Tuktu Hinterlands So I'll go- but I'm telling you, I don't wanna go.

He didn't intend to go back.  He'd put both behind him, one a cherished memory, the other a cautionary tale.  But when he was scouting land west of the Caldera for herds and stumbled across her scent, he followed.  It led in a familiar way, and he promised himself if it veered, he would leave it.

It didn't falter.

He didn't know what had brought her back to this place, but her gall in claiming it as her own place to frequent made anger flare up in the male.  This wasn't a place for her, and she didn't deserve to stand upon the same ground as the one he'd shared it with before.  Burying her here had been the worst moment in his life, but burning bridges with Niamh was a contender in a long list of bad.  He didn't appreciate her occupancy.

When he finally caught up, she had stopped under the tree, and he went immediately to aggressively make her leave.  Something stopped him, though, a gentle thought that forced him to see how she looked sitting there.  Nell had been kinder by far than he was.  She'd loved being a source of calm for the broken.  It was most of what had let him fall in love with her in the first place.

He could be kind.  But ask anyone, including his sister, and they could tell you that easy forgiveness wasn't in his nature.  So while he didn't move to chase her out, his voice was frosty when he finally spoke.

What are you doing here?