Veho obliged and Rook could only wonder now where it would all lead, whether it would push him away like it did with Namid and Bishop or pull him in as it did with Quil. He cast an appreciative gaze over to him then slowly stood up and settled somewhat close to Veho, being just within reach if either of them extended a paw to reach out to one another. The Lyall reclined down on his stomach again, casting his gaze back out to the babbling current before them. Butterflies began to flit around in his stomach, flapping restlessly until they expanded into his lungs and beat about his throat.

"My family used to live here a while ago," he began. "Then something terrible happened and they left. I... brought them back because it... was the last place my father recognized as home. What we had back from where we had come from was great but then--" His voice faltered, "Th-ings started to change." Somewhere behind him, his tail came over to cover his left flank. "Something is wrong with my dad and we don't know what or why." Here, his nose wriggled as though he were holding back the urge to sniffle. "I've asked for help but nothing seems to have worked."

He winced, "A certain mushroom worked for a while, but I'm not so sure it's the answer. He still forgets." A turn of his head brought Rook to look upon Veho's face again in he day's last light, "After everything I've lost, you'd think something would have let up but I'm still losing everything." His eyes dropped to the pebbles between his paws and one of his rounded ears swiveled to one side, "I don't even know who I am anymore. Maybe it wasn't him that needed this, it was me; and, because of this selfishness, everything's gone the way it has. We're ghosts, shadows... nothing like how I remember in the stories. This was all my fault." The other ear came down to mirror the other opposite of it, "I need to know that I can still fix it. I want to know that there is still hope."

A simple affirmation, a bit of comfort (despite how skeptical Rook was starting to feel about everything), and the gentlest touch to his forearm and the masked youth was struck speechless for the time being. Touched as though he recognized the rogue to be some sort of guardian angel in disguise. Guilt, he came to realize, was the culprit in all of this. At the end of the day he was wholly responsible for everything - for practically uprooting his parents from their safe haven away from Relic Lore, for driving his sister away out of selfishness, for snatching Quil away from Cinder, for turning his family within Willow Ridge against him, for bringing Tomen into being under what he now believed was false love (even though he was certain that it wasn't and that he still truly loved Quil with all his might), for Grizzly Hollow and those who made up its ranks. Then, there was this - with Beren, with Titan, and now with Veho - whatever it was when it came to that insatiable restlessness he felt whenever he thought of them. Rook was guilty for everything he had done since he had come here.

"Gaheris," the utterance of his pseudonym brought Rook's gaze to hold his companion's own pair of pale eyes. His words were wise, worldly even, and for a fleeting moment he was reminded of Kiche, Jaysyek, and Bishop all at once. Perhaps it was true that someone up there had clearly orchestrated this meeting. Veho, quite possibly, could take up the place where they had once been.

The next sentiment brought Rook's eyes to gloss over and he visibly winced, the dark line that ran down his forehead and to the bridge of his muzzle becoming more apparent as his whiskered brows furrowed. "Come home with me, please?" It would seem to him that there was no other way to ask such a thing but, after what had happened with every other companion in the past, he could no longer afford the luxury of beating around the bush for the sake of garnering their trust and sense of loyalty. "If... If this happened for a reason then maybe that is the next step I had to take if you'll have me-" his jaw quivered and he added in haste as if to not make it sound like he exclusively wanted Veho for himself (at least, not just yet; the last time he had done this, he had lost @Namid and @Beren, it seemed, for good), "-and my family."

He didn't want to seem too eager, likened to a cub-snatcher whose eyes were on a vulnerable youngster, and instead remained where he was. "Our numbers are small and we would be grateful for you to join us."

The stutter made Rook's heart skip a beat. Had he said too much? Was it too forward? Maybe he had some how imposed himself on him? All of his fears and his apparently unnecessary questioning were put to rest as Veho explained as to why he had been so surprised. It had merely been because of his wandering or time spent elsewhere, the time spent away from his family or other packs... that his family had dispersed before his own coming-of-age. Rook made a face that suggested his empathy; he, himself, had barely become a yearling when it felt like Renegades Reach had started to fall apart. His brothers were leaving, his older sisters were scuffling between one another a little too often than he would have liked, and his own age mate sister had started to clash with him here and there. Most unfortunate of it all was the deterioration of his father's well-being.

"I will come with you," Veho's words called the Lyall back to the present. It was the subtle lifting of his ears that showed he was attentively listening. "But I will ask one thing of you, Gaheris. Do not put a leash on me, that I would not be able to help others in need should the Ancestors call me to it." In all truth, the young man's heart could have broken - cracked a bit, if anything, but Rook had already learnt his lesson by now. Judging by how much space he allowed Bishop, Namid, Beren, Titan and Quil in turn, obviously, it made sense that if he allowed the distance to come between him and the ones he yearned for, they would remain. Veho asked him to trust that he would return; to this, Rook gave a small nod with a slight sniffle. His gaze went to his companion's arms, wrists, and paws, wondering just how much terrain they had traveled across, how many different types of soil they had trekked, how many riverbeds they had tread. Then, suddenly, all he could think of was how they would feel if he tucked his own forepaws up against them.

"Of course," he whispered back. "I wouldn't even dare think it." As if he were still that cub who was terrified by a bit of lightning, he crawled to Veho's sided on his elbows and heels, angling himself so that - at last - the tips of their paws did touch, but only just a little. Just enough to instill that sense of security back within him. His voice remained quiet, his tone sounding as though it were some delicate melody on the wind, "We'll remain here a while longer before I lead you back. Then..." He paused as if there was something dire that the man ought to know before they continued any further, "I have some things I must share with you."

(Rook fade)