They had gone to the sea to escape their troubles, to be given a reprieve, a vacation.  They had come back to charred ruins.  They had called and called, but there had been no answer.  Not even bones to give them closure.  The Twin's world was shattered, their entire lives gone in a single instant.  As children, there had been no other wolves to comfort them when they cried.  They had run to the cats when their mother wasn't there.  Now the pair clung to Shai, their former king and the only link to the single life they had known.  Easily as old as their grandsire would have been, Shai, while still strong, would not be able to care for them forever. But they weren't children anymore.  It was time for them to become a force unto themselves.

Where Shai had always taught them to be wary of strange sabers, they were now learning to be wary of strange wolves.  There was much resentment between their species, and while sabers may have been willing to attack them, wolves were now willing to attack because of them.  Shangra'la was quick to defend against these "helpers", desperate to keep the only tie she and Ronno had besides one another.  She became wary and aggressive towards her own species, and each encounter with a stranger triggered her anxiety.  On and on they walked.  Asking, searching, driven forward by the merest crumb of maybe.

Lala tried her best to keep an eye on Ronno.  Despite his larger size and strength, he was a gentle soul.  The loss of their mother was a blow to them both, but she felt it was Ronno who would bear the deeper scar.  It was for him that she had so readily agreed to chasing the shadows of the pride across the land.  Had they found even a remnance of their mother's body, they could have made a clean break.  But though they had looked, and though they had found remnants of her, Arina was lost.  The rational portion of her brain told Shangra'la that her mother would not have survived the fire.  But hope ached in the starchild's chest.

Arina had been in poor health when Shai had offered them a trip to the beach.  She had declined, stating that she would like to stay to rest.  If Lala had known what was to happen, she never would have let herself be talked into the trip.  They had left Arina asleep in the sun outside their den, thinking that a little peace would help her ills.  The guilt was eating at Lala, and while she didn't speak it out loud, she thought that Ronno must be feeling it too.  Arina had given Ronno her herb satchel to take to the beach, packed with some rations so they could picnic. She adorned Lala with her earring, mostly to soothe her daughter's worried heart by telling her that at least something of her would be with each of them.  She'd be going after all, just in her dreams.  Now it was the only place Lala could see her.

"Perhaps we should have someone meet us here... I don't know how much further I can go without rest, and I wouldn't want to leave you two to go ahead without me. It would be too dangerous. Watch you ears now."

Roderick's clawmarks were a welcome sign. The sliver of hope in her chest grew warmer, the pain a little less.  Someone familiar, anyone familiar, was enough at this point.  The Twins ducked their heads as Shai roared, accustomed to the noise enough not to have it scare them, but still ill-equipped to keep it from rattling their bones.  Instead of adding their voices, Lala and Ronno knew to keep silent. They could howl, a strange, guttural sound that was somewhere in between a normal wolf howl and the grunting boofs that the cats made.  While easily recognized at home, it was not an accent that was usually greeted well.  Lala tensed, ready to fight or run as need be.  Shai was right, this was dangerous.

He didn't want to go to the beach.

He'd pleaded to his mother, to his sister- to anyone that they remain with her in her ailing health. He could help her- he knew given enough time that he'd be able to help her. But she persisted, she demanded, she begged for him to stop a moment and take a breath of reprieve from his duties and for once simply be a child. Her child.

'Go. Enjoy yourself. I will still be here when you return- I promise. As a sign of that promise, here is my herb satchel. Take it with you and bring back your findings from the beach.' she had told him when he'd protested too much. He'd taken it with a hesitation, but it was a promise that reassured him slightly.

In the end, Ronno could barely remember the ache he felt as he, his sister, and the King departed for the beach and a vacation.

The feeling of their return, however, still burned hot in his heart like the fire that swept through their home.

Much of that day was a blur to him- he could vividly remember the way the earth looked; a charred history simply wiped away and erased from the face of the planet. He could remember their grief as they searched; the futile hope that they held when bodies of their loved ones weren't found, thinking that maybe they were still alive somewhere in hiding. It was a hope that carried the trio through the lands as they desperately searched.

Ronno had done his best to keep the optimism high in the beginning. He begged and pleaded they continue their search and look for their mother. She was smart. She had taught them how to be smart; it was only logical that some piece of her remained, was it not?

With each step they took from that moment on, Ronno could only find the logical truth of the matter; a truth no one had spoken of: everyone had died.

To be fair, he wasn't sure why he'd kept the facade up throughout the entire journey. He knew his sister, Shangra'la, was coping far better than him but he knew that she too was suffering silently. When he looked to his King- the only adult of the bunch who had taken care of him for so long, there too did he notice the pained look in his face when he thought they weren't looking. They were lost, far from home and didn't know where their feet were leading them.

It would be Ronno who spoke out first though during their trip; finding ways to snap and argue at each passerby as well as their King. It was never done out of stubbornness to continue, but a shear resentment of his own inability to have stood up to them and stayed behind. Had he not gone on that vacation with his sister- had they stayed home with their mother; Ronno was certain they would all still have been alive to this day.

Yet one day as they continued on, beaten and drained; a hushed whisper came through the wood of a pride re-grouping somewhere near where they had found themselves. The whispers were nothing but rumor, but they were enough of a promise that Ronno had noticed a spring in Shai's steps as he turned towards the birds and began to follow them to this mystical promise land.

'We don't even know if it's them!' he'd protested out loud that day; the only one in the group unwilling to move on from their astray course. 'What if it's a different pride, and they kill us! Mother isn't with them- I don't think we should go in to this so blindly. What if these rumors are false?! We're already lost; we'd only become MORE lost in this awful place.'

In the end, it was an argument he didn't win. Once more he found himself reluctantly following orders and walking to a place that was not home.

They walked on and on for what felt like forever. The forest thickened in some areas and filtered out in others. Yet something curious found the trio as they made their way to a clearing- a wide sprawling prairie for miles. The star child couldn't help but feel the tiniest pang in his chest as he looked out to the sea of grass, turning to his sister with a look of defeat but also trust. If Shangra'la thought this was their best course of action, then so did he.

"Perhaps we should have someone meet us here... I don't know how much further I can go without rest, and I wouldn't want to leave you two to go ahead without me. It would be too dangerous."

Ronno's ears perked and his head swung to look beside him at the old, tired King that stood looking out to the prairie. The boy gave a chortle. He'd walked this far but was too tired now? With an eye roll he turned back to his sister, eyes passing over hers to see a set of claw marks dug in to the tree. They were familiar, and even if they were Roderik's, the boy wasn't about to place all of his eggs in to one basket.

Ronno opened his mouth to speak, only deafened by the loud roar of their once lively King. His head turned back to him, offering another soft snort and reclining to his rump.

"Sure hope the welcoming committee is happy to see us. I don't know if I can fight rogue cats long enough to save your ass, old man."