Lone Star Mountain Who called me by my name and ran

As the wind picked up around them, Saena drew her eyes to the sky, and noted the unhappy twist of clouds aggregating. When Warbone's dulcet voice cut through the crying air again, she scooped her ears toward him to hear, but was unable to prevent the comical battering of the wind that lent her a more youthful aspect. His explanation fell in line with hers more than she could believe. Indeed, for a little while, she was suspicious that his story was too similar, but in Warbone, Saena found a kindred spirit, and the feeling was short-lived.

"Water is thicker than blood," she opined darkly. It was a belief she held now, having been betrayed by so many. Junior left, only to die before she could return. Pura left. Reek left, though she'd been the cause of that, because she could not forgive him his transgression. Everyone else had left, as well, but she didn't know it, only suspected. While Saena's memories of her parents was a fog in her mind, attempting to recall them only left her with a sour taste in her mouth. She didn't remember them, and she wasn't sure she wanted to, either. There was a reason they weren't with her now. She didn't hold the same opinion toward her children, but every other member of her family that she remembered was gone, and Warbone seemingly had his own problems with family.

"I'm sorry," she said, and that was all she could really say. She felt his pain. Silver Creek had not betrayed her, no more than she had betrayed them, but the bite of it stung nonetheless. Saena was not made to follow, nor made to compromise on her own brand of authority. She believed in rigid hierarchy, and respect for leaders, and was unwilling to change any of that, and if she knew how very far her pack had slipped, her decision would be made for her already. "Mine did not betray me, but nor did they respect the work I'd done for them enough to return my command to me," she summarized. She still felt Silver Creek was hers, and she still felt it should have been given to her the moment she returned, lucid. But it wasn't, and she was no longer confident she should go back but to say her farewells.

The wind gusted and her eyes lifted again to the darkening skies. She shifted, restless, as Warbone claimed to be rekindled. The faintest hint of a smile lifted her features. While she didn't understand what she'd done, she felt likewise, or at least the animalistic side of her felt likewise. She turned sidelong, aimed a playful nip at him as she swept by, and paused at another edge of the mountain. The way down was rugged but not impossible, and at the bottom lay the autumn vale she'd been eyeing before. The clouds were blowing in, her heart was alight with an untamed fervor, and she was tempted to try her luck.

To fall along the way would be death, or as good as. But should they make it, it was irrefutable proof that the wild was not done with them. Saena swung her head around, fixing an eye on Warbone's scarred visage, and tempted, "race me."