Porcupine Ridge One Step Closer To The Edge

For @Warbone and possibly @Saena

The mountains always had called Zephyr home - the crisp, thin air ran through his lungs, and for the first time in possibly months, the brute truly smiled - the ridge he stood on made him feel almost home... Almost. The sharp pains of loss were never far, and the familiar atmosphere brought his wandering, almost forgotten mind to memories of Rinda, and his children. 

Dead.

All of them - all that he knew, that is - were dead, buried, or eaten by cougars, their bones littering the mountain beside his lake. Gods, why couldn't he have told them to deal with a flooding camp? Why couldn't they have even gone into the woods - the mountains, while he'd thought there had been utmost protection, was Shadowfax's downfall. 

Now here he was, over a year - almost two - later, still losing people, failing to protect them. Lyric and Rain, vanished. Sen, Chusi, they hated him. Depp was gone, Aggie was gone... Everyone he'd ever known, gone.

For a moment, a brief and very cold moment, Zephyr turned his apple eyes down to the glade below - it was a secluded, secret haven here, but the ebony brute didn't see the beauty of it in that moment. His unfocused eyes stared blankly at the earth below, white toes danging over the edge - he was dangerously close, and he knew it - but still uncaring and numb. 

It was then, however, that a familiar scent hit him - not a friend, exactly, but not a foe. For a moment, he didn't even try to place it, but the wind seemed to double, breathing Warbone's scent into his face and demanding his attention. It didn't quite click, but either way he allowed his mind to wander away from a much more metaphorical edge - the brute was still leaning over the edge of the ridge, brow furrowed as he worked to place it.