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@Dauntless, Set a few days after their return
The last couple weeks had been really hard on Pema, and Dauntless included. She hadn't had much time to do much with him other then be worried. She has wanted to talk to him about what had happened with Burr and how he was taking it, but it never seemed like the right time until now. 

She wasn't sure how to bring up the conversation or how it would go, but she wanted to try and figure out where he was in all of this. He wasn't as young as he had once been, and he had made it very clear on thier trip. She wanted to see how different he was becoming and what he planned on doing with his new found confidence and independence.

dauntless fell back into the routine of patrolling, glad for the distraction it offers him from worrying about how he's going to tell easy when she returns. he's been over a thousand different things he might say and each sounds worse than the last. the conclusion? it was going to be hard to tell her and no way of wording it was going to soften the blow and he had to live with that. he finishes his patrol and his eyes — more green today than they are brown — sweep over the territory outside morningside's orders before he turns and head deeper into the territory, contemplating whether he wanted to catch something fresh or grab a snack from one of the food caches. food cache, he decides after a moment of internal deliberation. they'd be moving soon and it was probably better to get the food they kept stored eaten.

he unearths a loosely packed cache and plucks a plump hare from it before re-covering the earth he'd dug up and fixes his grasp upon the corpse — stiff and cold — and keeps heading further into the territory, letting out a soft noise of surprise when he shrugs through thick underbrush and nearly slams into pema. "sowwy!" he exclaims around the corpse in his mouth, unable to correctly pronounce the word with his mouth full.
She was on a mission to find Dauntless, not run into him, not literally at least. She saw him just in time to step to the side and avoide getting rammed into. She gave him a smile, slighty humored by his full mouth and mumbled voice. "That's ok hun. You surprised me, popping in out of no where like that." she said taking a moment to come down from the shock. "Where were you heading off too?" she asked not wanting to interrupt him if he was busy. She wanted to make sure this would be a good time to talk.
i'm so sorry about this wait on this. T-T

dauntless lays the corpse down at his paws as pema brushes off his muffled apology. dauntless draws his salmon pink tongue across his lips once, his ears cupping forth at his mother's inquiry. "a nice spot to eat this," dauntless admits and offers her a slightly sheepish smile after a quick gesture to the kill at his feet. "but no where in particular." he got the feeling that her question wasn't as casual as she'd initially made it seem. "is ...something wrong?" it's dauntless's turn to inquire and he asks his question slowly, hesitating between 'is' and 'something'. he almost didn't want to know if something was wrong and that old saying went 'don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to', after all.
He wasn't heading anywhere in particular, though Pema hadn't cared much. It mostly only told her that she wouldn't be interripting him in anything, by asking her question. Her son knew her too well, and seemed to sence that there was more to her this casual conversation that she had lead with. "No, no, there's nothing wrong." she stated, not wanted to uneccasarily nerve him. "I.. I just wanted to see how you were doing... after what happened with Burr." she said, hesitant to ask the question, thinking it sounded a bit awkward and not quite right. But was there a right way to bring up such a conversation. 
dauntless draws in a soft breath and lets it out in a softer sigh as pema responds favorably to his inquiry: that nothing is wrong. it offers mirza a swell of reassurance that blossoms briefly within his chest. he does not particularly fancy the idea of unfavorable news. pema's next words were not entirely unexpected — he has wondered when someone would check in on him regarding the burr matter — and yet her words still caused the relief that had been spreading through him to freeze into ice that pools in his stomach. dauntless makes a small noise of consideration in his throat; a contemplative hum. he tries not to spend every waking moment thinking about it, yet at the same time understands that he has to face it nevertheless. how was he meant to feel about finding nothing but blood and entrails of a boy he'd considered a friend? a friend that he'd been supposed to be protecting on their journey to escort him back to his home. he felt a lot of things. most of them suffocating and heavy with grief ...and the worst part he wasn't the one that'd been closest to burr.

there's a long moment of silence that proceeds dauntless's obvious deliberation on what he wishes to tell: her torn between the honest truth and the instinctual 'i'm fine mother' because he doesn't want pema to fuss and worry over him. eventually he speaks, "i feel guilty." in a quiet admittance; akin to a sinner confessing his sins to a holy mother at a cathedral, seeking to be absolved. "i feel responsible, however indirectly." dauntless grows quiet then, drawing his tongue over his jowls as his ears flutter back to rest at half mast atop his skull.
She wasn't surprised that he felt this way, but was surprised that he had told her the truth. She had thought he might try to hide it, remembering his former shy and reserved self. Just another sign of his seemingly sudden growth in maturity. She held back her instinct to comfort and sure him not to worry. 

She nodded before speaking, "I thought you might be feeling that way. As I have and at times still do feel the same. I don't suppose my telling you that 'it's not your fault' will help how you feel." she said before pausing a moment. "I see you growing up so fast now. Wanting to take charge and placing responsability upon yourself. And at times like these, too much responability." she wasn't completely sure where she was going with this but she continued anyway. "Some things in life aren't anyones responsability and nothing done prior to the events could have stopped them."
dauntless understands that burr's death isn't his fault — there were many little and at the time minuscule choices made by his deceased friend that had let to that inevitable eventuality and dauntless understands that all of those choices, innocent as they'd been, had been entirely out of his (and Pema's) control. neither of them were soothsayers and had no idea of what would come when burr ventured away from them. they had no way of knowing or predicting, and certainly no reason to think anything would happen to him. dauntless tells himself these things over and over but it does not erase the survivor's guilt that weighs heavily in his heart. he has to grieve in his own way, first, before he can release the irrational guilt. "not really, no," dauntless murmurs in response to what he thinks might be a rhetorical question. "i know it's not my fault. i do." he is quick to assure his mother, not wanting her to think that he's so far removed from reality that he does not realize that he couldn't have stopped it.

"i have some great role models that inspire and encourage me." dauntless says in response to pema's remark about him wanting to take charge and place responsibility upon himself. he offers her a small, albeit genuine smile that tugs at the edges of his lips. despite focusing upon what he took to be a compliment among the advice his mother was giving him, dauntless understood what she was telling him. it was easy to accept it logically but his heart isn't yet ready to relinquish his guilt and accept what he already knows. "i'll keep that in mind mom, thank you."
It was taken a bit by surprise when he stated that he didn't blame himself. It made sence to logically know that it wasn't ones fault but to be able to admit that so soon after the event truely showed Dautnless's growing maturity. "Then you are even more grown up then I thought." she stated quickly with a smile before finishing her statement.

She smiled at his falatery. Hoping that when he said that she was one of the role models he was referencing. She listened to what he had to say, and even thought it was short, she believed what he had to say. He seemed to have a better grasp on the situation then she anticipated. There wasn't anything else she was going to say. It was best just to give it time now. "Ok then..." she said with a smile due to how well this conversation had gone. "I'll get out of your hair." she said jokingly.
Pema gives her statement with a smile, and Dauntless accepts it as a compliment. The subject of Burr is still one that he'd like to stay away from ...until he was ready to talk about it in full. That would take some time and certainly more processing. Burr was a friend and his death had been the first death of someone close to him that he'd witnessed and what he felt now was entirely different than what he felt when his biological mother abandoned him and his sisters. If understanding that it wasn't his fault even while he struggled to come to terms with it and even if he had those moments of doubt made him mature, he didn't know but he was inclined to believe Pema's words. Dauntless had no reason not to. "See you around, mom." Dauntless says with a slightly goofy grin tugging at the edges of his lips. He waits until she vanishes out of view before he scoops up his kill and goes about his way finding a secluded spot to eat it.