[ COMPLETED ]

It wasn't as if Sijor was always going over to Divum at all, not as much as she had been. Perhaps part of that was simply due to the fact that she had noticed how little her mother truly wanted to leave the lands of Orior, especially after Sijor's own loss of a leg due to humans,  and another part was that she felt bad about how she had simply gone off that one time without too much explanation, yet to come back being carried by her friend Shiloh. After she'd thought about all of that, it had been a slight bit embarrassing, and she wasn't sure she had ever adequately told her friend how much she had truly appreciated him being there for her. The other memories of what had happened after she'd gotten the strange pain in her leg were very fuzzy, but she remembered that he had been protective over her, which had made her happy and grateful to have such a good friend. 

So, on this day, the first day of summer, which meant great travel for a wolf such as Sijor, whom made quick time of passing through the grasslands, she headed over to Divum. Along with her, she carried a rock carving that she had made especially for her friend, having spent many a long hour sitting and carving the rock and even adding little metal embellishments, using her mother's spare metal that she'd had lying about.  It had been formed into the shape of a standing wolf, a wolf that looked nearly identical to Shiloh, her keen memory even crafting it in the proper shade of browns and golds to match his pelt with sand that fell off of it. The small bits of metal had been applied and even colored to look like shinies in his pelt, and she'd found very pretty gemstones to make his eyes and set all over the body to depict his own gemstones.  The wolf himself was standing as if protecting something, looking slightly upwards in a rather proud, defiant look, not angry, but determined to aid his friends. That was how she remembered Shiloh and she thought that it would look nice as something to set in front of the gates of Divum, a symbol of it's protector. 

With the statue, quite a bit larger than Sijor, bobbing in tow behind her slightly elevated above the ground as she herself used earthen magic to hold it there, she arrived at the gates of Divum, setting the wolf down carefully and smiling at it, her tail wagging. It would be neat to see what he thought, and maybe what the other pack members thought too! That in mind, she howled for her friend, eagerly awaiting him to show so that she could show off what she'd made.

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In Aamu's eyes, Divum has lost quite a bit of it's former glory, these days. It hadn't occurred to her so much as that she'd suddenly opened her eyes one day to see it. Sure, she had been sick for a while since the loss of her wings, the appendages simply replaced with feathers that marked the place as if scars. But then when she did feel able to get up and about again, the food storage had been replaced with things that Freyja or Aurora had brought in, but the pile of rocks she always laid aside for Shiloh when she had the time, now seemed untouched.

She'd sniffed it, but the scents seemed old, and walking through the tunnels gave her much of that same eerie feeling, something was amiss - missing. No, not something. Someone.
She hadn't seen him after that day, wondering now what he'd found more important. He'd been the rock that Divum stood on, and now the foundation was gone, yet she could not bring herself to look for it. She wondered if Freyja knew, but if the di'shei knew indeed, she had not told her, though Aamu suspected that Freyja would not know either. After all, Shiloh sometimes did wander, but never far or long unless he'd told someone beforehand. This was different and felt very definitive.

So she'd told Aurora to try and stay home as much as she could, that the ruins were dangerous, that they needed her to maintain their home. It was something that obviously sparked some rebellious side of the winged hybrid, but Aamu somehow could not find herself to care as much as she used to. After all, most wolves she knew had somehow found themselves lost and gone, and sometimes she wondered why she even bothered.

Now, with not so much hunting or gathering to do any longer, she was home a lot more often. She'd found that Vi had wandered off as well, which might honestly be good for her if she found a new purpose. But most of the days, Aamu slept in, because sleep meant not having to wonder, then tried to find some food for herself, her daughter and her Alpha, and then came home laying about just a bit.

It was one of those meaningless days when she heard the howl of Sijor, and with something happening for a change, Aamu stood to walk to the gate. When she opened it, there was a contour of Shiloh, and for a heartbeat she quickened her step - but it was not his smell, just that off a statue. Her face fell as her eyes glanced over the image, and only then she found Sijor's face, and gave her a sad, half-hearted smile. "Hi there."

