Noctisardor Bypass valar morguilis

He's a peice of shit, ik. Tags for reference. Being really careful in assuming things about the challenge thread and certain other things, but should something not line up, please let me know.

The Bypass serves them well in the aftermath of war, providing the haven they required and the privacy they needed. Yet, there is still danger about the area. He leaves the borders unmarked in an effort to deter wandering eyes and investigative bodies, but still, they are open to attack and abduction should an enemy force decide it so. Therefore, while he is unsure if it ever truly worked the first time, he releases a summoning howl for all three of the pups; a command rather than a suggestion as two-thirds of them have treated his calls in the past.

He waits, minutes tick by then half-hours and when they do not respond to his preceding howls, he yearling narrows his eyes. Picking himself up and trekking about the present vicinity, he does not pick up the faintest indication that they were ever even there, signs that point to one conclusion only. Had they been taken, at least someone would have noticed.

It quickly becomes apparent to him as he collects a mental roster of all those who are present in the bypass that @Cicero was too, absent. Yet, an absent Cicero was a common theme, and the least of his worries. The man had never been around to concern himself with Vaati or his siblings even thus far, and for a very long time the man had never chosen to take leadership of the pack he was born into when they needed it the most. Instead, he thrives off of what others provided and offering very little in return. Perhaps the most monumental thing he had done for the dark woods was rape his own sister. Cicero and his whereabouts are the least of his concerns and will never be, even if he had proved himself a traitor.

Perhaps, they are traitors too.

The possibility is not entirely unplausible, they are children of the dark woods after all. As time goes on and he becomes more frantic in his search, carrying on through the night and into the morning; spanning across the surrounding territories while dodging the scent of neighbouring packs, the yearling returns to the schism weather-worn and tired, carried with him the burden of a heavy conclusion.

Wincing in each step he takes towards the stream where he will rinse off the blood that has freshly sprouted from his wounds in the search effort, a reason comes to mind that he had not wanted to believe, but will do so anyway because loyalty is a hard thing to come by, even by blood.
They have abandoned Blackfeather Woods.

He had expected better, mostly from @Maegi, whom he had thought he seen the future in. But he had been wrong before many times, there was no telling if he had been wrong about her too. The boys were a different matter -- he had barely had the opportunity to get to know them before they became more distant to him than even Cicero, who was known to him as notoriously recluse. Alas, that was not his fault. Having no other option than to pick up the pieces of an already broken pack on the cusp of extinction tended to take up the majority of an individual's time. It is likely Vaati would never have gotten to know Maegi, had she not taken such a liking to him from the get-go. The same could not be said about some -- many -- who had prematurely made up their minds about him. Many, who breathed and lived under the protection he provided.
.
With a roll of his shoulders and a belligerent sigh does he continue on his way; only moderately saddened by the reality they may face, should the children have taken off on their own. They had left without warning, a crime punishable by death... even to those who would claim youth as a scapegoat to their treachery. If they are old enough to want to kill, to observe war and take it in, then they are old enough to know that deserting the dark woods is no more highly forbidden to them than any other outsider that graces their borders.

Perhaps it is a stretch to accuse children of crimes against the crown at the severity one would treat an adult with... but in the aftermath of all that has occurred, Vaati walks on a fine line of dangerously little patience. First it had been Kjalarr to come and go as he pleased, then others, returning to grovel when they had nothing outside the dark woods to turn too. Ignoring the fact that he holds in question his youngest siblings, those tied to him by blood, treachery is treachery and a crime is a crime. He will do what must be done in the end, because that is his job. Not to be questioned and challenged, because it is he who is the Dark Master, he who stepped up when nobody else would, and he who will not be insulted any longer by the backstabbing actions of others whom he really ought to trust