She had found her way back to the Wildwood for whatever reason her paws had carried her there. There were times the agouti woman no longer felt she had control over the direction she traveled. Sometimes she even wondered how she was still alive having not felt hungry in...well she wasn't really sure anymore. She'd lost track of the days and how long it had been since she’d last eaten something. Her thirst was perhaps the only thing that nagged at her anymore. When she went to drink she did everything she could to ignore her reflection for it only served to remind her of what a failure her life had become.

She stumbled across the grassy terrain not really seeing the blackened forest around her. The scent of a nearby rabbit was ignored, like most days she didn't feel like she could eat anything. Feeling the need to rest she managed to reach a blackened stump. This was where she fell back on her haunches sides heaving from the effort it had taken to get there. For a moment she sat resting, catching her breath. What had she become? Only a wisp of what she had been drifting around with nothing, she couldn't show up at the border of Willow Ridge like this unable to offer anything to them.

Once her sides had stopped heaving Leotie rose to her shaky feet once more. She looked this way and that to decide where to go next, what to do next but she could not. A whine escaped her as her mind once again clouded over as she let her paws carry her in whatever direction they wanted. It was better this way, she didn't have to think about anything and she didn't have to make any decisions as she once more was stumbling to nowhere in particular.

It was best not to have to think about where to go, that led to thoughts about what had happened, what she lost...Sven. Leotie shook her head and nearly fell off balance. Regaining her feet she paused a moment and took a deep breath, she couldn't think of that. No, she had to keep moving and let the fog back in. It was the only way to keep her mind from drifting to the things that drug her down, it was the only way to keep the sadness away. It would make her want to curl up and not do anything, maybe it would be better if she let the sadness in.

A voice reached her ears causing them to perk forward but she turned her head away from the voice. She believed it to have come from the other side so she turned her head to face away from Kerb and to where she thought the voice had come from. She'd heard the voice before but it was asking such an odd question, it had never cared about an injury before. “No injury,” she said as she sat back on her haunches facing the direction she had spoken before, “Why would you ask? You didn't before when we spoke.” Then she went silent, waiting for some response her tail sweeping the ground only once.

She was growing impatient waiting for an answer to the question she'd asked, it wasn't like the voice to keep her waiting so. Then it came and it didn't make sense to her, Leotie shook her head in hopes it would help her understand. Then she looked down at her paw the one that sometimes pained her. Her clouded mind had forgotten why it did but she knew there was a tiny scar where the fur didn't grow. “It was weeks ago don't you remember by the river we didn't talk about my paw then. He would have asked, he always asked,” she was growing annoyed, “I don't know what happened to my paw,” she spoke her tail flicking angrily.

She waited once more for the voice to come back with something about her paw but instead it asked if she was hungry. A disjointed laugh came from her maw, “You know I haven't been hungry since that day and you know we don't talk about it either. How could you do that to me bring it up when you know what it does?” A low growl toward the voice sounded from her throat before it stopped abruptly. “What do you mean someone is behind me?” She asked the voice before she turned to face the someone the voice had spoken of. Her eyes widened and he jaw opened slightly as she tried to back up shaking her head, “He's not real, you're playing tricks on me.”

The words that came from the voice only served to annoy the agouti woman for the voice knew, she had told him the answer to it's question. “You know who don't you, I told you but he won't be asking any more,” she said letting her gaze drop to her paws, “He doesn't even know does he?” She gasped, “Would he be angry when he finds out do you think? I don't know what he would do.” Her gaze went skyward once more, “If you must know I will remind you, shall I remind you or don't know now?” The agouti woman waited a beat before giving a nod, “Very well, I knew you remembered. It's not nice to lie to me.”

Then the voice warned her of someone behind her telling her they had come to harm her like they had done before. Leotie turned and came face to face with Kerb, she couldn't get to her feet fast enough as the panic set in. Everything came crashing down as she heard it in her mind, he'd come to finish her off.  Naira had to have sent him to make sure she couldn't come back, to take her from Sven like in of the ridge wolves had taken her mate. He spoke telling her he was real and a whimper found its way into the air around them as she became tangled in some of the blackened trees.  “You've come on her orders haven't you, what did she tell you to do? Kill me?” Leotie nearly screamed at him. Tears started streaming down her cheeks as she gave up her struggle.

Then he spoke again in a whisper and her blue eyes so bright and full of light now seeming dimmer met his golden gaze. “How could you?” She whispered back in a moment of lucidity. How could he let Naira do that to her, let her become what she was. She turned her head from him and rested it against her shoulder as the tears flowed freely, she didn't want him to see them.