A smile permeated the barrier once held across her face with an ease she almost never had imagined. That liquid silver stare she had met so many times, but now she caught the gleam in his stare and how it reflected his every emotion. They seemed to shine as a laugh escaped from his parted jaws, and for once it felt real. Every reverberation in his chest she felt in her bones and it was freer than flying - who would have ever imagined?

"I did, actually," the dark-furred female retorted cheekily while Ice made himself... er... comfortable? on the rock-studded stone that made up the mountainside. Looking up at the ground as though trying to recall the exchange accurately she added, "He hissed something quite coldly and then disappeared, leaving a trail of black flames while murmuring your name all the way back to his slime-covered cave..." The creation in her mind continued quite vividly, littering the ground of Hell with Voxyos' victims' bones and their moans echoed through his haunt and made the slime vibrate like the very song of death. Of course, such a wild fantasy was probably not the best thing to unload on his ear after a break in their relationships...

Hey, Ice's interjection broke her (twisted) daydream and she swung her amber gaze back to him. Decent sun-bathing rocks? Why, if he only knew! An excitement grew in her grin and she leapt to her four with a stunning theatricality, chest puffed out and nose in the air like it were her compass. "Absolutely I do," she asserted. Sunning rocks were her freaking thing just as much as being sassy and hunting and Poison Path. She made little waste in heading out, providing only a brief glance to make sure that Ice would indeed roll over and follow suit.

It felt like defying gravity; the weight of her very existence no longer pulled her closer to the stone surface upon which she tred. Now her steps were light, bouncing along the familiar paths surrounded by the love of her pack and her friend. Was it just the lack of depression, or was she actually just bouncing around with the sheer light of a life anew? Either way it took half as long as Ava expected it to find one of her sun-bathing haunts. The ground evened out and the trees and rocks seemed to break away for a dramatic reveal.

There she beheld the perch for two with a nostalgic shine to her amber stare. It wasn’t her rock in Riddle Heights which had been the center piece for a surprisingly amount of a lot of her experiences on the mountain side, but it certainly provided a more elegant view. Here the sparse spruces that extended into the blue sky were easy to see, trailing down the valley and toward the hidden poison path that lead her home. The boulder was large and grey and at a decent height with a surface smoothed by some form of weather long before she ever graced it.

Regardless of what created its loveliness, Ava was there to take full advantage. With a push of her powerful back legs she launched herself to the top. Reclining along the sun-warmed surface Ava gave a gentle sigh, bringing her head down between her outstretched forelegs to feel the stone against her cheek. Her stare reached thousands of yards beyond the view, looking into everything and nothing at the same time but without a heart devoid of emotion.

“So what happens now?” Ava mused almost rhetorically. There was so much to do now, wasn't there? So many paths to walk, if she only knew where to place her paws.

From her curled perch she watched Ice's grand haul, an amused little smile ghosted across her dark lips. What a gargantuan difference there was in the atmosphere between now and some odd hour ago. Seeing her giant white friend throwing his weight to make it on top of the rock seemed like such a trivial thing - just quick occurance, a small smile at the silliness of it, before the moment flitted away. Insignificant. And yet the fact that she could find joy in something so "meaningless" made all the difference. It was normal to feel that way - to find some quick moment small and funny - to enjoy life as it happened, everything included. Whether he knew it or not, Ava would be forever indebted to the Guardian for pulling her from the riptide.

Or for everything, really. Laying in the comfort of his company she had a moment to consider something quite wild - What if it hadn't been him? What if, on that frosty night beneath the Willows, she had come across anyone besides Ice? Would they have released her frustrations? Would they have exchanged riddles with her? Would they have played with her? Would they have made anywhere near the difference in her life that he had? She did not have to consider it long - in fact, she did not consider it at all. The answer was clear; no. No one could have made the difference her pale-armored knight had. This life that she lead was not possible without him. After all, where would she be had he not made sense of her anxiety? Would she have become the warrior Rhysis wanted? Would she have turned tail and abandoned her commitment? And would those possibilities - those lives that she could have lived - been any better than this one?

Of course not.

It wasn't that she knew where she was headed with the path she'd chose, or anything like that. No, Ava merely felt so strangely at peace with the uncertainty; as if the only thing that mattered was laying against the sun-warmed stone for as long as she pleased. Somehow the content of their lives was sprawled haphazardly across the sunning stone and yet the clutter was not overwhelming. If there was anyone she could hash it out with, it was Ice.

"You are not a traitor," she snorted giving her shoulders a shake. "The lines are crossed over and blurred and it's pretty clear nothing is making sense so we definitely don't have to make any damn sense either." And then she grinned, something unhinged but in a good way. Let his Swift River scent douse her, see if she cared any more. She still loved her Poisoned family, whatever shards were left when it broke apart, but nothing good could come of pretending she didn't love others as well.

If anyone deserved to feel loved it was Ice - further proved when he mentioned Triell's plight. To be able to care for so many with such sincerity was more award-worthy and impressive than any feat. "I'm sure you are helping. Just being there. It will make it even the smallest bit easier, than that." Ava didn't gather much about his woes - in fact, she knew nothing at all about them. But she knew Ice and that was enough to back up her statements. The black-coated female would not deny the slight discomfort she felt as the name dropped from Ice's jaws as a reason for Triell's misfortune - Kinis.

Quietly, almost as if to herself, she repeated the name. "Kinis." It didn't feel good to say it. *He hadn't been much better when he'd disappeared, around the same time that Naira and Rhysis had. What a poor medic she was that one of her patients disappeared still weak. If only she had done better - maybe his return would've helped their recovery along? She added, "I hope he comes back." And she did, truly. To reiterate a point, Ava owed Ice something big for what he'd granted her. If only she could give him back something just as life-saving but with no Kinis, she was at quite a loss. The regret reflected in her amber stare for only a moment before she blinked it away. With such a turbulent present there was no use in worrying about possibilities long past.