Blackfeather Woods How home stays half the world away

She stopped to look at him, fury pouring from her midnight eyes as Damien stood there hoping that the reason she had stayed was because she had the smallest amount of trust in him. After all she had allowed him to touch her, embraced his company although reluctantly, and had recognized him after all this time as a friendly face. Damien, by now, had understood the importance of Blackfeather Woods for the girls, and he knew that for as much as he wanted it, he couldn't rip them apart from their home like he had done to himself. If they were to come with him he would have to pave the way for them and take them by the hand (paw?) or else he would have to come to them if that's what it took to get them back.

His heart pounded in his mouth as Damien prepared to release the very same promise he had made to Relmyna the very last time he was in Blackfeather Woods. He had kept that promise, he was there to get them and reunite their family, only he had taken too long for Relmyna. Still, the main reason he had made that promise was for Averna and Astara, and he was determined to see it done.

I will come back for you, he said for the second time in his life, and this once was as real, or perhaps more serious as the last one. Without seeing much else to do than trusting Astara to see how faithfully he was speaking, Damien gave one last, long and nostalgic look at his niece and turned to depart from his homeland's shadows to get back to the Weald - not home, for home was and would always be Blackfeather Woods