Lost Creek Hollow fuck this shit

but terance hadn't brought marten, and he didn't know that laurel harbored that frustration to clear that up. he regarded laurel's sharp gaze with one completely opposite, filled only with concern and appeared as calm and stoic as ever. such was terance. 

but as his gaze fell to indra, who spoke softly, and pulled her words from guilt, his expression only softened. it dropped the concern, and terance had to fight to put up something of understanding. sure, he did, but he wanted to be angry-- wanted to be sad-- more than he wanted to understand. terance hadn't seen his own children in months, and the last time he had they spat cruelties at him. and then seabreeze had done the same thing. if terance had deserved it, he didn't understand. just as seabreeze had fought to make a hard decision, knowing it would hurt everyone around her, so did terance. terance struggled to understand how seabreeze failed to see how hard his decision was as well. 

his teeth gritted, nonetheless, though his expression did not harbor any of the anger or disappointment he felt. desperately, terance wanted to accuse laurel-- of stealing her sister away because she was unhappy. maybe terance missed the part of the conversation where laurel asked indra if she wanted to go, but based only by her tone of voice he could only assume she hadn't gotten a say-- she'd gotten an ultimatum. terance knew how ultimatum's worked, all too well. he bit his tongue. laurel seemed too hardheaded for her own good. he failed to see how she was a leader at bearclaw, or maybe her stubbornness was what had gotten her there. she seemed impulsive and selfish, at least from what terance seen, justified only by now and the incident with stigmata at the borders. but, truth be told, that were terance's only really interactions with her, so what else could he know? 

"if you must go, i cannot stop you," he said gently, to both of the women and to the boy who pressed himself to indra's side. his gaze fell on indra then, and he added, "you always have a place in the hollow." 

"you're leaving in the start of winter, you'll be fine together, but the pups will be safer in the safety of the pack." of course, terance knew that it was naive to think she would just up and leave her children here, and he didn't expect her to, it was just an offer. he said then, "i can watch after nunatuq, marten, and merrick, if you would like. " his ears pressed forwards as he offered, still focused on indra, since laurel's children had all run away from her cold aura.