Aponi was gone.

When her mother had sat the child down to explain she’d needed to go somewhere, find someone, Kyna did not think much of it. Even when the alpha explained that the girl would have to stay with her father, that it would take her a very long time to find the wolf she sought, the princess thought only that the woman was being a bit dramatic about it all. After all, what was the Aquila upstart if not a pot-stirrer?

But nighttime fell, and the silver nymph did not return. But the moon rose high, and there was not a sound, not a scent. The ground in their shared den had long since gone cold. Aponi’s comforting scent was starting to fade, and the harsh grip of reality had begun to squeeze the girl’s chest. At the time, she’d thought only that her mother meant she’d be gone a day – never before had she left Kyna alone more than a few hours. It was long past time to return to the den, and she was no where to be found. Even as the child carefully wandered from the mouth, slinking through the night like a golden ghost, she could not find a trace of her mother more recent than the morning. That trail led in one direction. Away. Away from here, away from her.

Tiny legs began to quake as sunburst eyes began to sting, the princess trying to blink back tears as it became a struggle to breath. Her chest felt entirely too small, her heart falling into a million pieces as she stared out blankly. Tipping her blaze to the sky, Kyna issued a warbling howl, the heart wrenching cry of a pup to her dam. Her mouth closed, and the shaky sound bounced off rocks and across the plateau, but no one answered. Even the sky seemed darker than usual, clouds masking the twinkling stars and the pale moon. A second call answered, shivering and desperate as the sensation of true panic began to set in. She knew where she was, but never had the fair blond felt more lost than she did in that moment. A third howl became a wail, a mournful scream more than a request for communication, and after that came a series of choked sobs. The girl’s wobbling legs gave out, leaving her plastered against the earth as tears rolled free, wetting her cheeks and the stone below as she gasped around her tears – for the first time, Kyna knew what true hurt was.

Is this what @Wren felt like, when his mother died?

The wallflower whined for minutes, or maybe it was hours – time was no longer relevant as she mourned the loss of the wolf who loved her best. The tears only stopped when her eyes were too dry to continue crying, and even then, it took her much longer to find the strength in her legs to drag herself off the ground once more. Kyna cared little for the dirt clinging to her soft underbelly or the fur matted against her face – who would scold her about appearances if not Aponi?

Instead she walked slowly, a soldier marching to her former enemy, feet scuffing across the earth. She’d always known where @Phineas denned – but was this not where the monster slept? Perhaps not everything her mother had told her about the lord had proven to be true, but now she was left with little choice. This was her mother’s final instruction, and had not Phineas come once before, when her hunt had failed and left her with a crying belly and a bloody tongue? The man hadn’t harmed her then – in fact, he’d offered her the comfort she’d come to expect only from her dam, but after their first encounter, Kyna wasn’t certain she was ready to trust the white wolf just yet.

Now, she had little choice. It was crawl to his safe haven and request entrance, or sleep alone, by herself, in an empty den. The princess could not stand the idea of laying in the place she used to share with the one wolf she held dear, and with that, she steeled herself, and soldiered on. It was the dead of night when she finally appeared upon Phineas’ doorstep, all whimpers and whines – she needn’t have feared, welcomed with opened paws and comforting nuzzles, she soon found herself tucked against unfamiliar warmth and cleaned with an unfamiliar tongue.

Too tired to worry any further, the princess heaved a great sigh and nestled herself against that great expanse of white fur, eyes too heavy to keep open any longer. It hadn’t killed her. It wouldn’t kill her. The rest of this would wait until morning.

For now, Kyna knew, she would stay with her father. The rest of the world would have to wait.