Arrow Lake rivers and roads

When Stigmata next spoke the growl was absent, replaced with a weary, clinical coldness. It was obvious Rue had misstepped somewhere in this conversation. To be fair though, there was probably no way she could have phrased her plans that would have achieved some other, more optimistic result. A quick glance at Mahler was all she needed to see that he was swiftly detaching as well. Rue had lost her audience, and she had likely lost whatever tenuous bonds had developed between herself and these men, both of whom she admired greatly for starkly different reasons. 

Had Rue known of Stigmata's present thoughts, of the past that plagued his memories and dictated his present choices, Rue would have been able to tell the General exactly where he went wrong the first time. His failure had not been in trusting others, it had been in perpetuating this all-or-nothing, absolutist mentality which alienated anyone who failed to fall in line.

Far more fanciful than Rue's beautiful utopia was the notion that Stigmata could rule over the mountain range with total authority. It was a ridiculous pipe dream. Diaspora had not even managed to expand past Arrow Lake, and now that pups had dropped they were forced to remain stationary. The only feasible way to spread Diasporan influence across the entirety of the Sunspires was to cultivate strong alliances-- and truly, this was what Rue had imagined when she first heard Stigmata's vision of a united mountain range. 

Rue would not argue. She would not tell Stigmata that she had once lived in such a utopia as the one she described, one in which interdependent packs thrived and ruled over stretches of territory even more expansive than the Sunspire mountain range. She would also not point out that "beginning on the wrong foot" was a chosen mentality, not an inevitability. No. Rue had been dismissed, and so she would withdraw with a succinct farewell.

"Thank you both," she murmured, turning to depart before any other words could fight their way out of her maw. 

Rue's outtie, unless spoken to again. So much love for you two beautiful souls, and for the rest of the DA clan <333