Broken Antler Fen When you were here before

arcturus considered wraen's rhetorical query, thinking back on his early years with his father. he had never contested his parent's rule -- it was not until later, under hydra's thumb, that arcturus began to grow dissident. he knew he'd been tunnel-visioned -- but it was not until he had met wraen had he realized how narrow his perspective had grown.

he sympathized with her for being exhausted under leadership's mantle. certainly, many wolves expected things to be given to them -- and in turn, that entitlement tended to bleed the tap dry. arcturus remembered his own spectacular burnout -- he had streaked across the sky brilliant as any meteorite -- only to crash to the earth in a spume of dust and failure.

was wraen indirectly implying she was sad to see arcturus would not step up to the plate? he was not sure, and before he could ask for details the subject changed to his sister and -- surprisingly, revui.

what did wraen mean, revui had passed away? arcturus' ears turned from 'listening-ears' to airplane ears -- he cycled back to what she had just said, kept rephrasing it in his head. surely she'd said something else, and he had just misheard her. that couldn't be right. revui, his brother, couldn't be dead. nothing could kill the goliath -- not another wolf, not the fall of a mountain, not even stone could wipe his obstinate brother's life from existence. it simply could not be true.

"what?" arcturus asked abruptly, feeling something mount in the back of his mind and come crawling forward. panic. "what?" he repeated, trying to push it back. panic was a slippery thing. powerful, too. "what do you mean she was looking for me -- what do you mean he is dead?"