Echos

He smelled of woodsmoke. Of fire. The acrid scent stuck in his nose. He smelled of sweat. Disheveled, hair plastered to his neck, soot smeared as he was he did not care. They could be righted with soft scented soaps and long soak. He wanted to be home. His pace reflected that all but ignoring the hawkers crying there wares. Although he noted that they ignored him as well and he wondered if it was the exhaustion that held him in a vice grip that made them shy away.

Faldon'din hadn’t seen fit to stop his gambit until Cian had stumbled in his magic. Since then it had been blessedly quiet. It still hadn't stopped him from getting in the middle of things though. Such has this recent forest fire spanning a swath. 

He didn't think the door being open all that odd. Stepping through the threshold his voice rang out. Lovely. looking up then to be struck dumb. Shaking his head as if he were still dreaming and trying to wake. He had been told that Aethra was awake. It seemed like the ghost of the past were slowly coming out of the woodwork. He was overjoyed in this sense. A smile broke his features. Quickly looking to Faelyn and back to her. My willow-o-wisp. My daughter! looking down at the state of himself. I  am in no state to hug you, but I have missed you. I love you little one. 

She was not so little anymore but that wasn't going to stop him from calling her as such.