Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.

@Reiko plz?

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He remembered leaving Reiko's mountain with every intention of returning to resume his life among the wolves of Vanderfell. Quicksilver went with a weight on his heart, just as conflicted as before, and he picked his way South without paying much attention to the beast that stalked him.

The mountain cat was not like any other he'd ever seen: it bore a shaggy ivory pelt, spotted with ebony and ash, but there was little time to focus on it as it dropped from the canopy and tore at his flesh. Quicksilver, surprised by the attack and the agony it brought, had lashed out instinctively. He fought only briefly, desperate to force distance between them, before the flight response overpowered everything and drove him far, far away in another direction.

He'd been at death's door when strangers found him, the wounds across his nape and shoulders ravaged with infection. The fever had almost been the death of him, but the couple who'd rescued him managed to nurse him. When at last he was well enough to travel, they asked him to join them - but he refused.

His commitment lay elsewhere.

It still hurt to move, and by the time he found the pale Queen's spire his joints felt as though someone had poured grit between them. He tilted his muzzle skyward and sent forth a shaky call, a request for Reiko's attention, before he sank weakly to the snow.


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^^

The call was not that of a complete stranger. His song summoned her quickly, dropping all the herbs she was carrying and organizing away into the medicine den onto the snow ladened ground and hastily cover the ground between them. Snow flew from each step she kicked up and her pace only broke as soon as she saw the man standing at their border. Still just as tall, silvery, but almost looking broken this time.
 
“Quicksilver, what happened? Where have you been?” Cautiously she approached, eyes wide as she studied his wounds, carefully coming closer as if he were some kind of deer just ready to bolt away. There were a million questions floating around in her head, screaming to come out and be answered as soon as possible - and yet she remained quiet. To bombard him now might crush the young man.

And so, Reiko simply tried to approach gently. Only letting the sound of crushing snow beneath her toes fill the new found silence.

^^

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+1 Formation Points

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Tucked away in a corner to the Eastern tundra as he healed from the leopard's attack, Quicksilver's furs accustomed to the cold. He had not thrived in it, but he had survived - and sometimes that was enough. He felt glad for the chill as he lay slumped in the snow to rest, to regain his breath, and it was not long before Reiko answered his call with her presence.

Silver ears pricked forward as she spoke, and his white-tipped tail flopped happily at the ground as she drew closer. He tried to rise, to go to her, but the weakness in his muscles brought him stumbling down once more.

“I tried to-” A wince, the gritting of fangs, as he felt the tension in his shoulders as he tried to pull himself upright again, “to go home. A cat attacked me. I-I didn't mean for it to happen.”


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^^

The tall man tried to approach as their eyes met, and Reiko, not wanting for him to aggravate his wounds further - quickened her pace to meet him.

He explained a cat attacked him - and her mind wandered to Rainier's types. The only large feline around that could do such damage. Could it be that there were others like Rainier who were around and dangerous? There was definitely more she had to know of the Tundra and its inhabitants.
 
“Of course not.” Why would anyone believe that he wanted such a thing to happen? “Rest here for a moment, you are safe now.” At least she finally had good news to tell Ira. That the man did not leave them with his own volition and take advantage of their kindness back in Vanderfell.
 
“Once you can move, I will tend to those wounds.” Thankfully they were in the cold, meaning he would have bled less during all this time. “We have a medicine den.” Of which she has spent much of her mornings preparing enough herbs. 

^^

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+1 Formation Points

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She swooped in closer, and the scent of her wafted across his face as she paused near to him. Quicksilver breathed in deep the crisp air, keen to remind himself of the aroma he'd so yearned: lavender and frost.

Holed up at the edge of the world, he had thought of little else.

“Reiko, I-” tell her; “I...”

For those long weeks, he wondered if the last time he'd seen her face would be all he would have of her. Quicksilver had danced with death and pleaded, prayed, begged a higher power to spare him long enough to look upon her again. He had vowed to admit his affections for her if only he could live, yet as she stood before him then he found himself just as dumbstruck as before.

“I want...”


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^^

Everything he struggled to say was taken as a wounded man trying to speak. Stuttering, confused - there was only one true course of action that had to be taken here. Take care of the man and then seek out Ira to tell her of the good news. First he had to be steady, certain that he would heal properly and then make the journey to Fate's Summit. Should he need help to return home, they could send someone to aid him.
 
“Sshhh...” She beckoned, hoping for him to keep his strength now so he may recover faster. He was here now after all. “Let us take care of the rest okay?” They had a few healers within the pack who would do great to learn from this, with Reiko's guidance of course. Once he was stable enough, she figured to see if Izumi or Hotaru wanted to try their hand at making salves for him.

For now, all they had to do was keep him calm.
 “I am so happy to see you -” She cut herself off, wanting to say alive and well, but technically he mustn't be feeling all that alive or well in particular now would he... “Ira and I were so worried.”

^^
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Softly, she hushed him. Quicksilver closed his jaws, teeth gritting, and suddenly his eyelids felt heavy. His health suffered still and he was exhausted - mentally, physically. While the wounds along his dorsal had closed and were mostly healed, the urgency of his return to familiar lands had cracked the delicate flesh until they wept clear fluid. They did not bleed, but the tension there and muscle wastage was almost unbearable.

“Ira,” the silverwhite croaked, voice hoarse and throat dry; he swallowed. Quicksilver had imagined his High Queen would be less than impressed with his wanderings, his failure to uphold the promise he'd made when first she offered him shelter, so to hear that she'd fretted for his wellbeing provided some small comfort. “She... did she come here?”

Guilt, then, settling right at the heart of him. There had been many an occasion that he worried over how different he was to Vanderfell's wolves, how his efforts to guard and provide might pale in comparison to those of the others. He'd wondered if perhaps they'd all be better off without him, and to hear how Ira had cared enough to look for him filled him with so many regrets.


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^^

She would not move him yet. Quicksilver's exhaustion was palpable and he needed rest above all else to regain his strength. If anything, once comfortable he would be safe here to wait, Reiko could run off and get the medicine she needed to treat his wounds here.“She did, concerned with your whereabouts.”

Not knowing the man's internal turmoil - as per usual - she was oblivious as to what that might do for him to know he was missed, and that his absence went noticed.
 
“As soon as you are better, I will send to inform her.” Perhaps that would ease his mind, that she would assist in letting Ira know he was safe and did not abandon them without a thought of returning or letting the High Queen know. Taking a moment while he rested, she would begin to comb over his wounds. Checking their depth, any dirt would be licked away to stave off infection.

^^End

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+1 Formation Points

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As he dragged himself homeward, back across the frozen waste from the far reaches of a tundra he'd found himself lost in before, Quicksilver thought of all the things he wanted to tell Reiko. He had long wished to find the courage to confess his affections for her, to look her in the eye and admit that he could not remove her from the forefront of his mind. His love was premature and without proper nurturing, but it was the truest thing he'd ever felt.

He wanted to stay there, with her, but to do so would be unfair. Unfair to her mate, to her children, to Ira.

To himself.

“Thank you,” was all he could manage, and his ears splayed backward with a hiss of his breath as Reiko set about tending to the rawness of his spine. “For everything.”


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