Firefly Glen How many days have passed like this?

Barren -- nothing was left of the Glen, though it wasn't as if Luna was expecting much else upon her arrival. The closer she walked towards familiar land, the more she'd realize just how weak the scents had become. There was nothing left, nobody there, nobody home.

A thin smile would cross her soft features as she grazed through the viridecent spring grasses, except there was not much warmth to be found in the moon nymph's expression other than sadness -- a longing she had not felt in quite a while, actually. Lunaria didn't care much for keeping track of how long she'd been gone, though somehow the search for her freinds months ago stired in a completely different direction, and the fae's paws would take her farther away than anticipated. She felt like a coward for running away from everything, but by the time she'd return, it was too late to make amends.

So the raven sat in the barren emptiness with a tail swept atop her front paws, silent tears running down her face as a bright gaze was casted blankly towards the floor.

Keyni didn't know why, on this day, that she chose to return to the Glen of all places. She had long since come to terms that the territory and the pack, was gone. The remnants of their numbers were scattered across the Wilds, living lives of their own. Putting this hurtful past behind them. Bronco and Meerkat had returned to the Caldera. Antares and Vallkyrie were roaming, wrapping up unfinished business. Lane had returned to wandering as well, offering her services as a medic to whomever those were in need. And she, she had settled in Moonglow. Hoping there, she would feel at home. And she did.

Picking her way through the ghost town that was the Glen, Keyni looked for nothing in particular. Perhaps, maybe some leftover supplies of herbs or skins or something she could salvage from a cache. She felt no attachment to this place, pressing on so as to make her way out as quickly as possible. It was difficult to not let the feeling of her skin prickle uneasily while surrounded by such gloom.

Ahead, directly in her path, she was surprised to find a solitary dark figure. Just sitting, weeping. She didn't think it could be Antares - he was elsewhere. Their figure was too small. Then it hit her. Lunaria. Jade eyes widened, ears falling back. She had never thought she would see her again, left to wonder what had happened to her and where she went. Padding up to her side softly, Keyni took a seat beside her. "There is nothing left for anyone here. The Glen is long dead."

She was too distracted to notice at first, but there was someone approaching from behind. Strangely enough, there was not much energy left in the dark fae to turn and see who it was, but the scent with condensed and reached her nostrils was disturbingly familiar -- and it was then that Luna realized just how fearful she was of meeting old faces upon her return to the Teekons. 

She did not turn to look at who it might've been, only waited begrudgingly for them to word their reasons as they reached with swiveling ears. Then came a soft voice, which was far too distinct to forget: "There is nothing left for anyone here. The Glen is long dead."

"Keyni..." the moon nymph mouthed quietly, with a voice broken by the emotion in her chest. Yet she could not look, wouldn't look the young girl in her jade-like gaze. Luna couldn't find the strength to look at her right now, and would only turn her head away in grimace.

There was a moment of silence that followed soon after, before the raven breathed out a soft, rattled breath, and turned her face just slightly to look downwards again. Luna couldn't leave her in silence like this, not after everything. 

"It.....feels like ages, doesn't it? Since we've met, and since I've introduced you to the glen..." she began, and there was what felt like a ball of anxiety in her throat before she continued. "...I brought you to this place as a means to say thanks...for saving me that day. I wanted to share my home with you but instead, you got--" and her head lifted to stare upon the now empty claim, as a way to make her point "This..."

Another moment of silence, and soon the dark fae would get to the point of what she'd been wanting to say all along. "I'm sorry."

Just by sitting there next to her, Keyni could sense that Lunaria wasn't quite the same as before. Her voice was thick, choked with guilt and raw emotion. The younger female could practically feel the sadness radiating off of her. 

She didn't press the Raven to speak any further. She let her go at her own pace. Listening patiently, quietly. Without judging. A bright jade eye rotated to the side to catch a glimpse of dark fur out of its peripheral vision. "It has. Like forever." She agreed in her soft voice. Lunaria wasn't finished, and so Keyni fell silent. Absorbing the shame ridden from her voice.

Despite her claims, the paler wolfs own were different. After her apology, Keyni was quick to shake her head. "There is nothing to forgive." Her voice came gentle but strong. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have met the FireFly Glen wolves. Wouldn't have had the friends I do now." But that was just the beginning. As she looked out onto the wreckage, the remains of her brief home, she saw past the tragedy and towards the future. "Much has happened. Much grief, that has tested our spirits. But because of that, in the end, we all came out better together."

Luna didn't want the young female to see her like this. As a matter of fact, it felt rather uncomfortable just sitting here and exposing her insecurities on someone who she hadn't bothered to visit in months. The raven wished to be alone and sort these emotions out by herself like she usually did -- yet at the same time, she didn't. All those months alone, wandering for some kind of restablishment of her life after the Glen's fall made her realize she much preferred the life in a pack rather than as a loner afterall. No, actually -- the idea of a pack wasn't it. It was that she craved the attachment that came with pack life.

Forming connections with Keyni, Charles, Bronco and Amelia, bothering Holland every now and then while he worked, teaching Atlas about the night sky, exchanging stories with Taikon -- she missed those moments. Though as soon as that happiness was forcefully ripped from her, Lunaria was too weak to find a way to repair that broken structure she considered her reason to stay as much as she tried to stay positive -- and in the end, she ran away. 

