Heron Lake Plateau restore me, restore life the way it should be.

Artaax fought hard to keep his composure as he gazed at Wildfire, expecting her to falter under recognition of what he was alluding to. He knew his mother had not been born of Drageda, but she knew their laws just as well as any kru. She knew that to defect was to forfeit her own life, and yet here she was, remaining defiant, and leading his young siblings down the same foolish path. Instead, though, she eloquently showed that she knew exactly what would happen, and his heart sank deeper with every word.

The feisripa stared thoughtfully at his mother until he turned his attention to Kiwi as she interjected with more nonsense. He looked at her incredulously, each suggestion more absurd than the last. "Heda will return," was all he said in reply to her, matching her tongue. He wouldn't waste his breath on her other suggestion - that he stay and they build a new kru here. With common wolves who didn't know the first thing about what it was to be drakru. As though there was any reason whatsoever for a new kru when Drageda was still perfectly in tact, minus a few fools who'd lost their damn minds.

He fell quiet again then, thoughtful, and pained as he did his best to pull his composure over him. Many thoughts were running almost chaotically through his head, but when he eventually found his voice, it was steady. "Why?" Artaax asked softly, his mismatched eyes returning to Wildfire, "Why would you choose this over us? She'll condemn you all to death. Why would you rather die than stay with us?" With me?

This time, he couldn't help it. His voice cracked with emotion as hurt and fear waxed in his heart. It angered him to feel such things, but in that moment, he couldn't grab hold of that anger and use it to bury the other feelings as he so often did. Artaax felt like a child again, shaking and scared as he looked at a baby fox while Thuringwethil stood over him and commanded him to kill. He stared anxiously, his eyes pleading, at his mother, begging her wordlessly not to condemn him to that again. It wouldn't be a fox kit this time. It would be her. How could she make him face that?