Broken Boulder finsternis [bwp]

optional! <3

arcas had gone and asra had not come back. his sons had faded into their own world, perhaps dispersed early. he had searched and searched and returned home weary, empty-handed, empty. wylla had not come back and mahler did not know why he had hoped. had he not told her to surrender her hopes in him? of course she would return.
two days ago, snow had billowed over the bracken wood. upon warning phaedra, bidding her travel to the cracked stone, he had shouted to @Star, searching for @Calcifer and for @Marble with a quick step, to command their attention and lead them to the others. a sharp howl to in hopes reach @Praimfaya and @Sequoia. a final cry for @Astraeus, swallowed by the throat of the oncoming storm. 
two days ago he had bid them all underground beneath the broken boulder.
and now as the gargoyle shoved his shoulders to create a break and a pathway upward through the drifts that had gathered, he was met with only howling wind and sharp scudding palmfuls of snow, falling, falling, as mahler squinted in all directions and felt resolution take the place of fear.

Returned, the wayward son sagged through steadily rising snowdrifts as he searched inexhaustibly for the heart of Rivenwood. Thade had gone from this place the moment his father left on his ill-timed eight-day excursion, and he did not feel familiar at all with his snowbound surroundings, but this was his last resort. If Mahler was not here, then Thade would truly be on his own, with no one to rely on but himself. It was an outfit he had previously been quite eager to wear but had since found uncomfortable and downright unflattering.

His original goal had been to right the mistake of letting Wylla leave without him, yet not surprisingly, he was unable to locate her. The boy sought his father out now instead, feeling defeated and more vividly upset than he could ever remember being. The sheets of snowfall did nothing to improve his mood, but did even less to dampen his determination to find the Rivenwood wolves.

He howled through the stripped trees, trying to be heard over the crying wind.

he would have gone back under had not the faintest sound come to his ageing ear. mahler cupped both auds in that direction, waded out into the gathering drifts. the call grew less muddled, more clear, and the gargoyle's breath hitched in his throat. 
lunging in greater steps, mahler pressed through the naked trees, wending his way closer and closer until at last his lilac eyes were filled with the sight of his beautiful wayward boy. "thade," he breathed, though he came to an abrupt stop, unsure if he should reach for his son. in the next, however, he had done just so. "vhere did you go?" he asked softly, voice gruff with emotion.

Papa! Thade barked out, feeling all strife leave him as he recognized the handsomely dark and broad-shouldered warden prancing towards him. A veritable knight in shining black armor. In that moment, he felt ridiculously small again and so much younger, that was like reliving a primal flesh memory from his childhood. Seeing Mahler now reminded him intimately of the elation he used to experience when seeing his father return dutifully each night.

The boy’s relief was palpable, rushing to meet the tall wolf through the pelting snow. They stopped short to take one another in, and he was inwardly surprised to note that he stood nearly as tall, despite lacking any of the weight and musculature of the wolf before him. Unfortunately, he would never be able to shed the leanness he shared with his mother, and solitary life had done him no favors either.

He fell eagerly into the graf’s embrace, taking in his scent deeply. He was disappointed not to smell Wylla on his fur, and when asked why he had left, Thade visibly hardened. I went to find her, he fumed — some hidden accusation there behind his angsty eyes. He didn’t feel that he needed to clarify who he was talking about. I never should’ve let her leave! All the desperation he’d been keeping bottled up came spilling out now. And, and when you left, I-I just felt like, like I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t make her stay, I-I couldn’t make you stay — I know you said you’d come back, but wh-what if you didn’t? What if you didn’t come back too?

Thade stared hard at Mahler for a moment after throwing the question in his face, then deflated, hurt. He thought he had gone too far, gotten too loud and emotional — things Mother never would have allowed — and he looked away from his proud father shamefully, muttering in defeat: I thought I could find her…

thade came close and mahler breathed a sigh of relief. pain flitted through his expression as the boy began to speak, and the gargoyle realized how greatly broken the fractures over their surface had deepened. wylla departed and he choosing to leave as well — he appreciated the heaviness of his boy's words with a somber nod.
"i vent to visit elke and ciri, before the snows came," he explained softly, gingerly. neither wylla nor phaedra, silk ribbon around the edge of rivenwood, welcomed the sound of such names. but thade knew of them even less it seemed, and now he had come back to a place where they were not, and perhaps would never be.
"it is not your fault that she left," mahler attempted, pulling the tall young wolf closer. "and she vill come back."
she only needs time
time, the brute mistress of the shadowpriest's eternal misery.
he drew back, studied thade's distressed features. "after the vinter, vould you like to go vith your mother?"