Rhoa wasn't in the Falls, I had looked everywhere for him and he just wasn't there. I wraked my brain to try and remember if he'd mentioned where he might be going while I went to visit Cera and Gaucho in the Throat and I remembered him mentioning the forest, so I flew there as fast as my wings would carry me. The whole time I just kept thinking about how I was going to tell Rhoa that Gaucho had died -- there was really no easy or sensitive way to do it. No matter how I went over it in my head it always hurt. I didn't want to hurt Rhoa, but I knew from my experience with Cera and my own father's death it hurt far worse not to tell.

I landed at the forest's treeline and I folded my wings tightly against my sides as I peered into the darkness. It seemed, right then, that the forest was much more ominous than I remembered, but I chalked that up to the fact that I was about to tell Rhoa that his father was dead. Not once did it cross my mind that there would be someone that I loved lying dead in there and that the monster that killed him might still be lurking. I pushed myself forward and started searching... but I didn't have to search that long.

It was the thick, iron scent of blood that I noticed first. Then it was Rhoa that I could smell intermingled with it. I could feel the dread starting to build up in me, but I kept telling myself that it was just a wolf that killed something and Rhoa had simply walked past it. It definitely wasn't Rhoa's blood that I was smelling, just some unfortunate forest animal. Rhoa was too strong to be taken down by a wolf. He was a fighter. He was strong. He was going to be a father. He had a lot to fight for. He was ...

dead.

He was laying there on the ground, covered in blood, and I stared for the longest time because I couldn't believe it. It had to be a hallucination. An illusion. I was dreaming. It was just a terrible nightmare and I was going to wake up and Rhoa was going to be right there next to me, sound asleep. It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real.

But it was real.

I stood frozen where I was, my heart hammering somewhere in my chest, and my breaths coming in sporadic bursts. My blood felt like it had turned to ice as it sloshed its way through my body. I wanted to scream. To cry. To find what had done this and kill it.

"Rhoa..." I whispered his name as I finally forced myself to take a step forward, then another, and another. My legs were shaking as I stood there looking down at him ... at what used to be him.  "Oh god..." My voice cracked and a sob caught in my throat. His blood coated the ground around his body, still wet and sticky, but I still layed next to his body, uncaring of how it would stick to my coat. "You promised me." I whispered against his ear. "You promised me you wouldn't leave me again." My voice cracked again and I took a shaky breath. "We were going to be parents...." 

"."