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After what seems like foreve but is really only about thirty mninutes or so, he hears voces at the caves entrance, Igniska's, Corriander's and another voice he doesn't actually recognise but knows he's heard, a male voice that speaks too softly for him to make out.

Igniska laughs at something he says and tells the two she'll meet them for dinner in the usual spot. Then she comes into the cave, humming to herself, completely distracted and not expecting anyone to be there. The first thing she sees is the stone on the hoard, of course, which she goes to inspect with a troubled frown.

She turns to look at him, sighing. "Like a bad penny, when yer not expected ye show yer face.... When did ye get back? And... last but not least... Where the hell have ye been?" she growls at him angrily. She stomps pass him and goes to the table to gather up her work.

But he can see she is plainly upset herself. "Awhile, yes! Two three weeks is awhile, maybe a month, but you have been gone for nearly two full seasons. You missed Cory's engagement party. We had a valley wide celebration for the grand opening of the library and you weren't there. I've had to eat by myself more often than not... six months, Luciel, it's like forever..." she cries angrily shaking her head in frustration. "Did you even think of me while you were off galavanting on the high seas?"

She starts to shrug off his hug. If Igniska had anything in common with her red draconic ancestry, it was her fiery temper, but that last staement of Luciel's caught her undivided attention. She stops and turns in his embrace, giving him a puzzled look.

"You... got in trouble... because you were thinking of me? Whatever for?" she demands to know.

Igniska snorts rudely through her nose and pulls away. "Yer lucky I don't hate ye already. Honestly, Luciel, think about it. Ye ask for some time for yerself and I said fine, but hurry back... and yer gone a full half a year. Ye might say ye were thinking about me but my ears weren't burning... and I've eaten far too many dinners alone. Well, I gave up waiting fer ye. I've got a life of my own now. I'm taking lessons from Hlal-son and Gilead... and I'm working at the library... and I'm having dinner with Corry and her beau tonight... which if I don't get moving I'm going to miss. Iffin yer wanting back in my good graces it's going to take far more than a pretty stone to get ye there."

She turns and puts her lessons up on a shelf and goes to leave, but does so in a leisurely manner, hoping he has a better apology than the one he's given her. She really is quite angry, but mostly she very hurt. It is difficult for her to understand how, if he supposedly loved her so much, he could just stay away so long and then pop up fully expecting her to fall over herself with joy. But she refuses to let him know just how hurt she really is and if she stays around much longer she is going to start crying, something the young red dragon sincerely does not want to do.

Igniska refuses to follow him, not out of anger but out of sorrow. She had told him how she felt and it was obvious to her now he didn't care. He spoke of love but he showed it only with pretties and words. He claimed to be emphatic, but he couldn't feel the hurt behind her words. To her that meant he really didn't love her and his words had scalded her in areas she had yet to develop a strong mental defense. Had he been around he would have realized how difficult it had been for her these past few months, as those individuals who had originally been distracted by E'li's sister's attempt to steal their children, now began to realize they had one of the hated ones living square in their midst. It matter littler how their leaders treated her, it was how the common dragon who dealt with her on a daily basis reacted... and it hadn't been pretty.

She picked up the stone and sighed, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Crawling into her tidy little nest she curls up with the broken gem still tightly clutched, forgetting about dinner and her previous engagement, feeling sad and lost and wondering if it had been worth it to even come to Dragon Valley. Maybe it was time for her to move on.

As he sits and thinks, Luciel begins to remember things and feels like a heel. Yes he had told Igniska he was going away for a time, for a vacation, not to necessarily help Luna out. No time limit had been discussed or reasons given beyond he needed to get away. True Kero's invite had mentioned the fact that Luna needed a bit of draconic company, but no one had realized how benificial his visit would have turned out to be.

Beneficial, he snorts to himself. Hardly a good word to use. Luna needed to learn what it meant to be a dragon, and his short stay hadn't really touched that all that well. In truth the little black had managed to teach him far more about himself than he had taught her about dragons in general. And the time had indeed flowed by so quickly, that before he had realized it, he had been gone far longer than he had originally planned to be. Perhaps Igniska has a valid reason to be angry and now he had managed to anger her even more.

Back in the cave, the red dragon begins to pack up her things, writing a series of letters, one to E'li thanking him for offering her shelter, one to Hlal-son and Gilead for teaching her to think for herself, another to Corriander telling her she'll think of her often and that she'll always considered her a friend... then she begins to write one to Luciel appologizing for being such a lousey partner and telling him he didn't have to worry about her anymore. Then she divides up everything into several piles, taking her small hoard and possessions and returning most of the things people had given her, by labelling each pile as to who it should go. Finally she gathers up a small bag containing only a few precious item and steps outside, wondering where she should go.