Liam would no doubt be somewhere patrolling the borders this morning, but Hollow had been unable to sleep, thoughts of Azariah keeping him awake. He had been laying in his den, the beginnings of a whimper making it's way into his throat when he had growled and walked out.
No Hollow, you have to believe she will be back some day, even still it has only been a few weeks maybe she has been gathering herbs. He told himself time and time again, that he needed not worry. In the end, he would worry regardless, no matter how hard he tried, he would worry about her. So in silence he set out from the opposite end of Liam's patrol intending to meet the male in the middle and find some task to take his mind off Azariah's disappearance,
Once again it was quiet on the border, so quiet that even the faint sound of approaching paw steps caught his attention. No one in the pack is small enough to tread that lightly... except.. Hollow whipped around in time to see the golden form of his love appear, Azariah! It was her! She had come home! Hollow's heart felt as though every twist and every stab had been healed at the mere sight of the golden fur, and the perfume of her scent. A deep breath and a tail wagging as though it would surely detach from his body, and he returned her smile. Though it would seem something was different at the moment, something that sent spikes of electricity down his spine.
Her words made him shiver, when all he wanted to do was to run to her, he froze and could not even speak. It was an instant that felt kin to an eternity that her tail brushed across his face. Even when it was done and she had circled and prepared to spring into the fields he was still frozen in place. Until he heard it, Follow me! His breath caught, yet all the same he could not hold his excitement. A few startled, choked words escaped his maw, "Wh-where were.... y-you came back... wait, just stay." Of course it would make no sense now but when his thoughts collected it would be a proclamation of love unlike any ever heard before. Hollow intended to sing this time, to howl his love. But he waited, for now he blankly followed the golden fae into the fields, fully abandoning his post with a look of stupidity plastered upon his maw. Clarity and chaos crashed and synchronized in his heart until he was sure he would burst from the love it created. She came back