Ravensblood Forest Neverland is home to lost boys like me

@Reek & @Jhala <3 <3

Tapat often hung around Hemlock and her children. The teenager, though he was almost an adult, still couldn't stop remembering Lagan. He knew two things. He was very nice and very pretty. AND, he was at the Caldera place. Tapat only needed to locate this Caldera. Hemlock had promised him to look for it with him. But sometimes that little detail would be forgotten by the male.

Tapat moved through the forest. He was small for a male and often was mistaken for a younger wolf as his behavior was quite immature and playful like a child. Tapat let out a long howl for Lagan. Perhaps, Lagan was traveling and was he close enough to hear it!! The pale wolf dared to go a bit further from the spot Hemlock was staying with her youngsters. Tapat was sweet enough to try and help her as much as he could. After all, they weren't just Hemlock's babies, these small wolves were his siblings.

Tapat knew his mama's scent by heart now, Hemlock's scent. She was his new mama. He didn't think often about his other parents since he was never confronted with their old scents or even their presence. Tapat sniffed the ground, maybe the Caldera was that way? No, salt. That was the big water side. He turned and walked in the other direction every so often letting out a howl to Lagan.

though she'd left tapat behind-- a decision she knew was for the best, knew was the right call-- she thought about it every day. she'd feared tapat wouldn't make the journey, or would be separated and lost forever. here, she thought, he was safe with hemlock. he had to be, and he loved her so much... well jhala assumed one day hemlock would replace her altogether.

and she had, it seemed. 

oh but jhala... she had not forgotten her babies scent, or his chirpy little voice. and she caught a tip of that howl and practically fainted-- though jhala was not one to do so so easily. beside her, @Reek surely perked up too, and she roughly grabbed at his shoulder with his teeth to immediately yank him towards the sound of the howl. she ran off without properly waiting for him (assuming he was right behind her), and began howling out into the snowy terrain for her baby-- her missing sun gosling.

he came into view quickly, though her legs could not possibly carry her any faster. "tapat!!" she cried, strides as long as she could make them, "tapat! it's me! it's mama!"

For a wolf of weakened constitution, traveling this far north was difficult, yet Reek made no fuss. He led the charge with Jhala at his side with silent resolve, for this would be one final pilgrimage to the place where his life -- his true life, really began. It would be his final journey. Reek's last great adventure, and he could think of no better way to spend it. In his failing health, Reek was still wary of fate, though he found it harder to not dwell on the metaphysical after the chance encounter with his son, Tambourine, in the south. Whether or not there was some guiding hand setting him along his final path, Reek understood this venture for what it was. A chance to make thing right.

Atonement, he called it. Not to some God or the family he let down, but for himself. He hoped it would be his last selfish desire.

As fate had it, it seemed he and Jhala were on the right path. Reek never forgot a voice, and when he heard his son's howl in the distance, he felt as if his heart was caught in a vice. He was seized with guilt. For this was the boy he abandoned, the one he should have never left. He followed right behind Jhala all the way to the source and finally laid eyes on his boy. He was a young man now -- grown, but still the same; Reek could still see that dopey innocence in his face.

Guilt held him back for a moment, but Reek soon took toward Tapat. He got as close as he could and swore he would never turn away again.

Tapat didn't expect such a respond. As he howled some woman came storming at him. The young male let out a startled squeak and lowered himself to the ground. The male looked up with wide set eyes. The woman called out that she was mama. She was followed by a dark male. Tapat scrambled back over the snowy grounds. Tapat whined in confusion. Hemlock was his mama. He let out another squeak when he backed himself against a tree.

"Don't eat me! I am only looking for Lagan!," he let out. His tail was between his legs as he held his body submissively and close to the ground. He looked so lost and confused. These two did look familiar, he thought. But he couldn't place them. "My mama is Hemlock," he dared to say, softly. In his fear, he hadn't used his nose yet. Perhaps then he would realize that these wolves were his parents. His biological parents.