Sunspire Mountains oh, he hops with the hippest of them

as he expected, the spitfire - with her kindling refreshed and flame gathering - turned to him almost immediately with questions and (softened) accusations falling freely from her eyes and lips. stigmata blinked once, long and slow, as the breath of a sigh left him. "i belong to the mountains now," he said to her first query; "this is my domain." a delivery that for once came without its typical grandiosity. because in the face of his enemy's progeny, he was painfully reminded of the fact that he must make this claim without the ones he had intended to make it for. "your family and i have parted ways, and not amicably, i regret to inform you." stigmata was clinical, but necessarily so.

piper didn't need the color of his emotions on the situation.

"shortly after you left, i suggested that winter would be unkind to us in bearclaw. the single entrance would mean less prey coming in, and high snows could have killed us. i had found a lake nearby, in the mountains, just across the meadow - close enough to the valley to reclaim it at will. however, before i could be sure of the location, your mother, and indra, announced that they and their children were going to lost creek hollow, and that everyone else was on their own. i was given the choice to either follow them and bow to wolves i did not know, or leave. no compromise. so i chose to leave."

he sighed again, this time more deeply; hedged with relief. after a moment he added, "as far as i know, your entire bearclaw family are still safe and with the creek pack. they lie past your birthplace, just beyond the wolves of stone circle... but my place is here. my legacy will be here."