It was starting to seem as though winter would never leave the lore. Kajika had been so consumed with finding Moonshadow and Lunette that he hadn't had much else on his mind.  With the way things had gone with Des before he left on his trip he felt giving her some space might be the best thing to at least salvage their friendship.  He had wanted to make things up to her so after he and Tagg had brought Moonshadow back to the Cove Kajika went to speak with Des.

He'd started where she normally slept finding it empty which sent him in search of her through the cove.  When he didn't find her he assumed that she was out scouting, it was what she loved to do.  He figured she would be back as she always did but when  he found her sleeping place empty again and the scent fading just a little and no sign of her anywhere else on the cove he became worried.

It was the third day he went looking for and found that she still hadn't returned that he wasn't going to wait for her to show up any longer.  He had done that in the past and she'd ended up in a lot of trouble and he'd lost her.  He wasn't going to let that happen again and this time he had a scent to follow even if it was a faint one.  Without telling anyone where he was going he immediately went in search of Des. Like Moonshadow he would bring her home to the cove.  With her scent already starting to fade he didn't waste any time looking for the place on the border where she'd crossed out of pack lands.

He finally found her trail on the east side of the territory and like it left pack lands keeping his nose to the ground so that he wouldn't lose it.  It seemed he'd traveled a while, his worry of how he would find her growing.  Would she be perfectly okay or injured as Moonshadow had been when they had found her. The thought of her being injured and needing help urge him to pick up his pace as he continued to follow her trail.

Time passed and Des’ scent grew stronger meaning only one thing, that he was getting close to where she was.  Now he could smell her on the air, his nostrils flared as he took her familiar scent.  He picked his pace up even more so that he could reach her quicker in case she was injured.

He was moving at a run when he suddenly came to an abrupt stop, Des’ scent had become strongest there and the smell of blood mingled with it. “What could have possibly happened?” He said into the air confusion crossing his features as he looked over the scene. The blood wasn't visible for the fresh snow but the dark man knew it was there. That wasn't what held his attention as the snow fell around him but the mass that lay in front of him. Unsure if he wanted to go any closer he paced back and forth looking to the mass a couple of times. He debated it in his head before finally he crept forward not wanting to know if it was her body under the layer of freshly fallen snow but needing to know. The fur that stuck out amongst the flakes of snow was unmistakably the same color as those held within her pelt. “It can't be her. it's not her,” he whispered to himself​ repeating the words over and over as if he were trying to make himself believe them. “I'm not losing her, not again and not like this,” he said louder shaking his head, His nose hadn't ever failed him but this time he wished that it once he had closed the distance between him and the body that lay before him in the snow.

His chest tightened as he slowly removed the snow from her face to confirm that he had found the woman he loved. He didn't want to believe that she was truly gone from his life forever, how could it end like this with them not even having said a word to each other since he'd returned. “It's not true,” he stated matter of factly, “Des wake up, we need to get back to the cove. The others will be worried,"he said as he nudged her cheek with his nose. She didn't move so he nudged her again a little harder, surely that would wake her. When she still hadn't moved not even a flutter of her eyes his breath caught in his throat as he collapsed to the ground beside her. He couldn't deny the truth any longer, no amount of nudging your speaking to her firmly would wake her. He sides no longer moved with her breath, The sound of her heart didn't reach his ears. She was gone and there was nothing he could do to help her, “I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you and that I was too much of a coward to tell you how I truly felt about you,” he whispered into the fur of her neck. A sigh left him as he remained quiet for a few heart beats the pain he felt as his chest tightened was unbearable. The tears over his lost love fell freely from his eyes, “I will always love you and you will always be missed,” he whispered into her ear not knowing if she would somehow hear it.

For a long time after that Kajika remained with her his head resting across her shoulders as he spent the last moments with her he would ever have.  Hours had passed before he finally rose himself up to his full height to do what he knew needed to be done.  Raising his muzzle into the air he sent a long sorrowful howl into the sky to call for his pack mates and as a song to his fallen love.

Once his voice had faded he laid back down next to her but as he buried his nose into her coat once more he discovered another scent.  It was much fainter than hers but it was still there enough he could commit it to memory and it was male.  Something wasn't right about this as he finally remembered the blood he'd smelled when he'd first found her.  He went about removing the snow from the rest of her body to find multiple injuries. That was when he realized that her life had not just come to an end but that she'd been murdered.

Kajika laid back down next to her, “I will find the one who did this to you and make them pay for ending your life,” he said resting his head across her shoulders once more as the snow continued to fall upon the man and his fallen love.

