Stone Circle I will (not) go pt.2

The cold of winter wasn't what woke him that morning, it was a call. A howl filled with grief and pain, the melody shaking on the wind, and it had come from his mother. Whatever grogginess he held was quickly shaken as something stirred within him. A feeling West had grown accustomed to lately, though its familiarness did not take away the weight. The woodland boy made his way to his paws, escaping the warmth of his shelter to head into the storm that awaited him.

Each step chilled him, though it wasn't the cold that shook his body. It was Valette.

No no no no no—

His steps quickened, the lightly blanketed snow torn behind him as he raced to his mother's side. He nosed her, almost as if prodding silently. Who was it? How could this happen again? Though the words were never needed. Another had beat him to the scene, Zola. He had briefly heard her words, that she too was here before her mumblings turned to something he could not recognize.

West's gaze turned to the mouth of the den, his gaze darkening as he saw his father's slumbering body. Why hadn't he come? Shouldn't he hear the news as well?

Of course, pieces were slowly fitting together, though denial burned in his chest. Valette had been lingering near the dens for some time now. "Your father," she had said, "just his age, nothing serious". Death was imminent for all, something easy to forget with those who died too young. From the siblings he lost to the strangers who veered their borders.

The truth was he was only familiar with one kind of death, that which was unjust.

He had not prepared for the soft death of an old life.

A cold washed over him, freezing his bones as he stood like the stones they held dear. Perhaps time was passing by without him, though if it was, West was completely unaware. He remembered when Polaris first joined, how she claimed the world to be cruel and unjust. It all seemed dramatic to him at the time, surely there was good to balance, though it seemed each day tried to prove him wrong.

Newt never came home, Clay did though in pieces, and now the stone that he never imagined leaving had fallen over. No one was safe, even if Ursus never existed, those who never left the territory were just as much at risk of leaving forever. What was the point? Why had he killed to protect those he loved if his loved ones were just going to leave one by one anyway?

A rock seemed to settle in his chest, a weight he struggled to bear as it tried to suffocate him. He was breathing, but it didn't truly feel like it. Something told him to run, though it became apparent that rocks filled his legs as well. He was useless, and all he could do was stare silently. It was too quiet, even with his mother's sobs and the prayers of their newcomer, it was quiet, yet somehow that silence was deafening.

Heartbreak was never so loud.