Blacktail Deer Plateau Heart weighs a ton

Saēna had barely been back for a few hours when the Plateau boiled into turmoil. Dante had allowed her to return to the land of her birth and Saēna had taken the first few hours to reacquaint herself with its features. She was sad to know that Junior's scent was no longer present, and far sadder to know Pura's was also missing. Tytonidae was still around. Though they'd parted on shaky terms with Saēna believing she was the biggest liar going, she'd changed her tune out in the wild world.

She arrived confidently to her foster father's call, and it was only his panicked voice that stopped her from sweeping forward to greet him warmly. It never occurred to her that he might not want to see her after her disappearance, just as it didn't occur that Blue Willow might still consider her a brat or that any of them might not want her there.

She arrived in time to hear the basic explanation, and when Peregrine admitted he was looking for a new home because Fox wanted to, her eyes narrowed. Junior had warned Saēna about Fox and her desires, and what she heard, however subjective, only confirmed how she already felt. It's all about Fox now, was the predominant bitter thought in her mind. There was no way Peregrine could have known Saēna had come back to apologize and make things right but she chose to be blind to it because of her sudden, intense dislike for his usurping mate.

She hoped they wouldn't accept his offer. Although Saēna was usually a rational and forgiving creature, she hoped they would show him what abandonment meant, and that it was intolerable. She didn't consider what she'd done abandonment, just time to cleat her head, but he was leaving permanently all for his stupid mate.

"Your family is here," she piped up stonily from somewhere behind the rigid Blue Willow as the overwhelming truth in Junior's previous assessment of Fox (and Peregrine) came to light, "but you don't care about us anymore, do you?" Without giving him a chance to respond, if only because her heart would snap if he tried to justify his actions, she did what some of them were wishing they could do: she turned her back on him and strode dismissively away.