Holy water can't help you now

As soon as they’d had a moment of reprieve the Cove was hit with another tragedy; Des was missing. She hadn’t thought anything of it the first two days as she’d been informed by the woman that she was going out on a scouting trip. Normally, however, she was back within a day or two. By the third day Namid was feeling very unsettled and decided to conduct a little investigation of her own, unknown to her that Kajika had beaten her to the punch. She’d just managed to catch the scent of the woman when Kajika’s call went up, so mournful that her breath caught in her throat. Please, Ancestors, no, she thought, frozen in place. She didn’t want to face this, face what had caused him to sound so broken and lost. But...she had to. The pale woman knew she had to go to him and so numbly her legs carried her swiftly down, down, down.

As the scents grew stronger her heart began to beat wildly in her chest, constricting painfully that she felt like she might start wheezing. Then, there he was. Kajika was sprawled across the snow and as she moved closer she could see red hairs poking out from beneath his head. She stopped cold, unable to move any closer. Her vision began to dot and for a moment she thought she might pass out, instinct reminding her to take a gulp up air. She stumbled to a seated position, wordless, gaping like a fish with auds flattened against her skull. Her best friend, the one who had given her strength and confidence to keep being a leader from the very beginning. Her friend who she had already failed once and now had failed for the last time.

This was her fault and this was not a sin she could ever atone for.

It felt like forever that she sat there, staring blankly at the body before her body moved of its own accord. Toward them, toward her and as she finally stared down at the lifeless face which had once been filled with such kindness and joy she felt like she wanted to vomit. It gurgled up her throat and she swallowed, the acidity at the back of her tongue. Then another smell hit her and her brows furrowed in confusion. Male, but not of Kajika. Faint, so faint that she had not been able to smell it until she was right on top of her. And blood, wounds that had dripped that vital liquid. A struggle. Not an accident, but murder undoubtedly. It had to do, the redhead was not so clumsy as to fall and too stubborn to go down without a fight.

Red.

All she saw was red, her hackles raising slowly as she stared. Stolen, she had been stolen from them by another. Again she found cause to blame herself. She had given the woman her blessing to go on this trip and had simply left her for days. How long had she been lying there bleeding out. What had she thought of, what had been the last thing she’d seen before her final breath. All of it dropped onto Namid’s shoulders and she felt the weight of it in full. She almost bowed down but like Atlas she would have to bear the weight of her punishment. Of living while her friend could not. There was only one way that this would be righted, only one way that she could allow this to be settled. Blood for blood.

“He will pay,” was all she said.

A thousand armies couldn't keep me out

Holy water can't help you now

The pale woman barely registered the approach of Anaia until her startlingly white pelt snapped her out of her reverie. Auds swiveled forward to catch Kajika’s similar tone and his acceptance. This offense could not and would not go unpunished by them. If it was the last thing she did, the pale queen would find this murderer. Ignoring the fact of what kind of leader she would be to just let it go, Desideria had been her friend. She had promised her safety after she had come back and spilled her guts to her about what had happened. And how had she backed up that promise? Well, the truth of it was lying in front of her face.

For once, Namid didn’t want to be touched. She didn’t want to be comforted and she didn’t think that Kajika did either. They both felt the brunt of the weight that this held over them and knew that they would be a force to be reckoned with. Her mismatched gaze leveled on him, fiery but with a cool and collected air about her all the same. She could not lose her head now. No, she could do that later. She could go out further into the mountain and scream and cry until she threw up, but for now there was a plan to be made and a good friend to be avenged. “What do you want the first move to be?” she asked. Desideria had been more to Kajika than she had been to Namid, if anyone deserved to make the moves it was the dark second.

A thousand armies couldn't keep me out

In the time it had taken for Namid and the others to join him he had been able to say his goodbyes to the woman who had meant so much in this life. When her first come to the lore he'd never imagined that he would have a friend such as her. That friendship had turned to more and had she not been taken from him before it could have been so much more than a friendship. They could have had what Tagg and Moonshadow had and now he would never know. Her murderer​ had taken that from him, from her.

He was not surprised when Namid joined him in wishing for the man who did this to pay for his sins. The dark beta had never wanted revenge more than he did then. It was the lick to his shoulder that brought his mind from the horrible things that he wanted to do to the man who had killed his love. He took a moment to nudge her cheek to show his appreciation that she had come. As he looked to his alpha and friend Moonshadow and Tagg came into his line of sight. They too seemed to be just as devastated by the discovery of Des's lifeless body, a woman do strong to have gone through the things she had and survived to be reduced to what she was now.

The look in the tawny man's eye told the beta all he needed to know, he too was ready to avenge their fallen pack mate. Namid's question had registered but at the moment he hadn't been able to think about what their first move should be. He turned to her and rested his gaze on the woman who he knew felt the loss he felt in a way others could not. “I would like her to be buried next to Anthem and then we find a way to track the bastard who did this. I won't be forgetting his scent any time soon.”