Silvertip Mountain Did you find something?

He offered her the option of silence, but she shook her head. No. He had asked, and after all these years, she was ready to speak. "It was all a long time ago. We were young, and we were in love." She rolled her shoulders, as if casual, but sobrerity showed in the fall of her gaze. "We had just come of age, and we were ready to start our lives together. We would have a family, but then I found - " her breath caught, and she discovered the words were still too painful. Andalusia drew in another breath, to steady herself. "Well, there were complications," she settled on that, "and when I weighed the options, I reasoned his temporary pain was better than the lifetime of dissatisfaction he would have if he stayed with me. So I left." Her jaw tightened, but in place of regret and usual pangs of grief, she suddenly felt a strange pulse of fear, paired with the distilling question: What would Sebastian think of her now? Her chest fluttered in a sickening way.

"Anyway, I don't know why I'm telling you this." She flicked her tail, but her ears burned. The queasy twist of her chest did not subside. "Maybe to say that sometimes, things happens that we don't understand, and we get angry or afraid. And then we act out of that fear, and we think we're doing the wolves we love a favour, maybe even by leaving them. And we can't see that really, we're just hurting them in the end." At this she stopped, and turned to face him, but she stopped short of looking at his face. Her mouth felt parched - but she pressed herself to speak what she thought he needed to hear - yet the words that formed were ones she hadn't expected. "I don't know why Pearl left, but unless you find out otherwise, don't think for a second she left because there was something wrong with you, okay? I don't care what you think, but don't you ever think that."