She left everyone instead of trying to reconnect with them -- so why...."You aren't....mad at me?" Why was she being forgiven so easily? No, it's not that she was being forgiven at all -- it just looks like Keyni was never mad at her in the first place.

Luna turned to her, not really realizing she had, something unreadable and Melancholic in her celestial eyes -- as if something wasn't going the way she expected it to. "As soon as everything went to hell, I left you all, everyone even though I could've helped you instead. Something I failed to do already when the glen was under attack...you...." Her voice faltered a bit, ears splaying and eyes that threatened to spill more feircly than before. "You're saying you don't feel the slightest bit of scorn towards me....at all?"

And in that moment, it wasn't only Keyni she was asking this question to; it was the glen...

It was almost funny, really. Here they are, one wolf pouring their heart out while the other listened patiently. As if Keyni were the older of the two and Lunaria the younger. The physical age of her friends, of those she held dear were of little significance to her. It was the age of their spirit. And whatever that may be, she was accepting of them all. To Lunaria's trembling first question, she shook her head no, silently.

The raven was wrought with emotion, emotion that Keyni knew she was not yet done pouring out. Her facial expression remained soft but strong while Lunaria poured out her guilt. Her wrongs. And the tundrian let it cascade down over her shoulders like flood waters over smooth stone. "I know...we all know... There's little that could have been done. The damage by that bear...it was too great. It had already ripped the heart out of the Glen..."

When she saw the glimmer of tears threatening to fall down her midnight furred cheeks, Keyni swept in close. Pulled her frame in to rest against that of her friends soothingly. Stroking a dark shoulder with an almost motherly touch. "We all react differently in times of disaster. Some stand strong, others come together. Others run away." She drew in a slow, measured breath. "Sure, we would have been better off with you. In knowing you were safe. I looked for you. But even after all that has happened..." Now it was her turn to fall silent for longer than was bearable. "Lunaria...Moonspear is gone. It was struck by a falling star shortly after you left. Only a handful of them remain..."

Lunaria had successfully managed to drown herself within the guilt and distress that's been eating at her for months -- so much that she didn't even spare a second thought at leaning her weight against the comforting warmth that her beautiful friend offered -- Lune was too emotionally exhausted to fight back any help she'd been denying until now.

But she would not cry -- stubbornly -- not yet, and only closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip to fight those pesky waterfalls back. Crying only tired her further, and though she didn't know how much longer she'd be able to hold it in before actually giving in, she was sure as hell not giving up the fight between herself and herself.

Hearing Keyni say that she was never mad at her should've made Lunaria feel happy in a way, but it did little to quell the guilt. The raven had always thought she'd be able to stay loyal to the one home that made her stick around long enough to become attached, and after running away only to return to ruins, this obsession with wanting some form of punishment only heightened. 

Then came news that made the raven do a double-take -- Moonspeear's fall.

Luna didn't notice when she had left the comfort of Keyni's side, only that the shock of the news made her freeze for a moment and pull her towards her feet. The huntress merely stood and gazed upon the mountain once claimed by many -- wordless, and a feeling in the pit of her stomach she couldn't quite explain...

Lunaria drew away and Keyni let her. She remained by her side, watching her quietly while she gazed in the direction of the mountain that was once home to the mightiest pack in the Teekon. She could see and feel the shock radiating off her dark friend. She could only imagine what she must be feeling now.

She sighed softly, heavily. Keyni had gotten over her grief. Had her time to mourn, to cope and to heal. Antares had struggled most of all, and she wondered if there would be a day when he was ever the same again. "From what I know, only Antares and a woman by the name of Kukutux and her daughter, Sialuk have survived." It would be a hard, bitter pill to swallow. But to try and ease Lunaria's pain, to give hope, she added. "Kukutux and Sialuk have their own pack, Moonglow. Formed in honor of their family...of those lost. It is my home now. And Antares is alive...but coping. I don't know his exact whereabouts, but I suspect he is still in the Wilds, somewhere."

Lunaria was slightly dazed out in that moment, expressionless and not knowing what to feel when gazing upon the barren, befallen kingdom that was once Moonspear. The new home and family that she'd taken for granted did not come from nowhere -- Osiris and his brothers, friends, and packmates -- had all come from this. If she was being honest, the raven did not take the time to care much for Hydra's claim as it was not the home she hunted for -- only a looming presence -- and therefore not her concern at the time. Yet despite this, something off stired in Luna's chest upon seeing what was once filled with life now roam with ghost from the past. It didn't sit right with her at all -- had she taken Moonspear for granted as well?

Come to find out there were survivors, according to Keyni. Antares along with a women she'd not heard of before, and her daughter. Lunaria's ear flickered ever so slightly to let Keyni know she'd still been listening. The dark Ostrega in question was a man that she had only met briefly during the Glen's reign, and one notable trait about him was how much he resembled his matriarchal mother. The mother that was now gone -- 'Of course Antares had been coping. He's lost everything.' Then came the mention of a place called "Moonglow", where Kukutux and Sialuk led for the memory of their family -- and Luna realized that maybe things weren't as far gone as she thought around here.

So she slipped away.

Despite thinking herself unworthy after disappearing that winter, an ugly stab of jealousy filled her heart to know that she had not been there to witness the growth of a new hearth, while there are others who had -- it made her feel left out of the equation. So without another word to her freind would the Moon nymph, selfishly, pulled towards the desire to dissappear once again and ran away. As far away from the glen as she could....