Emberwood this is our last stand

one of the boys who had met him at the border had left. dionysus only knew because he'd gone looking for him, of course. he wanted to know more about atautsikut, more about the other kids he'd met. he hadn't really been exposed to anyone close to his own age; erzulie's children were much older than he was, it felt. they certainly acted that way.

he didn't think much of arius's departure at first, figuring he was going for a quick scouting trip or something. dionysus himself enjoyed travel, despite the dire circumstances under which he'd discovered his enjoyment of it. but then the yards turned to miles, and the miles grew longer. of course he'd considered turning back; it would be rude to leave the pack that had helped him. but he wouldn't be leaving entirely, would he? not if he was with one of them.

and besides, they weren't in charge of dionysus. zephyr and hyacinth had been, and they were dead now, so dionysus figured that meant he was in charge of himself. at least until he got back to sapphique. so on he went, trailing the other boy at a limping pace and trying without much success to catch up. when he finally did, it occurred to him that he didn't really know what to say.

hey! uh - arius, right? i tried to um, catch up sooner. mind if i come with you? he tried to be nonchalant about it, but secretly he was nervous. arius had seemed pretty grumpy the first time they'd met, and dionysus had just followed him a very long way. not that he was truly aware of how weird this all was; after all, he'd made an even longer journey in search of his fathers. this didn't seem like that much comparatively.