Stay busy and take care of the pack.

It was the only way Lachesis could distract himself. He knew the first night her presence was absent from their den that she was gone. Where, he did not know; but why, that’s what he wanted – no, needed to know. She had left once before, when they had followed a different leader, and that had been due to her brother’s scent trail. The sunflower-eyed girl had promised she would alert him before leaving once more… she had broken that promise, and Lachesis wasn’t sure what to think. Of course the slender male wanted her to return and for everything to return back to normal, but would she disappear once more? What was the reasoning behind this disappearance? The pale vixen had been there for him during Anastasia’s disappearance – why would she put him through the same thing?

No. He would not allow himself to fall back into the sullen creature he had turned into after losing Anastasia. XIX was still deeply affected by her absence, but it was nowhere close to how awful he had felt after returning from the mountain. Although he was deeply hurt and confused by Capella’s departure, he could not fall back into old habits. There were puppies to take care of now – there was no time to be self-centered and withdrawn.

Lachesis had spent the day busying himself with his healer duties – collecting herbs and tending to his inventory, but he couldn’t stay long in the den. Her scent lingered and left an uncomfortable weight in his stomach, so he had resorted to sleeping outside or not sleeping at all. Tonight was one of those sleepless nights. The higher the moon climbed the further Lachesis ventured away from his den. The cool night air was refreshing, and distracted him from his troubled thoughts. At least until he caught scent of a familiar female, one who also held a special place in his heart.

Panic flooded his system as he ceased his movements, his pear-coloured eyes widening at the thought of their previous encounter. He had not seen much of the ashen female; for a while he had worried that she left the pack, but her scent was still strong in the land. He would be lying if he said he didn’t miss her. Where Capella was a tall glass of water on a hot summer’s day, Bastet was a shot of whiskey; she was exotic and a spitfire, something that the slender male was not used to. Both Capella and Anastasia had calm demeanors, and were predictable – Bastet was definitely not.

Now, with the absence of Capella, the gangly medic was heartbroken – but he refused to let it show. He did not want to dump his thoughts on the female once more; it wasn’t fair. She had done everything to raise his spirits during their last encounter, and Lachesis had done nothing but push her away. His pear-coloured gaze lifted from her shadowy figure and turned to the sky, just in time to see a flurry of meteors fill the sky. Absorbed by the strange phenomenon Nineteen allowed his troubled thoughts to drift away… while he had suffered too much loss in such a short period of time, he could not allow it to consume him once more. Of course he could grieve Capella’s unannounced disappearance, but he could not allow it to affect him as severely as Anastasia’s had. Although he knew, in his heart, that the pain was much worse, he would swallow it and press forward.

Allowing his gaze to return to the raven-coloured female his features softened immediately. He knew that she didn’t want him here, but he wouldn’t leave. He needed to fix this; he had to fix this. While he posture clearly screamed get away from me! Lachesis stepped forward, his long legs closing the unwanted distance between them. He stopped several tail-lengths away from her before lowering his hindquarters; his pear eyes never once wavered from her dark from. His tongue lay heavy between his jaws as his mind frantically searched for something to say.

However, he wasn’t sure how. Even now, in the presence of the bi-coloured eyed raven female, he was unsure of what to do. She made him nervous – in both a good and bad way. The confidence he had gained over the recent months crumbled away, but his composure remained calm. He could not let her know how nervous he truly was… or perhaps he should? XIX wasn’t sure what was better. All he wanted was the tension between them to dissipate.

“What are you doing Lachesis?”

Her voice stung him, like an angry, disturbed wasp. He did not reply immediately; instead, he allowed her heavily accented voice to linger in his thoughts. It was a voice he had missed in their time apart; a voice that was impossible to forget. Lachesis allowed the silence to consume them once more as he finally tore his gaze away from her. His pear-coloured pools focused on the stars before them as a small frown creased his maw. Words failed him, as always. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn’t know how to say them. Anastasia would know. She knew precisely what to say in every type of situation. She had often been his voice when he could not find his, or when he was embarrassed of his stutter. But she was gone, and had been for months – XIX needed to learn how to speak up for himself and voice his own emotions without an interpreter.

Remaining positive was proving difficult, but he could not allow his negative emotions to consume him any longer. They had almost driven Bastet away the last time they festered, when she had reached out to him and attempted to console him. That meeting had ended on a very sour note, one that XIX was determined to fix. His pale gaze flickered over to her ebony figure as she spoke, mirroring his words. As she spoke, her foreign accent rolling around the words he had hoped to hear, his heart thumped unexpectedly. Nineteen had expected her to retort with a foul comment, and her soft words were a welcome surprise.