Stavanger Bay It's quiet, I'll bet that everybody thinks I'm done.

He was quietly nervous. Coupled with the anxiety that brewed as the duo lingered so close to claimed territory, Dacio wasn't sure how he might feel should they manage to gather some information on Dalia's whereabouts. He felt bitter, of course, that his elder sister saw fit to selfishly leave their family behind - but deep down, the sterling Gona had never stopped feeling the hollowness left in her absence. Too stubborn to admit that the hurt remained as he grew from boy to adult, Dacio maintained a stony face whenever someone mentioned his absent sibling.

He'd been so small when she left, but had known exactly what her departure meant. It was something he'd always taken so personally, something that tormented him often and something he still couldn't understand because Drageda had provided him with everything he'd ever needed. His family resided there, on the cliffs he'd been born to, where he'd found his life's purpose. How could anyone have it all, and let go so easily?

"Sha," Dacio murmured when Opalia asked if he was ready to proceed, then peered ahead as she rose her muzzle and sent forth a request for attention. He supported her voice with his own after a moment, then turned his frosty green gaze to seek her own as they lowered their crowns to await response.

It did not take long for movement to draw his attention elsewhere, and the ashen yearling pricked his charcoal ears forward as his eyes settled on the approaching figure of another. His immediate reaction was to step defensively toward his golden littermate, though a glimmer of recognition was swift to replace his uncertainty. Breath held, his heart skipped an uncomortable beat before it fluttered wildly in his chest.

Part of him wanted to run to her, to close the distance between them and rally to her as he once did as a pup, but he was not that same boy. Dacio, disciplined and steadfast, remained rooted to the spot by Opalia's side as the lithe she-wolf padded closer with a cheerfully sweeping tail. The tip of his own twitched, as did a whisker as he blinked down at the sister who'd been a guardian to him once, and remembered how insignificant he felt following her choice to turn her tail on them.

"Drageda has fallen," he said at once, unable to find the strength to look beyond the part that Dalia played in the pack's demise. "Wildfire abandoned us after you left, Kiwi and Sequoia with her." Natrona - just like her. His brow furrowed as he resisted the urge to spit blame at her for leaving them to struggle through the heartache on their own, and fixed her wth a stare that was pericing as he tried to bite back the venom that was sure to accompany the words that followed: "our mother vanished in the storm soon after. Father found her body washed ashore, days later."