MEMENTO VIVERE | RETURN?

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

It was sort of funny, really. Arrow had been the first person that Aurum had ever seen die when he had first joined Tanglewood, and despite not really knowing her, the female's death had hit him hard. Perhaps it was just because he was reminded of the crushing constant presence of death over all of them, or perhaps just because he had finally been beginning to consider Tanglewood family, and anybody dying would've elicited that reaction. Still, ever since Arrow had done the tango down to hell, Aurum had taken deaths particularly hard, with Leroy's being the most recent and also one of the worst. Still, the way that Aurum showed his grief wasn't like most others. Rather than locking himself inside, closing the doors and the shades and having a good long cry with a tub of ice cream, the lion preferred to get outside and do as much as he could in order to never think about the fact that one of his loved ones had just died. Was it a healthy method of grieving? Hell no, far from it, but that didn't mean he was going to stop. He didn't even know what to do with himself when he finally processed his emotions, and he had enough of actually thinking about the fact he would never see Leroy again when he had found the other's bottle of whiskey on his porch. For now, he just wanted to go back to not thinking about it, and push it aside so hard it would probably end up with bruises.

As a result of his constant roaming, Aurum was the first one to come upon Arrow, confused by the many different scents that assaulted him as he got closer to the tree she was in. It seemed like there was the faintest old scent of Tanglewood, but also the smell of death, and the sharp tang of blood. All of it skyrocketed his anxiety up to eleven, and he found himself picking up the pace and flapping his wings a bit until he came to the tree that Arrow was in, blinking his one good eye up at her. He opened his muzzle, about to ask her who she was and why she was here, but there was a strange twinge of familiarity that ran through him at the female's appearance, and after a long moment of silence, he mumbled in disbelief, "Arrow...? Is that you?" It seemed so incredibly unlikely, for the female to return after all this time – especially at such an unhappy one, considering Leroy's death – but there she was, clear as day right in front of him, along with the addition of two little flightless wings. He rumbled after a moment, sheepishly looking down and dragging a paw over the earth, "Ah, shit, suppose you wouldn't recognize me. We only interacted once or twice. Er, I'm Aurum. Used to be Wormwood. I was around for a little bit before your... you know. It's, uh... it's surreal to see you back." His ears pinned down to his head for a moment before he sighed, "I wish I could welcome you back with happier news..."

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