Ewan had set Avery to bed without further reassurances that his mother would be found. It had never occurred to him to lie to their son. To say that Storm was delayed was to make less of the situation and less of the power of truth. Avery had cried with his worry the first couple of nights, and Ewan had made sure he was excused from school and took him to Yearling Brook where there were people who knew how to look after children whose parents were in battle or lost. That he could do no more to help find his wife galled him. Anton had been clear, though, that they could not sense her and with that had no way to even direct him. When they had more, he had said, they would let him know. They had not given hope yet, and he would not either.

That hope had taken him to the whistle Storm had granted him. Each night for the past three nights he had tried to call to her in the faint desperate hope she would appear in answer and that all would be righted in his tilted world. It was to this whistle again he went and took it up to make the call and send out his determination for her to come to him. The house was too quiet with the thought of her lost and not just away.

With a unnerving silence Cornelious breezed out of the portal that Storm had set out in front of her home. Trails of dirt were evident everywhere along his person; on his white tunic and under his harshly rubbed eyes. The relief of finding his daughter was doubled with the new concern of her mind.

With the promise that he had made, there was no time to waste until he alerted his son-in-law and made the next step to assure Storm's healing. With a direct stop in front of the door, he swiftly knocked upon it.

A knock. Storm would not knock. Ewan willed his wildly beating heart to still against its thrill of hope. Steady in his walk, he set aside the whistle back in its protective case and closed it. Down the hall he strode and drew out the dagger from the belt hanging nearby. Caution warned his movements, and he opened the door and in sighting Cornelious, opened wider. "What news, sir?" He motioned for him to enter.

"We have found her." He stepped inside as the door opened, but he did not move further into the home. "Her body is alive and well. Both her and the baby are unharmed." The better news needed to be first and direct to help with any reassurance he could offer. "She.. has not spoken a word to anyone since we have found her, but she is unreadable. One moment she shows nothing, and then she sobs about a whistle. Is that you?"

His relief at the news not hidden inside. He chokes on the release of emotions, feeling the want of tears in joy close off his throat, but he does not cry. It is such a foreign concept for his body that it is an uncertain sort of croaking sigh that is voiced.

And just as swift those tears threatened more to hear Storm sobbing. "I," Ewan cleared his throat, shook his head to likewise clear his mind, and reported, "she gave me a whistle that said would call her if ever she was needed. I thought it might call her home from wherever she was lost. I did not mean her harm." The last words spoken against the flood of emotion that swelled to restrict lungs and thought.

The clear showing of emotions on Ewan's face were also foreign to Cornelious. It should have surprised him the way it did. His tight reign on his own feelings threatened in the comfort of the rest of his family. However, the grip tightened, and he eased the pain by bringing any comfort he could. "Ewan," he set a dirty hand on Ewan's shoulder to give it a gentle shake, "it was the whistle that drove her to freedom. We might have never found her otherwise."

The shake to his shoulder drove Ewan back into his stoic demeanor, the emotion quelled. "Then it did do some good. Tell me of her, please, and how she was found."

"Can I see her?" he added with haste.

"She was sleeping when I had left. She was found walking around.. those that had fallen." He paused, and nodded. "I will take you, and Avery as well if you wish. I will have someone look after him." He waited several beats, before adding more quietly, "She might say something to you since it was your whistle."

"Let us bring Avery, but I want to see to her first so I can prepare him for whatever condition she may be in. You found her wandering you say?" Ewan walked back to the bedroom, the question over his shoulder. He needed to claim the whistle again. It had been a key, so Cornelious said, in finding Storm, and maybe it would bring her to wellness having it near. He returned to the hallway, the whistle into his neck pouch, and opened Avery's door, but let the light drifting down the hallway from a front room lamp start the work of rousing the boy for him while he looked to Cornelious for more information.

Cornelious followed and stood in the hallway, waiting to do what Ewan would ask of him. If Ewan is what brought back Storm, then the best way he could care for her was to tend to tend to her husband and child. "Yes, she wandering in the last place we had known of her. She looked just the same as she did several days ago, with the exception of several splinters in her fingertips."

"Splinters? Have you an understanding as to why she was found now and not before? You say the whistle may have helped, but it drew her from where?" Ewan tapped a bit on the door and called, "Son, your grandfather is here. Time to get up." Whisper the dog was first to react with a tired tongue rolling yawn and stretch of its paws. These paws pressing into Avery's legs which stirred the boy more than the call did.

"That is something we do not truly know." He watched the pup indirectly wake his grandson, and the affection was shown with a hint of a smile. "The trees were not.. living. Just having them stand upright is against all that should be. I am not sure they could even give splinters. I could not tell you where she was."

Avery moved from the paws that pressed against him, and glazed eyes opened to see both man standing in the doorway. With a mind that was still not awake, he simply rolled over.

Ewan walked into the bedroom still talking to Cornelious. "Standing but should not have been? It was that bad a battle then?" He reached to touch Avery's shoulder, and gave a signal for Whisper to get down off the bed, which the dog did with some reluctance and a soft whoof of displeasure.

"It was that yes, but the trees were without life. They were beyond rotten. It is what happens when Chaotics move outside of their own realm." Avery turned his head and looked up to Ewan, and turned even more to look at Cornelious again. *Mom?* It was the only focus his sleep-hazed mind had.

"We have found her safe from harm." Cornelious broke a smile that seemed to stem from no where.

*Can we see her?* Even as he asked his father, he was already trying to squirm out of bed to change.