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Sijor waited for a long time, at least it felt unduly long as she had always been used to Shiloh coming to greet her fairly quickly. Quickly for him, of course, since his steps were rarely rushed, but he was generally out and about on the borders of the lands anyhow, fixing things up here and there, so it was likely never a long walk. However, she wasn't impatient, no, that wasn't really like her. She knew that all things would come to fruition in time, and perhaps Shiloh was helping one of his packmates with something, and that wasn't anything that would bother the hybrid wolf. In fact, it gave her some time to look around at the outside of Divum, that she always enjoyed due to its pretty flowers and well-kept stonework.

However, as she sat there and looked at it, a momentary frown crossed her features. Some of the flowers looked a bit faded, and she knew that wasn't usually how things went around here. Shiloh always seemed to like the gold ones the best, and she reached out with a gentle nudge of her own earthen magic to liven them up again. Maybe it had just been something that had recently happened, not even Sijor could account for things like random weather or maybe a wolf maliciously marking that spot which might cause a plant to wither a bit. That finished, she smiled and continued to wait, although there was now a strange sensation at the back of her mind that was telling her that something was off a bit with this whole thing. Being the optimist she generally was, however, she simply pushed it aside for now.

That was until Aamu showed up. Her countenance brightened immediately upon seeing the older female and she gave her a bow of her head, acknowledging her presence. Before she could bark out a proper greeting, however, she noticed the golden wolf's gaze fall upon the statue she'd brought and get sad. Sijor's entire train of thought came crashing to a halt as she realized that there really <i>was</i> something wrong here, although Aamu continued on to greet her, it wasn't with the same enthusiasm she would have thought. In a halting manner, she asked what leapt into her mind. <b>"Aamu . . . what's wrong? Has something happened? Can I help?"</b> After all, she wasn't jumping to any conclusions, not yet, but there was definitely something amiss here.

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Sijor immediately picked up on the emotions surrounding her, and also the weariness that she probably expressed openly. She sighed, sat herself down, curling her shorter tail to her body - almost wishing she had as long a one, as a di'shei. She shook her head slightly. "I don't know. I haven't seen Shiloh for a long while, and I worry he's not made it back for some reason." She bit her lower lip, waiting for the emotional drama that would now probably follow - Sijor had always been Shiloh's best friend, and had the both of them ever grown older, perhaps more than that.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

When Aamu sat herself down in such a manner, Sijor crept closer, sitting herself down as well, nearer to the golden female, noting that she was wingless. Hadn't she had wings before? She had thought she had, but it wasn't the time to ask, for as she responded, she realized that those had nothing to do with the reason Aamu was sad. Sijor's own countenance changed entirely to shock, and she looked around a moment as if she could somehow summon Shiloh from the air before returning her stricken gaze to Aamu. <b>"How . . . how is that, didn't he say anything? He always says something doesn't he?"</b> Sijor always told her mother when she was leaving, or at least someone from her pack. She had always thought Shiloh did as well, had he said that to her at one time or another? She couldn't remember, her thoughts were now in a jumble, upon realizing that her best friend, the familiar face that she had been used to, was gone and his pack didn't know where he was.

<b>"Do you think I should go looking for him then? I can! I mean unless you have already . . . "</b> She offered up quickly, realizing that maybe she could find him. He couldn't have gone anywhere too strange. Maybe he'd gone back up to the stone ruins, maybe he'd gone to the north to visit his friends up there. Sijor was fast, she could make the trips in record time, and that would be something she was sure her pack and her mother wouldn't have any problems with. They all liked Shiloh too. Everywolf liked Shiloh!

<i>ooc: you can literally presume/assume anything you want about Shiloh telling anyone in Divum .. or not .. up to you ^^</i>

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Sijor did take it better than expected, though that was nothing to say really - she had perhaps, expected the worst. The blue hybrid looked around as if to verify that what she was being told was the truth, looking back at Aamu in shock. She hadn't changed her posture, and shook her head to Sijor's rain of questions. "He usually tells Freyja, if he's planning on staying longer than the day. Maybe he got distracted when refreshing the outer wall, I just couldn't tell you. One day, he simply walked out and has not come back that evening. It could be that he's on a trip... but..." she sighed. It just wasn't very likely that he would return any time soon. She hadn't seen Czest, Ilma or Gabriel for some time either, and Castiel and Deacon hadn't visited either. Of course, they had their own lives now, so she suspected it just didn't occur to them. But Shiloh had always thought of Divum as his home, and if he'd gone for so long a trip he'd have warned either Freyja or Sijor. But it turned out neither of them knew.

