Redtail Rise You came home, but do i really care?

Gunnar seemed determined, in Mercury's perspective at any rate, to entirely miss his point. It had nothing to do with Gyda being happy or unhappy at the Bay. It had everything to do with the fact that their adoptive father's second wife stole her off in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye — from either of them. Perhaps that had only given Mercury cause for worry, but he had set out to find her. Which only made Gunnar's assumption that she didn't return because she hadn't been happy seem more wrong to Mercury. “She'd been heading back to the Bay when I caught up to her. She wanted to return,” And Mercury currently wanted to thwart the shit out of his brother for twisting everything to fit his reasons as to why Gyda and Mercury were selfish and Machiavellian villains. Perhaps it was not so bluntly, but that was certainly what Gunnar had done a good job making Mercury feel like, tearing him down by acting high and mighty and attacking him as he had. “But I won't look for her again. I don't think I want to know what happened to her,” because Mercury was, at present feeling very pessimistic and only the very worst of scenarios ran through his head in accordance. Writing her off as dead was a premature action, especially because he didn't know it for a fact, but if she was not in the Bay as she'd seemed so desperate to return to then what else could have happened to her?

“If mother would have told him she was pregnant he would have stayed,” And maybe everything would be so very different. “By claiming a second wife when he already had a wife? Is that doing right by her?” Mercury could feel himself growing more agitated as their conversation — argument, really, mostly about who was the better man by pitting Crete and Ragnar against one another — continued. “What if Nerian was pregnant? What if that was why she left so suddenly? Without so much as a word?” It occurred to Mercury suddenly, and he could not help but let the words slip free. It would make some semblance of sense, and Ragnar would have been able since Mercury and his siblings hadn't been his blood children. “After all, that was what Ragnar wanted Nerian for, wasn't it? To make him more sons.” His own sons, at that Mercury mentally added.

“I tried to ask Gyda but she would not say much,” And was generally unhelpful all around when Mercury had tried to pry. “Odinn's Cove and Flightless Falcons have changed me, especially the Redleaf-DiSarinno's. They are quite a family, quite a massive family, at that.” It was experiences that Mercury wouldn't exchange for the world. “They helped me find who I am and where I belong in this world.” Something that Mercury had struggled with for a very long time, previously. Mercury's shoulders tensed at Gunnar's nudge, half expecting his brother to tear into him again. They had came to something resembling a peaceful conclusion but the attack — unwarranted as far as Mercury could see — was not something he would so easily forget. Despite having only partially forgiven Gunnar, he allowed his brother to swipe his tongue against the wound. It did not make Mercury feel better, but if it helped to ease whatever Gunnar felt then the dark skylark wasn't about to put up his barricades.