Hushed Willows tomorrow never comes until it's too late

He assumed she would push the question—Mae was never one to be swayed when she wished to know something, but it was information that wouldn’t truly serve her well—nor any of them, really.

His felt a tick at the corner of his mouth—the set of his jaw clenching as he studied her, a gentle huff of a sigh escaping him. He had no desire to say anything bad about the woman who was Mae’s friend and leader—but nor would he swallow the entirety of the blame for their past. His days of falling upon a sword for the whimsical she-wolf were long past.

“I don’t really know, Mae. It was a culmination of events, I guess. But at the end of it… Lestan and Reverie, when they were together, were very… dependant… on each other,” he offered, pausing at certain words in an attempt to remain unbiased.

He blinked, recalling the way the two were—and some of the last words Lestan had uttered to him… The Mayfair curse.

“When Lestan left, Reverie was a wreck. At one point, she told me there was a witch trying to hunt Blossom—that she wanted her. I don’t know how she met this woman, or the events that led up to it… but this woman started stalking the creek. She left a dead coyote pup at our borders one day,” he spoke, his lip curling up at the recollection.

“Reverie was frantic, and I couldn’t risk you or your brothers… so I went to try to hunt the witch down. I found her in the marsh, and got into a fight. She managed to slip away—from me, and other creek wolves. And while Reverie said she was terrified of the witch and what she would do to Blossom… she still took the pup to the borders, constantly… Just carried her around with her everywhere, even though it wasn’t safe…”

He shrugged. “Lestan came back. Some wolf from Riverclan had come across him and the things Lestan spoke of… He wasn’t making a lot of sense. The Riverclan wolf pulled me aside and told me he was worried Lestan would hurt Reverie and he wanted to keep an eye on them… that he had knowledge and experience dealing with wolves that were… showing as a little unstable. I agreed—I couldn’t hunt a witch, try to fill our caches, do border patrol and see you, your brothers and your mother while also trying to make sure Lestan didn’t do anything to Reverie.” He paused, his gaze drifting downward. “But I shouldn’t have. Reverie had told me before she didn’t trust medics who felt they could ‘change’ her, so to speak… and in one of his updates, he told me he was medicating her… Which was odd, but he said she agreed to the treatment.”

Long-winded—the entire thing had been months in building to it’s final point. “Then your mom left. And you guys still needed milk—you probably could have survived without it, then, but I wanted what was best for you, and when I went to go tell Lestan and Reverie that I was going to Riverclan with you three, they basically told me I ruined their trust, didn’t give a shit about them and that they were leaving.” He gave a soft snort. “I felt pretty fucking defeated at that point. So I told them to fuck right off, and then made the trip with you three to Riverclan and we stayed there while Ash Paw and Silvertongue nursed you for the extra time you needed. They were gone when I came back.”