Hushed Willows I can sense you there, like a friend I've always known.

For @Teya.

Permission was granted to Sundance so that he may roam through the Hushed Willows freely, and in exchange he vowed to commit himself to its court. There was some discomfort in doing so, naturally. He'd only ever known this territory to be the sacred land where the wolves of Elysium made its home, so to pledge himself as a faerie seemed... wrong. It was far from an insult to his family that strangers had taken the weeping forest as their own for his mothers' haven welcomed all, yet Sundance couldn't quite shake the weight of his uncertainty.

He did not make his way at once to the area of his family's whelping burrow to think on more peaceful, easy times. He did not trail through the trees in search of Olive's beloved garden, nor did he look for the place where Ariel and Lily sacrificed their own lives in exchange for those of their pack-mates. Instead, the druid sought a more private place among the caves where he and his brothers had played as cubs - where he might find a space of his own to meditate for a while.

He remembered the sound of running water there, how it always aided in soothing his more troubled mind. It drew the silver close like a moth to flame and, as he crossed the threshold into the damp, dark caves at the base of the guardian spear, Sundance breathed deep the scents of his past. A platinum lobe twitched at the echo of his own claws that clacked against slick rock beneath his feet and, deep within the cavern, he settled by the crystal pools where he could allow himself an opportunity to ease his wearied thoughts.