Redhawk Caldera Sequestration

It was the right thing to do. Nightjar knew that in his heart of hearts. But why was it so difficult? The warrior had faced a plethora of physical threats in his young life, and none had hurt so badly as this. Emotional pain was new to him and it stung in a way that made him uncomfortable. It was like a punch to the gut, but persistent and unable to be quelled.

Nightjar registered the crunch of leaves underfoot long before Peregrine arrived, but the uncertain young man didn't lift his head until the alpha was looming right over him. He half-expected Peregrine to know what he'd done, and moreover, he half-expected to be told it was the right thing. To be reassured that, no matter how badly it stung, Nightjar had done right by his pack and his family. But Peregrine only stated that he felt similarly, prompting his son to lift a brow as though to say, you do?

With a grunt he hoisted himself off the ground, folded back his ears in respect for his father and alpha, and told him, "she said she didn't abandon us." But the more he thought about it, the more he didn't believe it wasn't her plan all along, even though he was the one who had sent her packing. The mind, particularly his, was funny that way. It could easily turn things around and make you believe it. "She said she was leaving. Disloyalty. I escorted her out." Wildfire had said to tell the truth, right? That was the truth as he saw it. "But she said it wasn't abandonment."

In truth, he didn't really see it as abandonment either. He'd tossed the idea around in his head that turning your back on your birth pack in favour of a different pack, except one you'd founded yourself, was technically abandonment, but he wasn't about that life. He wouldn't hold Wildfire's decision against her, wasn't angry with her for leaving and didn't feel abandoned in the slightest. It was a simple face of us vs. them. Wildfire had chosen them, and so she wasn't an "us" anymore, and so she couldn't stay. His logic.