Hoshor Plains the roots beneath my shaded tree / the moon dancing across my sky

Against what the sylph might choose to believe - he did not despise her. But his place had not been amongst the Moonspear wolves, and he hadwithdrawn from their borders to see what Nyx could offer him in a place such as Blackfeather. She had suggested bringing him, and her preposition had not seemed to leave space for his temporary return to say goodbye to his family, though his guilt for that did not outweigh his desire to accept the darkness consuming his soul. It was a struggle he was not willing to fight, and instead he had made his decision to side with this very darkness.

She mentioned that she was better now, and the Reaper's brow raised in question - was she not okay before? Was that something to do with his sudden and silent departure, therefore being fault of his own? Or was there some other factor weighing in on her previous state? He had little reason to notice the lie, but either way his only answer was the lift of his brow. He supposed he knew that Cassiopeia [the sister that had not so subtly disowned him] was not beside her, but he knew not of Dakarai or Sirius' location.

The young, ashen man caught the tremble of her breath and the rising flood in her eyes, that which caught him momentarily off-guard. Not having experienced sorrow before, he had no idea of how to possibly deal with such an emotion, especially not when it came from the mother he had undoubtedly left from earlier days. His grey ears flicked back to press lightly against his skull, and he reached out a muzzle to touch her cheek - he was not good at this, the showing affection. Aries' goal was to bring the pale woman some sort of comfort, but whether or not he had succeeded in this was a fact he had yet to discover.

"What happened, baby?"

The question saw his pause in movement, growing as still as the moon itself that watched from the heavens. What happened? He gave in to the shadows. He gave in to the deep, dark longing within his heart to inflict pain upon others and use them for his own sick desires. He was not being stalked by the monster any longer, but had become the terrible beast himself. Perhaps it was Blackfeather that had resulted in his change, but he knew it had been inside him from the very moment he was able to distinguish reality from his imagination. How was a boy conflicted of mind and dark in nature supposed to explain how his world had crashed down, and how he had shifted himself only slightly to evolve into this brute who cared little for all but himself and the few he shared blood with [those relationships that too had thinned]?

Words could not fall from his blackened lips before Olive drew closer and embraced him as though nothing of the last few months had happened, and he was a youngster fighting against the rules in Moonspear again, as he had once been. The boy found the words caught in his throat, the explanation one that surely would hurt his mother - Aries was not innocent any longer. Perhaps he never had been, but there was no ounce of light within his soul that she might attempt to coax from him, and he was content with it.

"I thought you had died..."

The Svartell stiffened, a grimace pulling roughly onto his grey features. Yes, that was his own doing - purposeful or not. His departure was not carried out with a farewell, for he found himself unimaginably drawn to the gore-strewn borders, so much so that he had been unable to leave to seek out his family and say his last goodbye. But now, now did that really matter? They were here, in a sort of embrace, and neither were dead. His last goodbye had not been necessary, all it would have provided was comfort for the ghostly mother. Then again, he supposed that might have been something she had wanted.

"I'm sorry, mother..." The words left his maw at last, forcing down his pride to offer her an apology in his deepened voice. "I did not belong in Moonspear." But I belong in Blackfeather, Aries bit his rough tongue in an attempt to not set off her motherly-born anger, a scolding about his pack of shadows the last thing he needed at this silent moment. Besides, it would not sway his decision. He only hoped she did not scowl and cast him away like his sister had, for she may very well be the last family he had - there had, as of yet, been no sign of Dakarai or Sirius [not that he would recognise the other boy whom he had not been raised alongside], and despite his current situation it would be pleasant to have another he could assossiate himself with.