She smiled a bit at Sijor's urge to search. "Sure you can, no-one is stopping you. I'd have gone if I hadn't been wounded recently." she told her. Truth be told, she did not know how Freyja or even Aurora could bear this. Probably by not thinking about it too much? But with only three wolves to feed, including herself, Aamu had time to spare.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

She frowned a bit deeper at the thought of Shiloh just leaving without any word, and let out a big sigh, nodding. Sijor knew she would have to look, then. <b>"I hope he hadn't gotten taken by one of those portals. I imagine they have to be able to sneak up on wolves somehow, because I can't imagine anyone would walk into one on purpose!"</b> Was the only realistic conclusion she could come to. Perhaps Aamu knew more about these portals than she did? Sijor couldn't even fathom the idea of Shiloh potentially being lost forever, so she nodded again when she said that it was certainly fine to go looking for him.

However, the talk about her injury brought the attention back to the fact that this wolf that had previously had beautiful wings, was now lacking those feathered appendages. <b>"What happened, if I can ask? I hope it wasn't another wolf that did that."</b> Divum had always been a peaceful place, and she couldn't imagine what could have happened to make another wolf be so mean.

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Hmm. Portals again. It wouldn't have... would it? "I don't know... I know I walked into one accidentally to get here... I was chasing something, couldn't stop soon enough." She made a face, but then smiled. "Wouldn't have met all of you guys here if I hadn't though." She looked slightly away to the Shining Woods to the south and wondered if perhaps Ilma had been wanting to take a plant and Czest had followed to make sure she wasn't alone, or... maybe even the other way around.

She shook her head when Sijor talked again, focusing back on the here and now. She lifted a paw to point at the ruins beyond the horizon. "I was looking for Gabriel, but found the wrong place to rest. Next thing I knew I would up dazed and light in the head, and I'd just lost them." she shook her head. The memory was still vague, but she remembered she'd had help, and been at Orior even, though while she had been there she had mostly been sleeping.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Sijor nodded, understanding exactly what Aamu meant about accidentally falling into a portal. That had happened to her mum and dad, too, and they had told her that they had been initially upset of course, but then they had been happy to have her and her brothers and sister and had made a life here too. A pang of sadness struck her at the fact that such could have happened to Shiloh, too, and the sadness wasn't just for him leaving, but the fact that he could be having a whole different life, and was happy even without her being there. That did not make her feel good, not at all.

<b>"Oh. So you were in the stone ruins. That's a bad place, it's where I lost my leg. It wasn't those two legged creatures was it?"</b> She barked, sad then because Aamu had suffered a bad thing from that place too. She wondered if that had also been the human things, that had taken Aamu's wings. The idea that something could remove wings made Sijor even more afraid of going back into the stone ruins that she wondered if that was what had happened. <b>"Maybe . . . do you think Shiloh would have gone back there because he was mad at them for making my leg have to be gone? They used their fire stick thing on it, it was a shot, and it hurt a lot and was poisoned, so Keita had to take it off so I didn't die. Shiloh was . . . really angry about that."</b> Oh he had been so furious that she'd lost her leg, even though Sijor herself hadn't minded so much. But Shiloh had always been peaceful, so maybe it didn't make that much sense after all.

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Aamu nodded, then shook her head. "Yes, the ruins, but I haven't seen a human in a very long time, nor have I smelled one. Strange though, that they used the stick on you - the ones I've seen were mostly peaceful." She shook her head. Well, she supposed sometimes it could not be helped for one to be scared. She remembered a clear difference between the tan and black humans. "Was it a black one?" she wondered, thinking that perhaps Sijor would remember such a detail. It was sad though - this was not something she wished on anyone, ever.

The blue hybrid did actually seem to cope better than perhaps Aamu though. But the dynroth couldn't know what Shiloh had been wanting to do when he last left Divum's grounds. Him being very very angry for seeing Sijor hurt would maybe trigger such a trip indeed. "I really can't tell, Sijor. I am sorry. I just hope he didn't, because they can be really dangerous, especially when frightened." she made a face, remembering the leg. "But I guess you already knew that." the orange wolf sighed.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning