think i can fly

As a skilled hunter Sumayl had always liked to believe that it gave him some kind of slight advantage when it came to living the cumbersome life of a loner. Hunting, even against what were likely impossible odds was what he did on a nearly daily basis and so it had seemed no different. Sometimes, he had managed to capture his prize and others he had walked away hungry, settling for small woodland creatures to sate the rumble in his stomach. He knew his physical limits, but his speed and aerodynamic build (lacking the bulk that tended to accompany most warriors' builds) made him ideal for Gamekeeping. It always had, and though some thought that it was some sort of cardinal sin to be part coy-wolf, Sumayl had always been proud of his heritage. It did not make him any less of a canine and if allowed to drill the point home, Sumayl could come up with a thousand different reasons why it made him more superior than a pure blooded wolf. Thus far, Sumayl had not ran into that sort of segregation, not that if he ever did he was overly worried about it. He knew how to put others in their place should they think to rise above him because if anyone knew how to be arrogant and narcissistic it was, without a doubt, Sumayl Ostrega.

While Vienna, whom Sumayl was dangerously beginning to think about as something of a better half to him (likely meaning “caring” was not an adequate enough word for what he was feeling towards her), likely would have believed in such things as “ghosts” or more accurately for this situation: visions, Sumayl did not. It was an assumption, and Sumayl could not say for sure if he was correct or not but he thought it, nevertheless. He, personally, was far too cynical to believe in such things and could come up with only two viable options. Either the pallid beauty that had appeared before him was his sister or someone who looked uncannily alike to her. Fiercely, Sumayl studied her once more, ghosting forward without hesitation, unable to smother the desperation as it rose like a tidal wave within him. It was almost ironic, how much he had not realized he had missed not just her but all of his siblings until that very pivotal moment in time. Sumayl. The golden outlaw let out the breath he had not been aware that he'd been holding in a relieved sigh, because there was no mistaking her identity now.

Immediately, Sumayl began to scrutinize, frowning as he realized that she likely needed rest and more importantly: decent meals. She appeared to be scrawnier than he remembered, thinned out and in desperate need of someone to take care of and pamper her. Namely, him. Ears cupped forth to listen to her as she spoke, though whimpered was of a much more accurate term, presently, as she leaned into him and he embraced her with welcome, resting his chin lightly on the junction between her shoulders, offering her a preen to the coarse and slightly matted fur he found there. “Ciervo and Andalusia left you?” He demanded, harsher than he had meant too. Irritation for their supposed older siblings rose within him like the heat of a freshly stoked fire. Solice, Rhovia and Caedeth he could understand because they were only their foster siblings, in reality, but her own blood? In Sumayl's constant clamor to be at the top of the “puppy hierarchy” and come off like he was the oldest by taking charge, he had deigned to never forget about Chehlia. She was the quietest out of all of them, akin to how he was without a doubt the loudest. Sumayl had always had the grand idea that if he rose to the top he would take Chehlia with him because he did not want her to be ignored any more than he'd wanted to be (which was not at all). He could be charismatic when he wanted to be, but he had learned, over the years, how to make wolves listen to him when he spoke primarily by being confrontational, thus rendering his charisma null and void.

Not that he could claim that he was any better, Sumayl thought with a sinking feeling. “I guess I'm not any better, huh? I left without you,” He murmured into her fur. “I'm sorry.” But the important part was that she was here now and that he had every intentions of taking care of her, as he always had. Unless she no longer wished for him too.