Although Vidarr had scarcely been back in Dawnbreak, they had been robbed.

To think that the great guardian was gone shook him to the core, and even though logically he knew he would not have been helpful with the way he struggled with his shoulder. He hadn't even tried swimming, but, regardless, seeing the loss as it rankled the members of Dawnbreak hurt his heart. What could he have done - his bulk could have helped pull and lift, couldn't he? There was something deep and heavy and solid in Genghis. There always had been. He had been there longer than Vidarr, he'd been there when the girls were born hadn't he? He had known them truly since their infancies, and he had been a constant for the rest of Duskguard. He'd been there through Tiberius vanishing and the passing of Olive, he'd been there to help restructure Duskguard's husk into Dawnbreak. He was The Pillar Of Courage.

And now he was gone.

It had been the biggest shock to him. He was not shocked by the presence of new wolves, he was not shocked to see that the Shakti-Vaes children had grown even more. Not necessarily by size, but how they presented themselves. It felt hollow almost to walk the normally boisterous pathways that were now somber and so quiet. It almost felt wrong to even speak, to break the silence, and so he pressed on with an awkward silence wrapped around him. It hung like a cloud across the Vale, and Vidarr's golden eyes remained misted - feeling guilt for being away and having sorrows befall them, guilt for daring to center his feelings in such a time of tragedy, he felt guilty for his guilt when he had no way of controlling anything.

What they could do - what they all could do in Genghis' honor, was to press on.

Without the watchful gaze of The Pillar of Courage, Vidarr felt his place was to crawl the borders, to take up his place again - even with his shoulder he would not yield for the sake of the pack. So Vidarr continued on his slow comb of the borders, trying to fit in the places that he could without being in the way.