Welcome to Gaia! ::

Arron started as the ice man popped out of the bushes, he was concerned that such a large man shot such a small bow, but another voice called out and Arron turned to the smaller person, the voice tickling a rather large nerve and the sight of the small face that he had mostly forgotten but instantly rememebered as she was the only other person who looked exactly like him. "Volka.." he croaked before he crumpled to the ground in a dead faint.

Soon enough he woke up it had been a very short faint, his brain seeing something incomprehensible and adorable, trying to reset itself to something that made more sense.

Ruelash couldn't believe that he'd fainted. How weak of him – it was ridiculous. And sad. He left civilization for a few years and they just kept getting weaker. And then Volka said something, and things stopped being funny.

”Hey. Yeah. He does.” his smile faded, replaced with a very intense, assessing, predatory stare. ”He really does.” He began to put two and two together, a slow process since he wasn't particularly quick with these sorts of things. But eventually, he got four.

”I'll tell ya why in a moment, Volka.” he said abruptly, moving to crouch near the boy. ”Hey.” he lifted him up by the cloth of his shirt, ”Wake up.” he gave the boy's face a mild slap. ”What's yer name. It wouldn't happen to be Arro...something, would it?”

Volkarosh sat back, staring blankly at the person who claimed to be her brother. Arronthain... the name rang in her head like a bell, ethereal and forgotten. Her brother... her mother... her father... She had almost thought they were a dream – a pleasant dream, where life wasn't all about survival. A reality where life was warm, not harsh and unrelenting.

Dreams were supposed to stay in dreamland, and Volkarosh felt... afraid. Afraid and blank. No plan of hers had ever included this. She moved closer to Ruelash, holding onto his furs. ”Lashy...” she whispered... she wasn't sure what to do.

Well since the ice man had brought his sister home, alive, Arron figured that he should bring him to his mother on principle. Obviously Volka trusted him and that was good enough for Arron. He tried not to stare at his sister too much, she seemed very sensitive and he couldn't blame her, he felt like his skin had been removed leaving all his nerves bare to the world. He sat up gently pushing the iceling out of his bubble, and from there he stood.

"Shes at the house, I'll lead you there." He wanted to pick Volka up but she wasn't ready, he wasn't sure what was going to happen next but they had to all meet up that was for sure.

"Come." He lead them back towards the house, listening intently in case they decided to talk on the way there, information was worth more than anything.

Ruelash allowed the pushing. It was the least he could do for someone so cooperative. ”Good, good.” he said. He was excited about this reuinion, and why shouldn't he be? He hadn't seen his packmate in a long time. Not that Volkarosh wasn't pack, of course. She was. Which made this extra special.

Volka was moving very slowly, though, so he picked her up. It had taken him a while to learn how to hold a child, but he'd figured it out in the wild soon enough.

”She in there?” he asked Arronthain, studying him carefully. Iroia's son and Volkarosh's brother he may be, but was he pack? He seemed awfully whiny, and yet... there was something of his parents in him. Maybe he wasn't as whiny and dumb as he looked.

He barely waited for a reply before shifting Volkarosh so that she was balanced on his shoulder, and bringing his cupped hands to his mouth.

"Hey! 'Roia!" he shouted, in a voice used to echoing off mountains and bellowing at beasts...

Iroia too was rubbing her ears, the house wasn't that far away, she recognized the voice though and was pulled swiftly outside by her packmates call, no matter how long gone the brat had been. "I hope you know Rue that I don't appreciate how long you have left me to molder." She said before she saw him, "And you needn't scream at me like the ice banshee we all..know.. you. Oh my gods!" Iroia raced over and hugged Ruelash, "You found her, you found her! How did you find her? No nevermind, WHY DID YOU TAKE SO LONG." She released her hug and poked him gently. Then she kissed his most beloved most scarred face and turned her spraddled attention to Volka, "Hello sweetie, I'm sorry for all the yelling, do you remember me?"

Iroia tried desperately to keep the tears inside for a little longer so that it wouldn't scare her poor daughter who had been through so much.

Volkarosh was used to Ruelash being loud. It had been a necessity, sometimes, and she could be loud too. Of course, you had to be loud at the right times, otherwise you could be killed, but she knew the right times, and the wrong times.

She winced, feeling as though weights were falling upon her, as if it was one such 'wrong' time. What went through her mind was a buzz of confusion and thoughts and a mix of excitement and terror. What child doesn't want their fantasy to be real, after all? And what child would truly want it when it happened?

Ruelash did not tell stories of fantasy. His stories were real and a little bloody, fairly straightforward tales of survival and victory in the frozen lands and elsewhere. But Volkarosh knew that the fantastical was built on rules not of this world, and obeyed the forces of magic, not kindness. Her mother was a fantasy. Her brother another. And they were becoming real.

And Volkarosh was scared.

She closed her eyes against the overwhelming sensation, opening them reluctantly as she was shoved into Iroia's arms. She beheld the face of her mother... and shook her head silently, hiding her own face in Iroia's shoulder. She did remember. She just didn't know what to do with it.

Arron wrapped his arms around his mother and little sister and tucked his face into her shoulder himself, the crystals that encircled her shoulder dug into his face, no doubt he would have imprints at some point but he couldn't bring himself to care really, his world had been rocked yet again on its little axis. He swallowed unable to speak for the moment as his throat had closed over. So he brought his head up and nodded at Ruelash in his thanks.