Greatwater Lake La-dee-da, la-dee-da

He seemed a bit taken aback by her request, though he didn't react negatively. Wildfire let out a relieved breath, then told him, "I know." She paused, then tried to think of where to start, and decided to just jump right in and began by saying, "I ran into Saena here just the other day. To make a really long story short"—she flashed him a quick smile at that—"she said lots of terrible things about my mom and dad. So I went and asked my mom for her side of the story. I have two very different takes now. Saena mentioned you by name, saying you would—what's the word? Corroborate?—what she said." Wow, using a big word like that made her feel very adult.

But she didn't linger on that thought. She pressed on. "Saena insists my parents abandoned all of you without a goodbye. But my mom says my dad did say goodbye, even invited you all to come if you wanted. But she wasn't there for it because she was badly hurt." Wildfire took a breath and gathered her thoughts. She didn't want to forget anything important. "Also, Saena said Junior went after me because my dad abandoned her with the rest of you... but my mom said she was the one who left, when she was my age. All my parents wanted to do was find a new home together and it sounds like everyone hated them for that and it's just gotten worse since then." And Junior just sounds like a loose cannon, she thought but didn't say.

After spitting out all of that, Wildfire realized there was no question in there anywhere. Well, she would remedy that. "What happened, Dante, according to you?" Maybe she would just go around, interviewing wolves one by one, until she got the most complete picture she could. Even Wildfire, young as she was, knew she would never, ever get an objective version of the story, though.