Arrow Lake you saw the snakes but not the sorrow

@Asterr. Close to RJ. Set a day or so ago.

It had taken longer than Ukko expected to return to his home than he'd intended. His home. The idea made him scoff. It isn't home. Asterr isn't really his mate. He didn't even want to believe the children she carried are his. When his heart aches this much, he realizes he doesn't want much of anything. There had been a time he might have thought he and Tavi could have been something but it had easily dwindled when he loved her only as his best friend. And now she is gone and he hadn't been able to fix it.

His heart hadn't left his throat since he'd found out but everything else has been a blur. His direction is aimless and he doesn't know where he's supposed to go. He could keep walking and not look back, as if there's nothing in the teekon waiting for him. Thoughts of Asterr come to mind everyone once in a while, deviating his direction toward Ryūjin but ultimately he moves somewhere else, pushing him farther away.

Ukko finds himself near the lair. He can see it in the distance. How long has he been gone? A day? Two? His brows knit together as he considers it, even wondering if his mate had given birth, and he stands there for a long time without moving, uncertain, scared, lonely. Heartbroken.