down in a rather peaceful position, her head resting on her paws. A wound was on her back foot. Two marks told him that it had been a snake, and her scrunched expression told of the pain and anguish she had gone through while fighting its poison. All the herbs in the world could not save her; the wound itself had a green paste that had turned an abhorrent brown, dried out from almost a week before.
Her stillness... He had nudged her, knowing well that she would not move. Her body had been nearly mummified from the heat.
On his way home, he'd vomited twice, tears streaming down his cheeks. He felt ill from the smell of her body. He felt ill from the loss. He couldn't believe that such a simple, stupid creature had killed her. It didn't make any sense. It had to be intentional. It had to be a dream.
When Taikon reached the borders of Whitebark Stream, he let loose a very long, angry, anguished, lingering howl. It was to tell his pack mates that something terrible had happened, that Aphrodite had been found. He could not fit what he had seen into the message. On the borders, he burst into a sob, the reality of it at last hitting him.

He felt sick with stress. On his journey home through the plains, the discovery of his dying brother-in-law left him feeling even more hollowed than before. His paws were made heavy by exhaustion but he carried on, eager to be close to his family again - even if it meant bearing the burden of grim news.

Sunny had abandoned Dawn on more than one occasion, had left his young daughter time and time again - something that affected the latter enough to force her departure. His actions had been selfish, Artyom knew, but his kind heart was always open to forgiveness. Sunny's soul was a troubled one, but the gilded ranger wanted to believe that his intentions were never bad.

Just as he reached Whitebark's outskirts, a despaired call sounded from nearby. Concerned, Artyom veered through the trees in its direction to find the slumped, sobbing form of their newest recruit. The Alpha emitted a soft whine, moving to close the space between them as quickly as his aching bones would allow. 

"Taikon," he spoke, voice laced with uncertainty as earthen eyes took in the telltale signs of grief on his pack-mate's face. He wasn't sure how much more heartache he could handle; "Aphrodite...?" It was to her he'd been closest to, after all, so came to a fair assumption that their missing medic had been found - not quite in the manner that they'd hoped.

What might have been, had she gone on to live another day? What adventures would they have had? What new things would she have told him that might help him deal with his ongoing and never-healing grief for Cella? The reality of the world being that much emptier without Aphrodite was cold and cruel. He felt the weight of the unjust truth fill him with anger. There would be no one that could help him through this. It was Cella's death all over again. Despite having become a new member of the family at Whitebark, in that moment he felt very alone, forsaken to an eternity of despair.
As Artyom approached, Taikon did his best to stifle his ugly sobs, taking a breath so that he might relay the news more efficiently. He looked up at his leader's gaze, tawny ears flattened behind him, his eyes telling almost everything Artyom needed to know. When her name was spoken, tears welled again and spilled down his face, though he kept himself from so much as a whine. He looked down.
I found her collapsed past Otatso... she had passed days ago, he said. He allowed a long moment of silence to pass between the two white wolves. There was no apparent foul play. I'd worried.. about Donovan. But she. It was a snake, his words broke apart there, and he licked around his lips, feeling nausea threatening again.

He found her, and her body had been days old. Artyom twitched a whisker, imagining that she would not have made a pleasant sight in the swamp beneath the intensity of a Summer sun. Eyes closed over, the gilded Alpha tried not to think too much on it; having to inform @Juniper of this great loss would further break his already tender heart.

He looked to his flaxen companion and smoothed his ears back, watched helplessly as the weight of his own emotion became too much to carry. Artyom didn't know Taikon all that well, hence his uncertainty on what level of comfort was acceptable. "Nature can be cruel," the pale leader observed sadly, recalling Salvatore and his gruesome death in the woods. He remembered Kavik's hidden illness and Grezig's unexplained demise.

He pictured Anastasia's hide, gored by an antler that failed to heal - the infection that ravaged her in the weeks that followed. Oh, Ana, the ranger inhaled deeply, watch over my friends, wherever you are.

Taikon mentioned Donovan's name, and Artyom's focus returned. His gaze hardened a little, though it did not linger unkindly on his pack-mate's sorrowful features. "I worried that too," he sighed, "but while he was not responsible for this loss, I'm afraid the threat of him remains."

Nature can be cruel.
Taikon's nose twitched. Part of him was almost angry that it appeared as though Donovan had nothing to do with Aphrodite's sudden death. He wanted to blame someone, anyone. He could blame himself for not being there with her, but he knew that he would not have known how to handle a snake bite any better than she had. The heat in his chest looked for a scapegoat. There had to be a reason for this to have happened. Things weren't this random, were they?
As Artyom spoke of Donovan, Taikon narrowed his eyes. He had heard only snippets of information about the goings on of the region. He had a low opinion of the rogue male ever since Aphrodite had confided in him and told him of the physical abuse she had suffered because of him. He had tried to let it go, for the healer had told him she wished Donovan no ill will. Now, though, Donovan was a new reason to be infuriated, and that was enough for Taikon.
I have only heard rumours of the formation of the Saints with him as their leader. Is there more? Being new, Taikon was out of the loop and did not know of Dawn's attack, nor of Seelie Court's foundation and plea for backup against the Saints.