Starglow Basin Re_jaded.

Tierra opened her mouth to defend him just to close it again.  She didn’t actually know.  Octavio was dead, and her nearly with him, and she still had no idea why.  Just the kid they’d taken?  Or some other reason entirely, because why the fuck would Soto or Niño decide they needed someone else’s random kid around?

They’d kidnapped her.  But that was different.

-We got attacked.  I don’t know why.  And I don’t know how, but he got me out of there.  It was just the two of us left, with the… pack.  There’s more of us now, here.-  It was mostly true and more than a little vague.  Gang had nearly slipped out, replaced at the last second.  -I didn’t join because of him.  But I owe him now.- 

That wasn’t why she stayed at all.  She’d left plenty of places she owed in the dust.  But if she didn’t want to leave, then that was at least a reason that might make sense to her mom.  There was no way she was fessing up the truth; that she wasn’t ready to leave the only supply she had.

-You don’t.-  At least, unless something had happened.  She remembered Soto saying they’d met when he sent Arslan but didn’t remember if he’d explained how.  She’d barely been able to manage translating half of what he’d said anyway.