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

She expected him to speak with the same hatred as Saena. Instead, Dante described the situation in an even voice, leaving out most personal editorializing and just sharing the facts as he knew them. Wildfire appreciated this very much and demonstrated her gratitude by listening to every word that left his mouth. By the time he finished, he had truly elucidated both sides of the story.

"If my mom was hurt, he was probably not thinking straight," Wildfire thought aloud, "and maybe rushing. But, yeah, I can see why his actions hurt feelings." The youngster licked her lips, catching Dante's pale gaze with her own. "My dad handled it kinda crappy, like you said, but you also said you don't think he meant to be a jerk. Why didn't anyone give him the benefit of the doubt then? My mom's told me some of the history and he lived at Blacktail Deer Plateau for a really long time, didn't he? Did you all already hate him before?" she wondered. If so, why?

Before Dante could answer that, she had to know, "And if Junior left before all that, then why did she try to kill herself? And why did she attack me? Saena said Junior felt abandoned but how can that be if she was the one to leave first? Was there something wrong with her?" Wildfire tried to ask this delicately. Had anyone considered that she was mentally unstable? Even at her age, she knew a normal wolf didn't do the things Junior had done.