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Warmth enveloped Volkarosh's body, and she felt people – her Mother, her brother – pressing close to her. At first, she felt claustrophobia - they were too close, too near. Her heart fluttered in anxiety like a butterfly, and she wanted to struggle and escape... but...

But at some point, mute panic transmuted to mute relief, a sense of ethereal safety. This was familiar and long-missed. ”Mommy...” she managed, finally, cuddling close...

Iroia wiped away tears of joy and sniffled a little. "My little Volka, I've missed you so." Finally coming down off her high somewhat, she grinned at Rue. "I was just puttering about the kichen but I think this calls for some comfort food in the light of recent events. Something hot and savory would do us all some good I'm sure." She carried Volka toward the house with Arron trailing behind her.

Food would make all the things better. Besides Ruelash looked thin again, probably from being an impromptu Daddy but that could just be the inner mama in her speaking.

Ruelash's mind had been wandering. The family gathering was great, and it was fine that he was left out of it, but he wasn't always a patient person, and – now that he had successfully reunited Volka with her family – he was thinking, ever practically, about dinner. Or lunch. Food, really, in general.

Which was, very coincidentally, what she was offering.

”Blood.” he said, smirking snidely at Arrothain before turning his attention to Iroia. ”Not gonna say no t' food.” he replied, though he wasn't sure what she meant. ”Savory is... uh... meat, right?” He could use some meat right now. Though, maybe a light meat, like fish. Or bug. The heat of Jahuar did not always agree with heavy meals.

”So, 'roia.” he said, following her idly, leaving Volkarosh to settle in or whatever long-displaced children did when they were reunited with their parents. Ruelash had no idea – he figured he'd leave her to whatever it was. Food called. ”Y'wanna tell me how ya ended up all the way over here?”

Arron stared at Rue with wide eyes but said not a word until his sister intervened and saved him. "Oh um yes, of course." He ran a hand through his hair until it was standing up on end comically.

"Yes cookies, Mom's old secret recipe." He waggled his eyebrows at his sister. He found a jar where the delicacies were hidden and fished one out for his lil sis. He surrendered the cookie with grace and poise once Iroia set Volka down inside the house. "Lets go over here and enjoy this while those two catch up huh?" He grabbed a cookie for himself and was set to nibble it slowly.

She took the cookie tentatively, and nibbled on it equally tentatively before taking a significantly less tentative bite.

It was familiar, a rush of spice and sugar and buttery biscuit that melted in her mouth and called back memories. They flickered away like an ice mirage but they were – and had been – there. She had had these cookies before.

She devoured the rest of the cookie eagerly, licking the sugar and crumbs off of her fingers. Memories aside, she hadn't had anything so sweet in... well, as long as she could remember. Certainly, Lashy hadn't provided sugar or sweets, and there wasn't much in the way of sweets where they were. She'd heard of trees that bled sugar, but Ruelash hadn't been willing to figure out how to get at that tree blood, and so...

Sugar.

Greedily, she looked at Arronthain. ”Can I have another?” she asked, ”Arron?” the nickname slipped out easily, as if it had never been half forgotten.

Arron snuck back into the kichen to get more cookies for his little sister. He got a handful this time think that would keep them occupied while the heavy was going on between the two older adults. This was the least he could do, he had a lot of sister spoiling to catch up on.

He scurried out as fast as he cook once he had snatched his cookie prize, his mother's voice drifting to him "Don't give her too much Arron, she might get sick."

"Here," he gave her two more cookies. "Eat them slowly and they last longer," he advised. All the while his mind flashed back to half remembered memories of sleeping in the same room, and having someone to talk to in the dark, someone he trusted, someone who had shared his life since before he was born. He took one of her hands and measured it palm to palm against his own. His sister had returned to him and he was beyond grateful.

Ruelash batted her hands away, making a face at her. He liked his beard too, but he didn't like it tugged - he'd learned that with Volka, when she'd decided, one boring day of waiting out a blizzard, to give it a few tugs herself. He had gotten as close as he ever would get to striking a little girl, but he'd never hurt her. She was nothing like that annoying kid from long ago, with the radaku. She was Volka. And she was a good kid - she'd stopped tugging after a few tries. Or growls.

He listened, or tried to, feeling very awkard doing so. He gave up on trying to understand Iroia. In matters of the mind and soul, he was pretty much a fish in the air. Give him a fight, and he fought. Give him a wilderness and he knew what to do. Give him a person, and he was not ready for any of that.

He felt like he'd been supposed to do something and hadn't, an odd feeling because he rarely had obligations. Only in the past few years, actually, with Volka. With her, there were clear things he had to do, things to keep them both fed and alive and warm. He hadn't minded the structure, or the fact that there was an other involved, because the tasks had made sense and he liked the other. Volka was his little buddy.

But now he felt like he'd forgotten something, and it was very uncomfortable. "Uh." he said, trying to figure out what was expected of him. "Well, uh..." He moved back his thick, dark, slightly matted (though not as matted as it would have been without a certain set of tiny hands brushing it out on occasion. That hadn't been bad.). "I don't, uh. Know anything. About Votzhem." or the Alkidike.

And suddenly, he felt like he should.

Arron rubbed his chin. "Um, well I have a theory on that, we have alkidike blood right? Maybe I got the alk growth genes and that is why I'm bigger, I also wasn't stuck under a blizzard and half frozen. I bet that helped with my size. But being small can be really good, easier to climb trees, lighter on your feet, fast as anything. And uber sneaky, its hard to hide a lot of bulk as I'm finding out." He wasn't clumsy really like some prentices but he was taller then his mother already...not that that was altogether too hard.

He took a bite of the cookie too. "Or its her cookies..you were deprived but we will fix that k?"