Altar of Twilight i painted you a picture, but it never looked right

Sorry for the wait, loves!

The tension during their journey was palpable. Sirius forgot about it sometimes, falling easily to the distractions of newness all around him, but each time his eyes returned to Hemlock, he was reminded of the situation. The boy didn't much care for it. He had no reason to think badly about his "real" parents, except for the way their air changed each time either of them came up in conversation. The tension thickened immensely when the howls lifted above them, and suddenly Sirius began to focus on what was ahead of them. He stopped chasing crickets and pausing at every hoot he heard; now picking his way through the grass while maintaining a position between his stiff-legged surrogate and their poker-faced king.

He didn't know what to look at first when they finally arrived. There were two adults and as many other pups -- and Sirius was stalled at Hemlock's ankle. The Ceannasach's words were the only thing that prompted the boy forward. He stole a few pawsteps closer, nose out and ears forward as he examined what his senses would allow given the space between them. His eyes naturally went to the largest figure, Dakarai, first. He blinked, quickly becoming distracted by the pale figure at his side... Olive.

He knew her name -- Arturo had just told him, and Hemlock mentioned it all the time -- but he knew more than that too. She'd been but a blurry figure last he remembered, and a white wisp dripping neon emeralds in his dreams, but he knew her on a level deeper than that. On a base he could not stand on or comprehend. The confusion struck him first, and his ears folded back at their eyes met. "Mama?" he said out loud, his gaze fleeing to find Hemlock.

He was ready to leave at that point. He didn't like this feeling.  Panicked eyes found the family he actually knew, but before he could make a move to return to them, he felt another puppy before him. Whipping his head around, he looked at his dark sister, finding no familiarity or friendliness in her face. Sirius was dumbstruck as she spoke, his limbs seized up and his tail poking out defensively. Hemlock was right, he was bigger than them, but this didn't necessarily make him feel any better about his siblings. If anything, it only made him more self-conscious. Swallowing thickly, his tail wagged stiffly. "Well, I don' know you ei'der but tha's a'cause I never meeted you b'fore."