The moth-creature had to struggle to find Wilder.
She had called upon it, down their shared link--but when he arrived, he'd found her gone, and hadn't been able to pick out her relatively-unfamiliar scent in Orion. He'd followed the wrong odor, instead, the wrong way, and only now--only as she passed back through--did he pick her up along the link.
He saw her picking her way back through the cave of stars, and moved toward her quickly, his many legs trotting along the ground.
"You," he began, tilting his head--"You called upon me?" She looked a little... bedraggled, but not in immediate danger. That was good, at least.
@Wilder
Aether listened, its heavy brow furrowing over its many yellow-red eyes.
"I could not find you. The place where you had called, was empty. Who has killed whom? Why?" it asked, simply. It might have been too late to save Wilder's friend, but it was not too late to stop further bloodshed, if the perpetrators intended such.
@Wilder
Aether listened, its features growing more serious for each of Wilder's words.
At last, after a silent moment's thought, it offered a single question--"They tormented, on purpose?"
Killing between those in the cave would need to be addressed--but torture, that was inexcusable.
@Wilder
The hybrid moth-creature stared at the little cat.
It wasn't an emotional being--its moth parent had seen to that--and its squeaky voice was hardly reassuring. But it was thickly-furred with reassuring moth-fluff, and after a moment's consideration it decided that this, at least, might be of use.
Aether stepped forward, a few tentative paces, to lie down before Wilder--reaching one Thothaga-colored limb out to gently attempt to pull her toward it, to embrace her in a comforting moth-like hug. It did not speak--not yet; it could tackle the rest in a little bit. But it had promised to come when called, and it had failed its very first summon. That was bad, and it felt bad, and Aether felt that its first responsibility, now, was to Wilder's well-being.
It could not think of another way to help her.
@Wilder
Aether waited until Wilder seemed to have let most of it out, and when she pulled back and began to groom her face, it too sat back.
"You are now in no danger," it concluded. "I will go and find the ones who caused harm," it went on to explain, "and if they cause torment so, I will end them." It was simply said, and the hybrid seemed either quite confident in its own powers, or ignorant of the strength of others.
@Wilder