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

"Maybe so," he said with a slight frown, "but sometimes, when you lead, mistakes aren't something you have the luxury of making."  He thought to Mordecai and Harlyn's recent departure.  A statement he was becoming too familiar with.  He couldn't understand or excuse Peregrine's actions, not completely.  Unlike he, and unlike Mordecai, he could never leave without giving word first.  And never on the terms Peregrine had.  If Fox had been well enough to leave behind, she had been well enough to wait a bit longer.  It was a view he could not compromise on, a lack of emotional empathy that stemmed from being incapable of understanding anything but strict adherence to responsibility.

"None of us hated him before."  Dante had actually held him to rather high esteem. "But I don't think he really saw what he did as wrong.  If he did, he failed to acknowledge it.  Besides, mending bridges is a little hard when your packs rarely interact."  Hard and, sad to say, unnecessary.  Now other issues stood in the way.  One that she addressed head on with her question about Junior.

He was loathe to go into that, the pain of it still raw.  He'd gotten past some of his misplaced aggression, nights of restless realizations bringing things into perspective, but it was still a bit soon.  The painful evens too close together, too jumbled to be objective.  He looked down, taking a moment to put it in order.  The facts.  "That didn't happen until after, a while after really.  We took in an injured member of his pack, and I allowed Peregrine to come see her.  But while he was here, he didn't seek out Junior, who had returned.  Saena either.  Junior... she took it hard.  They had been extremely close, before all this."  He remembered, even if Peregrine did not.  She had been his shadow, in a way, when he joined.  His doting attention, the agony when he thought he had lost her, and the joy when she was found again were images that no longer fit.  So much had changed.

"There is a difference between leaving of your own free will and being left behind.  In one, you are in control. In the other, you have to accept that you are no longer what is most important.  still, for a wolf to harm themselves to such an extent over rejection is extreme.  Yes, there was something wrong with her." He felt that familiar twinge of regret.  "We tried to help.  But there is only so much possible."  The last hurdle had been Junior's own to clear and she had failed.

this thread just made me realize how ironic-ish it is that Perry was the one to kill Junior and Saena the one to mourn the loss :9 considering wher they all started, that is!