Bramblepoint And promise me this, you'll wait for me only.

He was close - could feel it in his bones. The silverwhite quickened his stride with renewed purpose, dislodging snow that'd gathered atop narrow shoulders. The sacred forest of Elysium had called to him once more, luring him in for reasons unknown. A younger Sundance might've been afraid to return, of how memory was sure to remind him of how he'd suffered, but many months had passed. He liked to think that he'd changed.

He was excited to see what awaited him this time.

The past year had been a tough one. It'd been a time spent learning to appreciate the earth and life as a loner, and how to love himself through the hardship. He'd let go of many things: his guilt over lost family; the bitterness he felt for the fall of Seelie Court; the name bestowed upon him at birth. In adopting a new moniker, Filavandrel hoped only for a fresh start. But before he could truly look to the future, there seemed to be unfinished business here...

As soon as he thougt he detected wolf scent on the biting Winter wind, the druid eased his pace. "@Teya," he managed softly, voice coarse in his dry throat, as he lifted his pale chin to blink through falling snow toward the nearby caldera. He understood, then, that his pull toward familiar valleys was not for secrets of sacred land but for the only creature left on earth that he'd felt a connection with.

A tentative feeling Sundance had been too afraid to nurture, something that Filavandrel felt mature enough to explore. Before he could convince himself to turn away, he sent forth a low call to the red faerie and willed her to find him.

teya took off the last hours of a patrol in the caldera. they were almost ready to move. so far she hadn't seen caracal or killdeer again, and chose to take that as a sign that they would either stay out in the world or find their parents. she wasn't sure what brecheliant might do if the redhawk wolves tried to retake their territory, but she would find it stupid to begin and continue a conflict.
the snow was blowing harshly. teya went out into it anyway, chasing the scent of a pine marten. but she stopped at once when a low call poured through the white woodland. 
she knew that voice, and its sound startled her enough to remain still.
and then teya was running. but her paws did not know this world well enough; she tripped and sprawled with a curse.
her gaze slowly traveled upward. breath caught in her throat.
"sundance?"
the wind tore the sound from her mouth and tried to shatter it.

Pale eyes narrowed in attempt to better see through the whirling snow, and Winter's bite was harsh for the longer he lingered. He had not expected an instant arrival, but to hear no voice above the howling winds in response made him wonder if he'd been mistaken in detecting the scent of long-lost company.

Instinct pushed him to move, to keep blood flowing as frozen rain gathered on his pelt. Filavandrel paced for a time, uncharacteristically impatient as he tested patches of exposed earth for any sign that any of his own kind had passed by recently.

When at last the swivel of a tall silver ear found the sound of a creature on the move, the druid turned toward it. He noticed the crimson of her furs at once, and the gentle sway of his feathered tail accompanied the fond recognition in his eyes.

Each lobe pricked at the syllables that rolled from her tongue. Sundance, Teya called him as she lay sprawled before him, a name bestowed upon him at birth - who he'd once been, who she remembered him as. He did not move to correct her - no, he would let her hold this memory of him for a time.

Filavandrel was silent, allowing her to simply look upon him and answer her own question. Teya had been a she-wolf of few words before, and it seemed inappropriate to bombard her with his own. So instead he swept forward quietly and lowered his muzzle, hovering his nose above her own to initiate an opportunity to exchange scent.

yes. it was him. he reached toward her with a familiar gesture; teya shut her eyes and let the stories of his scent wash over her. he had gone a long, long way.
and he had been gone a long, long time.
she wanted to ask him where he had gone. but the faeries danced into her mind, encapsulated in memories of how sundance had tended her among the willows.
the flooding —
her ankles, the ravens; never far from her mind but emerging now in stark relief as he stood in front of her, tangible and made of what she could touch.
teya reached her muzzle to him.
"are you here to stay?" she asked, voice wavering.