through the woods we ran / return

[AUGUST]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]A month. It was hardly believable—to him, anyways—that he had been away from this place for a full month. That was the longest that August had ever been on his own, and it was a miracle that he had survived this far. He was a young wolf pup, naive and inexperienced and just as vulnerable as any other child in the face of the outside world, and yet he had returned from the wilderness without as much as a scratch on him ( his fur, however, did not go unruffled ).

He had left without warning. He figured that he would be back within a few days, but... Apparently he had been wrong. The days turned into weeks, with him traveling through mountains and forestry in search of his mother, who he had not seen in months. With no luck, August figured that he would return to Sunhaven, where he could at least call a home ( if they would have him back ).

The wolf pup had arrived directly in the coastal town, which he saw was being slowly but surely rebuilt after the flooding. He rounded around the buildings, searching for any familiar face that he could greet.

[Fairylights]

―――― A month. A month her friend had left this place and left Fairy thinking the worse. Why had he left? For quite some time she had kicked herself, wondering what it was that had driven him away- what had taken him, what had changed his mind about Sunhaven. What if he had died? What if he had been taken, like so many others had? For the month, no one could offer her any answers. She had always been the quiet sort, not the one to ask so many questions, but she had been left otherwise dissatisfied by the answers that she had, indeed, been given in answer to August's untimely disappearance from the familiar shores of Sunhaven.

But Fairylights, of course, had no inclination of where he had gone, and no reason to follow. So, she had tried to content herself with keeping busy around the Clan, cleaning up after the disaster, trying to live her life, away from her parents, with her new-found Uncle Buckingham and the eerieness, the quietness, that Sunhaven had become. It was.. as close to a home as she would find anymore, but compared to her small, quaint little village, where everyone knew each other, and something was occuring every night, this place offered less for her to cling to. Less to busy her worrying mind and the horrors she had faced in her young life. There was only so much that one young girl- a young woman- could do.

But she had never considered that he might return. It was morbid, even she would not deny that, but no word? No word at all of the only person she had considered a friend here? Her footsteps carried her across the beach that day, softly humming a song with no real purpose as her feet idly kicked aside a few cracked shells scattered along the shore, making her way back up towards the town. It was there that her gaze lifted only slightly at a flash of a familiar color, her song pausing as her steps half-stumbled for but a moment as she looked again, peering in the near distance at the figure that rounded the corner.  "August!" she cried out loudly before she could mind herself, her paws quickly dashing forward to carry herself towards the familiar figure of her friendly, boldly trying to catch up to him and tackle him in the biggest hug she could, her emotions fleeting, for a moment, however overwhelming as she forgot herself, clinging to him tightly had she succeeded in finding him, and not the ground just behind him.  "August! You're alive! You're here! Where did you go? Why did you go?" the questions tumbled forth, a threat of tears, much surprising to herself as any other, catching in her voice.

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[AUGUST]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Being met by a bundle of fur flying onto him was certainly not the "welcome back" greeting he had been expecting. The wolf pup's brows raised in surprise, his baby blues glistening as well as he recognized the form ( and voice ) to be that of Fairy's. [glow=black,1,400]"Fairy..."[/glow] Soft breath drew from parted lips. It was his friend, his closest friend—she was the first to see him. Gaze softening into a mild glow, he relaxed his shoulders—as they had been tensed back—and he seated back onto his haunches to support the both of them. He moved a paw to hold her in an embrace as she raised questions as to where he had been and why he had left.

Lips pursed upon soft, youthful features. He knew that someone would ask that, and he fully-well knew the answer, but he found it so difficult to find the words to say to Fairylights. She sounded so worried, so distraught over his sudden disappearance. Why had he abandoned his friends without warning for weeks on end? It sounded so cruel, so selfish when one phrased it like that.

[glow=black,1,400]"I..."[/glow] He heaved a sigh, gaze flitting downward towards the ground. Swallowing, eventually, August started, [glow=black,1,400]"I went to go find my mom."[/glow] It was as simple as that. He hadn't seen her since he had joined Sunhaven months ago, and he had naturally grown concerned for her wellbeing. Had she been lost, looking for him? Had she been stranded somewhere? August could not just simply move on. [glow=black,1,400]"I didn't think I would be gone for this long. Honest."[/glow] August had ended up searching far and wide; far more than he had initially expected. He even had a run-in with a bear and a brief trip to the Ascendants that had been unplanned.

August shifted back, away from the other's embrace, and he met her eyes with his own. [glow=black,1,400]"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before."[/glow] August didn't know what he had been thinking. It wasn't right to leave your friends without warning.