Her words did nothing but confuse him.

He might have dwelt longer on her apology, had Ivezho's name not been immediately mentioned. So. Their son knew. Gaucho was no idiot, he'd always known that their first born son's had taken more of a liking to their mother, and Ivezho especially, since he had gone off with her for a time. But this? This felt like a betrayel on both fronts. He could understand Sohalia leaving, at least, he sort of could. But this deception from his own blood? Why wouldn't the boy say anything to him? Unless of course ...

-and there it was, that old familiar ache that now prickled between his ribs. She had told him not to. She had wanted to see her family again, just not Gaucho.

"-happier?" He interrupted with a mumble, repeating the word as if it was foreign to him. What did happiness have to do with any of it? Love and happiness were not synonymous - love did not imply happiness. Not that Sohalia hadn't made him happy ... not that Ampere did but .. His blank expression recoiled with his lack of understanding. She had left so that he would be happier? She was everything to him then. Why should her leaving make things better?

..new family.. So Ivezho had told Sohalia about that. Gaucho didn't looked ashamed, nor would he have hidden it from her had she outright asked. His family had grown, how could it not? The Wildfire had been blessed by the Sun God to give birth to hallowed offspring. With Sohalia gone, Gaucho couldn't be expected to waste such a gift, could he? For the glory of the Sun, and the Throat? Nor would he lie about his enjoyment in creating those lives, but that hardly seemed to matter. It was as if she was criticizing for continuing to lead the Throat in her absence, or continuing to train. It was who he was, and he had been loyal to Sohalia the duration of their time together. How long was he meant to wait for her?

Clearly, he wasn't meant to wait at all.

At the thought of that, the dun had to bite back on the words suddenly filling his mouth, demanding to know where it was she was living. She looked a little too well fed, given Frostfall, to be living as an outcast. The Basin wouldn't take her, and that left only the Edge or the Falls. If it were the latter, he was sure that Kaj would have told him. Then again, hadn't he taken in one of Elsa's daughters, the now-queen of the Edge? Certainly she owed him the information about Sohalia, if nothing else. But ... he had also taken in Archibald's daughter and his sons.

They all owed him, and he had heard nothing.

For a moment Gaucho's ears flickered backwards as the roster of those who had betrayed him in their knowledge of Sohalia grew. Peerhapsssss you are wrong Mara interrupted wisely. Sssshe is resssourceful.

Still, Gaucho could do nothing but stare at her. The longer he did, the more he noticed had changed. More lines on her face, the slight difference in the curves of her body - even the length of her mane and tail. The differences felt catastrophic, and he felt like a fool for thinking that he knew for - for even harboring the thought of reaching out and touching her. 

There was no real word for I'm sorry in Gaucho's native tongue, and so he had no good way of responding. Instead, he merely shrugged his blue-striped shoulders and let his gaze roam out towards the ocean once again. What was there even to say, now? The last time Soh had returned, Gaucho had had to confess that he had murdered her daughter while under the control of the Moon Goddess. At least this time there hadn't been any deaths. Zenobia had come home - was that worth saying? And Rhoa ... well, he - they - were grandparents now. 

Then again, he supposed that she likely knew all of that already, especially if she'd spoken to Ivezho. Perhaps she'd spoken to the lot of them.

Unlike Mara, Vorsa was entirely uncomfortable with the entire thing and wanted nothing more than for all of this to stop. She chirped a sound to Astraeus, something along the lines of >>they stupid<<, before leaving her perch in Gaucho's antlers and gliding, rather defiantly and pointedly, towards Soh's hooves, landing on the sands there. She trilled in a huff, and folded her bright orangey-red wings against her sides, taking care not to burn Soh's forelegs.

Gaucho could do nothing but stare at the bird. Part of him wanted to follow her lead, to barrel forward and leave Soh no choice but to embrace him. But another part of him - the part that fixed his hooves precisely where they were, were far too hurt now to move. He might have understood her leaving ... but to come back in secret? To meet with their children, and to say nothing? Not even to let him know that she was alive?

Gaucho's antlered skull shook slightly, still, no words leaving his lips. What was there to say?

Except one thing maybe. One question, too unfair to possibly give voice to.

But fuck it. The silence was far too deafening anyways.

"Soh..happy now?" He asked finally, his steel-blue gaze finally rising to seek out hers.