It had been nearly seven days since the blizzard had come and gone. Snow still covered the ground thickly, piling up in large drifts where the wind had willed it. Iopah padded through the snow with the sun slipping down low behind her. She followed in the tracks of her pack mates blindly, too weary for anything more than that simple navigation. The sun was nearly gray on her pelt by the time she made it back. With a sigh she rounded a snowy hillock the storm had left behind. The tracks she traced over were not enough. There should be more prints than this and Iopah was acutely aware of the absences. The storm had not simply left snow, it had taken as well.

Just like last year, it had taken two of them. For six days, since she realized Pacem and Aideen were lost, she'd been searching. Making ever widening circles around their land. This shouldn't have happened. She'd made sure to teach the boy how to find his way back and Aideen knew the land as well as Iopah did. It didn't seem to matter. Tonight, just as the previous nights, she padded back empty handed.

The shadows had lengthened into night when Iopah finally approached her sleeping spot. She circled once, then let her weight sink into the wolf-shaped nest. A light gray tail pulled over her nose to leave nothing but coarse guard hairs to weather the night. Her sleep was anything but peaceful, filled with familiar faces that vanished with her slightest movement. Every turn left her more and more alone. In her sleep she whined softly, the sound barely audible through the dense plush of her tail.

It was no use. She could hear them all around her. Voices that she knew, either years or moments ago. All her family, loved ones and friends, trying to tell her something. Each time she turned, to hear better or see them, their voice would fall silent. One by one, they were vanishing. Finally she stopped turning, meeting each familiar voice with only a pleading whine that carried through from her dream state. She was crouched, trying to ignore them all, when something brushed against her. Something whispered to her in a voice she loved, and the sleeping wolf whined once more. The touch came again, gentle on her face and then with enough force alongside her that the dreaming wolf braced herself. Iopah turned to look at the ghost, expecting it to vanish like the others.

It was just as dark inside the den as it was in her dream, but there was enough light to reflect off Koda's pelt. Her chest heaved in a dry sob of relief. Finally someone who didn't vanish before her very eyes. He was curled against her and Iopah pushed firmly back into him, wanting to be sure he truly existed and the dream wasn't continuing. It was the cold air clinging to his fur and softness of his undercoat as she wedged closer that convinced her. He was real and she was awake.

She couldn't articulate her relief and joy at that realization. In the darkness of their den, she followed the green in his eyes to press the bridge of her nose into the crook of his neck. She drew back to face him, draping a pale foreleg over his shoulder. Face to face, with their backs to the walls of the den, she looked up at him. Her slender leg was almost lost in the denseness of his fur. "Everyone was vanishing," The dream seemed to lurk in the shadows of the den, blurring with the reality outside. "You can't..." Even with his reassuring warmth under her leg, she couldn't finish the sentence. "You just can't."

It was darker now. In the gloom of the darkened den and coming storm there only the random glint of light off their eyes and the sense of touch. She could feel the weight of his foreleg on her side, secure and real enough to push the dream farther from her mind. It pressed tighter and closer even as the male's great head lowered, and she did nothing but quirk dark lips in curiosity. Her body dragged and scuffed across the cold earth towards him and her lips parted slightly as she tried to figure out what he was doing exactly.

Finally she stopped, her body snugged up tight to his, noses touching. There was a quiet pause. Iopah waited in the silence, curiosity mounting. Finally she turned to him, mouth opened and prepared to tenderly pry his thoughts loose. He meet her suddenly, the display somehow not expected in the solemn dark. Her breath, whatever words it held, came out in a relaxed rush. The kiss ran over her and she could only think of how content, how happy— Love, he said. A breath was held in, but she stayed close, surprised her heart had no objections to the term. A salmon tongue ran over dark lips, the only sign of her butterflies. "I've never, I don't think I've ever-" Embarrassed, her head pushed into him. Why were the right words always so hard to find? "But, I think I love you." In fact, she was sure of it. She sighed into his think winter coat, content with simply knowing.

A whisper of something pulled her attention away; a slight movement lifted her head away. Someone was running, fast hurried footfalls. Iopah rose and, with a perplexed glance back, stepped out of the den. The scent was Danica's and the huntress could hear frenzied movements. The wrong sort of concern gripped her, thinking only of the girl's frequently slipping mental state.

It was easy for the Woodland huntress to follow her. Twisting through the darkening evening, following the tracks and faint sobs, fearing the state she would find the girl in. A pale figure emerged in the murkiness and she slowed, calling out cautiously."Danica?" She stepped closer, edging around the pacing girl to search her expression. "Did something happen?"

She was still leaning forward when Danica spun around. The memory of the night they'd returned to the thicket together was at the front of her mind. It seemed that she was confused in the same way and that she needed help. In her mind Danica was still the shy pup under her mother's belly. Iopah thought she was helping. Her muzzle was only inches from the girl as she spoke and everything began to fall apart. Gold eyes narrowed in worry, then confusion as Danica started her angry tirade. The emotion was recognized instantly, but not it's source. Iopah drew herself back slowly to avoid overwhelming her, eyes all over her face for an explanation. The blaming words fell into just the right order for it to click, instantly Iopah knew. She was still on the outside, but shaking in rage inside. Blood pounded in her ears, the deafening heartbeat the only thing that held back her rising indignation. She glared at Danica, feeling her fury burn the sockets from inside out, willing Danica to shut up before they crossed a one-way line.

"I loved you too!" She flung back as the line sped away and out of sight. Her tail rose with her voice. This girl was not a pup, some child hiding under her mother any longer. Iopah was going to treat her like the spoiled adult she was. "She already knows! Not everyone has to be as miserable as your mother!" Her hackles rose and fell in waves as she yelled back. "This is not a fucking prison and your mother is not God!" She watched the tears fall and her lips pulled back in satisfaction, but if Danica was't done then neither was she. The past weeks, months, and years hit her all at once, there was no stopping. "You left! Damn it Danica, you left too!" She wanted her every word to hurt, to choke the stupid woman into silence. And Iopah had years of history to back her words in truth.

Danica turned her attention onto the male and Iopah watched her with eyes as hard as metal. It was a terrible thing that happened, but she listened with the opposite of sympathy. Tail lashed wildly and a low growl rose in her chest to interrupt. "You think bad things only happen when someone leaves?! You are not the only one to lose a brother! To lose a sister!" The lines were obviously blurring in her mind. Danica's pain was mixing with her own and, in her hysteria Iopah, didn't even notice the slip-up. She plowed on, there was no slowing this train wreck.

Her normally low and throaty voice was stressed. It cracked as she cried out "If you cared why did you leave? I had to search for you and Hollow by myself! I had to search for everyone alone!" Of course, who could forget? It was the basis of this whole argument, the aspect that had drawn Iopah and Koda together. At one point they had all left her. She shuddering, openly crying now, and as likely to snap at the male as his daughter now. She was a mess of pain and knee-jerk reactions; when Danica sprang for Koda she was right on her heels. She aimed for the shoulder, putting all of her 95 pounds into knocking Danica off her feet and away from Koda. That never would have been ok, if Danica thought anything excused laying teeth on a pack mate like that then she deserved to get shoved into the dirt. She panted, looking down at Danica, and answered slowly. "I did love you." Before.