There were a million things that filled her in those few moments that she continued to stare at the back of his head. The biggest was doubt. How many other coyotes in the world were there? How many others had such a finely shaped head and overly large ears? The same fur color? She couldn't use his scent to confirm it, the same sharp and sickly sweet scent of mint was there, masking what she hoped might find her nose and devour her. It was the eyes, the red pools that finally set themselves on her, that told mountains of truth. The eyes and nose and the overly large ears, they all belonged to the brother that she had lost so long ago. In those few moments that he turned and looked at her, she could have melted.
"I told them I'd find you." Her voice was firm though her eyes betrayed her, shimmering with a slight glaze of moisture, tears of happiness, she supposed. Certainly, she was starting to believe that he was dead, but she still knew that she would find him one day, she still spoke those words with confidence, even if it meant she would find him in places beyond life. Rachias couldn't let him go. Legs quaked beneath her, feet trembling in the sand, but she had been strong for so long that she forced herself to move toward him. Closing the space between them seemed like gliding on water, weightless and free, and she took each step forward gladly until she felt like she was only a heartbeat away from him.
"You've been gone so long." But he knew that, didn't he? Where had he gone? How had he gotten out? Better yet, was he still hurt? He had been when he had saved her from Samael. Rachias reached out a careful hand toward him, wanting to touch him and stoke his giant ears and assure herself that he was real, but she could only leave it suspended there in the air in front of him. It had been so long, were things still the same as they had always been? Was he still the same brother that she could cuddle up against? To poke and prod and nudge to her heart's content? Rachias wasn't sure, all she knew was that she could just grab him. Grab him and wrap them up in that silly cloak and hide them both from the world.
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