Blacktail Deer Plateau Heart weighs a ton

It all had been too good to last for long. Had Osprey had more experience with the bad stuff in life, she would have known, what to expect and prepare for it. As she rushed to the meeting site, she felt happy for a succesful hunt in the morning, for the great idea of a story she had come up with, for the new friends she had made here, oblivious to the fact that after mere seconds all of this would seem totally insignificant.

The sight of Peregrine, who looked worried and in a rush, worried her and her first instinct was to go over to him and reassure him that everything would be alright. It was her childish belief that a cuddle and telling "I love you" could fix the world. Yet his announcement made her stop dead in her tracks. She froze, looking at her brother in disbelief, trying to comprehend, what he was saying now. What he was about to do.

He was leaving. Just like that.

There were millions of questions she wanted to ask him - starting from "whys" and "hows" and ending with suggestions of, how to solve this situation and not have him leave. She thought of their recent reunion and those few happy moments they had spent together. With his newest conquests in the way, there hadn't been that many. Still feeling guilt for disappearing for two months, she had not sought him out more and now it seemed that she should have.

Osprey tried to put together the image of her brother and best friend she had once known and the stranger before her, who was telling that he was leaving everything behind just because his new mate had wished so. He hadn't even considered the fact that his people would have willingly followed him, had he told them about his wish to relocate. No. He gave them the choice and, even though it was fair, this fact seemed the one it hurt most. As if he wanted to begin somewhere new without them.

It was at this very moment, when she understood, how her mother had felt, when everyone had left her during the childhood. The disappointment, the anger - she let that inside her, she let it rage within. "What about your responsibilities here?" she asked, her voice ice cold. "Your children, your people? Aren't we your family? Don't we count, when you make such decisions? Why have you put Fox above everyone else here?" it was unfair to say so - part of her knew that - yet it was unfair of what he was doing to them now. He was splitting the pack up. "You - of all people - who hate and resent abandonment - why do you abandon us now?"