Neverwinter Forest Entered by the back door

Everything felt like it was falling apart in slow motion. He wanted to go look for all those that had left, but if he left, who would still be here when he returned? He'd return to a smoking crater. He wanted to split himself, to send some part of him out beyond to find his children, to fight to find Simmik if he had to. But he had to stay -- every time he left things got worse. He couldn't go anywhere any more. Maybe he never should have in the first place. Would it have changed anything? He didn't know. But it also felt wrong to stay when those he loved could be hurting just beyond the horizon.

He had gotten quieter, thinner, more unkempt -- at a certain point he couldn't really put on a brave face for everyone any more. It was probably worrying, so he went and patrolled a lot. He just wanted everyone to be safe. He had wanted everyone to be happy -- to believe that they could be happy, but oh how the world didn't want that to be true. And another thread had started to unravel through the pack. Who would be left once it did? Who was next? He was tired -- not physically or really mentally, but something beyond that. Deeper. His future had gone and gotten lost in the woods and he wasn't sure if it would ever find its way out. He looked for @Aibreann. She was about the brightest thing he could think of here, aside from his children, and even then the world had done its best to dim her too.

The dwindling pack hardly holds Aibreann's attention these days; her only comforts are in her mate and her two remaining children. Even that seems tarnished now. It's impossible to miss the way all this tragedy has affected Mal; she's done her best to shelter her children, but she can't protect him the way she can them. The best she can do is stay by his side, keep him close.
So when he comes looking for her, she greets him as she always does; with a soft nuzzle and a kiss on the cheek. At some point there'd been a smile in there, too — before their sons disappeared. Now she can hardly find the energy for the expression. Hello, She greets softly, and then, tiredly, You know I love you, right?

It was probably a bad thing for him to put what remnants of happiness he had on her shoulders. It shouldn't rely on one wolf. But with so much still wrong, what choices did he have? Not a lot. But she was still here, at least -- a single little ember, okay, three once you added in the pups. He leaned into her greeting. I love you too, he said quietly, tiredly, and for a moment tried to forget all that had happened. Futile, really. 

There was a beat before exasperation at the world creeped back, a sigh, What do we do? More people are going to leave and--- everything's gone so wrong. He pressed his face into her fur, keeping close -- and that was probably one thing with Mal that hadn't changed, he was still a pretty touchy-feely person. He knew there were some answers that he didn't want to hear, but this was reality. It was harsh.