King Elk Forest of a boy ruled by the sun, burned by the things he could never touch

Delight’s story is a sad one; and Mato’s umbra dipped ears flutter back against the curve of his skull unsure if it’s appropriate to give condolences or not. While Mato is not sorry that Delight has found his way to Tindómë, to him, he is sorry the circumstances in which it had initially came about. “That must have been terrible,” It reminds him, vaguely, of the poison that had taken to the waters of his natal pack. Mato had left them before that had happened to travel with Northstar Vale and luckily no one had perished from the incident but he can, at the very least, sympathize to an extent. “While I am sorry about the circumstances in which you arrive here I am not sorry that you’re here.” He winces for a moment, hoping that sounded more like he meant and not as callous as he fears it might have. Again, emotions have never been Mato’s strong suit and sometimes when expressing sentiment he’s harsher than he intends to be. “You’re invaluable to me Delight. I’m not sure what I would do without you.” And that’s the complete truth. Delight is one of the original founders still left: though Mato thinks now he and Delight are the only two left. Technically, Burke and Malice had come to be with them after the pack’s founding.

“I spent time …moping. For a long while I even considered leaving Tindómë to search for her,” He admits, salmon pink tongue drawing across his jowls. “it would have done no good, in the end. Whatever trail she’d left has been long gone and I would not even know where to start.” He draws in a deep breath and lets it out in a heavy exhale. “I would have never returned. I would have simply spent my life searching for her but never finding her.” That was no way to live a life, he thinks. Searching for what he knows he will never find and forsaking what he’s worked hard for, for it. Perhaps that is greedy and selfish of him but it's what he feels nevertheless.

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