Blacktail Deer Plateau Fallen from grace

directly following this. Anyone is welcome!

He'd managed to come this far, but it wasn't long before Dante was forced to stop and rest.  Koda had done a number on the alpha male, for their fight had been a surprisingly savage one in its brevity.  He had been tempted, at first, to call for aid... But no.  Memory served to remind him that she was with Osprey, and he had no right to interrupt for getting his ass handed to him in a challenge.

If his father could see him now... The shame he'd feel.  It was perhaps the only bright point in the defeated leader's thoughts right then.  Not only had he failed to defend his position over these lands... But in that moment, before Koda had left, there had been almost a sense of relief.  At last, he'd screwed up.  Now it was done.

Still that feeling was there, and its presence made him sick.  Guilt and self-deprecation weighed as heavily as his wounds, forcing him to a hunched seat beneath the trees, where he took a shuddering breath.

Despite the fact that Koda had chosen to abandon his victory, the truth was laid bare to Dante then.  A truth that Saena (and others) had hinted at many times, but that he had refused to acknowledge out of a hope that perhaps he could do what was best for the wolves of his pack.

He was not fit to lead.

Though a part of him wondered if it wouldn't be best for him to simply depart and let someone more suitable rise, it was a part that was quickly squashed.  Not only would that be the cowardly thing to do, but he recalled the hurt Peregrine's abrupt departure had caused.  He would not bring that upon anyone again, yet neither did he feel right acting as though nothing had happened.  It was a problem he did not have the energy to think about presently, so instead he sank down, exhausting bringing with it the welcome oblivion of sleep.