Blackfeather Woods A message that must be shared

@Damien IMPORTANT! @Cicero also welcome. @Nemesis optional/visibility :)

Kendra had thought about it for several days. She lifted her chin and howled for her brother, the one that promised to stay around and care for her, to then never see him again. Frankly she had been secluded too, but the only one she had little faith in was Cicero. She also called for Nemesis if she was willing to show up, she had her babies apparently so. She smelled blood and went to check from a distance. They didn't interest her in the slightest.

The young female had her face in her usual scowl. She used to be so happy, perhaps too happy for a pack like this. The girl held her muzzle high and waited for them. The girl had an important message for her eldest older brother who now called himself the dark lord.

Without delay Damien left his doing to answer to his sister's call. So far their relationship had become distant despite the fact that he'd tried several times to approach her with good intentions. She didn't seem to want that, and instead she kept pushing everyone away. Damien had always thought Kendra would be the bright kind, one of those who infected the ones around her with joy, but her story had gone sideways at such a young age.

"Kendra?" called the male as he emerged from the undergrowth. The radiance that was always there in Kendra's puppy face was long gone, a fading memory. Damien tried to keep calm and peaceful, but the uncertainty for what was about to come was clearly showing in his inquisitive eyes.

Kendra just briefly nodded, but did nothing more. Her tail was neutral but his chin held up rather high. Her own eyes were wary when he came closer. She remembered herself that this was her brother, though she didn't recognize any brotherly about him. Even now he carried himself more like that of an alpha than as her brother.

"I'm leaving, but not for good, otherwise I wouldn't tell you. You don't have my loyalty, and certainly not my respect as hard that might be to swallow for you enormous ego. I am going to take a sabbatical from this pack. Hopefully that world out there proves to me that I do belong her because frankly now I feel like an outside in my own pack. The only one that isn't a stranger is my brother Cicero. I do realize that is partly my own fault, hence why I think I need a break."

She paused for a light moment but not long enough for Damien to interrupt her. She could be quite a presence if she wanted to be seen, probably something she got from her mother. "I genuinely hope that I do find the respect I should have for you as my Dark Lord outside of these parklands. Potema took some time off from this pack to better herself, and I will do the same. This is not a request for your approval, but I do hope that you find peace in the fact that I did come to you in person instead of disrespectfully abandoning your pack," she pointed out. Hopefully that wouldn't leave the relationship with her brother too broken.

@Cicero is welcome too!! Otherwise we might need a separate thread! <3

As soon as the shadow prince arrived, his sister let go of a weight she seemed to have been carrying on her shoulders for way too long. He stared at her befuddled, taking in every single word like a bullet to his heart as he realized how much he'd failed to his very own kin.

Every word she spoke was crystal clear, and truth to the core, from the idea that taking a break from Blackfeather Woods would do her good to the fact that his ego was monstrous. Burke had told him once that each must find their own path in life, and although Damien's path had always remained loyal and linked to that of Blackfeather Woods, he knew that not everyone would for as much as he wanted his blood to remain a constant in his life.

Damien waited for a couple seconds, letting the words sink in and the thoughts to come to an order before speaking. "I hope you find in your soul one day that I'm not a lord to you more than I am your brother," he said with heart in hand, "I will be waiting for your return, Kendra. Good luck." he finished, giving that way his sister full freedom to do as she pleased with her life, and holding on to the hope that she would one day find her way back home.

Kendra had expected other words from the one that was her brother. But he returned with nicer words. She respected those words more than the thing she had said before during the pack meetings. "That gives me more hope I will one day," she admitted and nodded. "Will you tell Cicero I wish him goodbye. Perhaps I will see him on my travels but if I don't he at least knows."

She couldn't say goodbye to her other brother that well, she knew he would try and stop her and she needed this break. The girl then nodded. "Goodbye until I return, brother," she spoke and with that she turned around and then ran out of the territory. She needed to see those mountains, go to the sea, and explore what was around her.

- Kendra exit -

was out on a larp, so couldn't reply sooner
Cicero heard the call when it sounded. Yet when he arrived in the place he saw his brother stand, he only saw him stare off into the distance and did not see Kendra.

With a questioning look he looked at his brother, feeling a fear in his heart but unwilling to speak it before he knew more.

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He watched his sister walk away from Blackfeather Woods, away from her family, away from her roots. She was so determined to see the world outside of the darkness she'd been born into, and Damien had felt powerless against her wish. He had promised her before that he would be there for her, acting as the father she'd lost, and the protector she deserved, but in her eyes he'd failed to accomplish that, and deep inside, Damien knew he had.

A sorrowful glance was cast at Cicero when he arrived, transmitting emotions through his colorless eyes that few like him would ever see come from Damien. "She says she needs time," he said, and swallowed hard trying to ease the knot that had formed in his throat. "Why do they keep leaving us, brother?" he asked then, nostalgia and defeat tainting his voice. Father, Mother, Brother, Mentor. They all left, they all abandoned them, and the list just kept growing longer.

