Here he was, on the dirt path that he had followed and first met Ari. That had been years ago, when he was merely a teenager searching for a horned rabbit he had just missed. That was when he had stumbled upon Ari, or rather he had stumbled upon him. The man had been his idol that day, and still was even as he stood here with the intentions that he held. He had served Lunarie as their hunter, and felt as the place as his family. The people he had met there, the foxes he had helped and protected, it was better than the family he had been born with.The years had gone by, his sister joined and mated. Shai had left and come back, hurting a vixen named Thea in the process. Nuishan had lost her mate after giving birth, and Shai and Thea finally mended their problems. But during all this he had met someone special, someone he was doing this for.
Shinya.
He loved her more than anything in this world. He had never felt this way before, until he found her. He had her for years, mated to her loyally and proudly. However she had begun to miss Shai, and he her. She attempted to join Lunarie, however Shai and Thea had to mend ways. That's when she learned of Shai's past. He had told her once, but Shinya had never met Thea until that day.
He couldn't sit there and watch as Shinya stared at Thea, as she eyed Shai and would begin to act peculiar. He couldn't do this to her. She wanted to be with him, but at the price of her comparing. They began to fight, and he began to grow restless. How could he make Shinya happy? Then he figured it out. It took awhile, but he had finally decided. He would leave and start a family with Shai, stay by her side forever so she would never doubt again. He couldn't hurt another person he loved.
So he was risking something he was familiar with. Though, he didn't want to just lose it. He had heard that there was once a banished fox from bamboo, banished and never allowed to return. Could he leave and yet visit his sister? Visit his nephews? Visit the friends he made and the Elder he respected? Ari was a man he had once wished to be like. He was the only male he had to look up to, seeing as his own father was a failure in that regard.
Would Ari understand?
