400+
Some time had passed yet no one came, and the Tundra woman grew restless. Pacing back and forth at the borderlands, Orin’s eyes studied the terrain intently waiting for someone to show – and finally someone did. Something rustled off to the left and an ear swiveled just seconds before her head jerked to see who had come. “Finally, I-“ she started to say before she even laid eyes on who had come to greet her, but the words caught in her throat the moment she realized who it was.
“Shh… Shawchert?!” she gasped. Talk about a blast from the past, Orin had not seen Shawchert since his disappearance from d’Arte. Amber eyes bugged in their sockets and her jaw hung slack until she finally remembered why she was here. Her paws danced lightly over the ground as she trotted toward him, her tail twitching once in a half wag until the gravity of their situation came on like a tidal wave.
What was he doing here? He had been gone from her life for months, and all of a sudden turned up in New Dawn. Had he been here the whole time? Certainly not, or else she surely would have known. Titania would have told her. Oh, Titania! That must have been it. Just like her, news had traveled to the Alphess’s father and he was here to aid in the search for their lost daughter.
“Oh god, what happened to you?” She blurted rather unceremoniously as she drew herself up in front of him, staring in disbelieve at his torn, scarred visage. Orin knew not of the trials he had been through after his disappearance from Cercatori, no word of his enslavement or any other news had ever made it back to her, and seeing the once powerful man brought to this was a shock. Still, whatever it was, those scars on his face were healed now, so there would be time for stories later, and her anxious mind returned to the reason for her visit.
“Are you here about Titania, too? Where’s the pack?” she asked as she glanced around. “Do they know you’re here already? I’ve come for answers, we need to find Titania. I want to speak to Zalen, we can go together. Come, if no one in New Dawn is going to answer my summons then we will go to them.”
It didn’t occur to her that Shawchert was now a part of the pack, and that he was the one from New Dawn answering her call. The hot streak still a strong part of her spirit, Orin picked a random direction and began to trot off into the pack lands.