Haunted Wood — there's just us. People. Doing our best to get by."

For @Ukulele!

Whether he settled in among the wolves of Brecheliant or was denied, Reyes would go off to wander closer to the caldera regardless. His path today took him in to the thick of the woods. He toiled aimlessly against the winding paths found within, making pathetic mental notes of animal trails or listening to the sound of birds in the trees, which silenced as he passed. Nothing really lingered in his mind aside from Towhee — that she had been injured and now sat in the safety of the caldera, mending. 

His children were hot topics too; Reyes assumed that it would be more difficult to watch over the children while their mother was on the mend, and that made him want to be there all the more. It was infuriating to be this close and yet be repeatedly denied access to them. First by the guardian Azon, next by Ruenna, which had stung more than the young man wanted to admit. Ruenna had been there for the birth and lingered after, caring for Caracal, Sphyra, and Tierra as diligently as any parent.

It made him feel like she was to blame, somehow. That his role had been so swiftly replaced. Frustration at the current circumstances of his life ate away at Reyes. He had to stop hiking through the woods when he came upon a winding river — too dark and deep to see the limits, and too quick-moving to fathom a swim. Another road block in a life of impediments.

The man let out a deep bellow that swiftly spooked the birds from the tree boughs overhead, scattering their little bodies until they found new roosts.