Greatwater Lake Sawyer, you're going out a youngster

Wildfire didn't really feel reassured by Saena's comment. She was thinking that she ought to go and she even started to shift onto her feet when her estranged elder sibling launched into another soliloquy. The pup's lips pressed together and she sat, facing out across the lake, not sure if she wanted to hear any more of this vitriol. She couldn't help but listen, though, even as her amber eyes watched a few dragonflies skim the surface of the water nearby, their tubular bodies glistering like jewels. She remained oblivious to the fact that Saena stared off in the same direction, each of them looking away from the other.

"My parents don't let anyone come near our territory," Wildfire finally said, looking upward again. "It doesn't matter who are you or what you did or didn't do. If you're not part of the pack and you come too close, they will try to kill you. It's not..." What was the word? She paused awkwardly, her overstimulated brain completely blanking. Then it hit her. "It's not personal." Maybe it was, in her case, but Wildfire was pretty damn sure her parents did not make distinctions when it came to outsiders.

Twice, Saena had told her what to do: avoid growing up like her parents. Although Wildfire had felt more overwhelmed than anything during the course of this brief encounter, she now felt a ripple of resentment pass through her. Her ears splayed accordingly. She scarcely knew this woman and she had just spent the last ten minutes going on an unprecedented tirade. Now she was giving orders. Never mind that Wildfire had already demonstrated she didn't follow her parents' beliefs to the letter just by being here.

"I think I should go," the youth murmured, avoiding looking at Saena again as she rose to all fours and began to turn back in the direction of the caldera.