Redhawk Caldera the old days

She could tell that her lackluster response had troubled him. Deep down, it made her feel guilty and mean, and a cold little frost of shame settled on her heart. She didn't like to make others feel bad and always tried to be a fountain of positivity and love, even if it came at her own expense sometimes. So she tried to put on a happy face and put aside her own feelings for Eljay's sake, but it just...didn't happen. His choice to leave the caldera, and his ridiculous reasons for doing so, had hurt her too much. It had been too much of a betrayal for her to simply pretend everything was great.

The smile that graced her lips didn't quite reach her eyes, and the best she could muster up for him was more lukewarm neutrality. To his question, she replied with a casual shrug, "I'm fine." Because did he actually care? He hadn't cared enough to stick around, so why did it matter now? "How's life at Drageda?" she asked him without a hint of bitterness or derision in her tone, regardless of how she felt saying it. What had the strange, dark she-wolf of those stark cliffs offered him that his own family couldn't?