"Perhaps, Avery." His hand went back to the boy's shoulder to steady him and stay him from his burst of energy. "Your grandfather is going to take us to her, and I am going to see her first if they feel it is all right. You understand we may not be able to, or you may not be able to, and if that is so it is for her well being. Understand?"

The energy seemed to deflate as quickly as it came, and the tears that had been present before returned again. *I want to see her.* After a few shed tears and sniffles, he seemed to understand that his mother needed to get better. After he finished changing, he went to Ewan in search of a comforting hug. *What about Whisper?*

Ewan gathered up Avery in his arms. "Come on, my boy. Whisper I think should be able to come as well." He looked to Cornelious for confirmation as they stepped from the room and stopped to get shoes on Avery's feet at the door, but took no care in dressing him from his night clothes. Ewan saw no reason to do so as he wanted Avery to get back into rest as soon as he may wherever they ended up staying that night.

"Of course Whisper can come. I will take him myself." As promised, Cornelious held his hand out to the growing puppy and scooped him into one arm. Moving towards the door, he used his free hand to open the front door for Ewan, "The portal is just outside where she is staying." Waiting for them to exit, he closed the door behind them and went directly for the portal.

Having one hand in Ewan's, the other in Avery's who was holding Whisper, Storm guided them through the portal back to their home. There was no look over her shoulder as she left her still concerned father minutes before. He thought that three full days under their care might not be enough. The uneasy feeling of passing through the portal no longer phased her, but she carefully squeezed Avery's hand reassuringly and sent him a smile that did not quite hit her eyes. He did not seem to notice and smiled in return.

The warm sun was welcomed against her skin, and she sighed with the comfort of her home. Their home. "It feels good to be home." The words were quietly spoken, and for a brief moment she rested her cheek against Ewan's shoulder, releasing both sets of hands.

Ewan drew an arm around her back, his hand caressing her shoulder. "Let us get you inside." The concern for her was tucked deep inside so his voice carried only the usual tone of tenderness when they were in the family sanctuary. It had come to be such for him, moreso when she had been gone. A place they had come back together before, and did so now.

"Avery, see to Whisper's needs in the backyard please, and then you and I will have the task of making sure there is something edible in the house."
He ushered his family inside, the familiarity he hoped would continue Storm's recovery.

She gave a low chuckle as Avery grinned over to them before bounding inside and towards the backdoor, Whisper barking playfully with the sudden movements. Once inside, she turned towards Ewan to run her fingers once through his hair. She found the physical contact reassuring and kept the darkness at bay, "I do not mind helping, beloved." She studied his eyes, focusing on what she could find there.

The feel of her fingers in his hair brought up a smile, his hand reached to close soft around the wrist. He turned his head and placed a kiss to her palm, and then started to guide her to the couch. "Yes, well, if you want it to be prepared well, I think I will at least need instruction. Unless you are up for trail rations." He was not quite sure she was up for much of anything.

To his mind there still seemed to be a haunted hollowness to her eyes. A dullness like tarnished silver needing polish. He tried to keep things easy and normal, but he wondered if, like he had in the past, the depth of her experience still surrounded her like a ghost.

For a moment, she gave a true smile at his affectionate gesture before she was being led to the couch. "You require instruction, and yet I am being taken away from the kitchen?" A tone of amused was threaded through her soft voice as she sat in her usual corner. The sheer familiarity and comfort from the peace in their home soothed almost all of her discomfort of the past weeks away. The knowledge that the experience was truly over helped her to slowly open up.

Yet she had not uttered a word about the three days that she was stuck within the tree. The fear and sorrow usually overwhelmed her thoughts when they strayed there. But now, knowing that she was safe and that her husband was with her, the thoughts only had a dull ache.

The sound of Avery going through several cabinets twitched her lips, "That is, if there is time before Avery decides he is the new house chief. Beloved," she wanted it out, she needed to tell someone what she had seen, "after we eat... I will tell you what happened."

"Avery, wait for me, please." He called back to the kitchen, but crouched down before Storm. His hands upon her knees. It was not unfamiliar to the time she had been hiding the burns of her legs. He knew she needed to tell him something. "Eating can wait a time. Tell me now if you would rather."

With his eyes level with hers, she saw his love and support, and simply gave a nod. "Go enjoy the sun with Whisper, son." The story would take more time than the boy would have patience. The sound of the back door opening and closing signaled that the boy was out of range to hear the details, and she would prefer it to be that way. Patting the seat next to her, she did not want Ewan to be crouching the entire time. Adjusting to face him, one hand rested against her abdomen to absently soothe the baby's motions before taking a quiet breath, "I had been inside a tree while I was missing." It sounded silly to her ears said so simply, but she would give him the details as she was sure he would ask them, "I was trying to get those wounded to safety, but... the Chaotics were returning and against my wishes, Jeremiah used the last of his life to transform into a tree with a big enough trunk for me to fit inside." Her voice was detached from emotion to properly tell the simple facts, but mourning of her friend was very visible in her eyes.

He took the simple statement in its literal truth. There were things of her people he could not understand, but the sacrifice of one comrade in arms to another was not unfamiliar to him.

What was also not unfamiliar to him was Storm's aversion to closed spaces. The time she had been required to go to the Earth Elemental realm, town, he had never been able to manage the concept, she had been disturbed before and much more so after. A lesser evil encased in the final honorable act of a friend. He had little words, but he held her close. "We will find a way to honor his sacrifice."