it's burning through the bloodline

The casual way in which Mordecai acknowledged her father's death was refreshing. Strangers usually met her with hollow apologies, murmurs of sorry and poor thing that grew wearisome over time. But Mordecai did not offer pity. His musing was a welcome change to the sentimental ramblings she'd learned to steel herself against, and she offered a short nod in return. "Unfortunately so." And she left it at that.

Hope was only dangerous when pursued with fantastical ideals, but Mordecai spoke with solid and well placed thoughts. He had a good head, and stable reasoning. Andalusia let him speak freely of his missing pack mate without interruption - after all, she knew next to nothing about the woman he spoke of, nor the type of character she was. But she listened, and let her smile broaden at his words.

"Oh, I'm keeping busy. Enjoying the perks of freedom while it lasts." The memory of Sebastian reared up again, and her grin faltered. The tension between north and south, spoken through word and wound. Without ties, she had no reason to conceal these worries from Mordecai, but a part of her still hesitated to divulge. "A pack down south offered me a place with them." Her words came slow and deliberate, and she drifted her gaze southward in the direction of the Caldera. Grassland stretched to the distant horizon, but though she could not see the Caldera itself, Andalusia could still hear the russet girl's warning and sense the wariness in her bones. "As you can see I turned down their offer. It seems a number of packs have it out for each other around these parts. Not surprising, but concerning nonetheless." And upsetting in more ways than one. A family feud stretching for miles, between father and daughter. As many times as her siblings wronged her, she couldn't imagine turning on them in bloodshed. And to hold such hatred against her father - her foster father? She couldn't even entertain the possibility.

Andalusia turned her attention back on Mordecai. Until she knew where he stood, it was safer to withhold the confession she'd helped Sebastian back to his pack. Regardless of her freedom, her choice would label her a sympathizer with the south, and she wished to remain on neutral ground, especially if the Plateau was involved in this. "I'm not interested in pledging myself to a pack out for another's blood." She let the statement hang, a prompt for Mordecai to confirm where he stood - whether his pack was involved in this dispute, or whether he stood on neutral ground.