For a few minutes, Marsh had weighed up the situation. On the one hand, Indru's presence in the pack was an undisputed necessity, and retrieving him - or at least understanding his intentions - was important. Corinna would want to know.
Corinna, of course, was 'the other hand'. Marsh was to support the mother at all costs, for that was his duty. To return to Swift River, and allow Indru to make his own way back in his own time - for that would surely not take long - was a more sensible option, surely.
He would have thought so. Unfortunately, old habits die hard, and it was only now that he felt an old tug in his chest. Indru was his leader, his pillar, and though common sense demanded that he go back to Corinna, an insatiable need to be around his commander pulled him in the opposite direction. In an attempt to fight it, the copper wolf had taken several steps in the direction of home, but the urge had proven far, far too strong. Turning on his tail, Marsh had dropped his nose to the ground and pursued Indru. Surely, surely, it would not keep him from Swift River for long.
It didn't matter either way. It had all been for naught.
Such a long time had passed, so much time that it was almost embarassing to go back <i>now</i>, it was too late, he had to come back without empty hands or not come back at all. The logic was flawed, he knew it, but he had searched under the belief that Ozera and Triell could support Corinna, and that he would not be long. It was not enough, but if he could just find Indru and bring him back, two would turn into four again, and four was better than three, but -
It didn't matter either way.
He had lost count of the days, partly through shame, but he had also lost Indru's trail. He had finally had to admit that the search was needless, and the urge was not satisfied but it could never be. If he could not find his master, then his offspring and mate were the next best things. It was cold to think about it like that, but he could not lie to himself. In a way, it was relieving to finally be back on this road, following his own fading scent back to familiar lands. How long had it been? How many times had he come crawling back to Relic Lore?
It was, of course, the ultimate in torture that he recognised a scent on his way back, the scent that he had been obsessing over for weeks. That Indru make it back before him was a cruel and unusual treatment and only drove home his own pointless behaviour. It almost compelled him to stop, turn about and never show his face here again if it wasn't for that urge, the urge which only moved his legs faster and brought him back to the river quicker.
Somehow, though, when he reached the familiar lands, it wasn't Indru's presence that he most feared. It wasn't Indru that he had let down. His nose told him that Ozera was missing, which only showed him even further that his obsession had most likely harmed the pack's infants, and guilt spiralled madly inside of him even as he lifted his muzzle and called out, called out for the mother he had deeply wronged.
Indru was here, he knew it, and that satisfied the urge. The magnets were in sync again. Now he just had to face his failings.</blockquote>