The winter chill was unforgiving as it whistled between the peaks, the sharp air like knives across his snout as he pushed through the territory in silence. The snow had come fast and hard, dotting the horizon with blankets of white as he stepped precariously along its quiet crunch. He had thought about grabbing a meal, a small snack from the territory’s cache. Yet, disappointment quickly laced his features as he made his way toward the buried earth.

The ground was frozen beneath him, a hard surface beneath his nails as they scraped aimlessly along the ground. Nothing.

And though he could have dug it up and spent his afternoon releasing their meals from the winter season’s unruly grip, Amaris did not. Instead, he turned on his heels and stared at the winter-kissed forest that greeted him. He’d have to hunt, and perhaps a warmer meal would be a better one, after all.

Yet, before his legs could motion him forward, the sound of clicking… and crunching against the frigid snow rooted the moon-touched boy in his spot. His ears angled forward, twitching against the winter breeze as he twisted a head toward the sound of a voice.

Dimitri.

Amaris offered his older brother, one he did not quite know all that well, a softened smile. Hey, he greeted with a gentle bob of his head, No, just searching for a meal. In truth, Amaris had never been close to his older siblings, barring his relationship with Sreda—a relationship built upon his mistakes but flourished into one of trust nonetheless.

But…Violet, Alder, Dimitri…he didn’t quite know them, and they didn’t know him.

—is something going on, Dimitri? He asked as a tick of concern crossed his silver expression.

Amaris watched his brother with a carefully drawn-out gaze. While it was perhaps suspicion that met his skin with a tantalizing shiver, concern, and warmth flooded his citrine stare as he blinked along his brother’s silver-dusted features. He knew little of the happenings of his older brother, perhaps a mistake of his own as Amaris had similarly never made an effort, but that had not meant that things could not change.

His tail shifted into an easy-going way behind him, his mouth swallowing the unease that continued to ripple beneath his skin. Dimitri said he was fine and so Amaris would believe him.

An ear shifted at his words, and Amaris found himself shrugging, I uh, he started before clearing his throat: why did things feel…weird? was not. Aelia always said he needed to hunt more, his body far more slender than it should’ve been. And although his body was aimed toward the forest’s edge, a beckoning toward whatever meals might have existed within the tree’s forested embrace, Amaris still held little desire to actually…do the work.

His stomach be damned.

No, no, he quickly interjected toward his brother’s words, I’m not busy. He paused momentarily while his sunlight gaze tracked along the outskirts of Elysium’s territory, his mind trying to figure out what he could offer…

If his brother didn’t need something, did he just want to talk?

Care to walk with me? He offered quickly through a sweeping gaze toward the violet stare of his brother, Maybe you can tell me what you’ve been up to? I don’t think we’ve talked very much.

Amaris extended the olive branch, and though he feared his brother would not take it, he tried nonetheless.

Amaris remained silent as they walked, his eyes trained on the horizon ahead as he counted the rising of his chest once and then twice and then… again and again and again. It was easier to distract himself from the nerves that alighted beneath his skin than to wait for his brother to speak. In reality, it shouldn’t be weird; this was his brother, and yet—it was. He wished Aelia was beside him now, a buffer to the unease and silence he felt crawling up his back.

In truth, Amaris was partially responsible for the discomfort. He neither had extended his paw to the rest of his older siblings, barring Sreda, whose insight into exorcisms had led him toward her creepy ol’ cave. But Violet? Alder? Narcissa? and Dimitri? His older siblings had been nothing more than passing ships within his orbit.

He didn’t seek them out, and neither had they sought him.

His ears perked and twisted toward his brother’s words, and though the sound of them had his hair initially rising in a flood of adrenaline, his beating heart eased as a smaller smile spread across his lips.

It’s alright, He murmured in kind, I guess I didn’t make much of an effort either. He confessed, with a slight bump of his shoulder against his older brother’s. We can start…fresh if you’d like?

Maybe they should do some brotherly activities…although Amaris didn’t even know what those could be.

His gaze shifted back toward the horizon in which they walked, I have been sort of a recluse myself, he added, haven’t really spoken up with any of you either... He drifted toward silence, his ears twitching against the quiet crunch of rock and gravel and dirt beneath his feet.

However, after a momentary pause, he turned to side-eye his brother with a curious glint, Is it true you met a demon? Amaris recalled there had been whispers of exorcisms, and he felt it couldn’t hurt to ask, especially if it would help him with his own and the shadows he routinely saw.