Redtail Rise LXXIV

I entirely missed the note about no posting order lol! I imagine this is in rounds then <3

Redd pushed herself to sitting but no song rose in her chest.  Despite their sounds of welcome she felt a distance and knew, with a weary sort of loneliness, that it would take time for her to find her place here again.

She wished to belong.  Her anger and resentment had gone, but trust had been lost within her as much as it had been in them.  Perhaps Cambria's words had brought something forth.  When she had first returned, injured and in need, she had met only suspicion and challenge. They had removed her without the consideration of her capability to properly answer.  The rank had not been earned.  It had been stolen while she could not fight back.

No resentment.  But hurt.  A wound she did not know how to vocalize.  The feeling that she, in an instant, had no longer mattered.

When the song faded, she let it rest a moment.  Then she spoke the words that needed to be spoken.  

There was no challenge.  Her voice held no accusation, only the rare vulnerability of a bared feeling.  There could have been.  If it had waited.

She only wanted to know why.  She needed to understand why they had sought to remove her so urgently that they had revoked her claim and disregarded her pride.  Without time to recover, without a fair chance to defend or prove herself, she had been left without the knowing that her place had been earned or her own leadership truly unfit.

Did they see this?  Or was she alone in this as well?  Perhaps her feelings were unreasonable.  She did not dismiss this possibility.