August 16th; Midnight; Clear and cool; 66 ° F, 19 ° C...

Another night had come in which Skoll Archer would have to leave his sleeping son back at the den with no one else to keep him warm in cool hour of midnight. Twice over he made sure that the boy was breathing, that those little black-lined lids kept sealed shut in the midst of a dream, and that when @Sven suddenly rolled over, he did not wake up after realizing that his now only parent had gone. He would return in the morning to see him before retiring to bed, there was no doubt about that, but for now what he needed to do was of utmost importance. He had already lost count of just how many evenings it had been without the woman who had given him an heir to the Willow Ridge throne.

Restless limbs carried him swiftly and silently across his mother's territory and over the pack borderlines. It was very much unlike @Piety to simple just get up and leave. To him, it was absolutely not in her to abandon her lover and only child. The further he struck out from the borders, the more frustrated he became. It had been too short of a time period to consider her dead and too long of a time span to decide her as missing. Something had to be done.

He rattled his head for ideas as to why this had happened but ultimately came up with nothing. He and Piety might have been scorned by the family but, oh, how he doted upon her and kept her in decent health and spirits. At least... he thought so. Little did he know about how he had changed her psyche as whole - she no longer liked to be touched and she had nearly grown used to the near-constant hours of solitude with only Sven's company to keep. He believed that she was well-taken care of with his little gifts of half-rabbits and mice.

The dark prince had come upon the edge of the Marsh, where a wall of tall and intimidating evergreens rose up to the heavens. It made his ears turn back and his fur bristle in uneasiness - as if some devil had come to the end of his dominion and the only place left he had yet to explore was some holy sanctuary, where he would be torn to shreds upon entering. His smoky tail rose up defensively as he stared through the shadows at the bases of the trees. Then, it struck him.

For a cunning trickster like Skoll, it only made sense. The Lyall had taken what had been so rightfully his, it only made sense that he had done such a thing as to capture his broken-winged dove of a mate. It could have only been fair.

Several times he strutted up to the edge of Cedarwood Forest but could not enter. He tried walking, creeping, crawling, and running at full speed, but each attempt had him coming to a stop before he could even lay a digit upon a gnarly root. It was as though there had been some invisible barrier that he could not cross. If one thing was for sure, it was this: terrible or not, he was going to find a way to infiltrate that wall, to find out for himself if Piety laid in wait for him within it. She had been the only thing he loved more than @Elettra, his own mother.

Huffing and staring the ancient grove down with a frown, he whimpered once for the pressure that was building in his chest. Being without the Santoro woman was going to do him in if it was the last thing he ever did. He tried one more time to set his paw where the pine needles thickly carpeted the forest floor; it was withdrawn as though something hot had burned the very tips of his pads. He sniffed, but failed to recompose himself. He could have figuratively fallen to his knees but his pride prevented him from coiling. No, he would not cry or beg for his loved one to return; in fact, he would demand it... with one anguished yell that covered a portion of Southern Eden.

"PIETYYY!!!"

Here, he would remain until the sky lightened and the angelic, auroral birdsong drowned out his sobs. She had gone somewhere he could not follow; and, for the first time in his life, Skoll Archer was absolutely helpless with no one else to help him.