Noctisardor Bypass Blasé and lucky tonight,

Rather suddenly, Druid began to backpedal. Anselm was on edge already - he took several steps back, assuming the worst. Instead, she vomited something stringy into the snow. She spat and then covered it, resuming as if nothing had happened at all.

Anselm kept his distance - and it was a good thing too, because Glaukos appeared in his sightline. If Anselm was tall, this man was Goliath. While there was nothing indicating hostility in his demeanor, Anselm did not give him a chance to get close. If Druid was sick, he wanted none of it.

Somewhere, he sensed Heda's scent -- but she was not here, as far as he could tell.

Things were starting to click for Anselm in a dangerous way. He began to cycle through what he knew. Fact: his parents had left him at the Hollow. Fact: His parents had done so rather abruptly. If he was to believe Druid, they had done it to her too. They had at least given him the opportunity to go with them - but how could he leave Emmerich behind?

Now he wondered after his missing siblings. Phaedra. Tiercel. Thade. Were they truly missing, or had they received the same treatment he and Druid experienced? Is that what his parents did -- churned out doting children each season, replacing the older for the new, rinse and repeat? Always telling the youngest their older siblings were runaways. Troubled no-good vagrants. Gone. Just up and with the wind.

The reality was far more sinister.

His gaze flicked between the two. 'Should I be worried?' was the last thing she had spoken. I am vorried. Piece by piece, the things that made Anselm Anselm were trickling away. The life he had built for himself was fracturing, and the last large stone to topple was his belief in his parents.

He backed up a step and made to turnGoodbye, Druid. His eyes passed over the large male, before he backed away enough he felt safe turning his back -- and then, unless they said anything else, Anselm was gone.