She had been walking for what felt like an age.

To be in a completely new environment, all alone, would have frightened the Juniper of six months ago. Yet now, while she wasn't exactly comfortable, she was competent. Far more competent than the girl that had first been betrothed into the Durinn clan. With a hum to distract herself, the strawberry lioness would weave her way up the mountain paths, eagerly scanning the horizon for any sign of a familiar face. A face, a scent trail, anything. She had been sure that she'd caught wind of Colborn earlier, but no doubt it was her grieving mind playing tricks on her.

It had happened before, and would no doubt happen again.

In fact, she dared not have hope until she stumbled across a familiar sight. There, on the edge ahead, towering proud.... A cairn. A cairn. Juniper would pause, jaw slack and eyes wide as she stared up at the structure. They were here, they had to be!

The man hid his grief under the layers of a serious gaze and forlorn passing glances to the wind once everyone else had turned away. In the nights after his brothers would sleep he would retrace his steps to a place he had previously been, and find rocks nearby to gather them in a somber silence, filled only with the whistle of mountain wind and clattering of smoothed rocks as they were placed together. As he did so emotion would pass his face, all alone he would let himself crumble just a little.

But only a little. His brothers needed his strength right now... He could not afford to let the feelings that harmed him inside out onto the earth for fear of him breaking. He had to be strong for their sake. Yet... He had still hoped...

Prayed, to his pantheon for the possibility that not only his other family members had somehow made it out, but that his love had as well. Juniper... June-bug. Simply thinking of her lovely face and what may have happened to it stirred a horrid mix of anger and fury coupled with sadness and utter helplessness. They had been separated when disaster struck and he hoped. Again, he prayed, that she had not been within the kingdom under the mountain when it had happened, only witness to the aftermath. To imagine if someone had hurt her...

He couldn't. Over time it only served to twist his heart, for he knew that as time wore on- there was less and less he could do. Search for everyone they had greatly tried but now, miracles seemed less and less likely for the ones he loved to return to him. For his Juniper to be okay and fine, less and less likely that he would be able to hold her again. But if he could... Oh if only he could... He would hold her tighter than ever before.

But for his love even though the time passed begged him to move on and accept the inevitable, the stubborn man in him didn't want to give up without knowing.

So he would build his cairn.

Build it and at the top leave a black stone for himself, looking as if it had burned in a fire. A nod to his namesake, and something he'd used to denote himself before. A piece of coal or obsidian, whatever was available that was dark or smelled of fire And next to it he'd place something lovely. Something pink for her, if he could not find juniper itself... He knew she loved the soft color, as much as she loved the soft color of his eyes.

And as he did every time he built his cairn, he would return to it later. To see if anything had been moved. To see if anyone was waiting at it.

He hadn't expected this morning to be any different than the many mornings, approaching with his head down and tired as he was when he missed a good chunk of the sleep he should be getting. But a hum... A sweet hum caught his ears. The firey man's head lifted and normally half-lidded and serious icey tones widened with curiosity. Just another hopeful memory blown in on the wind?

No. He could see someone ahead, facing away from him. But he could recognize her hips, her stance. Her pelt. On the wind he could even... Breath in her scent. And he did, unintentionally though as his mouth opened in shock. Oh Gods, let it be. Let it be.

"Juniper?" His deep voice tried to project but it buckled on itself, only saying half of it before the tail end turned to a whisper. He couldn't believe it yet. Not yet.

code by corvus | manip by mono

She was rather compromised with her back to the path like that, but try as she might there was no way she would be able to tear her gaze away from the structure before her. It was beautiful; it signified hope, it signified that she was in the right place. Finally, after all this time. It would take all her composure to not fall to the ground and wail when, from somewhere behind her, a familiar voice would lilt on the wind. It trembled, but regardless of that she would know it from anywhere. @Colborn. Unable to bring the words to her tongue Juniper would whirl on her heel, bright gaze wide and watery as it latched onto the familiar figure in the distance. It was him - it was! The bard would take one tentative step, and then another. She could not stop herself, though. She would run to him, and seek to bury herself in his embrace. The sobs caught in the back of her throat, chest tight and painful. "I-It's you, it's really you..."

He still didn't know if she was real, but he suddenly didn't care anymore. Real or not she ran towards him, the sorrow and pain in her eyes twisting her sweet face. Don't cry my love. He echoed in his mind as he too was powerless to stop himself from flinging himself forward to meet her halfway. He opened his arms and begged the gods for it to be real, for him to feel her embrace. For it to not be a dream, let it not be a cruel dream.

And he did. They more or less slammed into each other but the force wasn't noticed underneath the raw emotion of their coming together. He wrapped his arms around her smaller form and pulled her into the air, tight to him, fitting against him just as he remembered. Tears couldn't stop themselves from suddenly bursting through his powerful floodgates, once stoic and unflappable- now sensitive and choked with sobs of happiness and sorrow. Happiness that he had found her again, sorrow that he had been so so long without her.

"Juniper. My Juniper. Thank the gods." The flame tinted lion sobbed between hitched breaths, pressing his nose against her neck and feeling the pulse under her skin. She was alive. She was his again.

But then he pulled away, still keeping her in his embrace (he'd dare not let go at this point for fear he'd somehow lose her again), but he leaned back to look her over. To look for scars, burns, anything that may have caused her pain. Frantically, and then he met her beautiful eyes again.

Time just... Stopped. All the things he had thought he'd say to her when they reunited, all of them swirled in his head now so fast he couldn't choose. But he had to, gods he had to say something to her.

"I'm so sorry Juniper. I'm so sorry I wasn't there when it happened- are you hurt? Did they hurt you?" His voice grew more intense then, a subtle show of the boiling anger he felt for the ones who tore his family apart at the seams. Not that there was anything he could do now, aside from be upset at it all. They were long gone from their homeland, they had moved on. But if he learned they had hurt her... What could he do? He would be disappointed in himself for not trying harder, doing more while he could. He could only smother her in his love now that she was here in his arms again, hold her close and never let her go again. He learned his lesson. Never again.

code by corvus | manip by mono

The embrace was firm, needed to soothe her aching heart, and immediately the contact was like a salve to a burn. Juniper could not stop the purr that vibrated in her chest. To hear @Colborn cry was more than enough to set her off, too; she'd not seen her betrothed weep before. It was jarring. "Colborn," she whispered shakily into the crook of his neck, sniffling. Once he pulled away from her, she would be able to get a better look at him. He did not look any different, really. The strawberry-pelted woman could only hope that the same could be said for her. It had been... a difficult journey. "No, they didn't," the lioness sought to assure her beau immediately, shaking her head. "They didn't." She'd managed to get away relatively unscathed, but the mental trauma of separation had been more than enough pain for anything. Certainly more than enough pain for her. "Where are the others? Are they with you?" A worried pause. "Are they alright?"