Saying goodbye to Ira and Bones had been harder than Hex had originally intended for it to be. It should have been easy but the truth was: it hadn't been. It had been easier for him to walk away from Suluk, his own father than it had been to walk away from his adopted brother and friend. He didn't know why, only that as Hex grew older and more defiant Suluk had become disgruntled and resentful. Ungrateful; perhaps Hex was ungrateful for the life that Suluk had “allowed” him but Suluk was becoming a senile old man and someone needed to speak up about it. Unlike Arux or Nefarious Hex hadn't been about to sit around and kiss Suluk's toes because he thought that he deserved freely earned respect. Suluk could have sacrificed Hex to Sos as he had Hex's mother. It would have made all of their lives easier, the young Kesuk-Nox had no doubt. The very worst part was that he couldn't get away from Suluk, no matter the distance that Hex put between himself and Ikkuma; every time he caught his reflection (disorted as it oft was) in a semi-clear water source it was Suluk's face staring back at him. Like Arux, Hex had been cursed with being a spitting image of Suluk Kesuk. It was not Suluk's voice that came from his lips, nor did the fire in Hex's eyes burn with madness as Suluk's did but still the similarity between the facial features were eerie despite the shared genetics, as was the exact coloration and markings. Likely, it was easy to assume that Arux and Hex were identical twins though they had not even shared a mother with one another.
The water source that Hex had been, mere moments before, lapping contently out of suddenly became insulting to the Kesuk-Nox and he recoiled back as if he saw a monster instead of his own murky, distorted reflection. His thirst suddenly sated, Hex felt his brow furrow as he turned away with a soft snort of indignation and moved further inland, towards the heart of the Caldera — his new home. Half melted snow squelched under his steps, scaring off any potential prey though his appetite, for the moment, had abruptly abated and abandoned him. Suluk had that way about him: haunting even from afar. With Ira and Bones Hex had been able to turn it off and actually begin to find himself. Leaving them, it seemed, had him in a backwards spiral.
In an attempt to empty his mind the Kesuk-Nox turned eyes of fierce ice blue to studying the path before him, trying to commit some sort of rudimentary map to his mind.