and the stars in their orbits shone pale through the lightof the brighter, colder moon

The oddly strange but familiar voice that uttered her name, a nickname she had only heard from a little boy teasing her playfully unable to make that last dip in her full name, caused Nadya's skin to prickle. Now that Tobias was properly dressed, and the onlooking crowd dispersed, she was free to shift those wide chocolate eyes filled with awe. He was no longer the little boy with the fear in his eyes but a young man with a certain haunted emptiness having taken the place of that fear. Unlike Tobias whom had only regressed, the potential hulk of his figure stunted by lack of nutrition along with his socialization, Tet looked more like Nadya having been well cared for. There were two things Nadya had expected out of this hunt for her brother, one being to not find him at all, and the other to find him looking as haggard as Tobias. As such, being in shock, her muscles tensed at the sudden intrusion of his embrace, his touch making it concrete that they had found him, just as his mind had now made her and Tobias concrete to him, no longer a figment of their imagination that they had to fear any slight movement would make it but a breath on the wind. The scrap of metal toy resting in Tet's hand held Nadya's gaze for a moment. It's significance was far greater than just a borrowed plaything but the strength of the bond between them. Tobias' nature, while she saw as erratic and obsessive, she saw was also fiercely loyal. There wasn't going to be any way to separate them now that he was old enough to keep up and fight back anything that would try. A piece of her was already preparing to have to care for the wrecked soul when that moment came that he would leave them again due to the hesitant words that passed Tet's lips, the sluggishness of his responses to Tobias that signified something deeper than awe at their existence.



"Yes, Tobias...you won. But, Tet, where have you been? What happened? Why didn't you come to the eastern pack? Tobias- well-..."



Well, just look at the poor young man and see how his disappearance had affected him. Where Nadya's questions had been stifled when she found Tobias, they now poured out like a break in the dam. She wanted to cry, hug him, shout, but all that won was Nadya bringing up one flattened hand to smack at his chest. She didn't care what Tobias did or how he felt on her striking Tet, Tet was well enough, strong enough, to take whatever Nadya could dish out and it wasn't meant to harm him but to show him just how much she didn't appreciate being separated. On one hand she understood, looking up at him with faint teary glazed eyes that it wasn't his fault, there were too young to do anything, but to her he had been everything, her protector, her playmate...her brother. Those nightmares she had been faced to deal with lately brought back all those emotions, all those thoughts, and she had no idea how Tet had faced those same images and worse every day since.



"You let go! Why did you let go?! Why didn't you look for us?"