---

He spent the night alone.

A part of him desperately craved Solvi’s company, longing to hear the soft chime of her laughter and gentle words coaxing him back into some semblance of normal again, but the hour had grown late, far too late, and he couldn’t bring himself to rouse her.

The moon had long reached the apex of its journey in the sky and had already begun to fade from view, and Alder sat at the outskirts of the Vale as he watched the first light of dawn color the horizon.
How beautiful the world could be, he thought; so then why - why -

Solvi always rose early. She was a creature of the sun, and anyway, he wanted her to be the first to know - before anyone else discovered the body. Alder heaved himself up on numb legs, legs that seemed so disconnected from the rest of him, and noted distantly the constant stream of blood that leaked from the deep gashes Cypress had branded across his right forelimb.

More wounds lay scattered haphazardly across the canvas of his large form; a bite here, some scratches there, bits of missing fur. He probably looked like shit, he thought.

Alder tried to wash the dried blood away from his maw in a nearby stream, but he could tell it was no use - the water was too cold, the crimson had seeped too deep. It would be days before the taste of Cypress was out of his mouth for good.

Bleeding, he limped into the Vale and toward the den-site where he knew Solvi would be just waking from her dreams, and he hoped they had been beautiful. There was a part of Alder that regretted the little Solskin having to see him this way, beat to hell and covered in fresh injuries, but there was nothing else for it. He didn’t have time to see a healer; he had gone straight from Cypress’ corpse at the base of Northfall to the Vale.

... Solvi, he called hoarsely, softly, not wishing to rouse the others or draw unnecessary attention. Are you awake?

Delayed exhaustion finally caught up to him, and Alder felt his lower half partially collapse into the melting snow as blood pooled below his leg.

Empty.

The space inside his chest - it felt so empty.

Just how much had Cypress taken from him, even in death?