It was far.

Very far.

Sansa looked at the map in silent horror at the amount of distance she would need to cover in order to reach this soothsayer.

How many days would it take until she could finally reach her destination?

Judging from the distance and length, she could already tell the journey would not be accomplished in weeks.

Months.

It was a hard word for her mind to process. Somehow, she had led herself to indulge in the fantasy that finding Night would be easy. Well, not easy but...quick.

She had visions in her dreams of him coming to her. Of it not being the female to find her male as everyone so openly supported, but of him. Night. Of the male seeking out his heart and finding her there waiting for him.

She sighed, folding the page and placing it within her bag.

The pack had been sorry to see her go. She had overextended her stay, residing there for almost two weeks. It was a pack that made her uneasy with the laws and traditions that they seemed to guard closely.

She had to be re-blind folded back as she was leaving. The area was not even marked on the map she had been given. For all intents and purposes, it was a pack that wanted to, and wished to remain invisible.

Sansa doubted she would ever see them again – ever be able to find them, and stumble across their land as she did the first time.

It was a shadow pack, one that vanished quickly in the mind.

The first week of her travel was uneventful. She purposely avoided the pack lands and areas close to their borders. She did not want to encounter another pack in need that would suck her into staying. But she knew eventually she would have to cross a known territory in order to reach her destination.

Halfway during the second week, that time came.

She shifted back to skin, changing and walking slowly to the border. The pack that had been marked on the map was a medium-sized one. She had heard of the name and knew Warren would not be happy that she was coming so close to her father's land.

His pack was just a few days away from this. She would slip in and out, silently moving through.

"Stop."

Sansa immediately went still, holding her hands up to show she meant no harm.

A pack warrior stepped out from the shadows, eyeing her carefully.

"I'm just passing through."

The warrior stared at her for a second longer before asking, "are you not looking for your mate?"

"I..." Sansa's mind raced before she slowly shook her head, "I'm a traveling healer."

He continued to stare at her. She could see the mistrust in his eyes. She lowered her shoulders slightly, trying hard to seem non-threatening in this male's eyes.

"And you don't want to heal any from our pack?" Sansa realized her mistake. She could hear the anger in his voice.

"If there is someone ill that I can treat here, then I will try to help in any way that I can."

At her words, she saw hesitation. He was conflicted. Sansa did not move. She didn't dare breathe as she watched the internal battle rage on in his mind. Finally, he stepped towards her, grabbing her hands and twisting them to be behind her back.

"Come with me."

She didn't protest at her treatment. Her goal was to just get through this pack. After that, there was a mountain range to cross, and then it was what seemed, flat lands of vast nothing before going north to the soothsayer.

They entered the pack quietly, almost as if they did not want to catch the attention of any as the guard led her to his intended destination.

Her interest was captured as he led her through the back of the packhouse.

"Daniel..." another male was there. He had been sitting in a chair, his head in his hands. Sansa knew the position and read the sign well in what it meant – despair.

"I have a healer."

The male looked up at Sansa, a faded light being renewed in his eyes.

"A healer?"

Sansa wished she could turn around to see the expression on Daniel's face. However, the male in the chair stood before she could attempt it. He took her arm, pulling her towards him and in the direction of his choice.

"The Moon's blessing to us," the male whispered.

Sansa inhaled nervously. She had never had her healing skills so desperately needed as it seemed to be now. No one had regarded her as something from the moon- certainly not a blessing.

She followed him into a room. If it had not been for her medical training, Sansa was sure she would have thrown up. The smell hit her. It was something she had only read of. But this. This was a horror that she had never really believed in until now.

"Please help him."

Both the males now stood in the doorway. They each had their hands over their mouths, backing away slowly. Tears were filling their eyes. Sansa did not know if it was from the smell or the sight of the body in the room that caused such emotions. But they backed away and shut the door.

Sansa felt like screaming at their actions. She wanted to pound on the frame and cry with them as the smell within the room because overpowering. The open door allowed it to have some relief, but she knew why they had to keep the door closed.

She turned to the Alpha. She knew it was him. He couldn't be anything else.

The closed-door was done so that the scent would be somewhat blocked off from the pack.

