oh, there's an empty place in my bones

November 5th; Midnight; Overcast; 24 ° F, -4 ° C.

The rolling in of storm clouds had surprised the Archer prince during his nightly walk through the willows. By now their leaves had all fallen to the ground, littering the forest floor with places to lose one's footing and allowing smaller creatures to take refuge in temporary hiding places until the winter winds whipped them all away. Despite being not far from Archer territory (called as such since the royal still had yet to become used to his sister's reign), he strolled past the silent trees with his head high and his tail held out behind him in such a way as to hint at his haughty, yet lonely nature.

Here and there his nose sought out individual scents brought to him on the chilled winds; the breeze barely bit at him through his newly acquired winter coat, though it frustrated him to no end as to render his olfactory senses useless when his nostrils were being threatened by the cold. His nose twitched a final time before he sighed, resorting to merely wonder about what creatures might be out at this hour in the cold and gloom.

Once or twice, he had thought to finally grieve for the loss of Piety, but ultimately he found he could not. He was too proud; and, in his mind, this sort of bereavement was nothing compared to that of, say, his Nonna (in which her death was believed to be unfair to him and his siblings) or his father (in which there was nothing left behind to grieve for). He felt empty - and, for that, he figured it was at least worth a shot to let down his guard.

When he believed himself to be a decent distance from the Ridge, he stopped in his tracks and let his shoulders and tail relax. Even his pale eyes focused on the ground beneath his feet.

When had he come to realize he was all alone?

His mother, it felt like, had always had Angier. Morganna had Renier. His aunt Adele and uncle Nicolo, despite being siblings, needed no one but one another (and, oh, how he had wanted @Morganna to feel the same way and not need the other Lyall at her side). If Skoll had thought to try and reason with himself he might have believed he had @Hecate, but their "relationship" of sorts had only just begun and he was not about ready to go into it all head over heels like he had before.

When he inhaled, he sniffled a little too loudly, and, out of wariness, he began to walk again, this time in search of somewhere to hide so that he might be alone with only his thoughts for company. There was no light to guide him clearly through the forest, though, and before he knew it something skittered across his muzzle with the lightest of touches. This sensation, after a few more steps, tickled at his brow and along the sides of his face before he realized just what he had done. He had walked right through a spider web...

"WHAT THE SH-" his voice boomed through the dark as he lifted his right paw and then his left as to attempt to get the silky near-invisible strings off his face and muzzle. He shook his whole coat out for what could have been a whole five minutes - or an eternity. For good measure he rolled about on the ground, hoping it was enough to assure himself that the spider that had built the web had not also found purchase on his head.

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