Hushed Willows I've been burnin' incense, gone a little mad

She felt it would be time soon. Just as she'd known Blossom would come early, she knew that these children would too. It seemed there was only so much her body could tolerate of pregnancy before it simply gave up and evicted its parasitic tenants.

Until then, Reverie would occupy herself with preparations. She'd scoured the territory for a place where she might feel safe, searching for hours before she finally found an abandoned burrow among the melting snows. It was nestled among the pine trees at the outskirts of their territory; perhaps not the safest location, but far enough from her own den to allow her to comfortably avoid the place. It would have only one purpose, and then it would be abandoned. She knew that she would not want to see it again.

She set herself to the task of digging, pausing every few minutes to catch her breath and wish that someone was around to help. She should have been resting, she knew that. But if she didn't do this, who would?

He'd left the coast again, wandering for a time in the general direction of The Gilded Sea. Tybault did not think he would return. He only toyed with the idea from time to time, more for a lack of other options than anything else. The only other path forward that he could see meant seeking out his siblings again. And for a long time he wasn't ready to do that. Until he was.

For weeks he'd scoured the coastline, searching for any sign of Reverie or Everett or even Evander. When he'd turned up nothing at all, Tybault set his sights on the valley where he and his brothers had once found Reverie. It turned out he didn't need to go that far.

Her scent reached him first. Hers, then Everett's, among many others; a whole pack tucked against a corner of the mountain range. Tybault's heart raced as he stepped into the forest of pines, calling out a low note meant for his siblings. He didn't dare go any further, not yet. He could wait a few minutes longer, after the weeks he'd spend searching.

The low call carried on the wind froze her in place. Reverie scarcely trusted her own ears. Her brother — not Everett but the brother she'd run from, the brother she'd hated, the brother she'd nearly seen killed. Tybault, here. Her digging slowed to a stop, and for a moment she only stood and listened. Silence followed.

Then she turned, finally, and sought him through the trees. Theirs was a breathless and tearful reunion, a meeting filled with apologies and confessions that would never leave this moment. Reverie didn't know if things could ever truly be mended between them. But in the end, it was decided that Tybault would stay, at least for now.

And they would discover what the future held together.