Moonspear when i bled from the heart of the matter

The chaos made him distant, but he was far from blind to it all.

He had been busy riding a long wave of restlessness for weeks now, and to have it all finally culminate here with his parents in opposition suddenly was shaping up to be more than he felt he could cope with. Before it had only been internal struggles--all related in him dealing with expectation, and growing up and older with all the responsibility that came with it. It had hit him hard, apparently, once everyone started going into heat and really upsetting the order around here. Now, that all paled somehow. Those worries were all but gone, then shelved for another time now that he had bigger and worse things to worry on--like all these unknowns.

So in the minefield that his family had become, he took it by the day, chancing every precious crumb of his mother's company when he could find her, and patrolling near his father sometimes--although towards the latter, he preferred to keep his distance more for convenience; after his stay away from the mountain that seemed like the real, worst catalyst, there was something there Jarilo could not place, and definitely something he didn't want to face.

But, the afternoon was wearing on and he picked down a path to the biggest creek he knew near after hunting with mom (and she had long since ghosted off on him, of course). Once there, he went in quick for a drink, and decided to rest his sore paws in the cold waters a bit.. although he felt guilty for it already. He loosed a heavy sigh, focused on the trickle of the waters, and set to trying to unwind anyway.