Redhawk Caldera Catharsis

Sassafras drilled her eyes so deeply into Shrike’s skull as she thought about what his explanation might mean that her eyes began to narrow at him. She began trying to piece together and make sense of the bits of conversation that repeated in her mind out of chronological order, but she was left feeling as though she simply couldn’t hold onto any of them in her strained emotional state. The dark Eta completely missed the significance of the words the two males exchanged, but she was lacking observational awareness. She searched the face of the fading Gamma as she struggled mentally for something to hold onto.

She couldn’t focus on just one thing for long, though. Peregrine’s jaw seemed to clench down hard as he shook his head, and Sassafras shrunk back very slightly in a barely visible motion as she braced for however her Alpha might react. He wasn’t going to answer her, which she supposed she had already expected, but he didn’t physically strike out, either. He simply, albeit heatedly, walked away, and the little black female watched after him in quiet disbelief as he went. There was a part of her that had truly wanted him to make a decision as their leader, if not even for their own benefit, then for his. Whether or not it would have helped matters, Sassafras would never know. She took a breath to steady her thoughts as she turned to Shrike.

This was the quintessential it.

He verbally and physically warned her with raised hackles as he moved towards the poisoned carcass. She listened as he spoke and nodded as though she would obey, but in truth, she was nodding only in acknowledgement that she had heard him correctly. She didn’t know how she felt about defying him — he was still her superior, after all — but she took language very precisely when it suited her, and he hadn’t said "don’t come". He locked his gaze with hers for just a moment and she held it until he let go as if it was a highly prized possession. Tears began to form in the tiny corners of her eyes as she followed him, but she fought back hard against them to keep herself together. If Shrike couldn’t get the corpse far enough away from the caldera, then Sassafras would take it upon herself to finish his task.