Eros had drifted from @Achille again, near enough to call and be called for, but far enough to have his privacy as depression's tide swelled once more. It pulled him down dark and deep, its saltwater forcing its way into his lungs and seeping into his heart, filling veins, permeating every part of him. His legs kept moving, navigating terrain clumsily but steadily, but he wasn't present. He didn't feel the breeze moving through his fur, or hear the geese chattering overhead, or smell the mountain flowers woven amongst the grasses he walked through. All he was truly perceiving were his own thoughts.

Currently, they were focused on the matter of each and every step being a choice of his. He really could just... stop walking, or even simply turn in another direction. Eros didn't have to return as quickly as possible, or... even at all. How much worse could everyone really feel? Wouldn't it be easier, wasn't he... wasn't he an extension of Archer anyways?

Shouldn't he be gone too?

A voice caught him off guard, for it wasn't Achille. Not necessarily unrecognizable, either, though he didn't know who until his eyes settled on her. Conflicting emotions attempted to rise and vie for his attention, but they simply could not compete. He blinked dully at her, not even having it in him to scoff at her observation.

His lackluster eyes glanced to the side at the ground, before returning to the other wolf. Who gave a shit about rest? His thoughts were now vortexed around how she'd spoken as though she'd been there, with Archer while he'd died. Snakebite. A suffering death.

Eros' lips parted, then closed. He had stopped walking without realizing, paws together while his mind churned and he tried to get himself to talk, but it really was as though he'd been filled with seawater. Impossible to get anything out, to even take that starting breath.

His legs started to shake and chest was tightening while his eyes burned with a new bout of tears.

Eros mostly expected for her to leave him be. Why she didn't, he couldn't be sure. Were he less numbed, he would have quickly become irritated with the way she spoke to him. Like he was a child that needed help calming down from a fit. His brows knit and his eyes closed briefly, lips separating to utter nothing at all yet again. The movement of his eyelids pushed tears from his eyes, and they rolled over his cheeks unevenly.

There was probably a lot he should have been saying, especially given how infrequently he traversed these mountains. The most recent few times, he'd been so sure it'd be the final visit. The last chance to see any of the faces who lived amongst the Cove. By all reason, this could be his final time interacting with the girl. Shouldn't he be saying an apology or showing some kind of gratitude? They might have never known, might have searched for Archer for years...

Eros opened his eyes again, took a deep breath in, and let it out. Not 'cause she told him to, or anything.

"I wanted you to be lying."

Eros wished that she had a more difficult personality, too. It made it all the harder, hearing the emotion in her voice, seeing that she too was fighting with her tears, the way she just kept apologizing. The younger wolf grit his fangs and hunched his shoulders as his gaze dropped too, doing his best to avoid losing his composure in front of the stranger.

If it was this difficult to broach the subject with her, how was he going to manage talking about it with family? Eros knew the answer instantly; he wouldn't. There was no use in trying to force himself to verbalize any of it, now or any other time, because it would come down to the same thing it always did. Someone would shut down, or someone would lose it, first.

He lifted his head, gaze darting around their surroundings, eyes blinking repeatedly to try and chase away the burning moisture.

"I'm sorry for things too."

Succinct, vague, whatever she wanted. He didn't have the energy to go through it all, probably couldn't even manage it in a day. He was sorry for everything at this point. It felt like there was nothing right and certainly nothing he could do to make any of it better.

"The Cove knows, then? You'd said you'd visited them, but I hadn't asked if they'd sent you."

They knew, but hadn't sent her. That was something he could latch onto, now wasn't it? He would have, but the kindling was waterlogged and wouldn't catch. Eros could only wonder why. Had they been afraid to deliver that kind of news again? Somehow, it surprised him that they wouldn't at least want Ally to know. For her to not be waiting on a father that could never come home.

Ah, there a spark caught. Nori asked, and Eros answered without much thought. His gaze had stopped wandering, now fixed upon the ground beneath them. Huddling up to that lone wisp of warmth amongst the frigid cold of loss.

"Figured they'd have told us."

He remembered @Leo, recalled asking why it hadn't been him instead, and felt that pain again. Eros hated that he wished he was here now too, in this woman's place. Good or bad, he always ended up hoping for the Vuesain heir to be the one who showed up. As though there were any way he could make something this awful any better.

"Do they even know we've been informed?"

Maybe, hopefully, he'd just missed the official messenger.