With @Veho and @Oula seemingly preoccupied, Rook had only started to nurse his insecurities and the uneasiness that had easily bubbled to the surface the morning he awoke and found that Veho was nowhere within earshot. The season of coupling was upon Relic Lore once more and both of his lovers were gone. As much as he resented letting Quil go to follow her own whims and rediscover herself, he also found himself combatting the jealousy he vowed never to feel when this had all started. Wherever he followed Veho into the woods, he scented her on his path. This had become all too frequent since he had returned home and it made him sick to a point where he had to empty his stomach just to alleviate his anxiety and replace those feelings with something akin to hollowness. If he was going to honest with himself, he had probably done this a couple times too many and, apart from being half-hungry, he was numb and starved of socializing solely with his partner.

He attempted to clear his head and nose by leaving Grizzly Hollow altogether. At first he had only meant to wander just beyond the borders, but then he deviated as to further remove himself from the Leaders' scent trails. The tree line soon gave way to the Marsh and upon realizing just how far he had wandered, he found that with an accidental turn he had practically lost his way. All the typical landmarks he used to head back home {the long way around} were still blanketed with snow and his newfound numbness made him not want to use his nose at all.

The corners of his mouth turned downwards. His skin flushed uncomfortably against the chill that seeped through his already thinning coat as he thought of Merlin. As much as he dared to think about the depths of Jasper Rocks, he thought against it with different ways to go about mentally maintaining himself. If he had believed that his and Veho's bond was strong enough to outlast the turn of the seasons, then he had to be sure he could uphold his end.

It was with a rather pitiful motion that his bear-like ears swept back and his head craned upwards. He had felt like this several times before, being somewhat lost and alone; the only difference was that he was older and mature enough to know now that he had somewhere and someone to come back to... and that, for as long as he had them within Grizzly Hollow, he could at least try to enjoy what laid in wait for him beyond the cedars.

He wasn't alert enough to scent his son on the afternoon breeze, the sort of chill that told of an impending storm - the first heralds of Spring. It had been sheer luck that the older Lyall had turned his head and focused on the retreating figure. His heart hammered about his ribs and it was by impulse alone that he reacted at all. He staggered in the snow on his stocky limbs, attempting to barrel through a tough spot where the virgin snow was still piled up to his chest.

"Tomen!" he called out in a pant. Like it had been with Veho, it had felt like eons since he had seen the boy, and it seemed that the few weeks and months apart had replaced the youngster he had left behind in Veho and Jaysyek's care. He was tall, more sturdily built than ever - definitely a Lyall. It was perhaps this inkling alone that sent him running to catch up. He could relate; he didn't have his father around for a while when he had been young. Borden, at that time, had just begun to act out; and, eventually, Rook and Bishop were simply no longer his children.

Rook had a chance to rekindle this connection and he was going to take it.

As he approached, he tried to gauge whether or not Tomen would slow or pick up his feet and make a run for it. "Hey," he tried to put on a smile as best as he could. He waved his tail as a non-verbal signal to let the near-yearling know that he really did feel a little bit better than he looked.

The youth glanced back at him but only for the briefest of moments. Rook had expected him to return his smile. He didn't. In return, a rather monotone greeting regarded him in the place of a tail wag or even a nod in greeting. "Whats up." The older Lyall's lips pressed into a hard line as they walked along. The longer he took to piece together his part of the conversation, to keep it afloat without any awkward pauses, the more he found the self-reproach gnawing at his insides again.

He continued to try to match Tomen's pace, dreading all the while that the boy had not wanted to stop and talk at all. "I was just wondering how you were," the way his voice lilted in tone every couple of words told of his waxing skittishness. For Rook, this was him and his father all over again. Without the dementia. In just a matter of a season, they had been rendered into complete strangers.

"I'm sorry you couldn't come with us, your Mother and me," well, that was a poor attempt at a conversation starter. "Have... How... How've you been?" Rook inwardly hoped that Tomen would say yes (even if at this point, he was sure he was going to be subject to an emotional outburst not unlike his own when he had a fit), and he knew it was wholly foolish of him to wish it so. The only thing that was possibly keeping him grounded, though, was the fact that he and Quil would have never left him behind if they knew that Veho, Jaysyek, and the rest of the pack could not competently care for him (as well as Nineva).

Where Rook had stuttered, Tomen had absolute control of his own words - or, well, word - and all the older Lyall had received in return was a singular syllable in reply. "Fine." Rook felt his chest threaten to collapse in on itself. His son seemed like he was not going to stop anytime soon; on and on they went, the near-yearling practically going wherever he so desired while his father poorly tried to keep up.

Rook's lips pursed and his eyebrows angled downward. "Tomen," he called to his companion's attention again, his voice still soft and far from demanding. He practically had to dodge a tree at some point (not from his son's sense of navigation but his absentmindedness). Those mismatched eyes peered at the side of the boy's face, his facial expression silently pleading for him to look back and fully acknowledge him.

A short whistle of a whine left his nostrils and it wasn't long until it all felt as though just this encounter alone was making him have an anxiety attack. His heart beat too fast, his breath at risk into turning into pants; if this kept up, he was almost certain he would collapse. Just then, a terrible idea struck him between the eyes: Maybe if @Quil had been here, they... he wouldn't have had this problem.

"Tomen, stop..." as loud and as pressing as it was on the ears, it was only a sharp bark and a sorely attempted growl that fizzled into a whimper. He pulled himself from the boy's side and picked up his pace, hoping to come around to see his face in full. He might have been successful in his feat, if only he had been paying attention to everything else around him. He walked face first into a tree, the contact eliciting a muffled yelp from him as his head bowed down and his left paw came up to press his wrist to his temple. "Stop!" he winced, sniffling as he blinked at that bobbing black tail. "I'm trying to talk to you!"

A spot somewhere along the broad rectangle that made up the center of his forehead and above his brow was smarting. At least, Tomen had had a mind and heart to stop. If the boy had just gone off without a care in the world, Rook would have probably just sulked, stared after his son with tears in his eyes and a bitterness on his tongue. For the young Lord to pay such heed, told the older Lyall that there was hope yet; but, as Rook worried, this potentially could have been his one and only chance to reach out.

"Yeah," Rook assured him, lowering his paw after a few seconds of keeping it pressed to his throbbing temple. "I'm fine. I just..." His mismatched eyes peered into that dark face, seeking out those golden eyes. His jaw jumped as he collected his thoughts again, gathering them at the front of his mind, converting them into proper sentences, statements, questions... "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything?"

Flashbacks to spending the evening hours with Borden crossed his mind and he tried hard to not let the thought let him down. If he could have that sort of relationship with his own son, he would have been forever grateful; if not, he was willing to let Tomen have his space. All Rook wanted him to know was that he was loved and wanted. "You can talk to me about anything; even if it's me you're frustrated with, angry at, concerned about..." He tipped his muzzle upward to stretch out his neck before exhaling slowly. It had dawned on him just then that Tomen was possibly in a hurry for something (whatever it was, it was probably really none of his business). "That's all," he concluded. "It's important to me to know that you're okay."