So that they could not smell and imagine what festered inside their own packhouse.

"Hello," Sansa whispered, "My name is Sansa...I'm a healer." She approached the male, coming closer and inhaling slowly through her mouth.

He made no motion. His open eyes were glazed over. He was sitting in a chair, much like how the other male had been when Daniel brought her in. But unlike the other male, this way was sitting straight up, face forward and tortured gaze able to be viewed to all.

Sansa slowly came closer – close enough that she could touch his knees. She pulled an empty chair next to him, sitting it down in front of the broken figure as she softly took his hands.

The moment of touch seemed to register in him as the male's eyes slowly looked down to meet her.

"There is no healing me," he whispered.

"I know," she said.

She squeezed his hands, hearing the despair even in her own voice as she took in the lifeless male. She knew what had happened. What happened to make a wolf like this.

The loss of their soul.

The passing of their other half.

The rip away of their sanity as they crumbled from the shock of knowing such a pain existed.

She only sat with him, until he finally turned to her and whispered hoarsely, "You are a healer. You have medicine...medicine that can end this torture..." She knew what he was asking from her.

Sansa struggled to find the right words. She felt tears come to her eyes but quickly pushed them back.

"No...I can't...That goes against what I pledged. I can do no harm to others."

"Let me do it then." His flat voice was starting to take on a new tone – one of desperation as the grip upon her hand suddenly tightened.

"Tell me about her," Sansa whispered.

The male shook his head, a low moan leaving him.

"I don't want to remember."

"Tell me? Please."

His head remained down as his whole frame sagged into the chair.

"What was her name?"

"Kelly."

He winced as if the name was fire to his tongue.

"I don't want to..." He looked up and Sansa felt something freeze inside her as the lifeless eyes attached to her face, "can't you just end this?"

Sansa wanted to run away. She wanted to rip her hands away from his, open the door and run out of the pack. She wanted to continue her search and forget those eyes. Those eyes that stared at her now.

But she knew in her heart that she couldn't.

Would never be able to.

She did not know what to say to him. She did not know what words he needed to hear in order to motivate him. She only continued to stare back, captured by his plea.

"What is your name?"

"Brendan."

Sansa moved closer, something frantic coming over her, "Brendan. I know what you are thinking."

He shook his head about to dismiss her, but she only pressed on, "You miss her? Of course, you do. You miss her every second, every hour...every day. You wait for her and realize she is not coming to you and you just...you can't even comprehend the fact that your waiting will be continuous for this lifetime."

He was staring at her now, taking in every word she spoke.

Sansa pressed a hand to her heart, tears now freely falling. She had never spoken out loud to anyone the hurt she was suffering – had been suffering – at waiting for him. For Night. She had never realized just how much pain she was in until she looked at this mirror reflection of herself.

"You have every right to give up. It's so hard-," her voice broke at the end. She cleared it quickly, regaining her words as she continued, "-so hard to think of them and realize it's just you. But that's the way it was, in the beginning, wasn't it? You were born alone. It's the Moon Goddess's journey for your soul that you leave alone."

Sansa wondered how much comfort she was bringing. Her words were causing even herself more pain, the more she thought about and spoke of it.

But she continued.

She had to.

It was now becoming something selfish of her- where she had to let out her own pain.

"I know the pain you carry inside you is great, and there is nothing I know of in this world that will be able to overcome that. But it's painful because you are alive- I know you wish otherwise, but the emotions prove that you are...you are... a continuation of their memory."

She watched as Brendan's tears fell from him.

"Only you carry those memories now. Ending it now would be ending those memories that you collected. Treasure what you were given – no matter the time it was given in."

She inhaled deeply, collecting the fullness of his sorrow in her lungs. He inhaled with her.

"Leave."

She stood, staring down at him.

He looked up at her, a shadow of what he once was, shining back at her.

"If you won't do it then I know others who will."

Sansa felt her heart grow cold at his words.

She opened her mouth to say more, but he only cut her off by pointing to the door.

She hesitated, but his face was set.

And she had said all that she could.

Without another word she departed, her heart heavy at what she knew would take place, the moment she left the pack land.