A confirmation of his suspicions soon followed, and Cicero nodded in silent sorrowful confirmation. He stared at the distance as though trying to catch a glimpse of her retreating form as Damien asked why everyone left. It was a bit ironic, for what did he expect from Burke and Malice, after how they had been treated? It only made sense for them to depart after being smeared through the mud and threatened. Kendra's departure was perhaps simply a side-effect of this, for she had started going down hill further and further when Burke had gone, feeling more and more deserted.

He glanced at Damien, one ear turning in his direction and one staying on the darkness ahead as though hoping Kendra were to return. "She will be back." He was not sure of it, truthfully, and he wondered if it truly was Damien alone that had kept Cicero here all this time. He'd always wanted to believe his soul was not filled with darkness, that there was hope for him, but truthfully, he had always known he belonged here in the dark forest, that his soul was dark. Yet if Kendra could find happiness elsewhere then perhaps this was simply a lie he had been telling himself for so long.

He licked the back of his teeth and said, "Not all belong to the darkness of the Blackfeather Woods. But we will always have each other." Cicero nipped the frays of his brother's ear in affectionate gesture to empower his words.

Expressionless eyes fixed on the silhouette that was his sister walking away until it disappeared behind the forms of nature; and then kept staring at the same place she had been seen last. He wanted to run, chase her and tell her that she couldn't leave, that she belonged in Blackfeather Woods and that she would find nothing out there, but he didn't, he couldn't. Those thoughts, he knew were not true, were only product of his own selfish desires to keep the people he'd grown with (for as little as he really knew about them) around him like possessions. But Kendra needed to find herself, for she too, had known little more in her life than loss.

Damien wanted to believe his brother, that she would be back, but his past experiences differed from that whimsical idea. That had been the last time he'd ever see his little sister, and it hurt him. Cicero was there to comfort him, but like a gargoyle Damien showed no response to his affectionate gestures.

"We must follow her, make sure she doesn't get herself in danger" said his deep voice anxiously as the selflessness yielded to corrupt thoughts and his feet started pulling him towards the gone girl. Kendra wouldn't even know, Damien and Cicero could blend with the shadows to follow her steps, and in case she took too long to return Damien would drag her back home where she belonged.

Damien was convinced of his right, yet Cicero knew that it was not so simple. It never was. It would only push her further away were she to find signs that her brothers had followed, and to what end? What would happen to Kendra? Cicero thought that there was very little the world could do to that girl that had not already happened. In a way, she was like himself before the white wolf, for he had thought nothing could hurt him either. She was him but with the added pain of those she had lost, the things she had gone through — with extra baggage, perhaps. And yet she was so far from him, for she sought out her own life and her own place in it, did not bind herself to worldly things such as he had in the form of his brother Damien.

Teeth nipped at Damien's ear roughly as he came into motion in silent warning before Cicero spoke, falling in step with his brother but hoping to stop him; "There is nothing the world can add to her pain that her brothers could stop right now. The risk is too big, for if Kendra would find out she was followed it would only drive her further away." Some journeys needed to be done alone, Cicero knew, and while he wished that he could have kept Kendra safely by their side he also knew that it were not possible in this instance. He was not always right and perhaps if they would follow her it would end in their favour — who knew? — but there was yet no proof of such things.

Cicero's grip tightened, and Damien's ear flinched trying to break free. He had matched his movement, not pulling him back, not telling him to stop, but trying very hard to make him change his mind. Damien listened to his thoughtful words, realizing that this was not a good moment to put more pressure on Kendra that there already existed. She needed to find her way back home, regardless of where that place was.

Damien remained silent after his brother's words, not denying, or approving anything. He just kept walking, pushing his way towards the edge of his land, but slowly coming down to a stop right before the shadows opened up to the light world outside. There he stared, and fought the impulse to race behind the young girl. A sigh betrayed the helpless feeling that quickened inside his heart, and a glance at his brother's mismatched eyes allowed it to fully come out. But there was no use to that, he couldn't do anything now, and crying about it would change nothing. So the Dark Prince returned to the darkness, mentally crossing off yet another name from his list of remaining relatives.

-Damien out-

His brother plowed on with Cicero's silence beside him; he would let him make his own mistakes. He stared upon his brother in stoic silence as a decision was made, eventually, as they reached the territory's frays and he decided to turn back. Cicero watched his brother's departure and then turned to look back towards the light, wondering if he ever could belong in that world.

Probably not. Scarlett seemed the only one to ever have believed in such a thing, and she had been a naive thing, albeit sweet. He belonged to the dark forest, and so did Kendra — she would either live a life feeling like she did not belong, or figure that out and return.